Friday, December 30, 2011

Read! Books!

Eli has a large vocab and strings words together to make sentences, but his punctuation is a little off... it sounds like every single word has an exclamation point.  Pretty funny to listen to :)  That's not what this post is about, though.

My mom brought up an oooolllllllld doll of mine, Oopsy Daisy (classic!), for Caroline, but Eli has attached himself to her.  He gets the wipes to wipe her bum, puts a diaper on her, puts her in time-out, and has started reading books to her.  We dressed her in Caroline's newborn Christmas outfit - what a cutie! I can't believe they're roughly the same size, or that God entrusts us with babies the size of play dolls. 

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Pasketti

She may have a future as a clown with that face, but probably not a food conniseure.  She'll eat just about everything by shoving it in her face.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Differences

I don't need to state the obvious (but I will): boys and girls are SO DIFFERENT!  My own personal examples:

Caroline is emotional.  If you tell her "no," even nicely, she WAILS and wails and wails.  Sounds like me!  Any criticism, even in the form of constructive criticism, wounds my spirit.  This week she also said her first word!  While holding the remote up for a phone she distrinctly said "he-yo!"

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Eli is a man's man.  If you tell HIM "no" he looks straight at you and farts.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Belated




3 December birthdays are a bit much, so long ago we decided to celebrate Caroline's birthday in the summer, which we did.  That should SOMEWHAT excuse me from the fact that we were an entire week late in actually celebrating her VERY FIRST BIRTHDAY.  Whoops!  Joe's parents were in town on her actual day, so we had dinner at his grandma's but kids fell asleep on the way home, and that seemed to be how every night went after that!  We were going to celebrate, but Joe got home late.  Or I had to leave early.  Or Caroline took a short nap and went to bed at 5:00.  Or SOMETHING.  So finally, last Friday (cousin Will's birthday, in fact), we busted out the mini car-cakes and opened gifts from Joe's parents (which we should have opened while they were here, I know I know I KNOW!).  The cake molds are soooo cute, but you really need to decorate them.  I definitely didn't, so you can't see quite how cute that truck was.  She demolished it instead of eating it anyway.  We'll celebrate her 2nd birthday in July, so I'll be on top of it then :)

Monday, December 26, 2011

Merry Merry Merry

How was your Christmas?

Ours was very, very merry, thanks for asking!

We actually got off to a rough start, now that you mention it... Christmas eve day I worked 10-3, then Patrick had a fever toward bedtime.  He woke up crying a few times in the night so I finally ended up "sleeping" (HA!) with him until Christmas morning.  First thing, he threw up.  I'm thinking THAT'S an activity I'd like to avoid turning into a Christmas tradition!  So once he got cleaned up we all went downstairs, and his feverish lethargy continued until the Advil and Ginger Ale kicked in, when he finally agreed to open presents.  Like these snakes.


I know it was the fever talking, but who doesn't even want to open presents?! Well, Eli did, for one! It took nearly 4 hours to open gifts because each had to be thoroughly played with first. 

The morning continued as previously planned, gifts opened and cinnamon rolls eaten and all that jazz, and it was really very nice.  We missed church (sick), but we got naps (tired!).  We missed great-grandma visiting (sick), but we caught Santa (believe!).  We missed going outside on such a mild day (sick), but put mileage on the hippity-hops indoors (not TOO sick).

And we missed seeing all of you, but got extra meds to help Patrick feel better so we can see you soon!  Also, don't you just love Caroline's Santa suit?

Monday, December 19, 2011

Santa

We meant to bring Patrick's letter with us to the ward party to give to Santa, just to wrap up that little piece of perfection, but forgot.  Luckily Patrick's mind is a steel trap and he wasn't flustered at all the tell Santa he wants a dinosaur... and a police car.  Where did the car come from? He never plays with cars. He's not gettin' one.


Eli was pretty shy, as he usually is around strangers.  Before going to the party I even considered that he might freak out so I talked him through the whole thing.
Me: Do you know who Santa is? 
Eli:  ...blank stare..... 
Me: Who brings us Christmas presents? 
Eli: Dad! 
Me, mulling over how true that is....:  Well, Dad too, but also SANTA! He wears a red hat and red suit and has a beard, and you can sit on his lap and tell him what you want for Christmas.  What do you want for Christmas?
Eli: ...blank stare...
Me: Do you want balls? (his favorite thing in nursery and at the gym daycare) 
Eli: No!
Me (totally confused, and yes, you ARE getting balls, so tough luck!): Do you want dinosaurs?
Eli : YEP!

