Enjoying the inaugural fire in our fireplace, Dec. 14, just before we hosted my church's missions committee Christmas party. Even though our new house is 12 years old, the fireplace had never been used.
The kids meet Santa at Katie's preschool Christmas celebration, Dec. 21. Santa asked Katie what she wanted for Christmas, and when she didn't know how to answer, John suggested a "horsie." I sent him a look that said: "Could you at least pick something realistic?" Today, the day after a Christmas when she was flooded with gifts, we asked her what her favorite Christmas present was, and she said her horsie.
Joshua opens his first Christmas gift. This is at his Oma & JPa's house, Dec. 24.
Katie models the new princess hooded towel she got from her Uncle Jamie. It even has a crown on top that my camera wasn't fast enough to catch. Joshua got a towel that looks like Mater from "Cars."
Katie's big gift for Christmas: a pink tricycle from Oma and JPa!
Katie received a ballerina doll that ties to her feet so the two of them will "dance together."
Joshua inspects his big Christmas gift: a train table from Oma and JPa! JPa pulled out an old set of his electric trains so that Joshua could enjoy the table till he received his own wooden trains the next day.
True to form, this is how Joshua prefers to enjoy his train table.
Joshua enjoys his hot fudge sundae at Christmas Eve dinner.
Late December 24 after the kids have gone to bed and Santa has arrived.
Christmas morning! Katie loves her new cupcake set that Aunt Laura gave her for her playhouse.
Later that morning, we headed to my parents' house, where my parents, most of my siblings and Katie's cousins were there to greet us. Katie and her 3-week-older cousin Ally had matching ruby slippers.
We had a wonderful time with my family. Uncle Mike made a rocking chair for Joshua and Katie out of Amazon boxes. With boxes this fun, why buy toys?
Before I share the videos, I have a funny story. A few weeks ago, Katie was talking about how she wanted the DVD "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown." I happened to know that Oma and JPa had bought her that for Christmas, and so I told her to pray for it. So she diligently prayed for that DVD. When she opened it on Christmas Eve, she exclaimed: "God gave me Good Man Charlie Brown! I prayed for it!" So funny and cute.
Anyway, as you know, Joshua's big obsession right now is Muppet Babies. His room will soon be decorated in that theme and many of his Christmas gifts reflected that theme. Here are a few videos of him opening Muppet Babies gifts. I love how he yells "Bahbee!" and how Katie suggests that they watch the video together. You can tell they're eager to play with each other's gifts!
Well ladies and gentlemen, he may not be talking much yet, but my 21-month-old son has now gone pee-pee in the potty. Twice.
On Thanksgiving Day, my mom sensed that Joshua needed to use the potty, so put him on just for kicks, and sure enough he did a little tinkle. I was shocked, and tried myself on other occasions, but I had not been able to replicate that until tonight.
Sure enough, he sat on the potty before bath time, and I decided to give it a try. I unzipped his pajamas, took off his diaper, sat him back down, and whee! he let it go.
I'm so proud of my little boy! He got so much attention (which he loves, as you can see from the photo above) that he spent the rest of the evening trying to sit on the potty again.
Congratulations, Joshua! Any chance you and your sister will be potty-trained within a year of each other? After all, Katie only was potty-trained in August. :-)
Today we went to our favorite dinner theatre to see Rodgers' and Hammerstein's "Cinderella." John, Katie and I went with John's parents and brother, and family friends Bev and her granddaughter Audrey. Katie called Audrey "Laundry" and had a great time dancing around with her and watching the show. Here are a few photos and video from our time.
Audrey and Katie meet one of the wicked stepsisters -- yes, that is a man in drag.
Katie performed in her first Christmas sing-along yesterday with the rest of her preschool class. She's in the plaid skirt and her best friend Daniel is in the green shirt.
I didn't know until the performance that she has now learned how to bow. And how! The end of this video reminds me of the woman at the end of "The Sound of Music" -- the woman in the singing competition who wouldn't stop bowing.
Big thanks to her daddy and her Oma for making sure they were in the audience for Katie's Christmas debut!
Hi! We're still busy unpacking and organizing, so I'm going to skip the photos and just fill you in on Joshua's growing vocabulary.
