Our Christmas

(This was originally drafted as a Christmas Eve post, tying up the eleven and twelfth Days of Christmas with a bunch of pictures, but being busy with Christmas, rushing to get some house things done before the end of the year and enjoying the last days of K's maternity leave has kept me away from the blog. Our tree is down and our decorations are packed away so I know it's late. Still, here are some of our Christmas adventures. We hope you all had a good one.)


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A Visit from Unca Joe and Auntie Betsy
Chimpy and Jojo's Unca Joe and Auntie Betsy came down for an early Christmas. It was a short visit but Chimpy and Jojo both were ecstatic to get the extra attention. For their part, Unca Joe and Auntie Betsy were ecstatic to get some diaper changing practice. (Practice?! Well, whatever could I mean?)

Someone in this picture looks as though she's glowing!


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Christmas Tree Lane
We usually take an evening 'family walk.' Lately, we've been touring some decorated houses in our neighborhood. This one day, however, we made it out to "Christmas Tree Lane" and snapped these pictures.






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Seeing Santa

No tears this year, but Chimpy wasn't as pleased as this picture makes her out to be. She knows how to say "Cheese" then get the hell out of there.


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Our Christmas Party
Here are some great pictures of our Christmas party taken by our friend, Tom Story. Chimpy did great, only breaking into tears once because there were 'too many people.' After a small breather, she found her friends then spent the rest of the evening playing with them. Jojo had slept for a few hours straight before the party, putting himself and his hair in fine state for our guests.

Chimpy and friends.

Jojo regards our guests with interest. Of particular interest... blonde women!

The number of babies led one friend to comment, "This party brings new meaning to BYOB."


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Ladies and Gentlemen, the Amazing Chimpy
Though I had only read it to her about a dozen times before Christmas, Chimpy had managed to memorize The Night Before Christmas. She is able to recite it with only a little prompting, but she can't do it in one take without being distracted or interrupted by Jojo. We'll try to get a good video of it.


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Wii Love Christmas
Our family gift to ourselves was a Wii. Here is Chimpy and her Mii.




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A Visit With Uncle Jeff
Chimpy got to renew her love-hate relationship with her Uncle Jeff on Boxing Day. My brother loves kids, but his love manifests itself as a series of pokes, prods, pinches and presents. Uncle Jeff will grab Chimpy, poke her, ask her if she's a monkey, then give her a kiss while she's still trying to tell him, No, she's a little girl. A minute later he is holding her hand tenderly and letting her pick the jacket of her choice off the rack of the chichi kids' boutique downtown. The better gift, though, is that he has taught Chimpy how to deal with bullies. She stands her ground when Jeff goes too far, planting her feet and saying "NO!" When the day comes that a playground jerk calls her a name, she'll just look him up and down and say, "You're no Uncle Jeff."




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Merry Christmas from Lil' Chimpy Enterprises
See you next year!

This Just in!

Ford has rolled over by himself. Film at eleven.

(Note: there will be no film)

That's my boy.

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Ten

When Ford's a-laughing...

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Nine

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Eight

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Seven

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Six

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Five

Jojo proudly shows off...

five golden things
hand picked from the toybox by Chimpy.

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Four

As I don't expect to be able to get my hands on a partridge or a pear tree much less eleven lords, we're taking a less than literal approach to the Twelve Days of Christmas. These posts might take some figuring, but they do make some sense. For the record, that was "free bench pens" yesterday. Here's today's:

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Three

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Two

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Day One

Four Picture Friday: PhotoShop Fun

Multiple Chimp-osis

Jojo of the Jungle

No PhotoShoppery, just some cute outfits:

Inspector Kitty Cat teaching Brudder Bear how to roar.

Brudder Bear: Rrr...

The Mysterious Eyes of Jojo Connors

Chimpy's eye color was difficult to read, but as far as I can remember not as hard as Jojo's are. Some days his eyes look like they are brown like mine, other days they look like a dark blue. I'm not sure at what age Chimpy's eyes settled down to their permanent color but I feel Jojo will be keeping us guessing for a while.

Moo-ry Christmas

Happy Thanksgiving

We give thanks...

for airplane rides

for silver dollar pancakes

for cookies the size of your face

for cowboy blankets

for family!



*** SPECIAL BONUS THANKSGIVING PICTURE ***

"Don't give me that jive, turkey!"

Chimpy's New 'Do

Astute readers have noticed Chimpy's new hair style. After 2 years of trimming her bangs myself, we took Chimpy to my hair stylist (to make up for the loss of business now that I shave my head) for a proper cut. Though I missed her long wavy hair at first, the new hairdo is very cute and (like my shaved head) it's a snap to maintain.







That 'new haircut' feeling.


We hadn't realized how out of control Chimpy's hair was getting until we looked for some 'before' pictures:

Maybe one of these days they'll let me get a bob.

Life with Jojo

"Hello. This is my brother, Jojo."
"Hee!"

"Please excuse his hair."
"Ha!"

We took Jojo to my sister's last weekend. Now, if you had asked me two weeks ago how Jojo compared to Chimpy at his age, I would have said Jojo was a much more serious baby. If I had said that, I would have been proven wrong last weekend. That kid was off the hook, he skipped his nap and spent the time gooing and cooing, making eye contact, grabbing and mimicking. It made K and I feel bad because we suddenly realized how little attention we had been giving him. Just a couple hours of uninterrupted attention and the kid passes a month worth of milestones. We figure we'll go there again this weekend, maybe he'll pick up Spanish.

mimicking

smiling

attention grabbing



Jojo does tend to be a more serious kid, though. He doesn't fuss much, but when he does it is more of a yell than a cry and his demands are very specific. Smiles from him aren't exactly hard-won, but they are rarer than Chimpy's were. He loves his sister and reacts to Chimpy's presence with wide eyes and attempts at talking. When he fusses, she manages to calm him down, which is a strange thing because this comic pretty much sums up their relationship:

Peanuts. March 8, 1953.


The change in the weather has brought to mind that K's is in the last third of her maternity leave. Things are always bittersweet this time of year, but right now she's enjoying her days with her little man.

How We Celebrated

This was our practice victory dance. In reality, we ended up crying, laughing and running around the dining room cheering.

Our Civic Duty

Chimpy and Jojo went to our polling station to take part in the election. While Chimpy used her powers to show passersby how exercising your right to vote can make you glow with pride:



Jojo fixed them with his Reproachful Gaze to keep uninformed voters from making poor decisions:

Happy Hallowe'en!

A Fun Game

Remember this shirt? Every time you see Jojo wearing a hand-me-down, leave a comment. The first to spot Chimpy's old togs gets an autographed copy of Jojo's autobiography, Butterfly Jammies of the Damned: a Second-Born's Guide to Inappropriate Hand-Me-Downs.

Monday Matinee: Hallowe'en Costume Preview

New Looks

Jojo turned one month old and is getting more wakeful and focused.



Chimpy got a stylish new jacket from Uncle Jeff.



Daddy shaved his head.



Chimpy got wheels.

Chimpy Counts Cousins Completed: Collected All Five!

The big event these past two weeks was Chimpy completing her cousin collection with a visit from her cousin Jeff.


Jeff races at the Las Vegas Speedway, the coolness factor of which wasn't lost on Chimpy thanks to her picture book "Who Is Driving?"


Jeff was impressed by Chimpy's appetite and non-stop narratives, and by Jojo's just being Jojo.

"Another Connors man...

...finally, the pressure is off me."