Christmas with Brian. . .

The pretty new purse Brian sent me : )

Before we had Christmas with the rest of my family, we had Christmas "with" Brian. He was in port overseas (not sure if I'm allowed to say where he was) so we were able to Skype that morning. We opened stockings and a few presents "together." I'm very grateful that were able to talk that day, but it was really hard on all of us and there were lots of tears shed. Hopefully this will be the only Christmas that he'll miss because I don't think we could handle another one apart. JJ liked talking to Brian and really liked opening the presents that he sent.

Merry Christmas in San Diego!

Ready. . . Go!!!

Present opening is over!

This year we had Christmas in San Diego with Michael, Krista, Tristan, my mom, and dad. It was really fun to have everyone at our house and the kids, of course, loved opening presents. Every present that JJ helped open, he would say, "ooohhh" and get so excited! It was fun to have him more interested in present opening this year.

I thought that he might be one of those kids that just likes an empty box, but when I took my present out of a few boxes and would give them to him, he just kept looking in the box like "where did the good stuff go" and got really confused. I think he actually does like "real" gifts : ) He got lots of great presents but his favorite present of the day. . . the head off a penguin cocktail shaker that Katie got me!

Uh oh. . .

JJ and Ashley - sooo cute : )

The fit JJ threw when they left : (

Hand-me-down present from Ashley - building blocks!

When we were in Palm Springs last month, my good friend Lindsey taught JJ to say "uh oh" and now he says it all the time! I keep explaining to him that if you intentionally throw food on the ground, you can't say "uh oh" because it was an intentional act, not a mistake!

Last night, I think he had a growth spurt for 2 reasons, first because he woke up a million times crying and screaming, and second because he could reach a Christmas ornament that is higher up than he used to be able to reach! This afternoon, he pulled off the tree one of my favorite ornaments, the little snowman sailor bell - "uh oh"!!!!

JJ and I went to church this morning and he did great again in the nursery. Then, Chris, Renee, and Ashley came down to spend the day. The kids played great together and Ashley wore him out enough for a 45 minute afternoon nap! It's always fun to watch the kids play together and it was especially nice having them here since Chris cleaned the kitchen and Renee cleaned the living room!!! I love having great helpful friends : )

Weekly Recap. . .

It was about 80 degrees on Monday, so JJ wanted to dress like Brian : )

Notice how wet the shirt is!!!

JJ had his 15 month check-up on Monday. The doctor said that he looks great and that I answered all the "milestone" questions "correctly"! He threw a tantrum during his appointment because I took away the raisins that he was dumping all over the floor. He started yelling and rolling around on the ground, but not even real tears, so the doctor was not impressed! He said "I've seen way better than that"! At least he didn't think that either of us are too crazy or over-dramatic : )

Here are his new stats -

Height - 2'8.25" - 80th percentile

Weight - 25 pounds, 11 ounces - 65th percentile

Head Circumference - 49 cm - 91st percentile

Still a tall skinny bobble head!

JJ has been pretty funny about food lately. Yesterday evening, he was eating blueberries when I got a work phone call that I had to take. I put them up on the kitchen counter and went into the dining room to take the call and JJ started crying and screaming, but then after a few seconds it got really quiet, so I knew something was going on. . . I looked over at the counter and the blueberries were no longer there. . . I went around the corner into the kitchen and there was JJ, sitting on the ground surrounded by the blueberries that he had knocked off the counter and was eating off the ground! Why is he always eating food off the ground!?!?!!?

His other food that he has currently decided to "play" with is milk. He has been taking his sippy cup full of milk and either hitting it on the ground to make it leak all over, or he will put it upside down and try dumping it into a "real" cup and then drink it out of that. Maybe he thinks he's more advanced than he is : ) He has also been filling his mouth full of milk and then letting it slowly drip out onto his chin, shirt, and the ground (that's what caused the wet shirt in the picture above). I know I shouldn't cry over spilled milk, but it's organic and expensive!!! Maybe I should start buying some cheap milk that he can "play" with and the good organic milk for drinking only!

Every week, I realize just how much he really does soak in. My mom keeps pointing out that he's truly a little sponge. We pray at dinner and right before bed and he hasn't started bowing his head and folding his hands yet, but he has started saying "nmamen" at the end, so that's really cute.

I talk to him all the time and normally think that he understand more than he does, but maybe he understands more than I think, which is a little scary! Tonight, I was playing with him after dinner (pulled pork burritos thanks to Krista and he ate almost a whole one!) and I said his breath was stinky and we needed to brush his teeth. He then walked into the kitchen and got his tooth brush off the floor (isn't this where we all keep our toothbrushes?!!?) and handed it to me to put toothpaste on, which I did, and then he proceeded to brush his teeth! We are definitely into the stage that we all need to watch what we say and do around him!

