Halfway to "All I Want For Christmas..."

November 2012

Spider Monkey Rides a Bike

Did you see that?!  Our little 3-year-old has started riding a bike.  June 2012

Headstand A to J

Here is our Spider Monkey proudly doing a headstand.

The Eagle

Here is Orion's recitation of The Eagle by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

The Night Before Christmas

The boys have been memorizing The Night Before Christmas for our annual hot chocolate recitation on Christmas Eve. December 2011

Jules's Newest Trick

Jules is my circus boy in training. December 2011

Jules Gets Dizzy

Jules learns the finer points of fundamental physics by adhering to the law of conservation of angular momentum... and he doesn't throw up... December 2011

Great Wolf Lodge

We need some more of Orion, so here is one of him at an indoor water park. February 2011

Another Dive

I can't help it. His dives are so cute I just have to post another one. September 2011

Cold Water

This was one of our last days of swimming this summer. It was too cold for me to get in, and I had to trick the boys into jumping in with a game. September 2011

Jules Climbing

Our little climber is still at it. Here he gets himself a drink of water. August 2011

Jules Diving

Jules is a little dolphin. He started swimming this summer just a few months before his third birthday. July 2011

Steps

Here is Jules conquering the steps at a gorge near Aunt Melissa's house. I don't know what happened with the color. June 2011

Winter Solstice

We got out our telescope today to view the skies as a way to celebrate the winter solstice. We viewed some stars, Jupiter and some of its moons, and our moon.

Earthquake

I experienced my first eathquake last night. I first thought something had crashed into the house. Then I thought earthquake? Looking at the news today confirmed my suspicions. Here is a link to the article. It was a 2.6 on the Richter scale.

Uniquely U

A local photography studio was doing a food drive on Halloween: free photos of the kids in costume if you bring in a canned good. You can see (and order) the photos at the Uniquely U Photography site. (Click on 'Continue' and it should go to the right photos.) One photo is Sam Gribley from My Side of the Mountain, one is Jules, and one is Sam with a Garden Gnome. Kudos to Melissa, who was the only one to guess who they were dressed as. She emailed me that Orion was the kid from the book he was reading and that Jules was one of the seven dwarfs. Not bad guesses, eh? The photos will only be at the Uniquely U site until December 17, so go see them fast.

Happy Halloween!

Anyone care to guess what the kids were for Halloween this year?

Jules Turns One!

Time just flew by and now our baby is one. (Actually it's taken so long for me to post this, that now he is thirteen months old.) Here are some birthday photos. He was sick on his birthday, so we celebrated a few days later, but the reminiscing started a day early. We recreated the feast that put me into labor. As I got into bed I announced with tears in my eyes, this time last year my water was breaking. A week later when Isaac and I just celebrated our sixth year anniversary and we both agreed that Jules's splashy birth has been our fondest memory so far.

Spider Monkey

Here is Jules, aka Spider Monkey.

He started his climbing career with stairs when he was 8 months old.

Then he moved up to climbing the slide of the kangaroo climber when he was 9 months old.

Ten months old: Without the toy in its place, Spider Monkey would get to the wires behind the sub-woofer. With the toy there he would climb on top. It was a win-win situation for Spider Monkey.

Now he wanted to get onto the bouncer. Perhaps the slide would do the trick.

No, but this will work!

He kept getting to the wires under this end-table, so we surrounded it with toys. Well, we were just asking for it. There are many more goodies on top of the table. We now have it surrounded with a fence. He hasn't conquered it yet.

Here he is at eleven months. I can no longer leave the nursing stool in front of the glider chair.

This is okay, right? He's almost sitting and it is a kiddie chair.

There he goes again!

Godzilla!

He'd been getting into a box of tissues, so they got put on top of the couch. Notice they are not there anymore.

Sometimes you just need a few more inches.

I now have this room barricaded.

That garbage can has now found a new home.

Lately Orion has been asking me to tell him stories. Tales of Tie-dye Boy and Spider Monkey are now in the works. When Jules isn't climbing he is either chewing on something or working on walking. He has been trying to walk since he turned 10 months. He can go about 10 feet now, but is being hindered by a few things. First of all he is pigeon toed and has a hard time not tripping himself. Second, he crawls lightening fast, so walking just slows him down. And third, he would much rather be climbing!

Fishing

Just a lazy day fishing on the carpet-front

No bites here

Oooh, there's a big Jules fish!

He takes the bait

Reeling him in

He's a keeper!