Where's the (cloth) tissue?

The flu is no fun. That's what's happening here. But the thrilling thing is, Jake now knows how to blow his nose! Yeah!!

That's all I've got. Send us all healing vibes.

Little Reader

Jake and I went to the library to get some videos and books. We hadn't gone in a while -- Jake had not been interested in books for about 2 months. But now he's really enjoying reading again. He loves all things Curious George.
You can see that he just got his hair cut. (Jake, not Mike.)

What is it??

If you can identify (within reason) what today's ornament is from our advent calendar, you win a chocolate bar!* And yes, I'm asking because I have no clue what this is. Jake and I had a really hard time getting this particular ornament out of the box, and when we finally got it out, I couldn't identify it. Jake laughed.

So leave me a comment if you think you know what #10 is.

*USA residents only... if you are international, you'll get something next time I see you :)

Advent Calendar

Last year I searched for an advent calendar I liked, but didn't find one. My parents have a beautiful wooden one that I grew up with, and we used it year after year. I wanted something similar for my family, and this year I found one I like. I hope it will stay in the family for a long time and I like that it is completely reusable!

Jake is thrilled with it. Every day he asks if he can open another door. I always have to tell him "tomorrow". In the mornings, he gets so excited that he can open one of the doors and pull out the ornament behind it. The funny thing is that the openings are so small Jake actually has an easier time getting the ornaments out than I do!
Right now the ornaments are still wrapped in paper since we just got it. Here he pulled out the paper but the ornament is still sitting in the little box...
Today's ornament is a rocking horse! He was beside himself with happiness when he pulled out a train yesterday.
And the day before that it was a reindeer, to which we signed "deer" while at the same time saying in English "reindeer." Later in the day Jake pointed to the advent calendar and signed "rain" + "deer." I was so impressed!

December Festivities Begin

Okay, so maybe I'm not THAT addicted to blogging. But it has been a busy week with me in Boise for 2 days of work and then having the holiday festivities/parties start. Just 2 weeks ago our calendar for December was practically empty, but then the evites started coming in and now we have to start carving out space for doing things like packing and cleaning the house! (Okay, not really, it just feels that way.)

We went to a friend's birthday party yesterday and I took these cool shots of Jake.

Jake was trying to help blow out the candles on the cake, and then he wanted to help open the presents. Luckily, the 7 year-old birthday girl was really nice about it and then he was happy to play with this ribbon.
The ornaments on the tree fascinated him.
He stole borrowed 2 of them. (We put them back.) Of course, the ones he was playing with were santa in an airplane and santa in a tractor. The boy is crazy about anything involving modes of transportation.

PS Could the person who sent Jake the very cool laptop let us know who you are so we can thank you?

I may be addicted to blogging

Some random photos from the past week...

The End of 30 Days

So NaBloPoMo for November is over. I made it, gave you something to read every day, even if each blog post wasn't exactly spectacular. I still hope you had fun -- I sure did. Now, though, I'm ready to take a break and go back to my normal average of about 17 posts per month :) Can't get you all too spoiled, you know!

How did it get to be December already? I've just started putting together my stocking stuffers and actually need to go bathing suit shopping -- this Christmas will be a WARM one for my family, and I'm so excited.

Have a wonderful December!