Christmas 2013

So it was Christmas again! Lots of food, family and fun. The kids this Christmas brought me a lot of joy. We got a huge 11 foot Christmas tree! It was huge and looked great in our big living room. From Santa Jacob got a new bike, Amelia got a kitten and so did Jack.
Christmas morning the boys were up normal time, both were excited to see what Santa brought them. Jacob really liked his bike but everything kinda got over shadowed by the kittens. Jack was very excited about his kitten, which he named Robin. As he clutched the kitten to his chest he declared, "This is the best Christmas ever. This is just what I wanted!" Jack named his kitten Robin saying it was his sidekick. We had to wake Amelia up to open presents. Once she saw the kitten she was wide awake. She also was very excited about getting one. Hers is named Princess. Luckily all the kids have been very gentle with the kitties so far.
Other notable Christmas presents this year are beanbag chairs from Umma and Uppa. Umma and Uppa also got Jack a new Leap Pad Ultra, which he kissed when he figured out what it was. They also got him a green light up sword. That present he little face lite up; he forgot to open any other present until we reminded him.

 

Umma had a photo booth for everyone to take pictures with this year.

 

 

 

 

Good vs Evil

The boys have hit the phase of "good guys beating bad guys." They like super heroes, fighting crime and are always on the look out for injustice. Jack especially is very aware of bad guys. I find that along with this phase comes weapons. Apparently you need lots of guns, knives, swords and throwing stars to defeat evil. Luckily they are sorta old enough now not to destroy stuff with the weapons or each other.

Jack

Its Christmas time here and that can bring out generosity in anyone, Jack included. Since we have put Christmas presents under our tree Jack has been "shopping" around the house wrapping up presents for people. He gave Jacob his new Robin car for Christmas. After we wrapped it he said, "He's going to be so excited!" in the cutest excited voice. Anything he can think of he wants to wrap up for someone. I think he has the giving spirit down.

Jack's wisdom

This last week Grampa Coleman died, passed away, expired... I think the kids witnessed their first vision of death, or at least closest  to it, walking into Grampa's house seeing him in his chair unconscious. I will be interested to see if they remember that when they get older.
Anyway though, although we didn't know if he was going to live or not that day Jack imparted wisdom that summed up the whole situation.
Jack: Mom I have good news and bad news.
Me: What's the bad news Jack?
Jack: That if Grampa dies we will all be sad and miss him.
Me: What's the good news?
Jack: That he will be in heaven with Jesus.

Amen to that!

Jacob's 1st tooth

Jacob lost his first tooth tonight! It was his bottom right one. He was wrestling the pillows on our bed when one of the pillows caught his tooth and ripped it out. Jacob said the tooth fell into his mouth so he fished it out with his hand. He promptly said, "Look mom." He had a look of shock on his face. I of course was super excited. I think he was very surprised it came out because his eyes were wide and he was not smiling. When I looked in his mouth at the hole I could see it was bleeding quite a bit. I believe the tooth would have stayed in his mouth another week or so if it hadn't been pulled out. Anyway after his mouth stopped bleeding he was excited about his tooth.
As he was showing me the tooth again he dropped it. It landed on the rug, which is creamed colored! After looking for the tooth for a while I vacuumed it up with the vacuum. He proceeded to drop it a couple more times but we managed to find it.
We put the tooth in a fancy glass so he wouldn't lose it anymore and the Tooth Fairy would be able to find it.

Garbage sculpture

Jack brought home a "garbage sculpture" today from preschool. It was basically a paper cup with two que-tips sticking out of it held there by play dough. It was a nice little piece of abstract art. He was real happy with it.
When Jacob saw it he was intrigued. Jacob thought all the stuff was neat but wanted to know what it was. Jack replied, "it was garbage sculpture." Jacob asked again, "Ya, but what is it?" Jack repeated his answer. Jacob could not comprehend it wasn't something. I could see that he just needed to be something. He suggested to Jack maybe he should draw a face on it so that it could be a bunny, but Jack said no its a sculpture.
I can see both strength and weakness in Jacob's struggle to understand the garbage sculpture. His strength is that he works towards a complete representation of something. He needs the practical, concrete; he can use that to achieve much in life. His weakness is his struggle to understand why anyone would create something that does not attempt to represent reality. He is potentially missing great beauty in the world just because it isn't "real."

Halloween

Halloween 2013 was wonderful! This is the first year that I felt childhood in my house. All day long Jack and Jacob kept asking when we could go trick or treating, when Dad was going to be home, when we could go! I could feel their anticipation for trick or treating. They could hardly do anything because they were so looking forward to trick or treating. I remember as a kid thinking time took so long for exciting things like trick or treating or Christmas to actually happen. I think these are the years the boys may actually be able to remember.
This year Jacob was a rocket, Jack was Robin and Amelia was a princess. Each one of them was very proud of their costumes. If Jack saw someone he knew he would pull his mask up and say, "Its just me Jack, not really Robin." because he was convinced he truly embodied Robin. He is so cute!
Jacob and I made his costume this year from a box, tin foil, duc tape and construction paper. It was just up his ally to create his own costume. As we walked around several "big boys" told Jacob that they liked his costume. It made me happy for him because he had created it himself. He even had some grown-ups compliment him on it.
Amelia of course was a super cute princess. She would "princess spin" around. Almost every door said, "oh aren't you cute." After about the hundredth time she put her hand to her chest and said, "me cute!" This was Amelia's first Halloween of actually trick or treating, well she did fabulous! I brought the stroller just in case but she only briefly sat in it,. Most of the time she refused to sit in it and would have trick or treated all night if I had let her. I bet she walked for over an hour. Of course the person who wanted to ride in the stroller most was Jack.
As soon as we got back the kids dived into their candy. I don't even think they made it 6 steps into the door before flopping to the floor and digging in. We let them eat a bunch that night and watch Charlie Brown's The Great Pumpkin cartoon. It was a great Halloween!