Time to Celebrate!

What a December it has been! As Christmas is upon us, and this blog entry has been in the works for the last few weeks, it is time to complete it!

John is growing into quite the little man these days. He keeps us busy by emptying the Ziploc bag drawer and pushing the laundry around the house to help "sort" it in various rooms! He is also quite the little charmer when he wants something! John has loved having the Christmas tree up in our living room and honestly, I think he's going to miss it when it's not up anymore! Every morning when we turn on the lights, John responds with a "Wow!" and then runs up to sniff it (it's a real tree). He has been great about not touching it, other than one tired night when he ran up and pulled some of the lights off the bottom of the tree. However, we weren't surprised, as it was followed by John running through the kitchen opening every drawer he could now reach and pulling out the towels, dishcloths, and baggies! I guess it's time to complete our level 2 of baby-proofing!

John continues to be a great eater as well! He has tried many new foods lately and loves deli ham and turkey, along with carrots, beans and peas! We are finally expanding our food interests! Many peas and beans have sat on his tray and been played with during dinner before they finally looked appealing one night to put in his mouth! Thankfully, he liked them and realized this was what those yummy vegetables looked like that he had enjoyed pureed for so long!

Here are a few pictures of John over the last month!

He's sporting the Johnnie football jersey! I see a future Johnnie before us!

John is loving dinnertime!

John thoroughly enjoys coloring, so we decided to get him his very own crayons and coloring book. Thankfully, they are washable crayons, since the first time he used them, he had a white onesie on, and enjoyed seeing all the colors he could draw on his tummy!

John is also obsessed with the phone and will walk around with his play phone to his ear and say "hello!" Every time our phone rings, he'll also answer with hello as he walks through the house. I decided to let him press the buttons and play on our actual phone, since I was right there. However, then he dialed someone. Game over!

One of John's favorite things is our dog, Daisy. He saw the movie, "Santa Buddies" advertised on TV and was thrilled, so we got the movie for him to enjoy. He carries it around with him and points to the puppies on the front. He was very excited the first time we watched a little of it.

John loves playing with his cookie jar and sorting the shapes!

He pours anything and everything!

Thanksgiving weekend we took some family pictures. Here is John being silly!

He loves the Christmas tree!

Helping sort the baggies...

When we were doing laundry one night, John climbed in the basket...with the clothes! I guess he remembered the ride he had in the basket a few weeks before!

This is the first time John fed himself with his spoon. He was enjoying his yogurt and didn't want mom and dad's help anymore! He had explored putting things on his spoon before, but hadn't made it to his mouth with anything. Such a big boy!
Enjoying a ride with Papa Bob!

John loves his new ball popper. The best part about it is that it blows his hair!

John putting the first ornament on our tree!

We were in silly mode one night before bed!

Graduation! On Dec. 18, Phil and I graduated together with our Master's degree. It was an extremely long and exhausting day, but one well-worth the wait!

On this night before Christmas eve, and with the snow whipping by the windows, we wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and safe travels! May you enjoy rest and relaxation!

New Foods Galore!

Over the last week, John has made great strides on eating new foods! He now enjoys real sweet potatoes, mac and cheese, and pasta with turkey and peas (that mom stuffed), but of course it had to have Parmesan cheese on it! However, it is our hope that we can slowly start taking the pasta away and just give him the little chunks of food once he gets acclimated to the taste. He also enjoys coconut cream pudding and cinnamon and honey goldfish! He LOVES making the fish swim across his tray and sometimes, he even makes them kiss!
I'm not sure where he learned that....

John is extremely mobile these days too and every time there is music on, he will dance! On Saturday, John went to the dance team clinic I had for my girls because Phil was sick with the crud. As soon as we arrived and John heard music, his feet started bouncing in his stroller. Once I let him out, he immediately ran to the center of the circle the girls were stretching in and started to dance for them. Such a performer!! He has a great sense of rhythm!! I see performing in his future.... or maybe football, soccer or baseball!

Last weekend, John "helped" us start to clear off his bookshelf so we could put his books in a basket to make them more accessible to him. He loves going to pull a book out and bring it to us to read it, but he makes us nervous now as he sometimes pulls up on the bookshelf to help him stand. He was completely enthralled with the brochure he was looking at with a baby on the front!

Our backyard has been taken over since Sept. 14 for a new road, retaining wall, and fence to go in on Hwy 284 behind our house. The parking spot for the big backhoe has been right outside our window, so John is mesmerized every time they are working. On Saturday morning, he sat for about 15 - 20 minutes and watched them dig and dump the dirt. It was priceless!!

Notice he's up on tippy toes trying to see better....

Once he had enough of watching them dig, he went off to his toys and had a mini dance party!

Last night, John was in giggle mode. Anything and everything made him giggle! Phil had put his hat on and he would giggle as he pulled it off. Of course, it then became a game! We quickly realized this was picture-worthy, so Phil grabbed the camera. I was in charge of placing the hat on John's head before he would pull it off, giggle and squeal with delight, turn around, run back to give it to me, and then turn and run away again as I tried to put the hat back on. It was great, but meant for an earlier bedtime! After 15 minutes of this new game, John was exhausted!

We hope you are enjoying your November so far! The warmer weather has been great, as we have been able to be outside and enjoy it, but the holiday season will soon be upon us! Phil and I are finishing our Graduate program and only have 6 weeks left! We can't wait for graduation on Dec. 18, but have to complete three projects in the next few weeks first. Knowing the end is near is certainly helping us "keep our eyes on the prize" as there are many things we would rather be doing than writing papers and completing projects! I realized this weekend that if we want our house to be decorated for the holidays, I may have to start now with the chaos December is going to bring as dance team gets into full swing, along with work, grad school and graduation. However, as I see it, who doesn't love the holidays and don't they always go by too quickly? Maybe the Singewald's will stretch out the fun this year. We'll see!!