Ho Ho Ho!

When Adam and I were shopping a few years ago, we came across this singing Santa Claus. The Holmes family is always buying practical joke presents for Christmas, so we just couldn't pass up buying it. Ironically, it has been one of the best purchases we have ever made. We can't wait to get out the Santa each year and see the stages our kids go through as they react to him. The first year, Jacob was only one and absolutely loved it. He couldn't get enough of pushing Santa's button and dancing with him. When Jacob was two, he thought Santa was the scariest thing ever and wouldn't go anywhere NEAR him. Last year, Jacob started out the same but eventually came around to at least pushing the button before running away. This year was the best yet for sure. Gavin was at the dancing and loving Santa stage and, well, if Gavin wasn't scared... Jacob might as well dance and sing along too.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with my Dad's side of the family. My Dad and stepmom are leaving for Hawaii soon, so we had an early Christmas together as well.


We reserved a room at my step-grandma's retirement center to open presents. It happened to be a game room, so the cousins could watch a movie...
Play a little soccer...
And shoot some pool. ;)

Conversations with Jacob

1. Jacob and I were watching Shrek the Third yesterday. With Fiona being pregnant, everyone was congratulating her.

J: "Gradulations Momma!" Pause. Look of confusion. "What gradulations is? Gradulations means there's a baby in your tummy?!"

2. We were reading a Christmas Countdown book and on each page there was a mommy, daddy, and three children. The older two looked about Jacob and Gavin's age, so I pointed to one as Jacob and the other as Gavin.

J: "Daddy, Mommy, Jacob, and Gavin. That's Gavin, Momma? That's Gavin when he's a girl?" (OK, so the child I chose as Gavin did look a little girlish)

3. Jacob is very much into his little routines at night. Although he has a super comfy bed in his room, he only wants to sleep on his futon cushion on the floor. He calls it Grammy's bed because that's where Grammy sleeps when she comes over. This futon cushion used to only have a comforter and pillow on it. However, Jacob has slowly added a book or stuffed animal each night to comfort him while he goes to sleep. (He used to be scared of his stuffed animals at night, so we thought this was a good thing.) Except now we are up to seven stuffed animals, five books, and an elephant flashlight. The masses have completely taken over his bed to the point where he looks swallowed up in-between them all. Yet, he insists that he needs each one to have happy dreams. Every animal and book is in its special place, and his pug stuffed animal must be covered up by the other animals. (I think it's because he's scared of Sy coming in his room at night) Here was our conversation last night, when Jacob noticed that his pillowcase was different.

J: "This is a black pillow mommy. Where's my pillow?"
M: "This is your pillow. I just put a new pillowcase on it."
J: "My pillow is in the wash-it machine?"
M: "No, this IS your pillow. It just has a new cover."
J: "No, this is NOT my pillow. I have a blue pillow. I don't like the black pillow! It's too monster-y!"

A few minutes later... Gavin is crying and Jacob assesses the situation.
J: "Mommy! Gavin is cry-ing! He needs more mii-lk."
J: "Mommy! Gavin likes a new dia-per please!"
J: "Mommy, Gavin wants to brush his tee-eth!"
M: "He's OK Jacob. He just wanted a little hug goodnight."
J: "Mommy, tell Gavin not to be scared of the monsters."

Jacob's bestest girl

Kailey and Jacob met when they had just turned one and have been inseparable ever since. Jacob talks about Kailey all day long and refers to her as his "bestest girl." Her mom and I took some pictures of them on the playground together and are saving them... just in case we need them for a wedding day or something. ;)

We're in trouble now!

Wuv you!

Gavin has had some funny responses to discipline lately. He'll be doing something he isn't supposed to be doing, so we will say, "No Gavin." If he continues the behavior, Adam slaps his little hand. Some of his favorite ways to get in trouble are: opening the refrigerator and trying to pull out food, climbing a chair to bang on Adam's laptop, pulling out dishes onto the floor, banging his fork on the kitchen table, dumping Jacob's puzzle pieces everywhere... Anyway, so Gavin was banging on the laptop and saw Adam coming. The funniest thing was he could predict what was going to happen, so he did it to himself. We heard him say, "No, NO Gabin." And proceed to slap himself on the hand. Hey, self-discipline. Gotta love it. ;)

The past few days have been even funnier. He is making the progression of stopping when we ask him to stop. So that's a step in the right direction. The cutest part is that when he stops, he smiles his sweetest smile, and says in a loving little voice, "Wuv you." This happens everytime. He'll be turning on the faucet to spray water. We say, "No Gavin." He stops and says, "WUV YOU MAMA!" He even says "Wuv you mama" to daddy. So now we've officially entered the manipulation stage. Since I melt over all that sweet love stuff, I'd say it's working so far. Little stinker.

Crazy good memory

Jacob has this unbelievable memory that leaves me in awe. Out of the blue, he will say things that happened months (if not more than a year) ago. At age three. Crazy.

First of all, he knows exactly where we are driving at all times. If we drive by a friend's house, Little Gym, Red Robin, church... he immediately tells us. The crazy part is that we aren't close enough to actually see these places, he can just tell if we are in the general vicinity. He recently has taken on the concept of right and left as well. EVERY TIME we turn. "Mommy, you're going left?!" "We're driving by preschool?" These are the comments and questions that fill our entire car ride.

Last year, our small group (and kids) were cleaning up leaves at Emerald Ridge as a service project. As Jacob crunched on the leaves (in this exact place) on the way to church, he said, "Mommy, member when we picked up the leaves?"

We were talking about our old house the other day and wondered if Jacob remembered it. He said that he did. We've been in our new house for eighteen months now, so I really didn't think it was possible. I put him to the test and asked what color the walls were. He immediately answered green.