Katie was much more of a talker; Joshua is much more mechanically-minded. He is always trying to push any button he can find and figure out how things work. He would be content to flip light switches all day. Once I needed to keep him occupied in a hotel hallway so I showed him how to use the ice maker. He pushed it and pushed it and pushed it -- I could have been Pavlov since he just couldn't get enough of the reward of watching the ice fall.
So needless to say, he hasn't been all that interested in talking until recently. He enjoys making noise, mostly by screaming, but also "singing" along to "Jesus Loves Me", "Elmo's World", the ABCs, and the "Muppet Babies" theme song. Singing here refers to making random noises including grunting and raspberrying, but I can tell he's trying to do it along with the song. Make ANY joyful noise, Joshua!
Last time I wrote, Joshua had three words: "Dada", "Mama", and "Caca" for cookie/cracker. That night Joshua kept saying "Caca" as he pointed to his diaper, and I was wondering about that since "caca" is Spanish for "poop" (but I was pretty sure he wasn't bilingual). It turns out that he was pointing out that Cookie Monster (aka "Caca" for "Cookie") was on his diaper. I was so excited to see him break through and express a new thought with his words!
In fact, Joshua's vocab mostly consists right now of Sesame Street characters: "Caca", "Melmo" for Elmo, "Buhbuh" for Big Bird, "Bird" for Bert, "Gaga" for Grover, and my favorite of all -- "Tsss" -- his word for Ernie because that's how Ernie laughs. I love it.
I should mention Joshua's fourth word though: "Muppet Babies." Yes, he said dada, then mama, then caca, and then "MuppaBaby". REALLY? But I promise you that's true. He first said it as John came to pick him up from his crib after naptime. And now he uses it to ask to watch TV -- and of course, his favorite show, Muppet Babies.
Other words/ understandable sounds:
"Ligh!" (light)
"a i a i" (trying to sing the ABCs, as in "H I H I")
"hi"
"goodni"
"ooh ooh" to bark at Bella and other dogs
sheep and horse noises (sounds more like a laugh)
"geh down"
"baby" (mostly used to ask in shorthand for Muppet Babies)
"Daniel" (taught to him by his Uncle Daniel but said repetitively as he chases Katie's best friend Daniel around the yard)
"Papa" (Grandpa)
"No" (used for both yes and no)
"Peasss" (please)
"ball"
I'm sure I'll think of more and then I'll add them to this list. Thanks for reading!
Katie's first day of preschool was today! We've signed her up for three hours a day, two days a week, at a Christian preschool about three minutes from our new house. She has a few friends that attend this preschool, including her best friend Daniel (who is in her class) and another friend named Caitlyn whom we were surprised to see today.
Katie picked out her own outfit this morning, and was most excited about having a lunchbox for the first time. When we got to her classroom, she and Daniel ran into the class without even saying goodbye to their mommies (Daniel's mom is my best friend Sara).
While some moms may cry over this, I was thrilled to see Katie so excited and happy to be there. I've been talking about preschool with her for months, and part of her potty training motivation was that she'd get to go to school when she was always successful.
Here's a video of her discussing (rather distractedly) her first day of preschool, just before we head home.
Hi! We're MOVING on Saturday (hopefully more about that later), so I'm super-swamped, but I couldn't resist taking a quick break from packing in order to fill you in on the kids.
JOSHUA
Joshua's vocabulary has doubled in the last few weeks. Up till now, he would say Dada (a lot), Mama (only when he wanted something, and usually in a frustrated tone), and NaNa (for "no no" when he was getting into something he knew he wasn't supposed to).
Recently he started saying "CaCa" for "cracker," and he uses this term for any snack he wants. He will hunt me down carrying whatever he finds in the pantry -- from boxes of cookies or crackers to individual Peppermint Patties, and repeat "CaCa! CaCa!" in the hopes that I'll open it for him.
He has always loved bananas; they're often what he eats for breakfast. Recently he has alternated saying "Bana" and "Nana."
His "NaNa" (no no) has become a decisive "no," which is actually a word I'm so glad he knows. Now if he wants something at mealtime, I can hold up different objects until I find something that he does say "No" and shake his head at. We've also heard "yeah" on occasion though it's not consistent yet.
