Christmas with the Madre

 The marble run was one of the many things I put on the list of things to make sure we did while we were at my mom's house. I knew that it was something that Joshua enjoyed and he and I sat quietly in the basement rolling and rolling the marbles again and again down the marble run.

 Joshua and Tylor got rides from Samuel in the laundry baskets. "Faster, FASTER!"

 Mini Kid's Carnival in Grandma's Basement... another check off the "Things to do at Grandma's List."

 Check, Check, and check again. With all of us together I knew John would turn on the train on the ceiling. Joshua was so excited! He loved watching the trains go around and around on the track. He begged to have them go again, and again.

 Pause: family photo. Set the timer... we opened packages from the family name exchange and paused for a family photo before everyone got too tired or whiney to participate.

 The Pickle Hunt: It was pretty epic this year. Finding the pickle is a coveted event at Christmas. Each of us tried to inconspicuously look without letting the others know you were looking. After opening presents is when my mom started giving hints. Jamie found it again...

 Joshua, Jamie, and Tylor enjoying the pickle prize!

 Watching my son sit with his cousin was a time when I thought, "oh, no, he is my son..." He was talking with his hands. He couldn't help it. Chattering and waving, hands flying faster than the words could form in his mouth. "Yep, my son!"

 My niece and nephew are an active, imaginative, and noisy pair. Joshua was a little hesitant about all the noise that they made. He thought they were fun to be around, but found them exhausting. Sleeping somewhere besides in your bed is hard. I'm not sure if I should admit this or not, but when we spend the night at my mom's Joshua sleeps in the playpen, in the closet. A moment to justify, he is a light sleeper and doesn't go down well if his parents are in the room. There is only one bedroom on the first floor and it makes sense for all of us to sleep in the same room... We just put Joshua in the closet. It's a big closet. Even with him sleeping there he didn't sleep through the night while we were there. It was usually around 4 am that he was crying asking to come "slug" with us for awhile. "2 minutes."

 In the morning before we finished packing, Tylor handed down his WonderPets jammies with the cape. Tylor got a new cape for Christmas, and since he had outgrown the jammies, he was encouraged to pass them down, which he did. How fun to watch the two little boys swoop around in their capes.

Before we left, Joshua asked my mom show him all the "pirates." By the time we got home, and showed him all the pictures... they were nutcrackers. I wasn't sure if I was glad we corrected him or if I liked the cuteness of the way he says nutcracker. 

I felt so blessed to enjoy family time during the holidays!

Angry Birds

Michael and I have been encouraging Joshua with potty training, but letting him dictate his own speed. This picture is one of my favorites from the trip!

Joshua has been asking to play Angry Birds, which he learned how to play on someone else's phone. We let him play especially during restlessness on the airplane, but it was too cute to peek into the bathroom to see him "popping birds everywhere" while sitting on the potty. 

Christmas with the Padre...

Pause for a family pic

Joshua and Grandpa

 My grandma enjoying the photo book that I made her. The book was entitled 

"A Year in the Life of Joshua." 

 We told Joshua all day that we were going to see babies. He was ready to go see the babies, until we got in the door and he saw that they had cats. Babies no longer mattered.

 My dad's side family get together gave me a chance to meet my nephew(s), sister-in-law, and second cousin. It gave Michael a chance to meet my brother.

 It was fun to watch all the kids interact together. For my grandma I think it was fun to see the next generation and have them us all together. 

SNOW!!!

My sister is super sweet. She knew that there was a good chance that there wouldn't be any snow while we were visiting, so before it melted she saved some.

 It looked just like a snow cone, but Joshua didn't know any better. 

 He wasn't sure what to think about it being so "chilly!"

 I'm not sure if he had more fun or if I did!

 He did all sorts of exploring and experimenting with the snow. He even tried to make it into a snowman. 

Winter Fest

 Winter Fest was in downtown Milwaukee. My sister, her two kids, my mom, Samuel, Joshua and I went to check it out. To get there we needed to walk through the mall. The mall had a festive display of singing bears. We stopped to watch and I snuck a group shot. 

 One of the highlights of the festival for me has to be the oversized snow globe. 

 It was chaos and craziness and our time inside went too fast. (both times) The snow was thin plastic shreds. They got everywhere!

 Joshua wasn't sure what to think of the whole thing. He was glad when it was over, but said that he liked it.

 Inside the festival there was ice skating, bouncy houses, slides, and bungee bouncing. Those were all things that the other members in our group enjoyed.

 Because Joshua is still on the small size he went to find activities that we would enjoy. He loved the football throw and the soccer kicking.

 There was a train ride he waited patiently to ride on. 

 It was getting late in the day when the kids were getting over-tired and hungry when we decided that decorating cookies sounded like a great idea...

