Jacob laughed when Caleb touched a battery* to Jacob's tongue (all half dozen times). When asked what it felt like, Jacob replied: Strawberries.The obligatory Christmas post. Christmas was a whirlwind. Santa came to our house on the night of Christmas Eve-eve because we had to hightail it out to Iowa early Christmas Eve morning to be with Caleb’s family. So we planned to wake up super early on the 24th to open presents. That proved not to be a problem as Jacob arrived in our room at 4:45 and was ready for the games to begin.
[Santa brought an F-150 for the boys. And I am almost certain Santa would be jealous to know that I don’t exceed this toy’s weight limit. Move over boys, Momma wants to drive!]
[Tradition alert: Santa wraps the presents he brings in paper that has pictures of Santa on it. Just the way it was when I was growing up. Love it.]
[Tradition alert: Look carefully at what Jacob is pulling out of his stocking. It’s an apple. Lame, yes. But it fills the toe of the stocking out quite nicely. And I hope that someday the boys will expect (and be incredibly unexcited by) the apple and orange in their stockings. Just as I was when I was little.]
[Mason with his new train. He was showered with trains this Christmas, and has officially added the word “choo choo” to his ever growing vocabulary.]
After the kids were done ripping open gifts Jacob had finished opening all the gifts, even Mason’s—who seemed incredibly bored with the whole process—it was time to welcome my family for a quick breakfast and second round of gift opening. As expected, Jacob could care less for the clothes he opened. Not as expected, Jacob announced halfway through that he didn’t want to open any more presents. He quickly got over that problem…
[Hitting the bottle when around relatives? Don’t judge. You know you understand the feeling. Unlucky for Mason, the lid never came off the beer bottle…]
[Jacob cheesin’ and Mason chillin’. The things these boys do best.]
[And now it’s time for presents. Man your stations. Papa, you are in charge of toy removal from boxes (seriously, why so much twine and plastic thingies?) and battery installation. Among the presents, Jacob got a backpack. Someday it won’t touch his ankles when he is standing upright!]
[Mason got his very own chair. It says his name. Which won’t mean anything to super possessive “mine, mine, mine” Jacob until he can read that it says Mason’s name.]
[And for Jacob, riding in the tractor was almost more exciting than any present he opened. Papa even let him drive. Perhaps a future in landscaping?]
[After Santa left, Jacob took over the job of divvying out toys to the good kids. In this picture, he is filling his “sleigh” with goodies. Papa didn’t get a toy because he pushed Mason. And Daddy didn’t get a toy because he doesn’t listen. But as expected, Grandma and I raked in the the loot!]
[This is how nap time happened. In the recliner. In the basement. In my arms. Because it seems that pack-and-plays aren’t good enough for my little prince. I even had to sleep with Mason in the guest bed at night because the little booger wouldn’t sleep solo. Not going to lie, I secretly enjoyed it.]
[The traditional family photo. Three out of four are smiling and no one is crying. I call it a success!]
My brother and his wife had this beautiful little girl, Averie Rae, this morning. It’s their first and my third (niece, that is. Seriously, someone please have a boy for mine to play in the mud with!) I love little babies. The sounds. The smells. The softness. And the fact that I can hand her over to Mom and Dad when she starts to fuss makes her all that much cuter!
My brother. Holding his DAUGHTER. Ahh! My little brother is a dad. Blows my mind! And he is holding his baby like a seasoned pro. Much more confident now than when he held Jacob for the first time almost exactly three years ago. Thank goodness!
And now he needs to find a second job to pay for all the loot!
Merry Christmas to all!
Opening up a new pair of jammies to wear to bed on Christmas Eve. I did it when I was growing up, and I am so excited to pass the tradition on to the boys. I know it’s not technically Christmas Eve tonight, but in our house, it is…
Mason is a sucker for a good cartoon. Stops him in his tracks. Every. Single. Time. Do I feel guilty about exposing my children to way too much TV each day? Not if it means a few minutes of peace and quiet. I’m selfish like that.
If our deductible wasn't met before this week, it should be now. This was our Monday:
6:45 a.m.: Jacob woke up calling for me saying that he couldn't move his legs. My reaction: Funny. Get up and get moving. We're running late. So he did, and hobbled around like an old man for the better part of the morning. I believed the limp since I am sure no three year old is good enough to pull off a consistent limp.
7:30 a.m.: Still limping, but we have things to do so we continued on our morning. I dropped him off at school, and notified his teacher to keep an eye on his knee (which he said was bothering him).
Noon: A quick phone call to school confirms that Jacob is fine. Still limping about but has no problems running around the playground, and isn't complaining of pain. Phew. Must have just slept funny. No problemo.
3:30 p.m.: Fast forward to post-nap time when Jacob absolutely refuses to stand up, let alone walk, and cried (seriously in pain) anytime I pulled on his leg. Time for intervention. A quick call to Daddy-o, and we are on our way to his clinic. (I knew having a physical therapist husband might come in handy some day!) Poor kid is in screaming, crying pain at the clinic (but still finds a way to turn off the waterworks and ask for candy and a cup of water... with ice), so we move on to a phone call to the pediatrician.
