1.  Church lets out early for football.

2.  If you don’t own a car, you can’t go anywhere.

3.  You have to take pictures EVERY. TIME. it snows.  No exceptions.

Christmas Eve

Kaelin got her much-wished-for “White Christmas”

Today, I did 10 loads of laundry, mopped the kitchen floor, cleaned the laundry room, went grocery shopping to 3 different stores, and managed to keep my kitchen and living room from being declared an uninhabitable disaster zone.

Move over, Wonder Woman.

Dear Mischief Monkey,

You are 19 months old.  This was supposed to be your 18 month newsletter, but the time passed so quickly that I didn’t get around to writing it until now.  I guess that’s what you get for having your half-birthday in the month of December.

You have grown in so many ways over the last month.  You’re taller, heavier, and learning new things every day.

You have finally started talking and not a moment too soon.  You have a select repertoire of words that you use and it’s so nice to be able to communicate with you verbally.  The patches on my head where I have pulled out all my hair are finally getting the chance to fill in again.  Also keeping me sane is the fact that you now answer yes/no questions with head nods instead of blank stares and cries when I guess the wrong answer.

However, your favorite mode of conversation is still an incessant calling of someone’s name to get their attention without any sort of follow through.  Our car trips consist of this:

“Mama?”
“Yes, Koren?”
“Mama?”
“What is it, Koren?”
“Mama?”
“Koren.”
“Mama.”
“What?
“Mama?”
“What?”
“Mama!”
“What do you need, Koren?”
“Mama?”
“Koren?”
“Mama.”
“What?”
“Mama.”
“…”
“Mama!!”
“I hear you, Koren.”
“Mama?”
“What, Koren?”
“Mama?”
“WHAT????”
(whispering) “…Mama.”

Besides Mama, your vocabulary includes words like Daddo, Ana, Papa, Kakee (Kaelin), baby, doggy, kitty, book, bippy (sippy), milk, cheese, cookie, up, down, out, please, juice, turkey, hi, hello, bye-bye, and ta-da!, though many of these are lacking a few consonants when you pronounce them.  You have also gotten fluent in a variety of animal sounds.  You never call animals by name (other than doggies and kitties) but rather by the sound they make.  A cow is a MOO and a sheep is a BAAA.

You’re working on learning the “k” sound and words like milk and book, which were formerly “mo” and “bah” now end in long, exaggerated guttural sounds.  It sounds like you’re trying to hock a loogie, but it’s cute somehow.

Like your sister, you have also invented your own word for pacifier.  Whereas Kaelin called it a “bup,” you prefer the term “boppy.”  You are quite attached to your boppy and I don’t foresee you being willing to give it up anytime soon.

You love eating, laughing, running, wrestling, jumping, cuddling after naps, animals, dancing, Dora, dolls, and all things pink.  I have a feeling that those last few are a result of having an older sister, but your father gets nervous each time you ignore the trucks in favor of pushing Baby Timmy around in the pink stroller.

You are completely enamored with your grandparents.  You walk around the house asking for Ana and Papa, and when you see Grandmommy or Grandpa, you almost hyperventilate if you can’t bear hug them RIGHT. THIS. SECOND.  But they don’t seem to mind.

We’ve had to start enforcing Time Out in your crib, because you are stubborn and mischievous and completely unresponsive to scolding or hand swats.  Your are NOT A FAN of the isolation routine, but it’s the only way we can keep you from pushing all the buttons on the DVD player.

Speaking of your mischief, which is never-ending… 

You love to steal things and run.  You are, unfortunately, very good at this.  You love to stick things in your ear.  I don’t get the appeal of this, but to each his own.  Except the part where you need to STOP THAT.  “Mama, Koren’s got the scissors and he’s sticking them in his ear!” is a phrase I’d prefer not to hear again.

You also love to elicit certain reactions out of people.  This morning I made the mistake of yelping and dodging a strawberry that you offered to wipe on my clothes.  Giggling, you then proceeded to chase me around the kitchen with the strawberry.  This afternoon I squealed in surprise when you put your arm (which was very COLD after having just been outside) down the front of my shirt.  You thought that was HILARIOUS and took upon yourself the mission to reproduce that reaction as often as possible.

You are a total ham.  This afternoon, you would call Mama or Daddo, just to get our attention so you could giggle your silly little tilted-head “I’m a ham” snicker-giggle – which is hard to explain in writing but maybe I can catch it on film sometime.

You love books.  Love them.  You often bring me a book and we read 1 or 2 pages, then you shut the book and say “Bye-bye!” and then jump down to grab another book.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  You especially love books that have sliders and flaps and doors and triggers, and you’re attention span for those types activities far exceeds my own.

You have been banned from the cribs at Mother’s Day Out because you jump in them instead of sleeping.  I have been informed that we need to purchase a nap mat for you. 

I did get you a trampoline with a handlebar for Christmas and it remains to date one of the best purchases I’ve ever made for you.  You love to jump to Laurie Berkner Band music videos and any other music that comes on TV.