 A second wind was found after the cookies so we took in a round of mini-golf. Joshua has never done such an activity and it was fun to watch.

 He had the concentration... but could use some practice. 

 Joshua loved his time with Samuel. I hope Samuel enjoyed it as well. Michael and I both noticed how much my brother seemed to have grown up since the last time we had seen him and that was in September. 

 It was fun for me to see Joshua's tender heart. He is really a sweet boy who loves animals. He had all sorts of love for the polar bear giving it hugs. The penguins were probably my favorite to watch though. He shook hands with them, pet them, talked sweetly to them, hugged them and it made be proud. Many little boys would use them as boxing opponents, but not my softhearted little man.

 His sweetheartedness and his imagination are something else... he thought the nutcrackers were...... pirates.

We had a fun day! It was good to be around my family. 

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Does this picture not melt your heart? 

We left for Wisconsin on December 26. I wasn't really sure how to divide our trip up into different posts or if I needed to, but I decided I don't need rhyme or reason, so don't ask.

 Joshua was overjoyed to see his Uncle Sam! They made forts, worked on train tracks, and were just plain silly together. 

 Samuel read the directions and asked Joshua to hand him different pieces as he anxiously awaited the final product.

 Joshua also took turns reading the directions to Samuel, or supervising to make sure he was doing it the right way.

 Samuel has two bunnies. Joshua helped by feeding the bunnies and talking to them. He encouraged them to drink their water and to stay warm in the "chilly" weather.

 Although it was chilly, we didn't see any snowfall. Samuel got a toboggan for Christmas. He was disappointed he didn't get a chance to use it in the snow while we were there, but he and Joshua did pretend in the living room.

My mom has saved all of our toys from when we were young. She has tupperware full of Barbies, My Little Ponies, Strawberry Shortcake figurines, the original Littlest Pet Shop among others. My old bedroom has turned into the train room. Joshua worked on building new tracks, and pushing the trains all around the tracks independently and with his cousins when they came.

Our family Christmas

Merry Christmas (Eve)!

It was exciting for me to be a parent this year knowing Joshua was a little more "into" Christmas than his previous year(s). I quickly and quietly got the tree ready and waited anxiously for morning to come. I got up before him and showered so that I would be ready when he awoke.

 I let Joshua help make his morning smoothie peeling the banana and pouring the fruit into the blender. He was proud of helping. 

 After smoothies I made blueberry french toast! It was delightful!

 We started with stockings and then headed to packages. It was fun to see how excited Joshua was for his own gifts and how excited he was for Michael and I to open ours.

 Opening Christmas presents could have taken us all day. We made it about an hour long activity. Joshua wanted to open every gift and play with it immediately. Especially his books! He opened them and responded, "READ IT!" We encouraged him to keep opening and that we would spend the day reading and playing. With "The Pirate's Night Before Christmas" he could not wait. We tried to hand him another package or say that it was someone else's turn. He put his hand up and said "no, still reading."

 Another gem that I don't want to forget: Undies. We have been "talking-up" wearing underwear in preparation for full on potty training. (We hope that Joshua will be completely set by the time the baby is born.) He was with me when I purchased the undies and picked out the ones that he wanted. I brought them home and wrapped them. He opened them and much to our dismay, He covered his eyes and shook his head. "No, no, no.. no undies!"Michael and I couldn't help but laugh.

 Again I had a learning experience, when we had Joshua open his stocking, then presents, followed by some clothes and jammies... no interest. He could have cared less about getting clothes and I couldn't help but think, aren't you a little young to hate getting clothes so much?!?

 Joshua waited (somewhat) patiently to play with a barrel full of animals. He asked each of us to take turns playing with him, "Come on Momma! Play Daddy!" The animals were a variety of sizes which had Joshua describing the mommies and daddies and babies. We had fun with the animals.

 My dad and step-mom purchased a desk for Joshua. It came in a great big box that Joshua quickly opened, but was a little disappointed when we opened it and there was "some assembly required." I waited until nap time and set to work. This small desk took me roughly 32 minutes to complete.

 When Joshua woke up he was busy at work. 

 The desk could be a desk or it would be an easel. He experimented with it in both positions. 

 After he was done with his art, I was working on making some bars. He came into the kitchen,
"What doing, Momma?"
"Making bars."
"Joshua help?"
"Sure."
I pulled up the stool and he climbed up. He asked if he could use the "sword" otherwise known as a spatula. I was basically finished and he had never licked off the beaters before, so I thought, why not?!? I had used the spatula for fudge in the middle of the bars, there was no raw eggs or other nastiness so away he went. This picture warms myu heart!

 Because we were leaving for our trip to Wisconsin, we needed to spend some of the day doing chores... even on Christmas, but I was so very grateful to have a wonderful helping while I did the laundry.