Photos with Santa at Bass Pro Shops

I love how Oliver gets happier over the years, but little Jo is still pretty upset about seeing the jolly man in red. 

Last year, Jo requested her fox, which we hadn't brought with to the mall. The little fox puppet was in the car, so I handed her that. I'm still kind of disappointed the picture isn't of her with her beloved fox. Oh well! This year, they each brought their favorite stuffed friend with them. We went to Bass Pro Shops up in Northfield (Denver). They had free photos with Santa and free carousel rides. The kids had an excellent time. I think so many people had built up how great Bass Pro Shops is for the kiddos at Christmas that I expected something grand. It wasn't. It was simple and fun and free. 

Happy Third Birthday, Jo!

Our little Joanna Banana is 3. How did that happen?! Seriously, I just can't believe how big our kids are getting.

Jo is a little ball of sunshine. I think she should be a sitcom because she runs around and does hilarious things and often speaks in catch phrases. When I take a moment to stop and think of her, I always picture her with her messy bedhead that she has in the morning, reaching up with her pudgy little baby hand, and brushing the hair out of her eyes. She runs almost everywhere. She often thinks out loud, so we always know what she's going to do next. Also, she is extremely independent. I mean, sometimes I think the only problem she'll ever have in school is that she won't want to do whatever the group is doing because she'd rather do her own thing. She likes to sit in her room and play with her stuffed animals or sit and play with her dollhouse or sit with the iPad and play "Subway Surfer" or watch videos on YouTube (one of her favorites is a Russian cartoon called "Masha and the Bear" that is actually super fun to watch, and she also loves Peppa Pig). She loves being outside, but she usually wanders off to stomp through the flowers or play with rocks. She's aware what everyone else is doing and is socially aware, but she'd just rather do her thing.

She finished potty training back in May, so she was almost exactly 2-and-a-half. She loves singing songs; she sings dozens of songs and nursery rhymes. She memorizes books and videos. She loves dirt, rocks, leaves, and water. She likes monsters and lady bugs and trains, but she also likes princesses and queens. She's starting to like it when I do her hair. Mostly, she loves her stuffed fox.

Another big thing in Jo's life is that she's temporarily going to "preschool!" While I do my school practicum, Jo is going to the 2 year old room at school. The teachers say she doesn't talk much at all to them, but that she is so easy going and easy to care for. If they have room next semester, I might continue taking her for a couple hours once a week because I think it's good for her.

Now, as easy-going as she is, Joanna doesn't listen as well as her brother always has. If we tell her something, she'll try to just wait until she thinks we're not paying attention. If we ever catch her doing something she's not supposed to, she ducks her head and always says, "Sorry Mommy," or "Sorry Daddy," and then runs away. It's kind of funny. I'm pretty sure that she can get away with anything because she's just so adorable all the time. It's probably bad, but what is a parent to do?

Here's a collection of some of my favorite Jo-ments (Jo moments) over this past year:

Jo Turns Two!

My baby turned two! Because we've been so sick all week, her birthday photos and update are two days late. This is the story of Jo's life. Being the baby in the family, she has to go along with everything! She's very easy going and puts up being shuffled around when we head to all of Oliver's activities and classes. Joanna hasn't really taken classes herself yet. It seemed so important to get Oliver involved in classes as a little one, but that was because he got almost no socialization with other kids at home. Jo has Oliver. Sometimes, they are best friends. Other times, they aren't. Oliver likes to act as Jo's parent, and, sometimes, Jo just wants him to leave her alone.

Joanna is very talkative and verbal. There would be no possible way to try to keep track of how many words she speaks. Hundreds, if not thousands. She has been speaking in two-word phrases from about 18 months old, and she sings numerous songs like the ABCs and "Hickory Dickory Dock" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." It floors me how verbal she is.

She really, really loves music videos, just like Oliver did. She comes up to us all the time and asks for videos by name, "Monsters? Monster video?" or "Ernie? Elmo? Grover? Sesame Street?" We have to really work at limiting her screen time. Books work well to redirect her. Jo loves all of her Sesame Street books, but her favorite book is called, "Once Upon a Potty."

