Visit to Richmond

For Boxing Day, we went to visit Cynthia and her new puppy dog, Annie Oakley. Jo was thrilled! And the puppy gave lots of dog kisses.

Cynthia gave Josephine a coat she quilted herself that is based on the song "Angels Watching Over Me." It's adorable.

And my best friend from high school, Robin, stopped by. She made me delete the really funny photo of us...

And then, at the end of the day, Jo was so tired!!! Me, too.

Our Christmas Fairy

On Tuesday, I took Josephine to see the Nutcracker Ballet - or the Coconut Ballet, as she calls it. She loved it. I couldn't believe she sat through the whole thing. Probably helped that I gave a running explanation of the story. Her favorite part: "When the tree get bigger bigger bigger bigger." In her new fairy outfit, she was pretending to be Clara waking up in the middle of the night dancing with her doll. She also created a huge picture of the entire theatre and stage - including the drums in the orchestra pit, the stairs, the hallways, and our seats. Her art recently has begun extremely detailed. Her faces have eyeballs, eyebrows, cheeks. She loves loves loves to draw! And dance.
And then she gets, as she says, "exhausted!"

Christmas Day

Of note:
1) Josephine is meticulous when opening presents. She does not rip or tear. She carefully finds the seam and slowly - s l o w l y - undoes the package. Who is this kid? She has not inherited this from either parent...

2) Sam likes chocolate.

3) The day after, the two of them were enthralled by - nope, none of their new toys: a BROOM.

We had a lovely day.

It's a Pink Christmas

Sam and Jo playing dress up with friends. Look at those wigs!

Me trying to get pics of kids with pink Christmas tree. Impossible! (for me)

We've been playing the "pudding and" rhyming game I played with my mom as a kid - Jo loves it! She doesn't always rhyme - is always creative - but then sometimes she really gets it and rhymes something like "Christmas stocking" with "wrapping," which I love.

Sam is big. He eats everything. He loves to play peeka boo and chase.

When I'm Not Looking...

1) Decorating these 'paper' dolls... but then the next time I looked, Jo had begun decorating everything - table, etc.
2) I was in the kitchen, came around the corner, to find Jo immersed in the dog food bag
3) Went downstairs to change the laundry over, came back up to find - this. Sam's hair, you can't tell, but was pink.

This is just the beginning, isn't it?

some pics

Flour-Flies

Josephine was smacking bread flour between her hands, sending white poofs! into the air and making Sam laugh.

What in the world are you doing? I asked.

Catching flour-flies, she said. And making my brudder laugh!

Brudder, by the way, is crawling-slithering allover the house. He followed daddy into the bathroom to watch him shave. Male bonding! It's kind of like having a pet lizard. A really cute one, with five teeth and red swirly hair.

the story today from the girl...

above: in her chicken-duck outfit, posing with the lovely airplane bag from linda miller, the amazing quilter who has made a quilt for both children, and then this bag that we used while flying...
below: in the adorable butterfly costume from Grandma Phyllis, while Sam, in his Texas shirt, looks on - Josephine insisted he wear this shirt today so that he could "do ballet" with her as "Sparkle Man" - be a "ballet-er" -

I did dream that I was a bird and I did fly into the sky - with my bird friends -

my daddy did make me a bird costume but it was too big - but I wore it -

he did a shortcut -

then, changing subjects: You should dye your hair pink.

and later:

my other parents - they are trees -

(she has taken to babbling as if speaking in tongues - as if it means something - so funny - )

sam update:
the other day he waved bye by and hi - words included; he scamper-crawls; 21 pounds - is in 50% for weight and only 25% for height, meaning he's stocky already; the reddish curls continue...

Happy 9 Months!

Singer

Visiting Robin & Maymont

After seeing bears and eagles and goats and sheep at Maymont, we dug up carrots and potatoes out of Robin's garden and ate them!

A Good Nightmare

Jo's Halloween Dream:

There was a scary witch, and she was flying into the dark.
She was wooden.
Her shoes were made of wood, and she had wings.

There were bakers.
They had to bake a strawberry cake.
They were with my friends in Mexican.

Then the witch, she did fly, and she was bad, but she wanted to be good.
She wanted to take off her clothes and be good.

Then my friends did walk out of my dream.
They ate the cake and then came out of my dream.

It was a good nightmare.

--
While listening to music in the car:
"Mom! Mom!"
"Yes, Jo, what is it?"
"My bum is dancing!"
--
A strange imagination:
I hear her crying out. I go to her room.
"Jo, what is it?"
"Look in my bed!"
I look. There is nothing there.
"Uh... what am I seeing?"
"It's my mommy and daddy. They are here in bed and they can't wake up. " freaky...

Did someone call for a fairy?

thanks to cousin jordan, one is here.

Ahhhh!

Video Birthday Card

Need a pick-me-up? Watch this video birthday card we made for my mom!

FYI, Jo calls herself Princess Cilla - and that weird bowing thing she does is her attempt at a curtsy...

Accomplishments

I watched him pull himself up today - sure, it was to grab his sister's book and eat it - but that's motivation for you!

He has also figured out how to move forward, not just backward. With the alacrity of an alligator, I might add.

Relatives

- Aunt Yvonne doing playdoh with Jo - cracking us up as they made little people...
- Aunt Linda holding Sam - in one of the many times she stepped in to take care of him while chaos was going on with everyone else!
- Uncle CL with Sam
- Jo and Brett, my cousin Holly's son, playing playdoh