Jones' muscles

Jones learned these moves from daddy (surprised?).

All play and no work

That's the best way to make time fly. 

If you have any other ideas, I'm game. 

8 months

This baby turned 8 months old today.  My goodness how fast the time has passed.  Greta is a mover and a climber, yet clingier than Jones ever was.  She LOVES to play with Jones and he actually gets bugged by how much she looks at him and touches him.  She babbles and shouts and laughs a lot.  She is a little joy.  

Greta has zero teeth and zero signs of getting any.  She isn't sleeping 12 hours at night like Jones was at her age, but I feel less anxiety about it.  I know she'll figure it out.  Greta doesn't love reading books like Jones did, she prefers to eat and attack them.  She pretty much attacks everything, including my neck, face and arms with pinching, grabbing and scratching.  She just HAS TO be pinching something 24-7.  When she's not pinching me she is pulling herself up on all of the furniture and scratching at the upholstery.  Maybe I should invest in a scratching post.  :)

Scott and I are just crazy about her, more so than I thought we could be.  When you love one baby it's hard to foresee how you'll love another one just as much.  But Greta has a stronghold on our hearts and I hope we don't spoil her too much because of it.  Happy 8 months, baby girl.

Happy Thirtieth Birthday

Scott is spending the big three-zero in Haiti, which I guess might be exciting for him, but leaves me without the chance to really make him feel old and gray.  I'm notorious for belated gifts, so I'll use that as an excuse to thoroughly embarrass him when he gets home.  Until then, here's a picture of Scott from a road trip we took last Christmas.  This was taken at a freezing rest stop in Nevada.  A dull place, but he made it a lot of fun for Jones.  Scott is nothing if not a tremendous amount of fun.  I love you, Scott and I pray that you'll arrive home safe and sound...because it's been taking me an average of 60 minutes to put Jones to sleep for naps and bedtime (of course I had to bring the attention back to me for a moment ;) and if I don't get some relief you may return to one less child.  Love, The Wife.

 

It. Starts.

I am surprisingly peppy and energetic.  We are in day two of operation Scott Goes to Haiti and all is well.  Jones has asked where daddy is a couple times, but he doesn't understand the idea of him being gone.  We have had some challenges over the last few days, but I am determined to be relaxed and positive no matter the circumstances.  The babies are healthy, we have the help of friends and a refrigerator full of food.  We'll manage.

Day Two: Jones was in trouble for refusing to nap and this is how he dealt with the punishment.  Cheeky.

A fair enough replacement for Scott in the evenings.

A great way to start my day.

Close to zero degrees outside, a car that won't run and a Saturday with nothing to do?  Blurg.

She did start...eventually.

New skills.  If she isn't standing, she isn't happy.


And don't feel bad for Jones because he isn't in as many pictures as Greta.  The reason for this is totally unbiased and has nothing to do with Greta's overwhelming adorableness.  Jones just moves too fast.  At any given moment I can't even get the phone ready for a shot before he has bounced away. 
Now I'm off to watch TV in bed until I fall asleep.  I can never get to sleep well when Scott is away.  Thank goodness for reruns of The Office. 

Jones talks: part II (Rated PG-13)

(while wearing footie pajamas, sans diaper)

J: I hurt my penis! I zipped my own penis!

J:  Daddy yelled at me. 

Me: He did?

Dad: No I didn't. 

J: Stop doing dat. 

Dad: Doing what?

J: Just stop saying dat.

J: Want some bacon, dad? (holds out a piece of bacon)

Dad: No, thanks.

J: Try it! You could like it!

J: Mom, tell me a story. 

Me: You tell me a story. 

J: Once upon a time there was a dinosaur named Foogie.  He loved to paint. The end.

(while doing puzzles)

Me: Great job! Yay, Jones!

J: You is proud!

(While Scott has been in Haiti)

J:  Wait for second!  I see dad!  He is standing outside talking!

A real page turner

We spent this past week messing around, not doing anything special and waiting for daddy to finish his preliminary exams.  That about sums it up.  Oh, and I suppose I got in a lot of practice taking care of the kids solo in preparation for this week without Scott.  More on that to come.

 (babysitting baby Norah)

Jones talks

It's that time of the week again when I recap some of or favorite quotes from Jones.  Let's just dive right in.

1. Don't put my backpack on the carpet!  There could be germs there!

2.  (while Greta screams in her crib) Greta is sad!  Fix her!
3. A scary man is coming.  Run away!  (how does he know my deepest fears?)
4. (looking at the night sky) I see sparkles in the air.
5. Mom: Jones, what are you doing in the hallway? (suspicious silence)
    Jones: I not doing nuffing.
6. Mom: What letter is this?
    Jones: Hmmm..."M" for Mallory.

Spring in January

The past week in Madison has been unseasonably warm and we've done our best to take advantage of it.  We've been outside, out to eat and just out of the house. 

Greta feels confident enough in the weather to eat dinner completely naked without risking a chill.  Of course, it helped that she pooped all over everything she was wearing.  It didn't leave her with much of a choice.

We did quite a bit of grocery shopping around town and these two attracted a lot of elderly attention.  Maybe its because we shop in the early afternoon when all the grandpas and grandmas are out.  We've run into a few sharks who seem to follow us around the store just to talk and coo at the kids.  But we love grandmas and grandpas, so we let it slide.

