Every Little Wish

For the last month or so JV has been going around the house singing Christmas songs.  I had told BV that I hoped his school would be doing a Christmas show, and unbeknown to us, the music teacher was preparing the kids for just that.  So this morning we got to attend JV's 1st Christmas program! 

 

Above is his class, "The Children's House". 

He knew we were right up front, but just cheezed and looked away when he saw us. 

Towards the end of the show he started to really get into it.  That's Santa's belly if you were wondering. 



A proud dad and son

 

Waiting in line to meet...



Santa Clause! 

 

 

 

Lastly, a few pictures of the children playing after the show:

 

Merry Christmas!

Animals

Day 1:

It's spring break and I couldn't take being in the house anymore so we ventured out to the MN zoo Thursday.  The 1st this we did was ride to Monorail (aka zoo train).  JV enjoyed the ride itself, but we didn't see very many animals so we of course had to walk the trail to find the animals.  Of all the animal at the zoo JV was focused on finding a horse! 

 

***Side note: We drove out to the country to see horses "in the barn" as JV would say with no luck.  We did however get to see quite a few dairy cows.*** 

Luckily for us there were a few horses at the zoo.

 

We stayed with the horses for quite some time.  At one point the horse walked right up to greet us.

Towards the end of the day we ventured inside to see the penguin exhibit.

Here JV is greeting the penguins.

 

Day 2:

 

Today, we tried out Como Park Zoo.  While I feel bad for the animals, there isn't much room for them to run and play, it was a much better zoo for small children since the animal were up close and easy to see.  We ever got to play peek-a-boo with an orangutan!

 

JV is a happy camper here!

 



Really mom, another picture?

The 1st animal sighting.

 



Look carefully and you might see a fox.

"Long neck!"

 Summer time isn't the only time you can splash in puddles you know.

 

"A tiger Mom!"

 

At the end of the day I asked JV what his favorite animal at the zoo was.  I expected him to say tiger or bear.  He replied, "horses!"  I guess we need to visit a farm next.

Thoughts From A Child: Watery Eyes

Earlier today JV was helping me put the ingredients into the crockpot for dinner.  The last ingredient was onions.  As I was cutting them my eyes began to water, and I had to walk away for a moment.  JV said, "You ok mom?"  "I'm ok, the onions are just making my eyes water." I replied.  "Be careful mom!" he said. 

An hour later, I walked into his room to check on him.  He looked at me and said, "Your eyes still wet?"  I couldn't help but laugh.

Thoughts From A Child

A Big Boy Bed

Tonight JV wanted to see the isle with the children's bedding.  This isn't the usual path we take to get the milk, but since he was being so well behaved and we weren't in a hurry I said yes.  He was quite curious and asked what that stuff was.  I told him that it was comforters for big kid ".  He said, "Oh." A moment later he pulled a dinosaur comforter off the lower shelf and told me he wanted that one.  I explained that he didn't need that yet because he had a boat blanket and that those were for big beds and he didn't have a big bed yet.  He seemed to understand this and then we left the isle to get the milk.  As we turned the corner he looked up to me and said, "I'm a big boy.  You're a big girl.  You have a big bed." I just told him yes, I have a big bed and then we gathered the rest of our stuff.

As we were waiting in line the mom in front of me who had a toddler, told me how she can't go into Target without getting more than she planned for.  Can any of us?  I told her I know exactly what she means.  I came in for toddler scissors and I'm walking out with ingredients to make playdoh...LOL.  She went on to tell me about how she was turning her son's room into a big boy room and she spent way too much.  JV said nothing while this mom and I had our conversation and I didn't think anymore about it until we got home. 

During bedtime stories JV paused to tell me, "I need a big bed.  I'm a big boy.  I have a crib."  I said, "Yes.  I like your crib."  He responded, "I have boats in my crib and Wolfpack!" referring to his blankets...LOL. 

That's Now My Cow!

As I was reading a page in It's Time for Bed by Mem Fox that reads "It's time for bed little calf, little calf.  What happened today that made you laugh?"  JV said, "That's not my cow.  My cow is at the restaurant eating a cheese burger!"  You can only imagine the laugh we had after that. 

A Day of Building Snowmen

This past weekend it began to snow, and snow, and snow.  Luckily it wasn't that cold according to Minnesota standards, so we put our snow gear on and headed outside to play while Daddy shoveled the driveway. 

 JV and I decided to make a snowman.