He comes very close to saying Grandma and Daniel, two of his favorite family members. His tone saying "Mama" has softened too, as he's learned how to communicate in other ways.
I'm really enjoying him so much more now than I did just a few months ago. As he learns to communicate, our times together are much more enjoyable and fruitful, instead of me trying to figure out why he is angry.
I finally weaned him last week (Aug 14) (hooray! Do you know that I've been either pregnant or nursing since Fall 2006??!!!) and though he was a bit needy at first, he and I have found other ways to bond. He is much more snuggly now, and he will snuggle into my shoulder and allow me to rock him, sing to him, and pray over him. He never sat quietly in my lap before now. He also sits in my lap and we'll watch TV together -- at least until Katie asserts her right to my lap as well or he eventually gets restless and wants to run.
And run he does! He went from crawling to running very quickly, and it's so funny to see him go. I'm so thankful that we'll have a bigger home now because he'll have plenty of space to stretch his legs. He also is constantly trying to get to the highest point in the house. If I accidentally leave a chair next to the kitchen counter (which I've done a fair amount recently while packing dishes), he will get up and try to pull everything off the counter. Once I found him on the floor with my coffeepot, with coffee all over himself. I can't figure out how he pulled it down to the floor without breaking it, but thankfully he was ok! And I've learned my lesson about leaving chairs near counters!
I tried hard-soled shoes on Joshua for the first time last Thursday (8/19) before my parents took my kids to the County Fair, and it was fun to watch him navigate with the new sensation on his feet. (Please excuse the pre-move mess!)
Within the last week Joshua has learned to "blow" kisses -- which consists of simply going "mmm" in my direction, or accompanying that sound with a hand from his mouth into the air. Simply charming.
Ah yes, and one final new "first" to tell you about with Joshua. I returned from Home Depot the other day to John and the kids, and John greeted me with a laugh and a "Look what he's doing!!" I was honestly afraid to look. Here's what I found. Apparently he stole the controller out of his daddy's hands.
KATIE
Katie is as delightful as ever. Though she's had spells of being rude or too rough, she takes quickly (so far) to correction, and a timeout or even threatened timeout is usually enough to change her behavior.
After trying various bribery techniques (lollypops, Disney movies), Katie has started using the potty almost exclusively. In fact, though she's been wearing diapers all week, her diapers have been staying clean and dry; she always tells me when she needs to go! Hopefully she'll keep this up!
Initially she was registered this fall in a preschool that required her to be potty-trained, and the nearing deadline was stressing me out. Then we learned we were moving, and I couldn't imagine trying to enforce potty-training during the already stressful (for all of us) transition of packing and moving. So I'm so thankful that she's doing this herself. Plus we transferred her to a new preschool that will be minutes from our new home, and that does not require 3-year-olds to be potty-trained. So I thank God for relieving that stress from me for now!
Well, I have much more to say but it will have to wait till post-move. Thanks for caring about us!
Katie Lu celebrated her third 4th at the beach with a patriotic swimsuit and matching sunglasses.
Having spent the last week with John's family at their beach house, we closed out our time with them today enjoying brunch and wearing our patriotic colors. Note that the kids are wearing star-spangled outfits courtesy of their grandmother, Oma.
We got home in time to watch the D.C. fireworks on TV. The kids waved American flags while they (sorta) watched the fireworks.
And yes, Joshua is standing independently in this photo. He took his first steps a few weeks ago and is doing a little better everyday. (But more on that in a later post...)
At 3:34 pm on March 24, 2009, we welcomed Joshua Roger into the world. In many ways, it seems like it's been so much longer than a year! He's become such a huge part of our lives and our family.
March 20, 2010
Last weekend we had family and a handful of friends over to our house to celebrate. We were so blessed to have a gorgeous sunny afternoon, so the party was outside. Hard to believe that just a month ago we were under feet of snow!
My mom and I set up a taco bar for the adults. It was a lot of work, but the end result was so yummy.
We got an Elmo cake and cupcakes from Sam's Club -- another big hit. Joshua is mesmerized by Elmo (I'm wondering if someday a study will reveal that Elmo actually has hypnotic powers...). Party favors were Sesame Street books.
