Christmas in Lousiana

We traveled down to Lafayette this past week to celebrate Christmas at Noni's little house. Jonas and Gill were excited to visit cousins Nathan and Chris in Arkansas on the way down. We made it all the way to Noni's house (and then back home) in a one-day sprint, arriving near midnight both times.

Some highlights of the trip: presents from Noni (truck for Gill, bristle blocks for Jonas, ornaments, robes), Uncle Dex & Aunt Jen (paper constructable space ship, recycling truck for JD, wind-up clock for Gill), and lots of stocking stuffers from Aunt Desi and Uncle Joel. Aunt Desi even finished Gill's stocking! It's a beautiful match to the one she made for Jonas 3 years ago.

Noni also had a special riding tractor ready for the boys. Despite the rain, we went out for several rides on the tractor. Sadly, only one boy can ride at a time, and Gill is still too young to operate it properly, though that didn't stop him from trying to push his brother off it every chance he got. Jonas was a cautious driver, and only came close to running over Gill when he first got on it.

On Christmas night, we journey to Cindy's house in Opelousas where all of the cousins gathered for a traditional game of "Dirty Santa." We came home with red plastic baskets (the kind you get full of fries and a burger) and a grouchy santa. We had hoped to pop fireworks, but it rained the whole time we were there. We saw Cindy's crew: Cindy, John S., Chelsea and John T. (kids André, Adrienne, and Abbygail), Cala and Shay (kids Jude and Sydney), Lauren & new boyfriend Tommy (kids Shianne and Nathan), Bob & Jan's crew: John G., Rocky & Beth (Owen), Ross & Sara. Desi, Dex, Joel and Noni were there as well. It was a full house. Aunt Cindy still had lots of food left to snack on, plus freshly baked rolls from her square black iron skillet. She had "planted" the best gift in the pile for Dirty Santa - my mother's graduation photo framed in a cheesy 50's car frame.

Some bonus gatherings included a trip to the park where Joe joined us, plus a visit to Old Tyme and Borden's with Angela, Erik, and Mark.

Noni, Joel, and Desi cooked an amazing feast, including seafood gumbo, (paleo) chicken and sausage gumbo, smoked beef and spicy turkey, petite pois, creamed spinach, sweet potato casserole, brussel sprout salad, and more. We ate ourselves sick. Here's a photo of the boys making chocolate chip cookies with Noni.

Random Thoughts

Gill's favorite words: no, truck, up, outside, milk, mama

Jonas' favorite phrases: "No Gill!" "I'm hungry" (but only at 9pm when he's in bed), "Can we go to a park / car wash?", "Want to go for a bike ride."


Jonas' daycare class did an inventory of what each child was most thankful for, in honor of the holidays. While the other kids listed things such as mother, father, baby brother, dog, etc, the words "cakes" was next to Jonas' name. We know that he probably meant cup cakes. And he probably really only meant cup cake icing. Yes, we were totally edged out by sugar and lard.

And he points with his middle finger.

Tried to take the boys to The Muppet Movie. Jonas found it more entertaining to "surf" the seats so we had to leave.

Last night, for his late night snack, Jonas had pickles. I was already in bed and he came to visit me before he went to bed. When I told him he smelled like pickles, he said, "Mama, I'm not a pickle!" When we told him a few days ago that he was plum tuckered out, he said, "Mama, I'm not Tucker! I'm Jonas Vogt!"

The boys had loads of fun over the Thanksgiving holiday, which we spent in Wooster, OH. They played with cousins, ate pie and venison hot dogs, and "drove" Uncle John's tractors. They also met quite a few dogs, played in dog bowls, and fed dogs a variety of foods, including grapes and bacon. A few favorite images from the trip:

Boy Update

Gill's favorite words: no, truck, up, outside, milk, mama

Jonas' favorite words: "No Gill!"

Jonas' daycare class did an inventory of what each child was most thankful for, in honor of the holidays. While the other kids listed things such as mother, father, baby brother, dog, etc, the words "cakes" was next to Jonas' name. We know that he probably meant cup cakes. And he probably really only meant cup cake icing. Yes, we were totally edged out by sugar and lard.

Tried to take the boys to The Muppet Movie. Jonas found it more entertaining to "surf" the seats so we had to leave.

Tricycle

Jonas tore off down the sidewalk on his tricycle last night. He is much more enthusiastic about riding downhill than uphill. Of course, he's giggling and ringing his bell the whole way. I think he may have rung the bell enough to break it.

Solo parenting the Ed Way

Well, Shelly took some well deserved time out from the kids and has visited friends and family this weekend in Washington DC and Baltimore.

I've had a lot of fun with the kids this weekend. Saturday was filled with a lot of hoofin' about. I put the kids in the stroller and explored Brookside with them. I started with a stop at CCCUCC to get some measurements for the South entrance. Jonas helped me measure while Gill wandered about in the plants. After we were done there, we went up to 63rd ostensibly to go to the Grocery. We stopped at the drive up ATM first (in stroller) to get some cash and then went off to the Farmer's Market. After looking around I decided to buy some Okra. I gave a piece to Gill but he tried to eat it from the wrong end. The attendant felt sorry for the boys (or maybe impressed by their good looks) and cut a watermelon for them. Each got a piece. As could be expected, Gill devoured his. Jonas nibbled his.

Next was off to the Grocery. Both boys got a free sandwich on a croissant. That kept them quite happy. They both fell asleep in the stroller on the way home and slept for 2 hours in the foyer.

It stormed that afternoon, so we spent the rest of the afternoon in. Post storm, we went up to the park at Brookside Elementary and played on the equipment. The puddles made it extra fun for the boys.

Other miscellany for the day. Jonas decided that the proper way to eat hot dogs is with multiple combs. Gill has started to bring books for me to actually read versus just flip through.

That is about all right now!

...Harvester of Sorrow

It turns out that Jonas and Gill LOVE Metallica. After dinner I turned on the iPod & when a Metallica song came on, the boys went wild. Jonas started doing some kind of crazy Woodstock kind of dance while attempting to attack the iPod in the same manner that Pete Townsend used to attack amplifiers. Gill started beating on the wall.

Awesome

Vocabulary

Gill now has a firm grasp on saying "momma" and "poppa" - he's been saying "momma" for months now, but we are hearing "poppa" a lot more lately.

Jonas speaks in full sentences, mostly without errors, though his pronunciation is still coming along. We still don't know what a "seek-away" is. The latest variations on pronunciation are "kittles" for skittles (we used them for potty training) and "pamommy." Pamommy is his somewhat confusing terminology for whatever parent is in front of him. He just doesn't get the word started right. On occasion, we hear "mapoppa" but "pamommy" is more prevalent.

Also, Jonas used the urinal at the swimming pool the other day, and he now refers to it as "my urinal."

I love all of this!

The last night of swim lessons for JD is tonight; it was delayed one day due to poop.