West Coast Turkey

I think the best way to do this is chronologically. Since my last post will be first, I guess I should start the other way around, but I'll start at November so everyone can look at photos of Josie at the top of the page!

We had a really wonderful time in SF at Thanksgiving, although as usual, the stomach flu hit. No photos of that. I think I have three more digital rolls of photos on my computer at work, so I'll start with the ones here at home and fill in the rest later. Turns out, none involve Thanksgiving! Here's a smattering of photos from a trip to the park late in our trip:

Cousins visit down at the old boneless chicken farm:
Deep philosophies are discussed at the old watering hole:
Life's complex issues solved by a crispy creme donut:

Sisi and Uncle Brian celebrate birthdays, courtesy of another one of our extravagant and odd birthday cakes (see post from last June, Amanda's birthday, and post about Josie's birthday at the top) In this case, it took the form of a jelly-roll type yule log with almond bark icing and twig-like branches fashioned from cinnamon bark:
And Amanda and I got some time to go down into the city for a little while. Of course the one I used a flash fill to take had our eyes closed:

First of Many

OK, I'm not scared to post some photos. I'm taking advantage of my great new MacBook Pro to process and post photos that have been stacking up on my old computer for years now. (Thanks mom, dad, and of course Josie's mama!) Finally, enough horsepower to load web pages! Plus, although its Saturday night and very much 3 degrees F outside, I'm sitting in front of the fire with my feet up as I write this.

So I've got lots to cover. Thanksgiving in California, the first blizzard wave, Christmas in Ohio, more snow here, and of course, Josie-o's big birthday bash this morning. Looks like I'll be busy!

uncle brian

Uncle Brian sent a card for Christmas that plays music (Mel Torme singing White Christmas). Josie's been carrying it around all afternoon, opening it, letting it play its 60 seconds of music, then starting it over. I just asked her what she thought of it and she looked off sideways and said dreamily "it makes me think of Uncle Brian"

Uno & Dos

Josie loves to play games. Josh and Josie play games nearly every night while I'm putting Jasper to bed. We started with Cootie, which quickly grew old for Daddio, then moved on to the snail game, Monopoly Junior (a little too long and tedious, just like Monopoly Senior), Chutes and Ladders, then Beans (a card game with kidney-bean-counters), plus occasional games of go fish and war. On Friday Josie found Uno in the cabinet. We tried to explain that it's for seven year olds, and that she could play it when she's older. Well, we usually don't give in to tears, but this time we thought that we could simplify the rules a bit for her. I figured that with the direction of play reversing, the skips, having to match by color or number, saying Uno, etc, it would just be too complicated. By Sunday night Josie had beaten us fairly...twice.
As for Jasper, he's really into pretend. He loves the little animal figures that Josie got him for Christmas, and we all have fun setting them up and having them interact. He also whips things up in the play kitchen, making pouring noises, stirring, and microwaving things to eat at the little table. I've been surprised by this, but attributed it to the fact that that is what he sees going on with the Senior Chef in the little kitchen. This morning, though, I was amazed to see him giving Josie's doll Annie a drink of water after he had one himself. Then he kissed and hugged her. I know he didn't pick this one up from his sister :)
...oh, and I forgot one more sign: penguin

ice skating pictures to come....

more words

We went to the butterfly pavilion with Josie's little friend Amelie this morning and had a great time. Okay, so Josie was a little concerned about being eaten by the butterflies, but they all had fun running around in the giant greenhouse and watching the butterflies emerging from their cocoons. They also had an unnatural interest in the cockroach display, but I'm sure they'll grow out of it :) Jasper's favorite part was running around flapping his arms like butterfly wings. It was great.
In the meanwhile, I remembered a few more signs that I forgot. I'm sure that there are more, but:
turtle
no biting!
snake
banana
share (new yesterday!)
spider (new today!)
and the word balloon
were all left off the list

words and signs

Talking with my mom this morning, I realized that Jasper's been signing up a storm. This is thanks, in part at least, to Josie. She learns a sign, then drills him on it until he adds it to his repertoire...which he usually picks up after seeing it just once or twice. Thus far, he's got far more signs than words, but with the recent addition of "mine!" (something Josie didn't learn until at least 2) the words are catching up!

