Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

There's actually more going on in our home than the mouse invasion (which is still pending), but I misplaced the cord to download pictures from our camera to the computer, which is why I haven't done any other posts recently. Anyway, I've finally downloaded some pictures, and here are some of my favorites from the Christmas Season:

Santa Came!

Santa #1: "Wait, do I know that guy?!" Tommy recognized Santa's real identity right off the bat at this party at Jon's office, but he played along for Joey's sake.

Lined up objects #1: Tommy told me his animals were having "Tummy Time."

Lined up objects #2: He lines EVERYTHING up, including little scraps of wrapping paper while unwrapping his Christmas gifts.

Santa #2: Santa Baby! Jon was one of about a thousand Santas participating in a mile-long run through downtown Minneapolis dressed up as a Santa Claus to help raise money for legal aid for low-income Minnesotans.

If we spray-painted him white, could he pass as the Marshmallow Man from Ghost Busters?



Attention ward choir members: This is what I'm talking about when I say "tall vowels."

Cute Joey.

Mouse Update

The mouse is still winning by one point. There have been no more traps set off, peanut butter stolen, etc., so we decided to go on a stronger offensive. Last night we set some more spring traps, as well as some sticky glue traps. Now we have a grand total of 21 traps set in our basement. We're taking this mouse down...

You may have won the battle...

First of all, thank you to all of you who commented on my previous post about musophobia. I'm glad I'm not alone, and in fact, I'm blogging our whole mouse experience because it makes it more funny and less horrifying. Maybe it's therapeutic.

Anyway, the saga continues, and the mouse is ahead. Here's the current tally:

Mouse: 1
Holts: 0

We found a mouse trap that had been sprung, but there was no mouse in it. The peanut butter was gone. I HATE feeding mice.

You may have won the battle, mousie, but we'll win the war.

Is musophobia contagious?

On Friday night I was in our basement peacefully watching a Christmas concert on TV when I heard some squeaking sounds. As I glanced over in the direction of the sounds, to my horror, I saw a black mouse run across the floor in our storage room. "Ahhh!" Jon came running down the stairs, and when I told him what had made me scream, he said that kind of scream should be reserved for a life-threatening medical emergency. To me, a mouse in our house is an emergency. Though maybe not life threatening...

He asked me what the word was for fear of mice. I think it was a rhetorical question, but I looked it up on line anyway. It's musophobia. He asked why I was so scared of a little mouse, and I tried to explain that it may not be the little four-legged creature itself that scares me so much, but rather what seeing one in my house represents. For one thing, it shattered my false sense of living in a mouse-proof-house. For another thing, I can only imagine why I heard that mouse squeaking. Was it talking to itself? I doubt it.

Finally, to the purpose of this post: Is musophobia contagious? Well, this is by no means a scientific study, but I hypothesize that musophobia can, indeed, be spread from person to person. Later that evening, I sent Jon out to buy 12 mouse traps (I requested a minimum of six and was thrilled when he came home with more). We agreed that if I would set them (to Jon, those spring traps are a bit unnerving to set), he would place them strategically (to me, they're even more unnerving to place). We set four that first night. We went into the storage room together, but after the first two, Jon quickly started to walk out. As soon as I saw him move, I started running. Apparently he'd gotten the heebeejeebees when he heard some crawling around in the corner. He wasn't too pleased with my running, and made me go upstairs so that I wouldn't freak him out. When I came back down, I asked if he'd placed the last two traps in the back corner of the room as we'd planned. Nope. He'd put one on each side of the door to stand as sentinels.

I asked (rhetorically of course) if he might have musophobia as well. "Well, if I do, you gave it to me," he replied.

Is Tommy a child of God? YES!

I considered skipping family home evening last night because Jon was in Chicago, and so our family wasn't even complete, and I didn't think Tommy would realize we were missing it. But I decided to do it anyway, and about halfway through, I was so glad that I did. We had our usual lesson, songs, and family home evening treat. While we were singing songs, Tommy suddenly asked, "Is Mommy a child of God?" Then he answered, "Yes!" He continued, "Is Daddy a child of God? Yes! Is Joey a child of God? Yes! Is Tommy a child of God? Yes!"

You see, two weeks ago we began teaching Tommy family home evening lessons out of the new Nursery manual, and the first lesson was "I Am a Child of God." Part of the lesson was going through this exact activity that Tommy was repeating...only when we did it with him two weeks ago, he never really answered the question, so Jon and I just asked and answered while he listened.

I was so grateful last night when he showed that he remembered, and he understood. I really felt the Spirit confirming that we are children of God, and I was so grateful to have had another opportunity to teach Tommy.