The kids loved eating tacos, nuggets, and cake. They also loved running around in the sun. My friend Michelle brought some fun outdoor toys, and my brother Jason helped secure a moon bounce for us to use.
After most of the guests had left and Joshua had taken a nap, it was gift time. Joshua's cousins and sister had a great time "helping" him open his gifts. And Joshua loves each item he got.
One gift in particular touched Mommy and Daddy's heart as well: John's brother Jamie gave his nephew his own favorite teddy bear and book from when he was a boy.
March 24, 2010
We were supposed to celebrate Joshua's birthday today with our playgroup, but unfortunately Katie has a fever and we had to cancel the festivities. We still had a fun day though. Uncle Daniel came over for four hours and ate with us, played with us, and went with us on a walk (it was ANOTHER beautiful sunny day today). Joshua and Katie got Elmo cake for both lunch and dinner. And Joshua lit up every time Katie and I sang "Happy Birthday" to him. He was absolutely adorable and joyful all day long.
Joshua: Apparently Joshua pulled up from sitting to standing for the first time last night. He was crawling around in the family room and suddenly he was standing next to the couch holding on. Go Joshua! I was out on a girls' night so John is the lucky witness to this milestone.
Katie: Two funny things that Katie has said recently:
1. On several occasions Katie has mentioned "Joshua's other belly button." It took me awhile to realize that this is how she understands his different anatomical element. :-)
On November Sixth, Nineteen Ninety Eight, We met up at ten for our fateful first date. We both were surprised by our immediate connection And spent several years deepening this affection.
We were meant for each other, we always knew, And so, on July Seventh, Two Thousand and Two, When you sang for me and your intentions professed, You knew before you asked that my answer was yes.
On March Twenty-Second, Two Thousand and Three, I was grafted into your family tree. And though I cried as I said goodbye to our guests, I knew as we left I was incredibly blessed.
In Two Thousand and Five we couldn’t stop crying As we disappointed each other and loved ones kept dying. But our marriage was made stronger by the trials we faced, And God showed us anew the extent of His grace.
Two years later a daughter brought joy, And two years after that, along came a boy. Though parenthood definitely has moments of stress, The heartwarming moments make up for the rest.
And John, as we enter Two Thousand and Ten, Please know that I’d happily do this all over again.
After 10 1/2 months I had finally decided that Joshua was going to skip crawling altogether and go straight to walking. He could sit up by himself and even pull himself to a kneeling position by holding onto ledges. He had learned to get around by rolling and lunging, and anytime he tried to crawl he'd still end up either bellyflopping on the floor or backing himself underneath a bed or table. So today I spent awhile with him teaching him to keep his balance while standing and holding onto something. And he's doing it! See below.
A few hours and a nap later, I was playing with Joshua on the floor and I started to see him move his knees underneath himself in a way he never had before. Tonight John saw him do the same thing. So while Joshua is still very tentative about it, we are happy to announce that YES, he is crawling!
By the way, as excited as we are about these new developmental milestones, I must tell you my FAVORITE thing Joshua does. He headbangs! Katie did the Baby Dance, and Joshua headbangs. I don't know where he learned it, but it happens a lot when he hears music. He typically does it when he doesn't think I'm looking (I glance over to find him rocking out!), but today he was nice enough to headbang for the camera. See below.
While I will never been as prolific as my friend Sarah, I thought I'd use this forum to occasionally post our favorite family recipes. Here's a yummy and easy chili recipe from my friend Amy. I'll be making it for the Superbowl on Sunday.
Chili
Ingredients: 4 lbs. ground beef 1 large onion, chopped 2 28-oz. cans diced tomatoes 32 oz. frozen corn, thawed 2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained 2 cups salsa 1 1/2 cups water 2 tsp. cumin 2 Tbsp. chili powder 1 1/2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. garlic powder 1 tsp. pepper shredded cheddar cheese for garnish
1. Brown ground beef and onion in skillet. Drain. 2. Put everything in a crockpot and heat for several hours. 3. Enjoy!
Christmas 2009 was a weeklong affair for our family. Every bit of it was a blessing.
This was Joshua's first Christmas. He learned that wrapping paper is more fun than what's inside, and that you have to eat it fast before Mommy and Daddy realize you've got it.
