Christmas II

My parents are in town this weekend to celebrate a late Christmas, and after all the presents were opened Josh's favorites (so far) are the big box Mom brought all of the presents in and one of Molly's presents, a ball popper which she also really likes. Luckily for Josh, Molly hasn't been feeling well so he has had plenty of time alone with her gift. We are still trying to figure out how to disable the ball popper's "8 Silly Songs" feature that plays really annoying music nonstop while the toy is on. Thanks, Jon and Amy!

Welcome 2008

We had a very exciting end to 2007 and beginning to 2008 with a visit from our Wilmington friends Nicole and Brian and their kids Silas and Blythe. Josh and Silas had a great time playing together, even though the cold and damp weather kept us inside most of the time. One of Josh and Silas' favorite past-times was emptying out my kitchen cabinets, which was fine until they also emptied out a box of couscous and a bag of pine nuts on the floor.

We spent part of New Year's Eve in Fort Mill with our friends Jenny and Raymond, who we met in our childbirth class when I was pregnant with Josh, and then moved on to Emily and Randy's party. We had a great time retelling all of our favorite stories with the Wilmington girls (Steph, I hope you don't mind that I've copied some of your photos here) and hanging out with Charlotte friends. Here's me with Nicole, Steph, JoEllen and Em.
We were joined at this year's party by the creepy guy who graded Tim and Hannah's yard in Charlotte and was later immortalized in this painting by Tim. The painting is on loan to the Finks while Tim and Hannah are abroad.
And not to leave Molly out, here's a picture of her from a New Year's Day lunch at Holly's that pretty much represents her less-than-stellar attitude toward the New Year. All of the fun and activity took a toll on her, and we spent New Year's Day with a cranky baby. Some of that may be due to her sudden growth spurt in teeth, which you can see below.

Christmas pictures

Here are some pictures from our Christmas in Chicago.
One attempt at a family picture on Christmas Eve. We've got two out of four looking at the camera and no "duh" looks.

Josh opening a present on Christmas morning.

Unlike Josh, who was never really interested in toys, Molly was thrilled with the Christmas toys (and Ethan's toys). This is my favorite weird Christmas Eve picture of Molly showing off Ethan's maraca.

The Snowy North

The super-cold weather in Chicago last week was a shock to our Southern systems, but Josh quickly took to playing in the white stuff. Unfortunately there wasn't enough for sledding, but he did get to build a snowman, throw some snowballs, and play fetch with Uncle Tyler and Sadie in the snow. One of Josh's main concerns upon leaving Chicago was that he was pretty sure it didn't snow in Charlotte. Thankfully, for the most part he's right.

Molly and Ethan

One of the best parts of our Christmas visit to Chicago was watching Molly and her cousin Ethan, who is three months older, play together. Aside from a few baby fights over toys, they had a good time hanging out.

Ethan and Molly enjoyed pushing each other around in the baby cart (with some help from the adults to set everything up). Occasionally one would bail out to grab a toy (see picture below) mid-ride.

No babies were harmed in the making of this picture:
Finally, someone gives Molly the "are you crazy?" look that she often gives Josh.

Halfway There

Today was Josh's last day of school before Christmas break, and I attended the class "tasting party" to celebrate. Because this program can't celebrate any holidays (for reasons too complex for this blog), the teacher had all of the kids' parents bring in a food their family likes to eat. Here's Josh standing with his plate of pancakes.

More importantly, however, are the differences I saw in Josh while I was with him and his class today. It's astounding. He sat with his class and participated when the teacher led them in a song (see the picture below--Josh is off to the right). He also talked to the other kids, did not run around the class crazily and did what he was told. You can see in the picture above that he has written his own name (sort of) on the place card. For many 4-year-olds, all of this would be considered normal, but for Josh this is incredible progress. We are deeply grateful for Josh's teachers and this pre-school program.

And to counteract the scary angel pictures, here are Josh and Molly giving me their best "duh" looks.

Only in the South

You can only imagine my surprise when I opened Molly's "gift" to us from nursery school and found this. Apparently the teachers have been having fun dressing up the babies and taking pictures of them. I don't even really know what to say about this.

I wasn't going to add this one because it's blurry, but here's a re-enactment of that rarely mentioned moment at the Nativity where the Christmas fairy pays her respects to baby Jesus. Just like the picture above, it's kind of cute, but mostly scary.