Well, thank goodness, looks like we made a good decision in getting 2 big dinosaurs. Now hurry up, Santa! Can't it be Christmas already?!

Friday, December 16, 2011

The Big One

Happy 1st birthday, miss Caroline!
Caroline says:
I WILL take one nap a day, but that's it.  Don't try to trick me into two, I won't fall for it.
I WILL eat plenty of fruits, a few veggies, but pretty much meat stinks.
I WILL take 3 steps at a time, but not more than that.  And never to mom.
I WILL slap you in the face (repeatedly), so watch out!

I will NOT lay down for a decent diaper change, that offends my need for motion.
I will NOT be content with my bottle, I have to steal everyone else's sippies.
I will NOT pet the bunny nicely.  I WILL try to pick him up.
I will NOT let mom get flabby, her hip is my favorite means of transportation.

I weigh: 1 million pounds. 100th percentile. (that's just mom's hip's guesstimate)
I measure: Too tall.  18 month clothes are pretty comfy.
I am: Pretty ridiculous.  But my family loves me anyway :)

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Paint

Joe's mom introduced the kids to watercolor paints during a long visit (at their house), and Patrick REALLY liked it and brought home all his masterpeices.  We needed to kill some time and use some creativity yesterday, so I picked up some paints for our house and the kids painted after lunch.  Patrick had drawn this little scene the day before by tracing his hands and turning the one on the right into a chicken, the one on the left into a spotted monster that it throwing his teeth out to cut the chicken's legs off!  Woo-hoo!

 Well, gory creativity aside, I was really impressed at the detail!  I know it's small, but look at all those dots!  That's a monster with a SERIOUS case of the measels. Watercolors can be tough to work with but he stayed inside the lines with single-minded dedication and for as many colors as he put down, the didn't overlap.  One color per zone, mom!

Anyway, thought the grandparents might enjoy his work and look forward to a leisurely retirement based on his millions as a world-renowed artist.   Yeaaaaahhhh... maybe not that last part :)

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Dear Santa

Patrick wrote his first letter to Santa.

I think our gifts are right on the money!

Also, what? When did this kid learn to write so well? We had to spell every word, but still, pretty decent handwriting, especially for un-lined paper.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Snow Family


We've had a few of those delicious Colorado winter days, where there's plenty of snow on the ground but it's so warm you don't even need a jacket, so we took advantage of the conditions and made ourselves a Jacobs' snow family! 

The boys were super-excited about it at the beginning, each rolling their little snowballs to make snowmen bodies, but after only about 5 minutes Eli gave up to do his own thing, and Patrick left after about 15.  But me?  Oh, no, I took the challange personally and wouldn't quit until we had every member of the family! Did the boys care? Not at all. Patrick made sure we always had fresh carrots for noses, and Eli brought rocks over to make eyes in every conceivable location BUT the snowmen's faces, and I got all OCD and tried to make each family member look their best, replacing eyes and carrots as I saw fit. They turned out very presentable in the end, but after only a few hours either they melted or someone came by and knocked them over.  Either way, only 1 snowman survived even 1 day.  Really, I should have tken all that OCD energy and cleaned my house and made decorations that would last for years (or at least a week or two).  But hey, like I said, it was a delicious day and it was fun to get outside with the boys, no matter how disinterested they were in the fun project I had actually intended for them. 

Thank goodness I got pictures while I could, huh?

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Uhhhh, whoops

... aside from TODAY being MY birthday, MONDAY was JOE'S birthday!  We're both 28 now. Like a busy Thursday, busy Monday wasn't the best day of the week for a birthday (plus we're 28, not exactly Rip Roaring Party age), so I just made one his favorite dinners: clam chowder in bread bowls.  Then we watched a couple episodes of our favorite shows : Sons of Anarchy and The Office (weird combo, eh?). So while it wasn't exactly blow-out, it WAS fun and relaxing.  So happy birthday JOE! 

