Monday, February 16, 2009

Catching Up, 3 Months Worth

It's been too long since I posted...but you know how it goes...the longer you put something off, the more it piles up and the harder it is to get it done. The holidays were busy and in truth, for this family they start in mid October and don't end till New Years. They're over now though and it's time to fill you in on what's been going on.



Jarrett and Cara helping with the leaves.

A little break from the leaves.

A pic from our time in gymnastics.



Jarrett was practicing his different "face emotions". This was sad.

Worried.

Happy.

Mad. Around this time he started asking us all "you happy?" "You sad?" and so on. It was kind of funny at first, then started giving me a complex, and then flat out got on my nerves. We finally had to just put a ban on it.

The breakfast birthday gift.

The real party.

Not long after we gave J this shirt for his birthday he started blaming everything on Cara. We ask "Jarrett, did you take the book off the table?" He says "No, it was Gigi Cuh-wuh." Or, we ask "Jarrett, did you toot-toot?" and again, "No, it was Gigi Cuh-wuh." I think that shirt may have been an omen.


Jarrett wanted to go to the zoo for his birthday. Holy Cow it was cold!



Treats from the zoo gift shop. I don't know if Cara really wanted a tiger, but Jarrett told her she did and she was set on it after that.

Jarrett and Daddy had a good time with his birthday Legos.

This has nothing to do with anything but this fella hangs out in our backyard from time to time and I just think he is beautiful.

Jarrett's Greendad sent him this moustache for his birthday. Greendad wears one himself and J is fascinated with it. In fact, in our family version of The Wheels on the Bus, J sings "the Greendad on the bus says 'grow a moustache'.

Of course Cara had to give it a try.

J's preschool had the cutest holiday program. It was too funny...Jarrett spent the previous month practicing his songs all the time at home and the work they did on it sort of turned a leaf for him in terms of loving music and wanting to sing. However, when it came time to for the actual program, he got shy and spent a good amount of the time with his hand in his mouth. (which is actually an improvement over last years finger in the nose) Now, there was another little girl there (not pictured) who sang it ALL...every word of every song but one. And she never missed a line. She was maybe 4, completely off key... and amazing. The little girl to the left of J is our friend Linda. She is actually closer to Cara's age but has a brother Oscar that is Jarrett's age and good buddy.


J looks to be consulting his list before talking to Santa.

We had a Christmas party at the house one day for some of Jarrett and Cara's friends. The kids made ornaments and decorated cookies. Our friend Samantha (Oscar and Linda's mommy) brought delicious pizza from her restaurant. A good time was had by all!



Christmas stockings.

What Santa left in the playroom.

Pandemonium at the tree.

Truly needs no explanation.

We felt like we were living The Christmas Story...this is a picture of our Christmas night dinner...Chinese takeout. All we were missing was the Bumpass' dogs. You wouldn't believe how busy that place was. Took forever to get our food but was worth the wait since I didn't take the turkey out of the freezer soon enough and it was still raw inside at 8 pm. Well, any of you that have had a holiday meal with me know that it wasn't that far from "per usual".


The Day-After-Christmas meal.

Riding a ferry from West New York, NJ to NYC. The kids loved the ferry ride.



The tree at Rockefeller Center.
We had a great time in NYC...loved the ferry, walking around, and really loved the tree. We ventured to Times Square and it was crazy...I don't know what we were thinking, going there during the holidays. Jim was pushing Cara in the stroller and someone actually fell on it. I was holding Jarrett's hand so tight he kept telling me that it was hurting him, but I was terrified that if I lost hold of his hand I would actually loose him and all I could think about was that he wouldn't really be able to tell anyone what his name was.
Jarrett learned to make a snow angel.



I am not kidding when I tell you that this kid actually came upstairs that morning and said "Argggh". Where does she get this stuff?

Samantha and I took the kids to see Bob the Builder. If you know how I feel about Bob the Builder you get what a testament of my love this was.



Okay, admittedly, Chinese take-out makes for kind of a lame Chinese New Year celebration. I vow to do better next year. The local FCC (Families with Chinese Children) which is not very active, is planning something for late March and we are going to try to go.



Jarrett is playing "Fundamental Fours" basketball. He really likes it and these photos are from their first "game".