Greta tried out the swings for the first time yesterday.  She didn't smile or react, they seemed to paralyze her emotionally.

When the day really warmed up we dressed down to our sweaters and enjoyed some sun.  Greta practiced her standing skills and I was quite impressed.

 

All in all we had a lovely week with no illnesses and no sleepless nights.  Let's pray we can keep this up while Scott is in Haiti.  Seriously, I'll be praying for it.

Before I forget

Jones has been coming up with some remarks that I have to record before I forget them.  I know I'm constantly posting boring mom stuff like this, but I can't help myself.  So here goes. 

- Jones: Daddy, you going to basketball?  You played already.  Dat's enough. ( I hear that, Jones)

- Mom: Jones, please eat your chicken.
  Jones: But it's hard to eat chicken.
  Dad: Yeah, it can be hard. 

- Jones: I have diarrhea.
  Mom: Yes, you do.  But not right now, right?
  Jones: I'm all clean.

- Jones: (crying) I'm SAAAAAD!!!
  Mom: Why are you sad?
  Jones: Because I'm SAAAAAAAAAD (sobbing)!!!

- Jones: (after watching The Wonder Years with dad) Dad, can we watch another 'Kevin show'? 

Around the house and out on a date

I think my son is going stir crazy with all this sickness and cold weather.  Here's the evidence.

1. Cross dressing

2. Torturing the baby

3.  Resisting love

 

Greta has mostly just been wigging out in general.  :)

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Scott and I are staying ahead of the cabin fever with a much needed date night 

(Sherlock Holmes, highly recommend it).

And some indoor exercise equipment will help to keep our minds fit as we work on our rock hard bods.

Sick as usual

As I mentioned below, Greta came down with a fever and ear infection on Christmas night. When that started to get better, Jones got diarrhea. And Scott had a stomach bug yesterday. That's how it goes around here. Below is a series I call, Baby with a Fever Won't Sleep by Herself.

We tried to have fun amidst the sickie blues.

Jones tried to make dad feel better yesterday by letting him hold Little Buzz.  He asked for Little Buzz then said, "Here dad, you hold him and it make you happy." Who knew he had such kindness in his little monster heart.

New Year's Eve consisted of exercise for mom and dad, followed by a make-your-own-pizza party and an ice cream party and bedtime at the usual time.  I know, we party hard.

(mom's jog is clocking in at 9 MPH...that can't be accurate)

Happy New Year to you and yours.  Love, us.

New Years Resolutions

We have none. Resolutions, that is. We want to lose weight, use our time more effectively, yada, yada, yada- but those don't count. We barely even celebrated the passing of 2011 and the coming of 2012. Does a bowl of ice cream count? Let's be honest, it was straight from the carton.

Anyway, although we didn't set exciting goals we've been keeping up with weight loss for the past couple of weeks. On fact we started the first Monday of 2012 with a trip to the Y. Long story short, we came home from a less than satisfactory workout cut short by a toddler who pooped down his pants and into his socks and a screaming baby.  Scott vowed we would never take them back to the Y again.  We'll see. 

So now both babies are sleeping and I'm here eating my post-workout health food and enjoying a little Murder She Wrote (don't judge me) before getting on with the chores of the day.  Here's to more workouts in the future and less pounds in the Christopherson household.  Oh, and thanks, Scott, for cleaning up Jones' mess.  What a husband. 

Hummus and carrots on a cool Hot Wheels plate.  That's how us moms do it.

The Christmas Season

We very much missed being with family this holiday season, but we had a wonderful Christmas with just the four of us. We started new traditions and made fun memories together. Here I am trying to type this nice post about Christmas, but every time I stop looking at Greta she whines at me. Come on, kid, give me two minutes to record your first Christmas on the world wide web. 

Anyway, here's our family room aglow with holiday spirit.   I will really miss our tree.

Most evenings were spent goofing around the family room with the "fireplace" roaring in the background.

And our days were so lazy that I was likely to still be wearing my pajamas at three in the afternoon. 

If we were lucky, Greta took long naps and Jones and I made (and modeled) crafts. 

Once dad finished acing every exam and paper thrown his way, we headed to the mall to subject ourselves to the torture of Christmas shopping. 

Greta got pumped about Christmas Eve.

Santa stopped by for a visit.  However, if you ask Jones if Santa came to his house he'll somberly reply, "Not yet."  Really, Jones?  You have a dozen new toys to prove otherwise.

On Christmas day, after waffles, bacon, presents (all of which I forgot to photograph) and playing, we gussied ourselves up for church where we sang beautiful Christmas hymns.  

A few hours later, we packed up and headed to Janesville to party with the Williams'.  Greta was all smile and naps on the way down, but wound up fighting with a fever for 3 days. 

Her disdain for our trip to the Janesville mall is clear.  She'd rather be lying on mom and crying for hours on end.

Jones' experience was quite different.  It was a 24-7 party with Henry.

We love the Williams family and hope they will welcome us back into their house again, despite two terrible Greta experiences in 2011.  Oh, did I mention the talent show we put on Christmas night?  The talents on display were mostly pathetic and embarrassing, but it was a delight.