Snowed in for lunch...

Check out the hair...this is what happens when Joshua rubs his juicy hands through his hair after eating peaches at dinner. Bath time quickly follows.

"Buh". I don't know why, but this is how Joshua likes to play peek-a-boo at dinner. He lifts the tray cover off of his high chair and covers his face with it.

Playing in the office. The toys aren't usually so neatly put away.

Today I find myself snowed (correction: iced) in at lunchtime, so I'll write a blog entry instead of running out to grab a bite to eat. Our parking lot is covered with a thick 2 inches of solid ice from yesterday's storm.

It was a great weekend here. Jason and I enjoyed a bit of a night out on Friday evening for the State Farm Christmas party. There was karaoke, in which I did not participate, other than trying to pick funny songs for everyone else to sing. When we left, things hadn't gotten out of control, and I don't suspect they did after we had departed. It was a pretty mellow crowd by State Farm standards.

Saturday was a day of some running and last minute Christmas preparations. With the yucky weather, we did some quick errands in the morning and then tucked in for the rest of the day. Saturday night and Sunday gave no options for any travel outside of the house. The ice hit us hard, so we were home bound for sure. I got some holiday baking done and surprised the mail carrier and a very busy friend of ours who does shipping business and is quite busy this time of year with a little care package today. We cooked a tasty dinner yesterday and I even got tonight's dinner prepared so that it will be ready for us when we get home tonight. Baked spaghetti for the Dugans tonight. Yummy!

In Joshua developments...

Joshua is on a wonderful schedule right now. His two quick naps have morphed into one long afternoon nap. I have to be honest, I now know exactly what I was wishing for during all of the super tired, super stressed days when it seemed you couldn't get a single thing done before your "quiet" time was over. Joshua has been a quick napper since he was born. His schedule since about this time last year was a nap in the morning (about an hour around 10:00) and then a nap in the afternoon (45 minutes to an hour around 2:30). You would no sooner get him laid down for his nap and get something started- maybe eat some lunch or start a load of laundry or Heaven forbid go to the bathroom- and you'd hear him on the monitor. I remember many times thinking "Surely a whole hour hasn't gone by yet." Well, lately we've gone to this new, amazing schedule where he's up and playing and generally happy throughout the whole morning. Right after lunch, around 12:30, he starts to rub his eyes, grabs Bear, motions for his bink and then curls up in your lap and drifts off to dreamland. He stays that way until about 3:30! I hardly know what to do with myself. Based on the pace I've learned to run during these hour naps over the past 14 months, I can basically move a mountain in THREE HOURS! So, needless to say, I'm appreciating this one nap phase very, very much. Merry Christmas to us.

Even better, bed time is moving a bit earlier as well. He's now starting to yawn and rub his eyes around 8:00 and is usually asleep by 8:15 and has been sleeping until about 6:30, mostly without a middle of the night meeting. (Of course, I've now jinxed us by writing that.) So, by all accounts, I'm appreciating this stage much more than I knew I would.

I have to tell you about Joshua's "boo" trick. He loves playing peek-a-boo so much right now, which I'm pretty sure all babies do, but I've been trying to teach him to say "boo" for a while now. This weekend he started repeating after me when I'd say it. It usually comes out more like "buh" than "boo", but it's a start. The funny part is that if he's trying to sneak up on you, you hear the "buh" much sooner than you see his little smiling face. We were playing around a doorway last night. I'd hear him running down the hall saying "buh" long before I saw that toothy grin the doorway. But he was having fun, so that's all that matters.

The repetition of sounds is really fun right now too. I was trying to get him to say "Rex" for his dinosaur toy on his changing table. He hasn't said "Rex" yet, but he does say "ruh-ruh-ruh-ruh". It's very cute. He'll also try to say "quack quack" when you ask him what the duck says. He actually says "cack cack" but in his defense, the "qu" sound is a little tricky.

Pointing has taken off to the nth degree. It takes quite a while to read a story now because he has to point to EVERYTHING and have you tell him what it is. I'm continually amazed at his ability to comprehend what I'm asking him. On the back of his Sandra Boynton books are pictures of all the other books that she's written. Most of them are books that he is now very familiar with. Well, when he flips over to the back cover and I ask him to show me where a particular title is, he'll point right to it, even if it's a book he hasn't read in weeks. Their little minds are incredible! It's so much fun to watch him learning and discovering. Honestly, as much as I loved having a little tiny newborn to cuddle, I am thoroughly enjoying the interaction that this age is bringing.

This week starts the fun holiday preparations in high gear. We're almost all wrapped and are working off of a list of things that need to get done by week's end. I'll post as much as I can throughout the week. We're off and running starting on Friday.

Talk to you all soon!