Speaking of potties, Jo is somewhat potty trained. During the day, at home, I keep her pants off, and she almost always does her business in the potty. She cheers for herself when she goes. She doesn't stay dry over nap time yet. I still have to put her in diapers when we go out. I think she associates having pants on with having a diaper because, if I put her pants on at home, she then has an accident. She toddles up to me and says, "Uh-oh, I had an accident." It's adorable.

Jo gets away with a lot because she's just so funny. She'll walk up to Oliver's bucket of pasta and throw it everywhere while yelling, "IT'S A MESS!" and all I can do is laugh. I feel like we're a lot easier on her than we were with Oliver, but she also lacks all the one-on-one time that Oliver got as a little one. I think that's a big part of the reason that she's not completely potty trained. We always have to go out and do something, and so we stick her in a diaper and head out.

Jo is still babied a lot and carried a lot. She loves to cuddle. One of her favorite ways of asking to cuddle is to walk up to one of us, lift her arms up, and coo, "Oooooh, baby girl!" I know I need to be better about encouraging her to head off on her own and play, but it's hard doing that, knowing she's my last little baby.

A funny trait about Jo is she's very organized. She enjoys putting stuff away, stacking things, and lining stuff up perfectly. She received blocks as a birthday gift from Grandma Judy and Grandpa Larry, and she spends probably an hour a day stacking them and lining them up.

I let my kids choose for themselves what kind of activities they like. For example, Oliver loves baking and all things electric (appliances, tools, etc). Joanna loves nature and spooky things. She loves dirt and rocks. Over Halloween, we got really into stuff like monsters, pumpkins, and spiders. She squeals with glee at a picture of a spider. In fact, when she plays with her foam letters, she gets them all right... but she calls the letter S a "spider." Currently, one of her favorite things to hold around the house is a package of Kraft Mac & Cheese with a picture of a monster on it (from the "Monsters University" movie). She was thrilled every time we went to the grocery store because they had banners of spiders hanging from the ceiling for Halloween.

Animal sounds are another favorite of Jo's. She enjoys picking up each of her stuffed animals and making their sound. The cutest is when she trumpets for the elephant. She's getting into some pretend play now, and she has her stuffed animals help eat her food, and sometimes they give her or each other kisses. As you can tell from the photos above, her fox is still her most beloved treasure. We found the fox after ordering a replacement a few months ago. She's very happy to have her friend with her, especially at nap time.

We still haven't even entertained the idea of switching her to a toddler bed. She's never tried to climb out of her crib, so we'll probably wait until we get relocated and acclimated to a permanent home.

At two years old, here are a list of Jo's likes and dislikes:

Likes
*Her stuffed animal, Box the Fox
*Her book, Once Upon a Potty, with Prudence
*Ernie (from Sesame Street)
*monsters
*pumpkins
*spiders
*rocks
*pine cones
*blocks
*Dad
*baths
*Mom
*Oliver
*helping Oliver push the button on the coffee grinder
*closing the garage door when Grandma Judy leaves in the morning
*getting a treat after she goes potty
*Thomas (the train)
*children's music videos
*seeing other babies around
*stickers
*stuffed animals
*dinosaurs
*candles (even the LED kind)

Dislikes
*Getting food on her hands
*Spilling water/milk on her clothes
*Being told, "No."
*When Oliver plays with her blocks
*Public toilets

Crafting with the Kids: Leaf & Wax Paper Lanterns

The kids and I decided to try out a fun project recommended in my MOMS Club newsletter this month. We made lanterns using leaves and wax paper!

                                                                               

The best part of the project was collecting leaves. We went out front and filled our jack-o-lantern bucket! Both kids really had fun doing this step, and we ended up with a whole lot of leaves.

