The Saga of the Family Christmas PIcture

We tried, we really did. But between a baby who wouldn't stop staring at his toes, a grumpy 3 year old and a camera that is on its very, very last leg, it just didn't happen. However, we definitely tried... Here are some of our attempts:

Song Titles from Bub

The other night Ethan was entertaining me on his "Capanyo" which is currently out of battery. He was using the microphone and pretending to play songs and sing to me. He gave me a list of songs to choose from. I chose each of these songs at least once and he proceeded to "sing" them to me, which usually meant the same line repeated over and over to a tune that only he can follow. I wonder what prompted him to come up with these particular song titles, in this particular order. What goes through the mind of a three year old anyway?

Here's the list of his songs:

Sing of your lungs
Chug a chug a choo choo
Love your whole heart
Just eat honey
Christ the Lord
Just do Nothing
Please don’t eat the cherries
Please fishy don’t eat, it’s poisonous

It's a Bub's Life

I am doing a lot of the cooking right now (although every couple of nights my good friend Celeste cooks up a fabulous dinner) and it has been a challenge to do it with baby and Bub in tow. I finally got the bright idea to involve Bub, and last night had him help me cut the cucumber. He did so well at it (I cut it into strips, he chopped it into small pieces.) He kept saying, "Everyone is going to say, 'Thank you for cooking Bub!'"
When Celeste came to thank him for cooking, he was very solemn about it, and nodded sagely, and then pointed out that "Mommy helped too." LOL. Since then he wants to help cook at every meal.
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Mom: Honey, I smell something stinky. Do you need to go number two?
Bub: No Mom. I was just farting for fun.
***
His other passion right now is gardening (much to Daddy's pride and delight!) They had planted some beans in cotton in a glass cup and watched them grow, but Bub kept telling me he wanted to plant seeds in oil. I couldn't figure it out. I explained to him that seeds grew in water or dirt, but not oil. He was insistent, however, and finally Daddy figured it out -- SOIL! So smart. So they did another planting project, this time in soil, and hopefully we'll have green beans in a few weeks. He has been checking on them a couple of times of day, giving them water and sun and is very serious about the whole venture. So cute!
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Now I am just bragging, but one of our friends commented today how his vocabulary is more like that of a 5 year old. He already knows his ABCs and can count to 15 and has announced to me that soon he is going to be able to read. He also loves writing his name. I was all prepared for him to be slower at the schoolastic side, because he's a boy, (I know, stereotyping.. sorry) but he's just a quick as the girls. Such a smartie.

We're Making Christmas

Bub is finally old enough to grasp what Christmas is and tonight was thrilled to pieces when Daddy brought home a Christmas tree. He was all ready for bed, but we let him stay up and enjoy helping to decorate the tree. He solemnly informed me that he was helping to "make Christmas."

The Sand Dudes

We ended up having to take an unscheduled trip to the border because of new visa laws here. We have a million irons in the fire right now as we are organizing Christmas parties for 400 children (including presents, a meal, cake, candy, puppet show, clown show, etc and so forth - and we hold the parties in nice locations, like hotels or restaurants, so the kids can get out of their institutional environment.) Anyway, going on a trip was the last thing on our minds, but I'm glad we ended up going, as we had a few fun days together as a family before the Christmas craziness. (I say a few, as I don't count the 19 hours up and the 19 hours back as "fun".)

We found a hotel for a very good price right on the beach of South Padre Island and spent one of our days there just enjoying the surf, sand and when it decided to grace us with it's presence... sun. The main beach was covered with seaweed and jellyfish, but we drove out to the end of the island that is a state park and that was quite beautiful. Lots of shell hunting and gorgeous, white "sand dudes" as Bub calls them.

The wind was intense, but our Mr. Preshy (short for Precious) handled it amazingly well. Bub just loved it and had so much fun.




Our beautiful Shell Bell.

I love the look of sheer, unadulterated joy on his face.