After going through each member of our family, Tommy picked up his stuffed bear and asked, "Is Bear a child of God?" Then he paused. I just smiled and said, "Yes!"

A Few More Halloween Pics

Scrappy Scralloween!!!

A Scrappy Family

King of the Jungle

Our Not So Little Punkin


Scary Daddy

Zebra Mommy and Butterfly Risa

"Tommyisms"

Thank goodness Tommy has finally figured out how to pronounce "truck." What a relief! He's picked up a few other cute sayings, though, such as "Ernie and Bernie" (for our favorite characters on Sesame Street) and "Tigger and Poop." He also still loves to sing "Jesus wants me for a fun beam!"

By the way, a couple of people asked about the picture of Tommy reading to Joey. Yep--that was real. We didn't pose it--it just happened! Tommy also likes to sing to Joey, step on him, and give him toys.

Brothers

We love the farm.

I really do love farms. I love the smell of horses, even if it includes the smell of their manure. And I like to see animals roaming around, even if it means stepping in the occasional cow pie. I also try to enjoy autumn to its fullest extent possible (I'm afraid if I didn't make a point of enjoying it, it would just make me sad since it marks the end of summer). For some reason I associate autumn with farms (and pumpkin patches and apple orchards), and sure enough, we've been to three so far. Tommy and I went on a special little date to the third farm, while Nani tended Joey (and Jon was at work). I made a point of NOT taking too many pictures (so that we could just relax and enjoy the scenery and activities), but here are two that I did take:
Tommy tried to feed this dog dirt. I think he thought that since we fed hay to the donkeys, and corn to the goats (at another farm), dogs would be perfectly happy with dirt. And horses with leaves (he tried that too).

Tommy was in heaven in this hay maze. It was just his size. He also could have gone on a "pony ride" on one of the horses behind him, but they were too tall for me to even get him on (he said no and wrapped his legs around me, or it might have been easier). Next time, maybe.

While I'm CLEANING up one mess...

...Tommy is usually MAKING another!!!

At least this mess was confined to his high chair.

Maybe this is why it's hard to keep my house clean!

"Tommy time" and other 4-month adventures

At four months old, Joey is a whopping 19 lb. 15 oz.!!!!!!!! He's even more "off the growth charts" than he was at his two-month appointment! (Actually he's only in about the 70th percentile for height and head--it's just his chub that sets him apart.)

So here are some four-month updates:

First, and most important, he slept for 12 hours straight last night before I finally woke him up! (I think this might have been a fluke because of his shots yesterday, but still, it was sweet.)

Also, I try to make sure he gets his "tummy time" every day, but from the very beginning, Tommy has always called it "Tommy time" and plops right down by Joey every time. They love each other. I'm always on pins and needles while Tommy plays with Joey's arms, legs, or whatever, watching like a hawk to make sure he's not hurting him. Joey just smiles. And he laughed yesterday for the first time!
Enough about Joey. Yesterday I took the boys to a pretend farm--you know, the kind that is just a fall attraction for kids. Tommy got to drive a tractor...
... pulling pumpkins. Very cute. Also, it might be hard to tell in the picture below, but there's a little pond in the background. Maybe Tommy thought it was just a big puddle. I'm not sure. He started walking toward it excitedly. As I realized he wasn't slowing down, I said, "Stop, Tommy, stop." But what did he do? He went, Tommy, went. Right into the pond. As soon as he realized the depth of the water, he fell face first into it. (Fortunately, his head didn't actually go under; he was just completely drenched from the waist down.) One of my friends commented that I was so graceful in just getting him right out without making a big deal of it. But in reality, I was just trying to hide my own embarrassment. I mean, what kind of mom lets their toddler run right into a pond?
Last, but not least, I'll comment on the bird below. It was huge, and was wandering around freely (not fenced in). Yikes. We didn't get too close! Tommy thinks it says "Cock-a-go-glee-go-glee-go."
Thanks for reading this very long post!!!

Teddy Bear Park

We're determined to keep going to the park until the snow is too high to find the playground equipment! (Well, maybe we won't hold out that long...but we are going to keep going until I finally admit that summer might be over.)

Today we had a WONDERFUL time at the Teddy Bear Park in Stillwater with Rebekah, Olivia, and Lillian. We're so happy to have family here in Minnesota.

Tommy and Olivia had a blast...

As did darling Lillian...
And even Joey...


I think it was in the 50's this morning, so the kids didn't really like us posing them on these cold, hard teddy bears. But sometimes you just have to sacrifice for the blog (er, I mean, the cute picture). Anyway, I haven't let go of summer... yet.

Bedtime is still awesome!

