A little catch-up

For Thanksgiving, we spent the day at MiMi and Pops' house with Uncle Drew too. It was a beautiful day, so Jeremy spent the day playing with Christian's old toys (MiMi saved them all these years!) and running around outside. Pops recently had surgery on his foot, so he wasn't as ambulatory as usual. But Jeremy still squirmed into his lap and enjoyed listening to Pops read him books. We had a very nice meal--Jeremy tried all kinds of new foods--and really enjoyed spending time with each other.

To kick off the holiday season, we went to see the Holiday Train--in the rain. Jeremy is hyper-focused on trains right now, so even though it was raining, we bundled up and went to see the train. CalTrain (the commuter train) came into the Mountain View station fully lit in lights, carolers sang songs, Santa visited with the kids, and snow swirled around.

Holiday Train to collect toys for kids in need.

 We spent a day up at the Cal Academy of Sciences (my favorite place in SF) and got to see reindeer! Apparently reindeer are actually caribou, and legends say that they appeared to be flying as they glided over the snow.

Squishing bugs--not exactly the intention of the exhibit, but he had fun.

Contemplating the penguins

It's snowing!

On December 13, we closed on our new house! We are so excited, because the house is right around the corner from where we currently live. We get to stay in this neighborhood that we know and love so much! Christian is still about 3.5 miles to work, and I could still walk to the school that I taught at (if I ever go back to work...) From our new house, we will be about a block from two different parks, and we are able to walk to Downtown Mountain View as well as the grocery store. It really is an ideal location! But...it does need a lot of work. Like a blue toilet and teal countertops kind of work. But it is ours, and we are so excited to spread out in the new home.(The best part about fixer-uppers is that we will have some great before-and-after pictures to post soon!)

While we were signing papers, MiMi played with Jeremy. Afterward, we all went to a really nice Bethlehem Walk. We were able to walk through Bethlehem and learn all about life at that time. They acted out the Christmas story as well, complete with camels, donkeys, dancers, fire, and music. It was really cold, but Jeremy was really into it!

Making bricks out of mud to build a well in Bethlehem.

Stamping clay that they fired in the fire.

And we can always have some Christmas fun at home :)

Go Tech!

Jeremy loves to yell at the TV during football games...where do you think he got that from? He yells, "Oh no!" or "Go Tech!" (regardless of who is playing) or "Go! Go! Go!" or "Touchdown!" Needless to say, Christian has had to censor himself this season as Tech had a pretty rough year.

Here are the 3 newest GT fans!
From left: Aaron, Levi, and Jeremy

One

Two

Three

 OK, maybe the 2 newest GT fans.

As it turns out, the boys aren't the only ones that got matching shirts this year...Jeff and Christian did too!

Touchdown!

Just so I won't forget this...

J: Molly doctor?
C: Yes, Molly is at the doggy doctor with Momma.
J: Molly get sticker.

New Jeremy-isms

Jeremy is talking in full sentences. And he talks all the time. He basically narrates his entire life. But, we are still surprised by some of the things that come out of his mouth.
Some fun ones:
--While I was opening a block of frozen spinach, he said "Jeremy try it! Jeremy eat grass."
--He lined two cars up and told them to "Take turns!"
--He gave me a random puzzle piece, and when I asked what it was...he said "Imagine it" (as in: use your imagination.)
--He loves yaks. He makes us draw them with chalk and on his doodle. They have horns. Somehow, he has them combined with car horns...so when someone honks their car horn, he says "horn yak!"
--"Dadda drop water on Jeremy's hand! It's wet."
--"Poop in it. Change it." (Every time.)
--"Momma go potty. Then flush a potty. Wash hands with soap." Yes, do you want to try to go potty? "No potty. I sure."
--"Momma play legos with me. On floor."
--"Read that book...Mr. Brown little." (or the title of any book + it's color/shape/size)
--"Color with some crayons. And do stickers." (Stickers still comes out siskers--which is adorable.)
--"The end. That a good one book."

All Hallows Eve

Happy Halloween Ghouls and Goblins!

It wasn’t Jeremy’s first Halloween, but it was his first one that he could take part in all the festivities of the night. We began the evening by videochatting with his cousins on the east coast. It was the end of their night and the beginning of ours.

Cousins showing off their costumes

Hollyn is a witch, and Weston is a skeleton.

 Then he got all dressed up and practiced his trick-or-treating skills.

Notice the fire loot bag. 

He was really excited to walk up to all of the houses. We walked around the neighborhood for 1.5 hours. Our neighborhood is really into Halloween, so we spent a lot of time seeing all the decorations and chatting with our neighbors. Ms. Sharon, the children’s librarian and storyteller, was a fun surprise to meet at one of the houses.

