Frosty & Holiday Parties

Jack has always had a thing for Frosty the Snowman, starting with his love for the stuffed singing Frosty at Grandma and Grandpa's house that he loved during his first winter.  He has played the song on that toy so many times that Grandpa has repaired it once and they've bought a back-up Frosty to replace the original.  Now this year, Jack has also discovered the movie.  For the past few weeks, we've watched Frosty the Snowman at least 3-4 times/week, and he also watches it at Grandma & Grandpa's when he's there.  And the latest....requesting demanding that we listen to "Frosty song" in the car on the way to and from work.  Our drive takes 30 minutes on a very good day, and for the past week we have listened to Frosty on repeat.  Every day.  Both ways.  Uphill.  I like Frosty as much as the next guy, but wow that's a lot of Frosty!

He likes to sing along with the song, which is so cute.  His favorite part is the "Thumpety thump thump, thumpety thump thump, look at that Frosty go."  Depending on his mood, I'm either requested to "help me sing Mommy" or "Mommy no help me sing" (presumably if I'm more off-key than normal that day).  Occasionally, if I do really well, I get a "good job helping me sing Mommy."  Man, I love that kid!

Both of our boys had their holiday parties at school last week.  Until now, we've never gotten to attend any of Jack's parties because it seems they inevitably fall on his days off.  This year we got lucky and Charlie's party was Monday and Jack's was Friday.

Charlie's party was nice - I got to meet the other parents and babies.  He is by far the youngest in the class - there is a 14 month-old who is moving to a toddler classroom soon and the other five babies are 7-9 months old.  Charlie made us a plaster hand print ornament, so that was nice.

 

Jack's party was great too - Jason and I both got to go.  It was fun seeing him in his school environment interacting with all his buddies.  They had a buffet set up on one of the little tables so the kids were in heaven - food at their level to help themselves to!  Luckily, Jack was mostly focused on the blackberries, but he also discovered a new love for the fruit-flavored candy canes.  They were all chowing down on those when we got there.

They had a fun activity at their party - they got to decorate cookies.  Jack started out doing great and really concentrating on spreading the icing...

 Then he discovered that it was yummy...

Cooper, Jack, Helena, Grier, Luisa and Selby

 And there was no turning back...

 He liked pouring the sprinkles on his cookie too.

 Here's the aftermath of his cookie decorating/eating.

 Then each kid gave their parents a gift (a cute picture in a handmade frame)

And they each received gifts from their teacher Ms Lauren.  We've discovered over the past few weeks via our Christmas book tradition that Jack prefers to tear teeny pieces off a present when unwrapping it.  He pulls each little sliver of paper off and hands it to us saying "here go."  I think Christmas may be a marathon for us!

Jack and his friend Juliana opening their presents

Just a few pictures from the weekend. 

Charlie looking cute in his swing.

Charlie has been really gripping onto things and loves to put his hands together, especially when he's sleeping.  So I've started giving him a lovey to hold and he loves it!  Tonight he was rubbing it all over his face and dozed off with it covering his face.  (Don't worry, I was closely supervising and moving it away so he could breathe.)

It reminded me of when his big brother first started using his loveys:

Jack - January 2010

And finally, we've borrowed Grandma & Grandpa Clayton's dog kennel to help Maggie while Jason is working on our basement.  He's currently framing it out and all the loud startling nail gun noises were sending Maggie into a tizzy.  He'd come upstairs and find her trembling standing on top of the bathroom counter, for example.  He's found that locking her in a kennel while he's down there being noisy makes her feel more secure.  Of course, Jack is enjoying it as well, requesting that we lock him in there.