Turning One

Caleb turns one on Tuesday. What a delightful year with "smiley guy"! We celebrated this morning with our family that was able to be here. I'll post more later, but here is a "sneak peek" of the cake that Jamie made:He had less time to get this one done, but it was wonderful, as usual.

Wrestling

Nate and Carla slept on air mattresses in the living room, so there was great fun to be had on the mattresses before they were put away each morning.

Thanksgiving and Vacuum

My parents and Nate, Carla, and Jacob came for Thanksgiving this year. The boys had a delightful time playing and eating together.

We had real turkey, but we also made this fruit turkey. It was interesting. Jonathan enjoyed making it, but I don't know that we would do it again.

The crew, minus Jonathan, who was hiding behind Grandpa.

Jonathan loves to vacuum. I'm encouraging this affinity. Here he is, helping with the cleaning before the guests arrived.

Uncle Marc

Jamie's brother had a work trip that took him through our area, so he decided to come a little early and visit us for a bit. We were thrilled! We enjoyed seeing him, and the boys were delighted to play with him.

Marc is a musician. A very good one. He was teaching Jonathan a few of the tricks of the guitar trade.

The Mullet Bids Farewell

Caleb had a mullet: minimal hair on top and a decent amount around his ears and his collar. Today was the day the mullet bid farewell. We've mentioned before about our affinity for the local barbershop, and today all three boys got haircuts. True to Sarah-form I neglected to bring the camera to capture this special moment so a nice gentleman took this image on his phone. It is quite blurry, but better than nothing. Nothing is what we have to remember Jonathan's first, second, third... haircuts. I didn't even think to bring the camera until his seventh or eighth one. Caleb, consider yourself lucky :+).
He did very well and seemed to love the barbershop as much as Jonathan. Many thanks to Kari for another fabulous little kid cut!

Tackle in the Pillows!

One of the Guild family favorites has emerged, once again. Winter seems to bring out the restlessness in all of us, so we bring out the "tackle in the pillows!" game. The game requires a high level of supervision, as Caleb is still a bit small for full participation status. However, this does not deter him from shrieks of glee and endless laughter while playing.

If I close my eyes...

you can't see me! Jonathan was jumping on the chair in the living room after lunch. This is a no go in this house, so I asked him to cease jumping. He closed his eyes, and kept jumping.

He was sent to time out for disobedience, to which he replied, "But, I closed my eyes so you wouldn't see me jumping!" Hmmm... multiple problems with that logic but funny to see the mind of a three year at work.

Blast Back to Halloween

Halloween is two weeks past, but I found these photos on the camera when I was downloading some others. Jonathan did manage to put on his costume to visit a couple of houses next door. He insisted on wearing his brightly colored pajama pants and orange boots with the coat, but at least he wore the coat for a few minutes.Caleb, on the other hand... much more agreeable about the costume. However, by the time 6:30 rolled around for trick or treating he was very tired as a result of poor napping (kind of the norm around here) so he wasn't all that chipper for the event. Cute, just not chipper.

He has started scrunching up his nose.

Just love his blue eyes. :+)

The Bike Trail

One of our favorite weekly activities are our bike rides and walks at the trail. We are very lucky to have extensive bike trails all around our area, and we take full advantage of this convenience. We have some friends who love the outdoors as much as we do, and they are always willing to brave mildly unpleasant conditions for the sake of fresh air. Julianne and Erica are great pals for Jonathan...

Off and racing

Meeting of the minds

He's off

Caleb has sporadically taken steps in the last couple of weeks, but hasn't really taken off. Today he took 7-8 steps without coercion on several occasions. I think that he has become a walking machine.

Church

Jonathan loves going to church. Now. He hasn't always liked it, but that's another story. He wanted to go to church on Friday, and Saturday, and was asking about it all day Sunday. You wouldn't know that he liked it from his demeanor during the kids' singing time.

This scene is what Jamie and I observed last week (as we watched from the outside before picking him up): all of the children together with the worship time leaders, all of them smiling, most of them jumping to a song, and most of them clapping. All of them smiling except my kid. He stood there, staring, not smiling at the leaders during the whole singing time.

We asked the worship time leaders if this was his norm and they started laughing. The singing as a whole kids' group is new. Apparently, the last time they had led singing (they only have kids' music every three weeks because we're a small church and the leaders have other worship service responsibilities) Jonathan stood off to the side of the group, not smiling and staring at all of them. The leader commented that he felt like the little man was observing them for a psychology experiment. His comment, "Jonathan just doesn't respond like most kids to the songs." Um, yeah.

In light of this, I asked Jonathan if he liked the singing. "Yeah, I like mighty GO GOD!" And, he proceeded to sing the song (minus some words) and do some actions. Hmmm...

Me: "So, why didn't you sing or clap or jump with the other kids?"

Jonathan: "Cause I didn't want to."

And, that is that.