In Honor of the Muppets

The movie "The Muppets" comes out in theaters today!  Yeehaw!  We've been literally waiting for this since we found out about it a year ago.  We've got plans to go this weekend with John's family.

As you know, Joshua's first pop culture fascination (and first phrase) was "Muppet Babies." His room is decorated in a Muppet Babies theme, and I've spent too much money at used toy stores and on eBay collecting Muppet-related items and books for him.

However, I have to admit that I'm probably more excited about this movie than he is.  And I'm thrilled that this will be the first full-length movie he'll remember seeing in a theater.

To celebrate, Katie and I made this video for you (in our matching red turtlenecks):

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010, in pictures:

Getting our tree, December 4

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!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Joshua's Growing Vocabulary

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!