Doing Better. . .

Tamale fixings : )

Finished tamales, yummy!

The "big" kids said JJ was allowed to play 1 key only!

New video from Brian which we both love. Note the pajamas : )

Reading with Oma : )

Trying to get ornaments! He points and says "no, no, no"

He unrolled a whole roll of toilet paper tonight while I was emailing Brian!

They're friends now, thanks to food!

JJ and I have had a great week and we are both doing better : ) Last weekend, we went to a tamale making party on Saturday at a friend's house from work. JJ had a great time playing with the other kids and eating lots of cookies! He was walking around with what I thought was the same cookie for quite awhile when we realized that the kids had a whole bag of cookies and had eaten 3/4 of the bag!!! JJ apparently had just kept going up and saying "more" all cutely and getting more cookies! He has learned from the best (Tristan) about how to get sweets : )

Then on Sunday, we ran some errands/Christmas shopping and then went to the grocery store. JJ was behaving until he tried eating a banana with the peal still on. I took the bananas away which he was really upset about until he got ahold of the mozzarella cheese in water which he reached in the cart. I was letting him hold that for a minute until he started to chew on the container, so I told him I was going to take it away. He did not like this, so he threw it on the ground and it exploded all over the aisle! Luckily that distracted him and he stopped screaming, but then we had to wait until the Trader Joe's employee came to clean up his mess. I officially became "that mom." You know, the one that you give a pity half smile to while secretly judging in your head! I now have that public tantrum throwing toddler! I will try and never judge another parent in public with a child that is acting out. I now know first hand how hard it is to keep kids happy in a grocery store!!!

Brian's mom was in town this last Tuesday through Saturday and JJ and I both really enjoyed having her here. They played outside every day and he worked on wearing her out by running all around all the time : ) She let me sleep in yesterday which was the best morning I've had in the last 51 days! We decorated the Christmas tree while she was here, since I couldn't reach around it to put the lights on. As you can see in the picture, the ornaments don't "start" until about 2/3 of the way up since JJ is so tall and just wants to pull all the ornaments off. I decided that instead of just saying "no, no, no" for the next few weeks, it was better to just put them where he can't reach them. He's getting smart though and finding other ways to get to them!

This morning, JJ and I went to church for the first time in awhile. It was great to be back and was nice for something to do on a Sunday morning : ) When we got there, I took him over to the nursery. As I was checking him in, the nursery attendant opened the door into the room and he just ran in! Her response, "oh wow"! It was his first time going in the nursery and he didn't even look back to see if I was still there! When I went to get him after the service, they said he did really well and played nicely with the other kids. I'm glad that he apparently only throws tantrums for me!

We've had a great week and are looking forward to my parents coming down for Christmas and New Year's. I think the key for both of our insanity is to keep busy and have things to look forward to. JJ doesn't understand all the "countdown calendars" that I have going, but it's fun for me to show him anyways : )

15 Months!

He loves walking around in his new reindeer slippers (his first advent gift of the month)!

The only Christmas decoration I would let JJ play with. . . until he tried eating the bells off of it; then he got really mad when I took it away!

New penguin cup : )

So I wasn't going to post today, but decided that writing might make me feel better and get into perspective, and it already has : ) JJ is now 15 months and my mom has always said, don't say "terrible two's" because then they'll live up to your pre-conceived notions, but. . . JJ has been pretty CRAZY lately and he's not even two yet!!!

We had a VERY hard time tonight from about 5:30 pm until 7:15 pm. Starting at 5:30, I/we started decorating for Christmas. For some reason, JJ didn't think it was that fun to watch me put out little trinkets that he wasn't allowed to play with! He especially was mad when I wouldn't let him play with the sheep in the Nativity set. I think I said, "that's not a toy" about 3 million times!!!

Then while I was making dinner, he wouldn't let me put him down because he wanted to see what I was doing. When I set him down, he would just stand there and cry and scream at me. At one point, I finally put him down and he went the cupboard that's "his" and found a plastic spoon which then he used to reach up onto the stove and tried to "help" me stir the tortellini! After snapping at him, we both ended up in tears : (

During dinner, he only wants to feed himself now. We both end up frustrated and tonight when he flung marinara sauce on me, we both ended up in tears again!!!

Luckily we ended the night both in a good mood reading on the couch with JJ being shirtless since it had to be taken off immediately after dinner since it was covered in food! I guess he's just "typical" but the ups and downs are sometimes hard to deal with by myself : (