On the other end of the spectrum, this was the first year Katie could start to understand the concepts behind Christmas. If you ask her whose birthday Christmas is, she says it's Jesus' birthday. She has memorized the entire 16-line poem about Baby Jesus that's in her Toddler Bible. We kept Santa talk to a minimum this year and instead anticipated the birth of Baby Jesus. Katie also is totally enraptured by two Christmas specials: Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (my favorite Christmas special of all time) and A Charlie Brown Christmas.
The weekend before Christmas, we were supposed to travel to visit my grandma and extended family, but we were snowed out. The weekend wasn't a total bust though. We were able to enjoy several feet of snow, and a few days later we ventured out to join some friends for a night of dinner and caroling. Katie enjoyed singing, playing simple musical instruments, and dancing around with her friends. And Jenn and Jeff, our hosts of the evening, were thoughtful enough to give each of the kids gifts that were especially suited to their personal interests. What a wonderful night.
On December 23, we travelled to John's parents' house, where we enjoyed a day and a half with his family. After a delicious home-cooked brunch on December 24, we gathered around the tree for presents.
Joshua's gifts that day included a personalized sippy cup, a fun whirling toy, his first set of blocks, a reindeer hat, a sock monkey jack-in-the-box...
... and of course, his favorite gift of all: Ribbon!
Poor Joshua was not amused when Daddy dressed him in the clothes that came on Katie's new camouflage-wearing stuffed moose.
Katie received several wonderful gifts as well, but the best was saved for last. Oma pulled out John's sister Laura's old baby doll and cradle, as well as several sets of clothes that Oma had handsewn this fall. Now Oma and Katie will have hours of fun dressing and undressing the baby doll -- a doll Oma and Katie have named "Baby Lucy" (since that's the name I had wanted to use for Katie).
Even the dogs got gifts! Here JPa presents Jamie's dog Brooks with the holiday tennis ball we bought him.
After naptime, we got dolled up and went out for Christmas Eve dinner. Katie wore the new snowman dress that Oma had just given her, and Joshua wore his Santa outfit.
After a wonderful 36 hours with John's family, we headed home to get a few Zzzz's before Christmas morning at my parents' house.
Every year, even when none of us were kids, Santa Claus has come to my parents' house. My mom makes all of us squeeze onto the stairs outside the closed-off living room while she walks through the living room and ooohs and aaahs over all the things that Santa has brought us. Then she walks over to the door, verbally tortures us some more, and finally lets us in. Each individual or family has an entire chair full of unwrapped gifts that Santa has brought us. Our family's chair is the one on the right -- you can see my mom peeking through the door delivering the verbal torture to those of us outside.
(I probably should explain the verbal torture -- she's just trying to get us excited and impatient -- her "Are you ready? Do you want to see what Santa brought you?" was very effective at increasing our anticipation when we were kids. Now she gets more reactions along the lines of, "Are you done yet, Mom, or can I go back to bed for awhile?")
Here are some photos of our family enjoying each other and the generous bounty of gifts.
The last photo is my brother Stephen with a John Calvin bobblehead doll that my parents had special-ordered for him -- although when Stephen opened the box, we discovered that Calvin's head must have bobbled a little too hard!
More photos, including Lindsey's homemade ribbons, Stephen holding Joshua while I took my turn at Scrabble, and Daniel pushing Joshua around in Joshua's new Tonka truck:
Dinner was supposed to be at 1 pm (Katie's naptime) but it wasn't ready till 3 pm, so we tried to encourage Katie to take a nap while she waited. John laid down to encourage her to sleep, and his efforts were successful in getting at least one person to sleep.
Merry Christmas, Santa Baby!
Finally, around 6 pm, we headed back home to celebrate our own family Christmas.
Here Katie opens her new (well, new to her; I bought it on eBay from a Goodwill store) Muppet Babies book of fairy tales and nursery rhymes. As soon as she opened it, she started "reading" us the stories of The Three Bears and Little Bo Peep!
And here is a video of Katie and Joshua playing with the musical instruments that Santa brought Katie at my parents' house:
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We sure did.
Her response to the bottom left picture? 