You remain a superb hugger and a pretty affectionate little guy.  Sometimes I’ll just be standing there and you come over and wrap your arms around my legs for a few seconds before continuing on your way with your busy schedule.  I love those moments.

I also love the fact that you’re reliably napping for 2-hour stretches these days and if you haven’t gotten enough sleep when you wake up, I can leave you in your crib and you’ll GO BACK TO SLEEP.  This trait is a novelty to me, and it’s pretty awesome.

All in all, kid, you’re active, curious, energetic, and we’re both exhausted by the end of the day.  But this stage between 1 and 2 is one of the best and your Daddo and I are enjoying every day of discovering your personality and nature as you discover the world around you.

Sleep good kiddo.  We both need it.

Love,
Mama

Sheesh.  You’d think we were there for a month the way these entries are stretching out.

We toured the Capitol, and it was cool, but I’m going to leave the details out of this post.

Ok, except for this – the painting in the Capitol dome is called the “Apotheosis of George Washington.” In other words, George Washington becoming a god.

And also this. It’s in the Smithsonian now, but used to be in the Capitol.
It’s George Washington as a Greek god. It was removed in 1908 for indecency
because OMG GEORGE HAS NO CLOTHES ON!!!

The Magna Carta. One of 4 originals.

What’s left of the Declaration of Independence. It’s actually kind of sad how much of it has faded. You can’t read it, and can barely even tell where the signatures were. The Magna Carta is in much better shape and predates the DOI by over 550 years.

a.k.a. “Other Random Smithsonian Pictures”

Egyptian Mummy

Mummy Cow

Ring belonging to Jotham, son of the biblical King of Judah, Uzziah

Evolution of the toaster

Night light from the 1950′s, notable because the kid who used it is STILL having nightmares about demonic dogs from the gates of hell.

Abraham Lincoln’s hat. No, seriously. It is.

Political puppet play, common in the pre-Declaration of Independence era

a.k.a. Dead Animals That Have Been Excessively Groomed and Plumped to Look Way Healthier Than They Actually Are in the Wild

Is that Hastings? Nope. It’s a really fat dingo.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Everybody needs a picture of a dik-dik.

A little postmortem lounging.

Was that my stomach growling? Must be lunch time.

Vampire Deer iz wachin yu. Get me mah cheezburger or i b suckin ur bludz.

BOO!

You could spend a solid week going through the Smithsonian museums.  We decided just to tour two of them, starting with the Museum of Natural History.  It was … big.

Big Sea Creature

Big Dinosaur

Big Expensive Rock

Big Whale

Big Elephant

Big Dorks

The Christmas season is an excellent time to visit DC, because everything is lit up at night.  The National Tree is lit up from head to toe with the New! Energy Efficient! LED! Lights! and decorations and displays abound everywhere to celebrate the season.

The Capitol

National Christmas Tree in front of the White House

National Christmas Tree with Washington Monument in the background

Ancillary Christmas trees around the National Christmas tree, with Washington Monument in background

One of several moving train sets surrounding the National Christmas Tree

Texas Christmas Tree

The Lincoln Memorial is an American memorial built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and was dedicated on May 30, 1922.
The building is in the form of a Greek Doric temple and contains a large seated sculpture of Abraham Lincoln and inscriptions of two well-known speeches by Lincoln. The memorial has been the site of many famous speeches, including Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered on August 28, 1963 during the rally at the end of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
The memorial was ranked seventh on the List of America’s Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.

Finches in front of the Lincoln Memorial

After visiting Virginia over Thanksgiving weekend, we returned the following weekend to tour DC, compliments of my parents for Jens’ birthday surprise.

Obligatory White House Shot

World War II Memorial

World War II Memorial

World War II Memorial

World War II Memorial with Washington Monument in the background

Larger–than-life-size soldier statues at the Korean War Memorial

I walked into the bathroom where Kaelin was in the tub with her back to me.  She had pasted a wet washcloth to her tummy and was staring down at it, shaking her head in disapproval. 

“White just isn’t my color.”

I’m not sure why I can’t seem to get my act together with this blog.  I still have the remainder of our East Cost trips to post, Koren’s 18-month newsletter (since, you know, he’s going to be 19 months tomorrow), Christmas, and a couple of random photos and videos I’ve never gotten around to.  Sheesh.

And, in case you didn’t notice, the Christmas theme is still up, so that needs to go.

So what am I doing instead, you might ask?

Recovering from Christmas, trying to keep my kids from killing each other (really, that hasn’t been too bad but Koren’s taken to screaming in high-pitched head-imploding shrieks every time he’s not getting exactly what he wants.  Ear plugs, anyone?), cleaning out various parts of our house, having company, having more company, traveling to see old friends, discovering Costco (Costco!), and writing Christmas thank-you-notes.  Ok that last one’s a lie.  I haven’t started the thank you notes yet either.

So here’s to starting 2010 dreadfully behind (do NOT come look at my laundry pile).  Cheers!