Jeremy was very brave to walk up to the doors.

All night, Jeremy chose candy based on color.

As he knocked, he said, "Knock, Knock, Treat!"

Lots of kids out for Halloween.

"Jeremy's Fire Engine"

Jeremy was a very conscientious fireman, so he checked out all the fires.

We weren’t sure how Jeremy would respond to all the scary decorations. But when we saw these ghosts, he said, “Ghosts, neat! Ghosts, touch it!” He also pointed out a “monster on bicycle!” that was maybe just someone commuting home from work.

“Ghosts, neat! Ghosts, touch it!”

We returned home to count Jeremy’s loot and to complete a post trick-or-treating interview.

Counting--19 pieces of candy! 

He pulled out a lollipop and called it "broccoli."
And pulled out a different one called it "salami!"

Making trains out of his candy. (We did let him eat a piece!)

Halloween Morning

Pictures from the farm will appear soon!

Pumpkin Carving

Dedicated blog readers will know that we purchased pumpkins from Uesugi Farms a couple weeks ago. Now it is time to carve that pumpkin!

Our favorite quotes from the night:

"Messy!"

"See that pumpkin!"

You don’t want to scoop? What do you want to do? "Dump it!"

"It’s heavy!"

"Secrets in there!"

Helping scoop out the pumpkin guts. 

Consulting pumpkins to decide what to carve.
He made the two on the right with stickers.

He used the stickers to design the face. 

And then stickered the pumpkin he picked out.

Supervising Dada's carving technique.

The finished products.

We lit the candle to show Jeremy what the Jack-O-Lantern looked like, but it was hard to see with the porch light on. When we turned the light off and the pumpkin glowed, Jeremy burst into tears. Whoops.  Hope he likes Jack-O-Lanterns tomorrow.

More Rockets!

On Sunday morning, we went to a friend's birthday party--it was a dress-up event, so Jeremy got to be a fireman again!

"Dada, hat, wear it!"

 After naps, Jana and Aaron came over to play and eat pizza. Everyone eats pizza, so it is such an easy dinner choice! First they played outside for awhile, then we all came inside, ate, and sang songs! Watch the boys sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat!

Playing with the stomp rocket again.

Aaron takes a turn!

Rockets!

On Friday night, we had a really nice dinner out at a local brewpub. It's a great place to go with a toddler, because it is noisy and full of families. Now, sometimes when we go out to dinner we eat hurriedly and then stare down the waiter for the check. Fortunately, those meals are few and far between at this point. On Friday, Jeremy colored, he ate, then he was cute. So it was a great family night out.
On Saturday, we watched some college football during the day. Then in the afternoon, Christian's family came over for a picnic. It was a beautiful day and didn't feel like fall even a little bit. We spent our time at the park and then playing in the backyard. Jeremy showed off his new bicycle and refused to remove his helmet (which is a better problem then him refusing to wear it). MiMi and Pops brought Jeremy a stomp rocket and a couple of books about rockets. So much fun!
(I will make them youtube clips after everyone else is finished uploading their Sandy stuff.)

Playing with Pops

Sliding with MiMI

Stomp Rockets! 

Uncle Drew tries out the bike

Jeremy playing with Brody in our yard.

 Jeremy "playing" with Brody in our yard.

Chalk!

Halloween Cont.

Just in case you haven't seen enough fireman pictures! We went to my Mom's Club Halloween party! When Jeremy woke up from his nap, we whisked him to the party...maybe not the best plan, since he was not his normal, happy self. Basically, he was clingy until about 5:10. But the party was over at 5:00. As we were helping to clean up, he joined some older kids and started running around and giggling. Oh well. The pictures are still cute.

Some of Jeremy's friends: Smith, Vivienne, and Callan

Trying to get a group picture...

...is like herding cats.

Jeremy and Mae (Thomas!!)

Dominique with Vivienne and Adriel

Doing crafts. But upset that he couldn't manage to do the craft with his hat on.

His Spooky Scene Masterpiece

                      Last year!!

Hungry Caterpillar, Baseball Player, Ladybug, M&M, Penguin

                                                                                   
                        The 2011 group this year!

Koala, Bumble bee, Traditional Indian, Monkey, Fireman

Dada got to come too! He was one of only a few dads--Jeremy was glad to have him there.

Pirate Adriel just hanging out.

 When we got home, there was a Halloween Treat from GA and GU (Great Aunt Janet and Great Uncle Ray). Fireman books! Jeremy is thrilled. One is about fire trucks and firefighters...the other is called "Even Fireman go to the Potty," it is absolutely hilarious.