Words:
mama
dada
Jo!
dog
cat (also meows)
mooooo
boo (as in peek-a-)
choo-choo
roars like a lion (very deep and rumbly)
bye-bye
mi(ne)!
vroom (car)
boot
book
hat

Signs:
shakes head no/nods yes
waves, blows kisses goodbye
points
thank you
love
night-night/sleep
diaper
hat
dog
squirrel
duck/bird
horse
mouse
lion
bear
tiger
giraffe
elephant
rhino
monkey
fish
flower
hot
cold
ball
snowman
ornament
Santa
snow/rain
up
star
moon
light
airplane
egg
milk
more

Okay, I'm sure that there are more, and I'll add them once I think of them. At this point, I'm fairly certain that he already knows more signs that Josie did, and he's acquiring words at about the same pace as she did. I'm also surprised that he actually distinguishes between rhinocerouses and elephants, bears and dogs, etc. Like I said before, though, I think Josie's been a real help. Once he learns the 'shower' sign I think we're really done for. We'll all be prunes, since he could spend all day in there :)

We all enjoyed Christmas, snowstorms, travel, Santa, Christmas cookies (by the dozen), homemade ice cream, ornament making, present opening, family, and Charlie Brown. Yes, Charlie Brown. He may be fictional, he may be overwrought with the commercial nature of the holiday, but starting before Thanksgiving, and even in the new year we've been watching and grooving along with the Charlie Brown Christmas movie. We even went out in the blizzard to buy the last copy. Our first kid-movie purchase (followed closely by Curious George, which has Jasper doing the monkey sign nonstop, and dancing to the soundtrack in the kitchen).

More later, once we have pictures!

favorite books: Beatrix Potter, and Richard Scarry's "What Do People Do All Day?" for Josie; any book with animals that he can do the signs for would be Jasper's pick.
favorite music: Jingle Bells!
etc: dutch pancakes with lemon, oatmeal with blueberries (a perennial favorite!), and frozen fruit obtained surreptitiously from the bag in the freezer. Preferably one strawberry would be left on the floor to melt--and perhaps revisit later.

It came upon a midnight clear

Josie: "Come on, Baby Jesus, let's go in the kitchen!"
Mommy: "Josie-o, why do you keep calling Jasper 'Baby Jesus'?"
J: Because we're playing Baby Jesus. You guys are Mary and Joseph.
M: I see. That's cool.
J: But Joseph went to work, so it's just Mary here with Baby Jesus, and I'm the donkey.
M: The donkey, huh? That's interesting.
J: No...actually I'm the angel. (J exits stage right, singing "polly wolly doodle" at top volume)

November Jack-o-lanterns

Well, we've got a lot of pumpkin. Most are, admittedly, pie pumpkins, but we did real well growing them this year. Now if we could only grow some pies. But with all of the costume excitement, we didn't do so well on Jack O Lanterns. Josie carved one at a party, but it molded in 3 days!

Last night, Amanda carved a pie pumpkin. So of course, Josie and I had to do one too! I let Josie take a pen and draw the face, and then I faithfully cut out whatever she drew, with no artistic license, just exactly what she put. And this is what we got! I think it's museum quality. I continue to be overwhelmed by the amount of graphic skill and hand-eye coordination she just flaunts for an almost 4 year old.

...And the final doorbell...

Here's Josie and Monkeyboy at the final stop of the year Tuesday night at our neighbor's house. note Josie's jacket on under her costume, and the halloween socks she picked out herself. Jasper has learned the game, just put the shiny stuff in the bag, make sure I get as much as her. Nothing more realistic than a little, waddly toddly monkey who doesn't use his knees scuffling up the the door, looking up from between those dinnerplate ears, holding out his bag and going "ugh ugh!!"

Afterwards, while Jasper was going to bed, Josie and I had a long heart to heart about what it is a flower fairy actually does. We decided together that her job was to take care of the flowers, put them to bed in the fall and wake them up in the spring. Needless to say, at 8:30 on a freezing halloween evening (aren't they always freezing?) Josie and I were out shivering around the yard, putting imaginary blankets on each and every flower in each and every garden. And believe me, I planted a lot of flowers this year!

Hallowhirlwindy!

Mama really pulled out all the stops with the costumes this year. I am proud to report that Josie was one of only two kids at preschool with a homemade costume, and hers clearly looks professional, as the pictures show. Hopefully she (and Jaspie) will get lots of additional use out of them after all the effort Amanda put into them! I'm thinking we will need an organ grinder monkey at both Thanksgiving and Christmas if we can just get him on the plane!

Without further ado, here is our first (of four) trick-or-treating outings this year:

Just moments after finishing the costumes, we are studiously accessing the street:


Josie really starts to enjoy it:

Meanwhile, the other child can only be described as "grumpy monkey":

Afterwards, we reviewed the afternoon at a nearby restaurant. A classic Josie triptych:



Meanwhile, my primate of a son just kicked back with a cold milk: