Noah's Ark Christmas Celebration, or, an Excuse for Jones to Wear One of the Cutest Outfits Ever

Last week, Monday and Tuesday were big days at Noah's Ark.  Monday night was the Christmas pageant (I don't really think that "pageant" is an accurate descriptor, but I really can't think of anything else to call it). So, as the title of the post suggests, I dressed Jones in one of the super-cute Christmas outfits I got for him this year.

Jones was slightly less excited about the john-johns than I was ...

Isn't this face pitiful?  But, you have to admit, this is so cute, it's bananas.  I mean, knee socks?  Plaid?  Turtleneck?  Wallabees?  Shut up.  Bananas cuteness.  And, he's not crying about the outfit, he's crying because he wants in the pantry to eat his 4th cereal bar for the day and/or another package of Scooby Snacks and instead of letting him do that, I'm taking pictures of him.  He has a tough life.

Can you see our boy there in the red?  He was in the middle of the (large) group of children.  He sat quietly and didn't sing, but he didn't cry either, and he bopped along in time to the music.  Jones loves music, and he will always bounce along in rhythm with the song and, if possible, he'll dance, dance, dance. 

After the first song, which was a Christmas version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, the kids were supposed to stand up and cheer and wave their little star props, and only a few of them did it - Jones was one of them!  He stood up, at least, and smiled and put his little star in the air.  However, standing up at that point made him want to stand up and move around throughout the rest of the next song, which was Happy Birthday, Jesus. 

See, he's up and about:

One of the teachers thought maybe she could persuade him to sit back down ... but he actually ended up on her lap by the end of the song :o).



Taking a look at one of the many trees at the church, after the program:

Totally un-interested in taking pics with Mommy and Daddy, but, again, this outfit is too cute not to document it thoroughly:



Tuesday was Christmas Party day at Noah's Ark, and everybody wore their pajamas.  Too cute.  Of course, we went with Christmas pajamas for the Christmas party:

 



'Tis the Season, Y'all!

Thanksgiving 2012, or, a Ward Family Get-Together

This year, Alan's parents hosted Thanksgiving in North Little Rock.  Both of Alan's brothers were able to come, and the cousins got to hang out.  It was so sweet, when we pulled up, Jonah and Mattie (our nephew and niece) were standing in the doorway watching for us, and I could hear them both saying, "It's Baby Jones!"  They all refer to the J-Man as Baby Jones, and even though he's not really a baby anymore, he's still the baby among this crew of cousins.  We had a nice time visiting with everybody, and Thanksgiving lunch was, of course, awesome.

The following are what you get when you combine a 5 year old, an almost-3-year old, and a 20 month old and try to get a picture of all three at the same time:

 

They're all smiling in this one!

 

Sweet Mattie - she wanted to pose with her arm around Jones.  Jones, the little toot, wasn't having it.

 

They are all so totally over the picture-taking ...

 

Mattie and Grandma Betty (check out Mattie's cute pigtails :o))

Jones and Grandpa

 



Uncle Patrick, Aunt Sarah, Mattie, and Jones ... alas, this was the best picture we could get at this point ... Jones really wanted to go outside (so did Mattie), so they were not interested in anything else.

 



 

Petting Grandma and Grandpa's new dog, Missy.  Jones has learned what "gentle" means.  When he starts whacking on Aug or Layla, you say, "Jones, be gentle" and he immediately starts petting them softly.  If you tell him to be gentle in any other context, he will rub himself on the tummy softly, so as to demonstrate "gentle".  He did well with Missy, and she did well with all of the kids - she seems to be a sweet little dog.

 

Happy Thanksgiving from the Wards!

A Love Story: the Sequel, or, Jones' Sweet Revenge

Boy meets chocolate chip cookie:

Spoiled labradors see cookie:

"Not this time, spoiled labradors!  I'm up here, out of your reach!"

Boy enjoys cookie ...

Boy graciously drops some cookie crumbs ... but only a few ...

It's official:  boy loves cookie!

Happiness is a chocolate chip cookie ... especially when it doesn't get stolen by the spoiled labradors!



Jones is 19 Months Old, or, What's Going on with Jones in November!

Jones is 19 months old!

 

At 19 months, Jones:

• Weighs around 27 pounds
• Is around 33 inches tall
• Wears size 18 months and 18-24 months clothes, size 5 and some size 6 shoes, and a size 4 diaper
• Is not that interested in food. In a funny change of pace, breakfast is now the meal he eats best (we struggled for a long time trying to get him to eat anything at breakfast) and he is not that interested in dinner. Breakfast is mine and Jones' special time; I bring his breakfast into his room and he sits in his lap and eats it and we watch cartoons (Martha Speaks and Curious George) while he eats. It's a good start to my day. He has also started playing with his food, and my response to that right now is to give him one chance to stop (I pick up the plate and remove it and look at him very seriously and say, "No, we don't play with our food.") and then, if he still plays with it, we're done with our meal. Favorite foods include oatmeal, Nutrigrain bars, PB&J, broccoli, mashed potatoes, chicken nuggets, and salmon. He likes soup - he ate a whole adult-size bowl of chicken noodle soup for dinner the other night, and pretty much a whole bowl of vegetable beef soup another night. Much to my surprise, he does not like grits. Like, at all. Like, clamps his mouth shut if you try to feed them to him. This month we are really working on mastering utensils. He's really pretty good with a spoon, but the fork is eluding him. And, of course, being a toddler, his hands are his best tool.
• Has decided he likes the way the baby toothpaste tastes, so he'll let you put it on the toothbrush and then he'll take it and put it in his mouth, but there's not a whole lot of brushing going on. I swoop in and try to brush a little, and he'll let me for a minute, but then he starts giggling and thrashing around and it's all over. This is, obviously, way better than crying and screaming at the mere sight of the toothbrush. Progress.

 

• Talks a lot, but I can only understand a limited amount. My favorite thing he says so far is thank you ("tank oo"). Alan was playing with him the other day and he said something to me and Jones said, very clearly, "Jill!". So Alan said, "Is that Jill, or Mommy?" while pointing to me. Jones said, "Jill!" So Alan said, "No, that's Mommy!" Jones said, "Mama!" It was cute, but I think Jones was confused by the end of it. He does really well with repeating things. He can point to his nose, ear, mouth, eyes, and show you his belly.
• Loves to watch the cartoons on PBS on weekday mornings - Martha Speaks, The Cat in the Hat, The SuperReaders and, his favorite, The Dinosaur Train. I usually take him some milk and turn the TV on for him to watch from his crib while I get ready, and he is super entertained. He won't watch TV at night, or any time other than sitting in his crib in his room. If he's out and about, he doesn't care a thing about TV.
• Naps once a day and sleeps through the night.
• Loves his cars and balls, when he's playing with his toys. He especially loves to roll the cars back and forth between us. He is really showing an interest in pens and pencils, so I think I'm going to get him some crayons and see how that goes. The dogs are still his favorite playmates. He loves to play tug-of-war with them, and he loves to chase them around, pulling on their tails. They are such good dogs.

• Moved up to a new room in daycare, the Zebra room. It's an on-going process. He cries almost every day when I drop him off, which is stressful for everyone. He didn't at first, but I think it's because he didn't realize that he was permanently moved out of the Frog room. Now he's realizing that he doesn't get to hang out in his familiar room with his familiar teachers, and it's tough on him. They have told me that once I leave, they get him calmed down pretty quickly and he has a good day, so I think he'll get adjusted eventually. Despite all of that, he still is excited to leave the house in the morning and go to school.

• Likes to go and hide when he needs to poop.  If ever I look up and he's off behind the couch, or if he leaves the living room and goes into the hallway, you can guarantee he's over there with his little face turning red and taking him a good poop away from prying eyes.  They told me he does that at daycare too - sometimes they go for walks in the sanctuary part of the daycare, and he'll hide behind a pew and go number 2.  Ha!
• Still a paci baby, but he went to stay with Alan's parents one weekend and only took the paci at night, so there's hope that the eventual weaning will not be that traumatic.
• Is, much to everyone's surprise, a little boy, and not a baby anymore!

Jones "In the Doghouse", or, #24 of 101 Ways to Entertain a Toddler

Uncle BA and Aunt Stephanie and Pedro the Boston Terrier came to visit us a couple of weekends ago.  They are expecting their first baby, a girl, Eliza Anne (such a cute name - love it!) in early February.  I'm in the process of drawing up the marriage contract for Eliza and Jones.  In the meantime, Pedro is still their only child, their fur-baby, and he comes with them usually when they come to Russellville.  Jones was fascinated by Pedro.  It was similar to his early fascination with Clyde - what is that thing?!  Is it another cat?  Where's his tail?  Why does he make that funny snoring/snorting sound?  Jones was all about trying to get close and examine Pedro, and he successfully petted him several times.  Pedro was on his best behavior this particular weekend, and tolerated it so well - a good sign of times to come!  Pedro has separation anxiety, so to combat that and allow all of us to go places without Pedro having a nervous breakdown, BA and Steph brought his kennel with them.  Which leads me to these pictures, of Jones having a blast in Pedro's "doghouse":

 

Please don't call ASPCA or Child Services on me.

 

It's a shock to me to realize how old Pedro and Augie are getting.  I remember when Pedro came home with BA!  Now here we are, it's been 8 years since Pedro became a Glass, and Augie just turned 7 in September ... he and Pedro were buds for a long time, and they still get along now, but Augie is just a tad lazier/more mellow than Pedro, so they don't "play" like they used to, but it's just a sign of the times.  Layla was 5 in March ... Clyde is 9 ... it's hard to believe I've got all of these "grown-up" animals around me - does this mean I'm getting old?  Growing older, but not up, right?!  At least that's true for the animals ...

 

 

 

 



Happy Halloween, or, The Ward Family Throws a Halloween Hayride Extravaganza!

On October 24th, I realized that we didn't really have any plans for Halloween.  I hadn't even purchased a costume for Jones, other than repeatedly looking at the super-cute costumes on the Pottery Barn Kids website.  So, as I sat in my office, I determined that we must have a get-together with some friends so that we had a purpose for dressing up our kids, since they are really still too little for trick-or-treating.  So, without realizing it, I began planning the first (possibly annual) Halloween Hayride Extravaganza.  It was actually Alan that came up with the idea for the hayride.  We have a little trailer, and we have a Ranger, and we have access to hay (courtesy of Grammy and Papa) so that seemed like the perfect combination.  Then, it went from, "We'll just invite a few people, you know, three or four families or so" to having forty people come over for a Halloween party.  Hey, everybody loves a hayride.  So, we cooked up a huge helping of deer chili with all of the fixin's, lots of sweets and sides, add a fun bunch of people and kids hyped up on sugar, and you get ... the Ward Family Halloween Hayride Extravaganza!  It was so fun, and I think it was an unqualified success.  All of the kids had fun, the hayride went well, everybody had all they wanted to eat and then some, and it was fun for all of the adults to have somewhere to go and be and hang out.

Warning!  Cuteness overload:  Jones as a hammerhead shark!

 

Jones and his two victims:

 

Hayride!

 

Happy Halloween!