slices of life, vol. 5

Several months ago I put some crackers out on the ottoman for Jonah. When I wasn't looking, Deac put his front paws up on the ottoman and started eating them. I said, “No Deac. Gross!” Jonah started yelling at Deac, going “Deac. Gwoss!” “Gwoss Deac.” I cleaned up the dog eaten crackers and put new crackers out for Jonah. I turned away and when I turned back Jonah was knocking them off one by one while Deac ate them off the floor. As Jonah fed them to Deac he was saying, “18, 15, 20, Good job!”

Matt was singing and Jonah said, “No, Daddy. No sing!” I got on to him for being rude to Daddy and explained that he could sing if he wanted to. Then I made Jonah apologize. Ever since, when Matt or I sing and he doesn’t want us to, he just starts saying, over and over again, “I sorry, Mommy/Daddy. I sorry. I sorry.”

I was unintentionally ignoring Jonah the other day, thinking about something else. Becoming increasingly frustrated, Jonah says, “Mom! Mom! Mom! Bitrice!”

Jonah: Hey Mom. How you?
Me: I’m great, Jonah. How are you?

Jonah: GRAPES!

Nativity Updates:

12/2 We just read the Christmas story from Luke 2 out of Jonah's "Jesus Storybook Bible." We then got out his Little People nativity set and tried to act out the story. First he tried to put "Baby J" up on top of the stable where the angel goes, sang Rock a Bye Baby to him, and one of the wise men and then angel Gabriel himself broke out into an adorable rendition of "Itsy Bitsy Spider." Also, Gabriel makes a growling sort of airplane sound when he flies. Just FYI.

12/3 The Nativity Scene lasted less than 24 hours. Man down! (Well, actually it's woman down. The Virgin Mary is MIA.)

12/8 We found the Virgin Mary today!!! (cues Hallelujah chorus)

12/11 Joseph made out with a Wise Man and Mary, who he thinks has a towel on her head, has gone to "dry hair."

12/15 After picking up the donkey and kissing him on the nose 10-12 times, Jonah exclaims, "I KISS A DONKEY!"

Jonah, playing basketball on his little hoop, “I dunkening!”

Background: When Jonah has bad boos boos and open wounds, I always tell him I'll put a patch (an extra bandage layer with Polysporin and Desitin on it) and it will make it feel better.

Aunt Sarah brought her rather large dog, Charlie, for a visit over Christmas break. We gated him and Deac in my bedroom and Charlie started whining.

Jonah: Chahlie crying. Don’t woowy, Chahlie. I give you a patch.

Jonah, petting a very sleepy Charlie: Good night, Chahlie! Sleep types.

When eating Christmas dinner with my mom and sisters, Jonah was practicing coughing into his arm. He finally did it right and we all clapped. Jonah looks up, smiles, and says, “Thank you errybody.”

long day

Today was a long but good day overall. My youngest sister, Shaina, has had a cyst in her throat for a couple years (although it only came back a few months ago) that she had to have surgery to remove today. She was intubated and the surgery lasted over an hour and a half, but things seem to have gone well. Thankfully it was an outpatient procedure, so after several hours in a room, she was able to come home.

She's tired, weak, and in some pain, but drugs are good, and we think she's going to make it!

I got to the hospital around 9:30 with Jonah (got up at 5:30 to shower, got him up at 6:15 to do new wraps and breakfast tube feed) and spent the whole day (until 3:30) chasing an almost three year old around busy waiting rooms. That's not true. I did take a 45 minute break to tube feed him in his stroller (that was sarcasm). He did well, but was FULL THROTTLE and never would settle down to watch shows or read books. Finally, at 3:30 he had reached his limit and we had to leave because he was being too loud and I felt like Shaina couldn't rest with us there. He was asleep in the car by 3:43. We got home a little after 4:00 and I let the car idle for almost an hour and a half, while we both slept in the driveway. Worn. Plum. Out.

Needless to say, I didn't want to cook dinner, so after Matt suggested frozen pizza, I suggested chinese food delivered. Because frankly, the walking to the basement freezer to get the pizza, getting out a pizza pan, preheating the oven, sticking it in, cutting it, and cleaning the pan were just too much. I told Matt that carbs delivered were the perfect fix to a long day. (And let me state here that I would never ever ever abandon my first love of Mexican food as my preferred carb loading sustenance, but alas, they do not deliver.)

Thankful Shaina is okay, and also thankful to have gotten to spend my Mom's entire birthday with her, even if it was in a hospital. Happy Birthday Mom/Nana! We love you!

christmas morning

It worked out this year for us to have Christmas morning at home, so we had a slow, lazy day that was pretty perfect. Jonah's reaction to his train table was priceless and something I'll never forget.

"CHOO CHOO!"

And just in case you missed it the first time. Priceless.


He was not at all interested in his stocking after discovering the train table, so that had to wait until we sat him down for breakfast.

After a lazy day at home, Mom, Sarah, and Shaina came over that night for a dinner of steak, baked potatoes, roasted green beans, and sauteed mushrooms and onions. It was a good day. :)

christmas eve at mom's

After we finished "new wraps" on Saturday morning, we headed over to my mom's house for Christmas Eve goodness.

After our delicious lunch, I wanted to read the kids the story of Jesus birth from Jonah's "Jesus Storybook Bible." I only include this photo to show you how much Jonah liked that idea. He went to the toy room and never looked back. Oh well. He let me read it to him that night.

Asher and Ainsley, my brother's kids, were super into it though.

If you don't have the "Jesus Storybook Bible," you need to go buy it RIGHT NOW. It is so so good.

Afterwards, we had some "Happy Birthday Jesus" carrot cake. Bought from scratch. Maybe I'll make my own next year. Maybe not.

Jonah being his sweet, cooperative, involved self. Ahem.

Waiting to open presents, playing with the train at Nana's house.

I was really excited about this gift for Mom.

A canvas of the four kids from our camping trip over the summer.

Jonah got lots of fun goodies. 

We ate leftovers at Mom's for dinner and then headed home to set out cookies for Santa...

... and let Jonah open the couple gifts we had for him (two books and a Hallmark red caboose ornament). We had to save his new PJs for the morning, since he always wakes up soaking wet.

Little Red Caboose lasted about 15 minutes on the tree before Jonah decided he needed to take it up to bed with him.

Santa spent a LONG TIME later that night putting together train track. He and Mrs. Claus are not very spatial people, it would seem. Anyway, it was so worth it to see his amazing Christmas morning response. I just want to bottle this age up and keep it forever. I love the wonder and innocence. 

christmas at dad's

Around here, we don't ever have one day of Christmas. I like to think of it as more of a week long Christmas extravaganza. We had our first Christmas at my dad's on the 23rd, were at Mom's on the 24th, and had Santa on the 25th at our house (with Mom and sisters for steak dinner). Matt's folks arrive on the 29th and we'll have Christmas with them, and then another Christmas with Matt's grandparents and Aunt Melanie on the 30th. Yep, we like to stretch it out for as long as possible.

You know what that means. An inordinate number of Christmas photos. Please bear with me.

Without further ado, I present to you, Christmas at my Dad's.

She's up to something...

Nothing like jumping on Pop's belly right after a huge lunch.

Seeing my Paw Paw love on his great grandkids is about as good as it gets.

Sharing an orange (or six).

We weren't planning on putting Jonah down for a nap, but he woke up with a cold Friday morning, and decided he'd just put himself to sleep.

Sarah and her dog, Charlie. (Or Chahlie, as Jonah says.) One of the sweetest and most obedient dogs in history. Until he gets hold of a dog toy, and then he's ruthless. It's rather alarming, actually.

Opening gifts.

Um...

Jonah apparently decided to share his cold with Daddy and me for Christmas, so we're all a little snotty and tired around here today. Just trying to take it easy and rest. I don't mind it (the resting part, I mean. I could do without the cold).

Hope  you all had a very merry Christmas!