Happy Birthday to Me

My friend asked what my birthday wishes were.  I said:

1. I wish I had more patience/was more patient.  HOWEVER, I don't wish for the experiences and trials to help me become more patient, and patience isn't delivered from heaven like a thunderclap, so let's forget that.
2.  I wish Joe were home every evening around 5:00.  You know, leave work at 5, get home at 5:15, small-town living.  HOWEVER, that's pretty much never, ever, ever (everever) gonna happen, so let's forget that and not waste my wish.
3.  I wish I could at least get my birthday to spend with Joe - he surprised me last year (I think it was last year) and took the day off work.

He made  my wish come (almost) true and is taking tomorrow off work!  Hooray!  This is an EVENT since, while he doesn't usually work Saturday, I work Saturday, and then we all know Sunday is actually the busiest day of the week, so we typically get no days of rest together. We're thinking we'll get a Christmas tree and maybe take the kids swimming.  So happy big fat birthday to ME!

Friday, December 2, 2011

For Elsha

I thoroughly enjoyed my sister Elsha's recent posts about presents and traditions to skip.  I thought I'd just go ahead and copy the snot out of her.

We skip every single tradition she mentioned skipping.  Man, aren't we scrooges?
1. We ALSO skip a traditional Christmas dinner (no roast turkey or glazed ham here!), but favor instead the traditional Christmas Morning Cinnamon Rolls.
2. We do not put lights up the day after Thanksgiving; we put them up whenever we get around to it.  This year I got around to it BEFORE Thanksgiving, but it's only lights in 2 windows.  Not a lot to brag about.
3. We don't carol.  Not as a Jacobs family, at least; we did it for approximately 2.5 million years with the original Gustavson clan, but I have never heard Joe sing anywhere besides Sacramant meeting or randomly in the kitchen ("Three blind mice!").  He doesn't even sing along in the car, folks, I seriously doubt he would be caught dead Christmas carolling.
4. We don't have any Christmas collections.  We don't collect nativities, mini Christmas scenes, we've got nothin'.  In fact, this sounds blasphemous now that I write it, we don't have a SINGLE NATIVITY scene.  We talk frequently about what Christmas means, why we celebrate it, and I'm pretty sure I've already disillusioned Patrick about Santa being real, but we don't have a visual symbol of Christ's birth to speak of.  I guess I'd better get on that this year before GIFTS become the "reason for the season"....


Speaking of gifts, we are SO PUMPED about the gifts for the kids! I think baby Jesus would approve :) Well-thought-out stuff here, we were aiming at containing the toy clutter and instead went for Gross Motor Skills.  Here they are in no particular order, and PLEASE remind me not to have our blog up when they're around any time before Christmas:
For Eli, who can't stop throwing balls at both people and inanimate objects.  This gives him something to aim for!  (Photo courtesy of bedbathandbeyond.com)
From my parents for Caroline, who gets left out of the fun when her brothers are riding every conceivable wheeled contraption (bike, trike, scooter, go-cart...) out on our driveway. (Photo courtesy of bedbathandbeyond.com)
Two of these, for the boys, in case wheeled contraptions should prove too dull. (Photo courtesy of jumpingballs.com, where we bought them - only $12 each!  Seriously, people, BUY THESE)





For Patrick, who has been begging for this particular Dino for nigh on 6 months, and I think the drool in his sleep is due to dreaming of it. (Photo courtesy of Amazon.com)
















For Eli, since my mom reminded me that buying ONE awesome elctronic dinosaur when TWO boys love awesome electronic dinosaurs was just buying myself a fight. (Photo courtesy of Amazon.com)
For all the sandbox lovers at my home, from my parents.  They were considering that alphabet train Elsha's kids are getting when I complained everything gets taken to the sandbox and consequently ruined.... these toys were the perfect solution!  MEANT for tough play in the sand.  I am SERIOUSLY loooking forward to this summer outside! (Photo coutesy of leapsandbounds.com)

Thursday, December 1, 2011

For Kari

I thought Kari would appreciate this - Caroline working to put her shoes on.  Well, Eli's shoes - I thought she might have more success with larger, looser kicks.  This little video is probably more effort on Caroline's part than mom puts in in an entire week to put shoes on her.  I just don't get into shoes quite as much as Kari, and apparantly Caroline, does.