5:30 p.m.: Nurse at pediatrician offers fantastic (yes, that's sarcasm) advice: go to ER. I decide to instead wait it out and head home. I physically can't corral two kids in the hospital by myself. Jacob will just have to be bribed with Popsicles and suckers at home to keep his mind off the pain.
6:30 p.m.: Caleb leaves work 2 hours early and decides that the ER might be our best after-hours option. So off the boys go.
9:00 p.m.: The boys arrive back home with the diagnosis of transient toxic synovitis in the hip. (Yes, hip. Not the knee.) We are told to keep Jacob off his feet (which is proving to be impossible) and on a strict regimen of Motrin. He shows off the sparkly tape (band-aid) he got when they took blood, and heads off to bed. Side note: Jacob didn't flinch or cry when he had blood taken, which makes me wonder if something is wrong with the feeling in his arm...
It's been two days now, and Jacob is doing much better. Still hobbling around, but not complaining of pain. The limp adds character, and I'm sure he will be in fine form for Christmas. And the cause of this? Though we are not sure, we are relatively confident it started when Jacob was jumping off the third step on a flight of stairs into a pile of pillows. At least 100 times. Looks like we will be discouraging that activity in the future.
Sagging pants. Still fashionable? Maybe.
Mullet. Not so much. I think this picture confirmed that a hair cut is in order. Sigh.
Jacob loves music and even takes a music class at school. But, wow, his "music" just hurts the ol' ears. Yowzers!
Because it was free, and because 45 degree days in December need to be taken full advantage of, we headed to the zoo tonight for its light show. It was pretty. It was crowded. It was dark—which explains why it took us so long to notice that Mason kicked off one of his shoes, and why it took equally as long to backtrack and find it. Glad we went once. Probably won’t go again. Certainly not tradition-worthy.
[The lights went all around the pond and “danced” to the music. Pretty neat to see.]
[Mason in the “Swamp.” He had no interest in doing anything but wriggling free from our arms and running away. Fun for him. Not for us.]
[No trip to the zoo is complete without a ride on the carousel. Jacob loves it. And one day Mason will, too.]
Jacob’s birthday was a successful and very busy day. It went something like this:
[Good morning, Jacob. Open a gift. It’s a sweatshirt and some “comfy” pants. The reaction? Total disinterest. That’s OK. It was more for me than for him anyway!]
[What’s a party without balloons? Boring. Which is why we constructed a huge balloon swag across our kitchen. But the best part of this activity was when Papa was letting the air blow out of the balloons in Jacob’s face at very windy speeds. Note for next year: Use air compressor to inflate balloons so as to save family members from nearly passing out.]
[Birthday boy. In Birthday crown. With Birthday balloons.]
[Party started and now it’s time to open presents. We now have tons of new toys for the boys to fight over and throw at one another. Awesome.]
[Opening presents takes a long time to do when you are three and have to play with each toy after you open it!]
[Time for cake. It’s a dump truck full of boulders (cake balls). Delish! Oh, but be careful of the candles, Jacob, because the flames can potentially start your new clothes on fire (see last picture). Maybe this was a premeditated message to never waste his time with wrapped clothing gifts again. Luckily, no injuries and all candles were successfully blown out!]
[Then on to the hotel pool to continue our celebration]
[The next day was spent lounging around in our jammies. And, in some cases, with our glasses on…]
The best (and possibly the only good) part about having a December birthday? Seasonal houseguests get to share in the fun of turning another year older. Happy Birthday, dear Jacob!
We waited in line for the better part of 30 minutes for this. 
Awesome. But, seriously, I’m not complaining. I knew Mason was going to cry and Jacob’s smile was going to look more like he just got a huge whiff of something really rank, so this picture lives up to my expectations. But Santa is looking a bit more drunk and creepy than I would have liked. Either way it’s done. Cross it off the list. And, really, seeing Jacob’s face and feeling his reaction when Santa “arrived” was so incredibly magical. Makes me believe in the jolly fat man all over again!
This is the bulletin board in Jacob’s classroom. His turkey is on the bottom row in the middle (the non-abstract looking turkey). I don’t know if it’s sheer artistic talent that he has inherited from Mimi, or utter Type A obsessiveness that he has inherited from his parents that has led him to create (without any help) a turkey that looks like a turkey. Whatever it is is, I’m proud. And his teacher said that Jacob even delicately slid the turkey legs underneath the body after carefully placing a ribbon of glue on the legs. Amazing. Especially because “delicate” and “careful” would never be words I would use to describe my Jacob!
Peaceful coexistence. It' doesn’t happen often, folks. But I’ll take anything I can get!
Desperate enough to drop 30 bucks on an Elf on the Shelf as a pathetic attempt to get Jacob to listen to us. And, I'll be darned, so far it's working. Cole (the Elf) arrived this morning under our Christmas tree, and has been perched on our speaker stand for the day. He came with a book that Jacob has requested us to read several times. He seems very interested (almost fascinated) with the whole idea, and his behavior showed marked improvement. Big sigh! Jacob even said good night to Cole, wished him a safe trip to the North Pole, and asked him to say hello to Santa. If this whole gimmick works it will be a Christmas miracle!