Tommy has always had funny sleeping positions--from the "stick 'em up" pose of his babyhood, to laying on his tummy/knees with his rear end up in the air, to my personal favorite--bunching his entire blanket up so that it was all piled on top of his face--but this new one is pretty cute too.

By the way, last night's bedtime routine was beautiful--the same as it always has been. It lasted 5 minutes. Tonight it went just fine too, although he talked to himself for about an hour before going to sleep. So "Fear Number 1" is resolved.

I've been dreading this for months...

Tommy never climbed out of his crib. Not even once. So, for months I've been putting off switching him to a "big boy bed." After all, why upset a perfectly calm, quick bedtime routine? But Joey has just gotten too heavy for his pack 'n play bassinet, so the time has finally come. And last night was the night. It broke my heart to take these pictures of my first baby in his first bed...for the last time:


After the photo shoot, we took everything out of his crib and said it was "all done." Then we went into his new room to play:
This was a great picture I got of Tommy, because he literally spends hours like this every day. He loves his cars, and so do I!


So I had/have four main fears.

1. He wouldn't go to sleep in his new bed. Well, this one went better than I expected. At first he was really scared and sad, but after I read a couple of stories in his bed with him, he calmed down. A little while later I heard him singing himself to sleep.

2. He would fall out of bed. A friend gave us a bedrail, but I'd forgotten to put it on until bedtime, and then I couldn't figure out how to lock it into position, so I put him to bed without it. When Jon got home we decided to sneak into his room and tuck him in so that the quilt would keep him secure, but we were foiled in this effort as well, because he was laying upside down in his bed! So Jon figured out the bedrail and we snuck it onto his bed. Whew! What a relief! And he woke up happy this morning!

3. I'm seriously afraid he'll never take a nap again. Why would he, with easy access to toys and fun?!

4. Same fear with bedtime--what will become of our angelicly short 5-minute bedtime routine? I guess we'll find out! Wish me luck!!

Before and After

Remember a few months ago when I posted a "before" picture of our office that was being turned into a boys' room? Sorry to leave you hanging. I actually did finish painting that room, but then I had Joey before I ever got around to taking more pictures. Here's a reminder of what the "before" looked like:

And here's one picture of the "after." I'll put some more pictures in my next post.

CUTE JOEY!!

The New Mullet and Other 3-Month Updates

Joey's about three and a half months old now, so it's probably time for another update!!! Look how big he's gotten:

You might have noticed that he's lost some hair on the sides of his head. But not to worry--now he's got a pretty sweet mullet to brag about.
He's also inherited the "explosive nose smile" from me. I'm not kidding--he seriously does it! I couldn't quite capture it on film, since it only lasts a second--this was the closest I could get:
Joey's doing just fine at night...he still usually wakes up once after about 6 hours, but occasionally he sleeps longer, and he even recently slept from 9 pm until 6:30 am! He can make such a sad face, though, that I'll never be able to let him "cry it out" if he doesn't soon get it on his own. So I'm hoping he'll really start sleeping through the night for good soon and it won't come to that. He still needs a little help falling asleep for naps and bedtime (we're working on that). This is what happened when I tried to let him rock himself to sleep:
Just kidding...I'd never let that cute little guy rock himself to sleep.


Now for Tommy: He's an extremely cute boy, but somehow I don't have an extremely cute picture of him at the moment, so here's a picture of his favorite toy instead:
Actually, there's a story behind this truck. An embarrassing one. Tommy's a pretty good talker. He says whole sentences now, and even told Auntie Becky "I love it" when she tried on a cute sweater with me at H&M last night. (He was just copying what I said, but she was still persuaded to buy it!) However, Tommy does have trouble with one sound--"tr." So "train" sounds like "fain," "trike" sounds like "fike," "truck" sounds like.... you get the idea! Well, we were at a McDonald's playland a couple of weeks ago, and Tommy was proudly carrying around a little toy fire truck, until a little 4 or 5-year old boy came up to me, with his arm around Tommy, and gently said, "Tell your mommy what you said." Poor Tommy was clueless, but I instantly figured out what had happened. So I interjected that he was only two and didn't quite know how to talk yet. I said, "He was just telling you about his fire truck. He was saying 'truck.'" The little boy was unconvinced, however, and still quite concerned. "But what I heard him say was..." he began. I cut him off and tried to explain again. Finally the little boy dejectly left us and went to tell his mommy. Needless to say, we didn't stay much longer. Sadly, there are quite a few trucks in our nursery classroom at church. Yikes.

Finally, an update about myself: I was so inspired by Jill's blog that I've started running! By "started running" I mean that yesterday morning I ran for 17 minutes. Woo hoo! I'm planning on running tonight too, and a few times a week from now on! I'm so excited!