 

 The snow was perfect for snowman building so it didn't take long to complete our snowman, although we did have to get Daddy to help put the belly and head on because he was too heavy for us to lift.

 

 Cheese!

 

 

 Hugs!

 

 Daddy helped dressed our snowman.  JV has been calling carrots noses ever since we gave our snowman a carrot nose.

 

 Daddy and JV

 

 Snow Angel!

 

I love this picture.  Daddy captured it while JV was trying to climb "the mountain", also know as the snow hill in our yard.

 

 JV had patiently waited to go to the park, so after we finished making the snowman in our yard we headed over.  If you've never been to the park when it's snowing, I highly recommend you try it.  The slides are 10 times as fast when it's snowing, so it's fun for adults too, but make sure to be at the end of the slide to catch your little ones or they will literally fly off the end of the slide!

 

We also had a snowball fight.  JV walked up to Daddy and said, "My turn!".  I thought he wanted to throw a snowball at Daddy but apparently he wanted Daddy to throw one at him...haha!

 

Before we left the park we made another snowman.  This snowman was even bigger than the one at our house.  We struggled and struggled to get the belly on, but finally managed to get it.  When it came to getting the head on, we had to take snow off the ball before picking it up.  Then we piled snow back on top. 

 

 Daddy and Jackson showing off their hard work!

1st Time on the Ice

After having no luck finding an ice rink in the Maple Grove area that was open before 4pm on a weekday I decided to look for one closer to Jackson and my school.  Through a website, I stumbled onto George Enloe Park.  I picked this one because the website stated that it had a sledding hill in addition to an ice rink.  I figured that if ice skating was a bust, we still had something fun to do. 

Before heading over I called the used children's store in hopes of finding some ice skates.  I guess I waited too late because they were all sold out.  Then I remembered my classmate telling me that she put all 3 of her boys on the ice in their tennis shoes 1st before having them balance on skates.  So that's exactly what we did!

 

 JV fell 3 times before making it to the actual rink, but he would roll over and say, "I do it." while picking himself up.

 With some encouragement he made it all the way around the rink.

 He really liked when we sang "The Wheels on the Bus." and pretended to drive the bus.

 And this is the reason for the helmet!  Yes, it was quite a fall, but the helmet did it's job and JV didn't even whine.

 

After skating for 30 mins or so we changed shoes, grabbed the sled and headed to the hill.  That hill would have really impressed BV.  Unfortunately I left the camera in the car so I have no pictures, but we will defiantly have to go back.  JV and I went together the 1st couple of times, but then he wanted to sled by himself.  "Just me." he would say.  So off he went.

 

Lastly we stopped by the playground on the walk by the park.  With the combination of a skating rink, warming house, sledding hill, and 2 playgrounds I would rate this as one of my favorite winter parks!

Science for the 2 year old

Last year I found this activity on Pinterest and had JV do it. I believe he was around 18 months. Between me being sick for the last week and JV getting the flu this week, we are tired of watching countless movies and reading books. We needed something easy to do that would break up the boredom. This activity lasted over an hour and surprisingly he made very little mess (although that was not the case when he was younger!)

Here are a few pictures of JV using a medicine dropper to drop colored water into a pan filled with baking soda.

Daddy's not an animal, hiding cookies and more

Lucky me got the flu and a bladder/kidney/who knows what infection in the same week. Of course it's the week that BV also had to go back to TX. I have always been a whimp when it comes to being sick, but with now one here to help me with JV I realized that I could also be quite a grump. Just when I had been fever free for 12 hours I got a wake up call from a crying JV. He had a temperature over 103. Off to urgent care we went!

The urgent care doctor and nurses were great. The nurse was able to do a flu swab without JV flinching and the doctor asked JV is he liked any cartoons. I told him that he was an Elmo and Cookie Monster fan. Then the dr asked JV if he was hiding Cookie Monster's cookies. He said, "Yes!" With a big smile. He typically doesn't like to talk to people who are in his personal space. He looked in JV's ears for the cookies, then his nose, and finally his mouth while asking JV if the cookies were in each. JV told the doctor that he was hiding them in his mouth...LOL. I was highly impressed by his bedside manner. I've met pediatricians who aren't this good. After the checkup, the nurse ran the flu test which came back positive. Doctor's orders: fluids, rest, and Tamiflu.

This evening JV was a little more playful and wanted to Skype with daddy. I told him I needed to see if he was available. JV looked at me with seriousness in his eyes and said, "No. Daddy (is) not animal." Oh 2 years olds are too funny.