My sister and I were having coffee and chocolate chip cookies at McDonald's one night while our kids played on the play equipment. This wasn't a typical McDonald's play area. There were tubes and slides everywhere to the point where your child could climb up and literally get lost inside. Jacob had just started potty training and I could hear his panicked little voice from high up inside. "Mommy! I'm stuck. Uh oh. MOMMY, help clean it!" I looked at my sister thinking... he did not just do what I think he did. I tend to panic in these situations, so my sister was the hero of the day. She climbed up those tubes like superwoman and came down with Jacob in her arms. Now THAT's auntie love. I didn't have any spare clothes with me (and let me tell you, we needed spare clothes), so the best thing I could think of was borrowing his cousin's underwear. The funniest thing was that when his cousin handed over her underwear, they were totally wet! My sister and I were cracking up as we carried our practically naked kids out to the car. Seriously, they need to have potties in that play equipment! Anyway, we were in the car yesterday and Jacob said, "Mommy, member when I went poo-poo at McDonald's? Member?" Seriously. At least eight months ago.

Good thing he didn't inherit my terrible memory!

The Holmes Family Singers

Since we are on the topic of singing (#6 on my last post), I thought I would share how Jacob and Gavin are adding to the entertainment in this category.

Gavin's first song is Old MacDonald, or as Gavin refers to it, the "E-I-E-I-O" song. We will be sitting at dinner or something and he just blasts it out with his cheesiest smile. "EEE-I-EEE-I-OOOHHH!!!" Apparently, that is our cue to sing a verse for him. Then he can do the animal sounds that go with the verse. Moo moo here, quack quack there, oink oink here, baa baa there(his favorite) and so on. He loves it.

More recently, Gavin is learning how to help clean up. A skill he could have mastered a long time ago, but just decided it was fun a few weeks ago. As we were cleaning up Jacob's puzzle pieces that he spilled, I hear this little voice softly singing "Clee uh clee uh". It took me a while to realize he was singing the clean up song that Jacob and I sing together. It goes, "Clean up, clean up... everybody everywhere. Clean up, clean up... come on Jacob do your share." So Gavin sang, "Clee uh, clee uh... eehbod" and that was all he knew. So cute.

Jacob sings all the time, but I couldn't help but laugh at his version of Mary Had a Little Lamb. It went like this. "Jesus loves his little lamb, little lamb, little lamb. Mary had a little lamb, whose fleece was fried as snow." I totally get how he would add Jesus to the song, because most of the songs we sing have Jesus in them. I have to get especially creative with the songs at night now. A few weeks ago we were reading about Zaccheaus, so I taught him the Zaccheaus was a wee little man song. Now, he thinks every bible story has a song that goes with it. After I read to him, he asks in excitement, "What song goes with that story Mommy?!?!" I actually know a lot of songs that match bible stories from my camp counselor days, but sometimes I just have to make one up so he isn't disappointed.

So Jacob made up his first song for me in the car the other day. "Mommy, I sing the throw up song for you." Greeaat. So, to the tune of Are You Sleeping, Jacob presents the throw up song. "Mmmm. Blah. Mmmm. Blah. I throw up. I throw up. In the night." Whisper. Giggle. And repeat. Maybe it will be a hit someday. ;)

Seven Things...

Alright, so I better get to those seven things about myself. This one's for you Melynie!

1. I am really bad with directions. For real, so embarrassingly bad. I could have been to somebody's house several times and still have no idea how to get there. I also really dread trying to follow directions while I'm driving (I need a fancy GPS to tell me where I'm going, I guess ;) Then once I get to the place I'm going, I can't follow the directions backwards to save my life. I have to take the freeway everywhere because I would be completely lost on back roads. From what I hear, I come from a long line of people who are directionally challenged. That makes me feel a little better.

2. To make up for this shortcoming, I was blessed with book smarts. Getting good grades came easily to me and I was one A- away from being Valedictorian in high school. (Not that I wanted to be Valedictorian) So I was that annoying person who set the curve in your class. 3.9 GPA in high school and college. And yes, mean kids called me a Dexter. I hated that.

3. I have a really bad habit of biting my fingernails. I have had this habit since I was in the fourth grade. I've tried everything from that gross tasting polish to french tips. At this point, I've pretty much given up. My mom and sister bite their nails too, but they can at least go through stages of growing them out. I've never been able to.

4. I LOVE mini things. I don't know what it is about things that are miniature, but I think they are the cutest things ever. Newborn clothes, puppies, vanilla wafers, Ben-N-Jerry's ice cream,toothpaste... whatever I find, I am positively giddy about.

5. I love to dance. If people are dancing, I'm right there with them. If Adam is there, I make him dance with me too. ;) Slow dancing, swing dancing, line dancing (the electric slide is the best!), random dancing, I love it all. When I was a camp counselor, I choreographed dances with my campers for the talent show. I even demonstrated one for Adam when we first met. Now, as a mommy, I dance with Jacob and Gavin all the time.

6. I like to sing too, but have a terrible voice. Thankfully, my first graders don't mind since I sing all the time in class. Adam has one of those seriously amazing singing voices. The kind that gives your arm goosebumps and your heart butterflies at the same time. He doesn't sing for me very often, but when he does... I want time to stop somehow. So it must be especially hard for him to endure my singing. But I sing nonetheless... usually at the top of my lungs.

7. I was really into leadership in high school. ASB treasurer as a Freshman, ASB secretary as a sophomore, and ASB Vice-President as a Junior and Senior. I was going to run as ASB President as a Senior, but my best friend decided to run. So after all that, I'm definitely not afraid to speak in front of people. (Isn't that supposedly one of life's greatest fears?)