As promised

Here, hopefully (since this will be my third attempt), are the pics of Gibson's jingle bells fiesta.

Jingle Bells

Jingle Bells is Gibson's new favorite song. Lately he's enjoyed any sort of music, and any sort of signing even more than before. And having eclectic musical interest of my own, we sing everything from traditional kids songs, to radio songs, to classical music to t.v. theme songs - so many important genres to expose him to. On our drive to Bob's folks yesterday, we had family Christmas sing-a-long in the car. Daddy would pick one, then mommy, etc. One of them had to be jingle bells, right?

We started singing and clapping, all was going as usual. Then came the "hey" part. Apparently the gusto with which Bob and I sang "hey" in unison was quite amuzing to Gibson. He laughed every time we said "hey" and then he'd repeat, "Hey!" Then later in the evening, after opening gifts with the cousins, we sang jingle bells, 8 or so people yelling "hey" was even better than 2, so Gibson was tickled beside himself. We got some pics I'll post later.

Obsessed with his feet

Since Gibson could walk holding on to fingers, he's been obsessed with touching things with his feet. He intentionally walks over things with different textures. Now he loves putting his feet inside things.

Exhibit A:

While I was putting on my makeup before our play last weekend, I heard him whining, but didn't have time to check what was wrong that minute. When I looked down, he had gotten his foot stuck in an empty kleenex box.

Exhibit B:

The other day when we got home from the store, I left him downstairs so I could go to the bathroom. I figured he would follow me up, like usual. While I was in the bathroom I kept hearing a clunk clunk clunk noise. I thought he was making his way up the stairs. When I got out of the bathroom, I looked down the stairs expecting to see him on his way up. No. Instead I saw him with both my high-heeled shoes on the right feet, walking around. I didn't grab my camera quite soon enough, but it helps with the memory.

Last Night...

I got home from one of our performances last night. Gibson was still awake. I picked him up and smelled something quite pungent on his breath. I asked Bob when they'd been eating. He said, raisins, blueberries... "What else?" I said. "Oh, I gave him some garlic. He didn't like it very much." What? Bob thought garlic was good for him, so he just gave him a straight clove of garlic. Poor Gibson... Bob did say he realized by Gibson's reaction it wasn't good, so he tasted some and it WAS really spicy.. so they drank some water... but I'm still smelling his breath this morning. Yikes.

Christmas Cards...

They are ordered... I really hope they will be as great in person as it seemed to look on the screen! It seemed to be so much easier to put them together than last year, so that has me worried that I missed something! If I am in my right mind, although sleep deprived, they should be great.

Inadequacy...

So I'm Mary in the Christmas play at church... not a huge role - kind of medium in terms of speaking parts, and I have two solos. I was really excited to do this... but I just feel like I am terrible!! I know that I'm probably not terrible, but I want to be great! I would love to really really be good at acting and singing and so I completely welcome suggestions for how to improve... the problem is, I haven't gotten any direction - at all! Not on things I am doing well or poorly. I left rehearsal kinda dejected last night. I guess no direction means that I'm doing... fine. But who wants to be fine?? Plus when I don't get feedback, I assume I'm doing bad, which throws my confidence down the toilet and then I do worse. Lord, help me!

Blueberry Boy

Gibson ate blueberries while I made blueberry cheesecake and bread pudding.

I know it's probably because I am a first time Mom, so bear with me as I share my amazements that probably seem like no big deal to the rest of the world.

Today we were getting ready to go to piano lessons. Gibson and I were in the kitchen and I was busy, so I said, "Gibson go get your shoes." (I didn't even really know for sure where they were).... he trotted right back to the bedroom and I thought "hmm... I wonder if he'll really bring back his shoes..." and sure enough he trotted right back into the room with one shoe under each arm. It just amazes me when he does things that show he knows exactly what I'm saying.

Also, I'm in a bit of a conundrum for my Christmas card this year... I usually try to think of some theme or something creative, but right now I can't even think of any interesting updates for the year. Maybe I'll be struck with something in the next couple of weeks! I usually really enjoy putting it together, so I'll be disappointed if I can't think of anything.

Incidently, what do you think the odds are that I'll ever be able to dance like Beyonce?

Shout Out

I have to give a shout out to my back row posse friend forever, Erin Morgan who gave me the fantastic name for this blog... isn't it cute?

Little Man Helping Us Rake

My Little Sponge

I was amazed this morning, as I am most days, by what Gibson is able to figure out. I was checking my email today while he climbed up on the couch, picked up the remote, figured out how to turn on the t.v. (of all those buttons, how did he know?), then he turned the channels, sat the remote back down on the t.v. tray and layed his head down. Do I have a 15 mo old or a 15 year old? Then he picked up the remote again, flipped the channels some more, put it back down and just sat there watching t.v. until I decided that if I let him watch anymore he'd start losing intelligence:).

Now he is sitting here with me at the table looking at flashcards. I love that he's getting to the age where we can do activities together!