Let us go then, you and I: Pre-Christmas Miscellany

I apologize to you few followers who have checked the blog recently to no avail! Between car trouble, holiday prep, the leaving and coming of family, and Christmas, I've had little time to sift through and post pictures. For a bit of catch-up, here are some photos from the first few weeks of December.

Josiah does "book time" after breakfast each morning, and I've started having the girls sit for a bit with board books, too. Usually Josiah enjoys looking through his stack of books (and sometimes "reading" them aloud to himself--he remembers quite a bit word-for-word!); sometimes he chats with me about them as I work around the kitchen, and sometimes he gets quite absorbed. I'm glad he loves books so much, and I'm also glad for the 30 or so minutes his book time buys me to do some morning chores!

Abby

Josiah with The Runaway Bunny

Lydia

The girls love to get ahold of books. We had several weeks of teaching them not to pull Josiah's books out of his bookshelf, and they still occasionally test this rule. While their book time devolves into gnawing on the board books, they do enjoy looking at pictures and particularly love it when I read aloud to them. Like Josiah around this age, they like I Am a Bunny and Baby Animals best.

Abby

The girls are perfecting their pincer grasp and love to feed themselves. They still adore green peas and black beans, and they typically like their morning oatmeal with apples and a dab of yogurt. Nowadays they eat a wide variety of food and eat something from many meals we eat. It's fun to watch them eat side-by-side in their booster seats, and they love to be part of all we do at the table. They smile, laugh, and sometimes clap their hands when we sing before supper. During meals, Lydia likes to steal food off Abby's tray--even when her own is still full!

We were so sad to say goodbye to Anna and Justin at the end of Justin's internship mid-December. Josiah still regularly asks about Justin, Anna, and "Roo" (their baby, due in Feburary). He has often said, "I need Justin!" with a sorrowful look. All three kids were very eager to talk to Aunt Anna and Uncle Justin on skype on Christmas day! Lydia tried to drown out everyone else.

For Christmas, Anna and Justin got Jer and me tickets to Max MacClean's production of The Great Divorce at the Herberger Theatre in Phoenix. They graciously babysat the kids and let us enjoy the evening at the play. We finished off the night with cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory!

Uncle Justin and Josiah

As you may remember from an earlier post, Josiah got to ride Cowboy (the horse) when we were in Flagstaff over Thanksgiving. Here at home he rides his rockinghorse Cowboy. Lately he climbs on, rocks, and says, "Nee-haw!" I corrected him the first time I heard this, telling him it's actually "yee-haw." But he insisted on "nee-haw" because "Justin say that!"

Jer set up a tent in the backyard for the kids to play in. It was a big hit the first week (now it's just an attraction). All three liked going in and out the little "back door." Josiah collected lemons in the tent and played "pie rats," bear hunt, farming, and lots of other games.