Once we were finished collecting our leaves, we went inside. Oliver helped me sort through them, and we chose the best ones. I set up an ironing board and an iron (careful with little ones around!). Next, I laid out a sheet of wax paper. I couldn't figure out which side was waxed and which side wasn't. I tried to scratch each side, but I was stumped. Perhaps both sides of my wax paper were coated because that's what it seemed like to me! Anyway, the leaves I had were pretty big, so rather than folding the paper down in half, I just used two sheets and sandwiched the leaves inside. I set a dish towel on top and ironed the whole thing for a few minutes.

After that, I used some double-sided tape to stick the sides together, creating a tube. The kids placed some flameless LED candles inside, and--voila!--we had our lanterns.

Bonus video of the kids:
                                                         

Trick or Treat 2013!

Weeks ago, Oliver told me he wanted to be a washing machine for Halloween. I love a challenge! Joanna was nominated to be the dryer.

I knew I'd make the costumes out of boxes, but I went online for more ideas. There were a few photos of people dressed as washers & dryers, but no info on how to make them. From the photos, I took away the idea of covering the kids in clothes. In the end, I needed two boxes, a roll of wrapping paper (any kind, as long as the back is plain white), tape, modelling clay, a Sharpie, some plastic pie or round cake covers, glue, blue food coloring, miscellaneous small boxes/bottles, dryer sheets, ribbon, and clothes.

Andrew brought home two boxes from work. They were Starbucks boxes from the coffee they provide in the break room. They were the perfect size for our kids. The smaller the person, the smaller the box! I pulled open one flap on top to serve as the panel for the appliances. I completely cut off the bottom of the box, and then I cut a hole out of the top of each. I took random leftover wrapping paper and wrapped the appliances inside-out. Double-sided tape helped keep things looking nice.

I couldn't find any extra knobs at hardware stores and craft stores, so I finally made my own out of modelling clay. It took about 5 minutes to make the knobs at 15 minutes to bake them, so it really wasn't that hard nor time consuming. I used a Sharpie to write in details for the dials, like "hot, warm, cold." Other than the modelling clay and ribbon, the only thing I had to go out and buy were the plastic pie covers. The kind I got had a plastic bottom and top that locked together. I stuck clothes in one and hot-glued it to the front of the "dryer." For the washer, I mixed Elmer's glue and a drop of blue food coloring. I poured it into one of the pie covers about halfway up. I poured some glue on top of that to look like foam, but it dried mostly clear.

I purchased ribbon from the discount section of Michael's. I got some for $1! I poked 4 holes in the top of each costume around the opening, kind of like the corners of a square. I took the end of a ribbon and poked it through the top of one hole and knotted it a couple of times on the bottom. I strung the ribbon across diagonally to another corner hole, cut the ribbon to size (Oliver had to stand in his so I could measure it to fit), and then I stuck it in the hole and knotted it. I repeated it again the other way, so each costume had two pieces of ribbon that formed an X. Their body went into the front of the X, and each arm went through a side of the X.

If the costumes had been for adults, I could have gotten away with using a regular dryer-sheet box. Our costumes were small, so one wouldn't fit. I dug around for a random box that I could use (I ended up using a Tobasco box cut down to size). I printed out a Bounce logo on printer paper and wrapped it around the box. I stuck a dryer sheet coming out of it. Oliver had a random bottle for some toy, and I put a Tide logo on it. I hot-glued the items to the washer & dryer and called it good!

The weather forecast was cold, so the kids needed hats. I decided to loosely sew on some undies and socks to their hats. I also sewed a dryer sheet onto Jo's hat. It looked so funny and cute! I decided that Oliver needed something extra on his hat, too, so I sewed on some cotton balls to look like soap bubbles. My mom tinted some blue (using just a little blue food dye in a ziploc bag).

Here are the kids in their finished costumes, ready to trick-or-treat!

I thought Jo would hate wearing her costume, but she loved it! She toddled off from house to house, gathering candy. She probably walked a full quarter mile by herself!

They are so funny.

Oliver had the time of his life. He loved his costume, and he also loved everything about trick-or-treating. He enjoyed ringing the doorbells and saying trick-or-treat and, of course, getting candy. He couldn't stop smiling!

The best part is that Oliver could use them as toys when we got home! I cut the ribbon off and let him go to town.