Magic!

Wednesday Moment of Zen

Monday Matinee: Two and a Half Verucas

Chimpy and Sis singing "I Want It Now" from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with a special guest appearance by Jojo.

Super Winner Super Swimmer

Chimpy's ability in the pool is nearing her confidence.

Masterpiece Monday

Jojo reenacting a scene from The Shining.

Motivation, Chimpy Style

JoJo, Man of Mystery

What happens when you don't blog about your son for three months? He becomes a little man, that's what.

My happy, handsome son.

Sometime around Halloween Jojo's personality, comprehension and communication all shot through the roof. He's using signs now, asking for books, registering opinions (complaints) and has developed the inevitable boy passion for trucks.

Feeding himself?

No big deal.

Lemur attack?

I can handle it.

Merry-go-round?

Well, maybe just a little help.

His relationship with Chimpy is very typical (long moments of peace interrupted by sudden hair-pulling or toy-grabbing). It's obvious he loves his big sister, in this picture they were eating cupcakes when he spontaneously needed to give her a hug.

A perfect moment.

Here we are on our way to pick Chimpy up from preschool. The hand waving is his sign language for 'music.'



That's an update on our wonderful boy. I'd write more, but I often feel like I'm just getting to know him myself. I love this guy!

Jojo Signs

Continuing on the fast track to toddlerhood, Jojo took his first steps yesterday. In unrelated news he hit his head and needed an ice pack and a bit of quiet time. I missed catching his first steps on camera, but I did catch Jojo doing some sign language while recuperating.

Monday Matinee: Chimpy Translates

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 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:

Moo-ry Christmas

How We Celebrated

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

Monday Matinee: Hallowe'en Costume Preview

Monday Matinee

Thirsty Thursday

Thursday Theatre: Chatterbox Chimpy

Chimpy is talking a lot. She has been for a while, actually, but I've been careless about keeping my old camera (which can take video) handy. On this morning she had just created a game (Daddy, Where Are You?) and I was in arm's reach of the camera. This video doesn't have all that much of Chimpy's talking, but it shows her using rudimentary sentences and that has been a constant source of surprise. Chimpy can parrot anything Mama or I say, but what's most fun is when she puts the words she knows into little sentences: "Two-Tone sleep house" (Two-Tone is our neighbor's rarely-spotted but much sought after cat) and "No chicken. Burger!" (Chimpy has meal preferences now) for example.

The game ends at around the ten second mark so we fill the time with a little Indonesian lesson. We actually hadn't done that in a month or more so I was pleased to see she remembered her words:



Here's some more Daddy, Where Are You? from earlier that morning:

Monday Matinee: NAUGHTY!

She can say "Dada," she just prefers to aggravate her old man.