innovation

out of food for the chickens?

try a kashi bar.

too short for the table?
try the bench.

not enough cup holders?
improvise.

15 mo

I was bemoaning the fact that I hadn't gotten any good 15 month photos of Jonah. It's so hard to keep him still long enough to put shoes on him--pictures are kind of out of the question. So when we were putting laundry away, and his room was perfectly aglow with mid-morning light--I did did my best to bribe him (with a variety of things he's normally not allowed to play with...like books with real paper pages) and take a few photos. So, some are a little blurry, and he is wearing a Nike sweatshirt in most of them, but why not remember reality as it truly is?

lately.

I realize that these are just variations on a theme (throughout the past couple weeks), but this is what we do. There are either pictures and stories of outdoor snow adventures or tales of inside toy hurricanes. These are much better to look at. Trust me.

antics

Since coming home from Christmas vacation (a week ago today) we've certainly had our hands full. A curious little george (who will make the monkey sound if you call him that) has gotten into all sorts of things. He's learned to:

-move pretty much all the furniture in the house (sans beds and couches)

-take off his diaper (see proof below)

-climb in and out of everything (more proof below)

-open doors, even those with knobs (basement door now stays locked)

-find ways to entertain us when he's suppose to be eating

-turn on an off the tv, and dvd player, and anything else with a button

- etc, etc, etc...

Tonight--all within the one hour Ben was at a meeting--he managed to dump a glass of water all over my books (I was doing dishes and thought he must be quietly playing in the living room) and open the fridge and dump yogurt all over himself and the floor (while I was taking care of situation #1 and thought he was quietly playing with magnets on the fridge). You would think I'd learn that if he's so quiet it seems to good too be true, it probably is. The real kicker was that he's allergic to dairy so the second situation warranted an immediate strip down and bath. Thankfully we ended up with just a few hives and he didn't seem to bothered by the little episode. We were also both thankful for a timely daddy who entered right at crisis point and kept us all sane. One thing is for sure--he sure knows how to make us laugh...

my drying bible...

the yogurt episode

marcel

I'm not sure if this is your sense of humor--but it's mine. such a shame I just was introduced to this little gem. (thanks Julia!)

all that's left are pine needles.

And alot of them, I might add (we maybe didn't water our tree quite as much as we should have...). Yesterday we put our house back into 'most of the year' mode and hauled our lovely little evergreen out to the end of the driveway (where it is now beautifully covered with fresh lake effect snow. I love winter). 'Twas a lovely Christmas had by all and so fun to watch Jonah really enjoy all the festivities. We stayed here for Christmas Eve and then had Ben's family over on Christmas day and Sunday. Monday, we packed up and made the 12 hour trek to Iowa for a week (which went swimmingly, I might add--Jonah was a trooper and the roads/weather were perfect).


Christmas Eve


opening Christmas Eve PJs






Christmas morning


new sled!


put to use immediately










thankful for a hawkeye victory (especially since Ben's wolverines didn't fair quite as well a few days later...see ya RichRod)


eskimo


dutch boy




an Iowan sledding adventure




Clemens 2010