Friday, January 27, 2012

20 Months Old

Jack is now 20 months old and becoming more and more of a little boy and less and less of a baby every day.
*He has a full mouth of teeth.  Many of his teeth came through at once, but he never seemed phased.

*He vocabulary is expanding all the time.  Some of the words we've heard recently include uh-oh, cheese (when taking a picture), duck, and bye-bye.

*He has developed a fascination with the stove.  He walks by and says "hot."

*He's now tall enough to open our kitchen drawers and reach doorknobs to close doors.  Unfortunately, he hasn't quite mastered opening doors, so quite often we find him crying in a room he's closed himself in.

*He continues to be a climber and occasionally gets himself into some unique jams.

*He is very good at going up and down the stairs by himself.

*He recently got his first solo ride on Sandy the pony at Meijer.  Normally, he shares a ride with Hannah, but the kind greeter gave the kids each a penny for their very own rides.  He was thrilled!

*He is so social.  He waves at EVERYBODY whenever we're out.

*Papa Cramer always asks the kids "All who want to do _____ (whatever), say I" and the kids all say I and raise their hands.  Jack is now into it too, and usually has his hand up and saying "Ah" before Hannah. 

*He is very good at following directions.  He's particularly good at fetching shoes and socks and usually even comes out with a matching pair!

*He has started trying to dress himself.  He's still got some practice to do before he's successful, but he's definitely trying to gain more independence.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Snow Day

After our warm weather days, the snow returned.  Yes, it is winter in West Michigan after all.
Hannah got in her fair share of playing outside in the snow while Jack stayed warm inside with me.

Now that Hannah is big enough to climb our hill by herself, Jason parked himself at the top as the sled director.

Winter Wonderland

A beautiful, snowy Saturday in West Michigan.

Breakfast

During Christmas break, the 4 of us enjoyed going out for breakfast.  In fact, we had such a nice time that we decided it's something that we should do once a month.
We slept in on Saturday morning and then took the kids to our favorite breakfast spot Cherie Inn.  The kids did great and the food was delicious as always.

This is definitely going to be a regular occurrence!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Daddy's helpers


Gardens

We had some unbelievably warm days in January this year.  Wanting to wear off some of the kids' energy on a Tuesday afternoon when Jason had class, I took the kids to Frederik Meijer Gardens.
The kids literally ran through the entire children's garden.

Caught sight of a beautiful cardinal, making me think of my friend Jill.


Can you believe that sad face??

There's our happy girl!

Of course, many trips back and forth through the children's gate was mandatory.

Oh Jack!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Hair Cuts

Hair cuts were long overdue for both kids, so I finally got them appointments.
I didn't really think about taking before and after pictures.  These were the best I had.

Definitely in need of some trimming up.

I just had to throw this one in :-)

Hannah went first and enjoyed the royal treatment, including a shampoo in the bowl and hair dry.

Jack did spectacular.  He sat perfectly the still the entire time!

The result - Jack now has a shaped up spike and Hannah has 3 or 4 less inches.  Love them both (the cuts and the kids)!!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Tired

What do you get when you play hard outside all afternoon and miss a nap?
One very tired boy!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Winter Warm-Up

So just after we got some snow, the weather warmed up.  We took advantage and got outside to play.

We've actually been having a very mild winter overall so far.

Hannah got her bike out, bur refused to ride it.  Unfortunately, I think a minor fall she had right after Christmas traumatized her a bit and now she's scared to try again.  We had the "try, try again" pep talk, so hopefully she'll get the courage to try again soon.

Kitchen Assistants

Hannah has been helping me in the kitchen for quite some time, but Jack has recently been very interested in helping out as well.
Making jam.

I was surprised by how serious he is about helping and how good he is at it.  He did a great job of putting cheese on our pizza.  I can't wait for them to do ALL of the cooking one day!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Snow!

We finally got enough snow to go out and play in!
We spent more time getting dressed than we did outside.

Jack just is not a snow guy.  The poor kid could only walk about 3 steps before falling face first into the snow.

Miserable.

Hannah, on the other hand, had a ball.  For the first time, she was able to make it all the way to the top of our hill with her sled and go down by herself.

Hello winter!

Happy New Year!

For the first time EVER, Jason and I went out for NYE.  We've had parties at our house and even gone to a wedding (not technically going out), but never gone out to a new year's party.  When our friends Brian and Kelli invited us to the party at Florentine's, we jumped at the chance!

We had a great time and so glad that we went!  (The kids had a fun weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Davis.  All was good!)