Wrapping Up 2010

As I'm sure was the case in many households across the US this year, Toy Story dominated the Heebner family Christmas. As you can see by the expression on Jack's face, he is completely mesmerized by Woody. He's also got a major man crush on Buzz Lightyear... and now Anna's gotten in on the action with a Jessie doll. We even ended our Christmas Day by curling up on the couch and watching Toy Story 3 as a family. In other news, Jack got lots of toys he can throw, punch, smash, and otherwise destroy which is pretty much his main pass time these days. It's hard to believe that this was Jack's FIRST Christmas. This time last year I was pulling just about every trick in the book to try to deliver him before the new year... to no avail. He'll turn one on January 4th. I still can't believe a whole year has gone by. I had money on him walking by Christmas, but he shows absolutely no interest in the pedestrian arts. He's quite content with his speed crawling. He has redeemed himself, however, by mastering three words: Anna, Mama, and Dada (in that order). I think this is sort of backwards for a boy (don't they usually walk early and talk late?), but I'm secretly thankful because I imagine the number of destructive acts per day will increase exponentially once he's up on two legs. Meanwhile, Anna continues to be her thoughtful girl self, regularly taking it into her own hands to care for Jack (wiping his nose, reinserting pacifiers) and to teach him the ways of the world ("Jack, this is called an efelent on your sheets." (read: elephant). Anna was super busy at preschool this year, making enough Christmas parephenalia to overflow two underbed storage containers... but my favorite project was the wood block Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus pictured above. Anna quickly replaced the petite plastic Mary, Joseph and Jesus that came as part of our nativity set with these clunkers and really, who was I to argue? So anyways, I think that's about enough blabbing. I'll end with a couple pictures from the snow day yesterday. It took us 20 minutes to get all bundled up and then poor little chapped Jack only lasted seven minutes in the whipping wind. The upside is that they both napped for four hours, so I guess it paid off.

Jack Around The House

Jack has two new favorite pastimes. The first is opening up my (pathetically stocked) make up drawer and tossing all of the contents on the floor or into the sink above. Had Anna pulled something like this back in the day, I would have been all over her, but frankly, any time Jack's not crying, I pretty much let him do whatever he wants. Much to Jack's chagrin, Anna often gets in on the action and tries to "make up him" while he's playing, as pictured.

Jack's second new activity is hiding in his outhouse. This cardboard beauty was initially intended for Anna, but Jack has now claimed it at his own. Sometimes he's just in and out for a quick game of smash-the-house/peek-a-boo, but he also uses it to take care of his serious business which has led Josh's dad to correctly assert that we now have a 3.5 bath house. We'll be cutting the crescent moon in the front door shortly.

11 Months (Side by Side)

Pathetically, we still have at least six or seven moving boxes that we haven't unpacked. It's been almost a full year since we started the moving process... and yet. Happily, however, I finally dug out the old hard drive that has all of our pre-2010 photos on it, so I could FINALLY put photos of Anna & Jack side by side. Here they are at 11 months. I think they could almost pass for twins if it weren't for Anna's (still) wildly oversized noggin.

And now for a video of Jack's latest "go crazy" move:

Happy Halloween Jack!

As usual, Halloween was a sugar-fueled whirlwind. This video (especially the end) pretty much sums it up.

Down On The Farm

This past weekend, we finally got a chance to visit my family in Delaware. Living in Rhode Island for the past four years made it more or less impossible to get down to the farm for any stretch of time, but now that we're just two hours north, we're thinking of making it a monthly event. Since Sugar Hill Farm holds a special place in my heart, I was really looking forward to sharing it with Anna and it did not dissapoint. Anna was completely in love with the whole deal. The house in the middle of the woods. The snacks. All the animals. The pond. The dirt. The Trail Gator. And most of all, getting to ride Snickers the donkey. As it turns out, I think Josh is just about ready to pack his bags and move down to the farm too. His list of loves is a bit different. Guns. A knife show. Multiple fried chicken-laden events. Snickers the donkey. So, if you see a sale sign in our front yard, you'll know what happened.

September Update

The two big headlines this month were "Anna Starts Pre-School" and "Jack is a Boy". We'll start with Anna. Back at the beginning of the month -- September 14th to be exact -- I dropped Anna off for her first day of pre-school at Happy Times. I've never been more thankful about having a child who is completely fearless about venturing off into the world without me. Her school uses a drop-off and pick-up car line, so I didn't even get out of the car. Anna just hopped on down, grabbed her teacher's hand, and said goodbye to me without even looking back. As I pulled away, I caught one last glance of my sweet girl and her enormously oversized Dora backpack heading into the building. For a moment, I got weepy, and then, very quickly, my overarching feeling of happiness (for her and for me) took over. Anna loves being around lots of people and doing organized activities, so I knew she would love pre-school. And she does. She goes two days a week and is now also going to AWANA at a local church on Sunday nights with her friend Emma and she loves that to. Her ability to memorize Bible verses (or at least the gist of verses) for AWANA completely amazes me. As for Jack, well, he's definitely a boy. Everyone told me how different boys and girls are, but I don't think I was fully prepared for the wild abandon with which my newly mobile baby boy approaches the world. Just last week I found him climbing Anna's bookcase which made me think back to those furniture anchors I saw once upon a time in Babies R Us. These seemed silly at the (pre-baby-boy) time. Now I get it. I think even Josh is a little surprised at how recklessly Jack launches his whole body toward whatever goal he has in mind. He's also fabulous at just generally getting into things he shouldn't. I'm still trying to figure out how to manage Jack and a world of windpipe sized objects.

Sweet Jack On The Move

I love Jack's initial determination in this video... and then ultimately how easily distracted he is by a new toy. He just started crawling two weeks ago, but now he's all over the place. My sweet boy.