Dec Misc

A few happenings in our family from December...

Children's Museum

Early in the month, Adley and I visited the Children's Museum after picking up a 5K race packet for Mommy. Adley is at a perfect age for enjoying the museum! Her attention span at each exhibit is VERY short, so we usually see a little of everything multiple times over. :)

I loved hearing her babble in this kitchen about what food items she was carrying. Adley loved stuffing all kinds of items in the fridge.

Adley was very excited to find a little dump truck that looked exactly like one she owns at home! Unfortunately, that meant that she believed it actually WAS hers and didn't want anyone else to touch the dump truck... 

Adley also enjoyed taking the pegs out of this giant lite-brite and pretending to drive the car. 

When we were nearing the end of our visit, the museum's actual fire alarms went off and everyone was asked to exit the building. The kids visiting the museum were all so thrilled to see a REAL firetruck arrive to check everything out. It turned out that the alarm had been triggered by (we think) some kind of water leak/electrical issue at a neighboring store, so we they allowed everyone to re-enter the building right away after they shut off the alarms. What an unexpected adventure!

Train 41

On the way home from the museum, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to stop by the railroad tracks to see the arrival of Presidential Train 41. I had heard only the night before that this famous train would be making a historical journey up to College Station, TX, carrying the body of the late President Bush. I figured since Adley and I would be crossing right over these tracks on our return trip from the museum, I might as well stop and witness a bit of history! A good-sized crowd of onlookers had already gathered in the area.

Adley had already fallen asleep in the car briefly on our trip home, so she was fairly content just snuggling in my arms for a good portion of the time we waited (about 30 min) for the train to arrive.

When the train finally arrived, it was traveling much faster than I had anticipated!

The train was there and gone in mere seconds! My mom had actually stopped at a friend's house to observe the train moving through too. She got a perfect picture of Bush's funeral casket car as well as the caboose.

Here is a video of the last half of the train passing by Adley and me. We enjoyed that we were able to be there and honor this wonderful Christian man!

Jingle Bell Run

Our family has signed up for this fun winter run several years in a row. This year's forecast, however, did not look great. It was fairly chilly and VERY wet and rainy on race day. Some members of our family (probably wisely) chose to just stay home. Kim and I decided to still brave the elements and participate. The rain was never very heavy but it was a steady cold drizzle the entire time, so we were quite chilled by the end of the race!

I ended up getting 4th place in my age division and kept up a 8.38 min/mile pace. After the race, we got a great stash of treats from the vendors. Most vendors who were there told us to take treats in multiples since the run drew a lot fewer participants this year. Our kids definitely enjoyed the extra cookies and granola bars we brought home. One race vendor was actually giving out free nachos! It was a strange post-race snack, especially early in the morning, but they still tasted great!

Kindermusic

Sometime this month I just happened to see an ad for an opening of a new music school in our area. They were offering a free kindermusic class as a way to draw people in and introduce the public to their school. I was excited to try out a class for Adley. She played with various percussion instruments...

listened to the leader sing and play on her guitar, and enjoyed playing with this fun parachute as we sang. I don't think we enjoyed the class enough to pay for a full session, but it was fun to try out and to do something new!

Park Playdate

My sister Kim and I enjoy meeting for occasional runs. This particular morning, we met at a park and let Adley and Nathan play on the playground after their time in the jogging stroller. They were both fairly good sports about riding along with us. (Nathan was a good influence on Adley!)

Aunt Kim had remembered to bring bread to feed the funny nutria animals in the park. Adley LOVED this part.

Reynolds Family Open House

One December weekend, a church family invited us to their large Christmas party open house. This family owns a lot of land, so there was a LOT of activities to keep our kids busy. They all loved their time here-- zip lining and swinging,

making an ornament craft, riding horses,

feeding the horses,

and going on a hayride with friends!

All three kids even got to try their hand at driving the tractor for the hayride with Mr. Reynolds. Adley didn't last long at all as a helper-driver, but the boys loved the opportunity. What a fun party!

Advent Box Activities

Each year in December, we set out an Advent calendar in our home that has a box to open for each day leading up to Christmas. Inside each box is a special treat for the day-- candy, coins, or an activity idea. The calendar serves a couple purposes: a fun way to count down to Christmas and a way we can build in intentional family time during a busy season. The boys really look forward to opening their box each day, and we've loved creating many Advent memories together each year! I didn't take pics of many of our standard box ideas, like going out for donuts, looking at Christmas lights, breakfast in bed, or movie night. Instead, I just have photos of some of the bigger, unique events that we did in 2018.

A "Grinchy" Christmas

I was so excited to see that our public library was hosting this fun, free event for Christmas-- a showing of the old cartoon version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Jaden and Cody had yet to see this short movie that I grew up loving, so I couldn't wait for them to see it too. 

The library gave out free snacks too (popcorn and candy) before the show. Look at Cody waiting for the "all clear" to get his treat! ha!

After the movie (which Cody and Jaden enjoyed almost as much as Mommy!), the boys got to make a grinch ornament. They stuffed green pom-poms into a clear plastic ornament and stuck a heart on the outside. It was a cute little keepsake from a fun event!

Half-Birthday Treat

For the boys' half birthday on December 2nd, they brought in birthday desserts to share with their class-- frosted brownies with sprinkles for Cody and scotcheroos for Jaden. As part of their Advent box treat, Daddy also brought in a McDonalds lunch for them to enjoy.

Home Depot Build

The December kids' workshop at Home Depot was a Christmas sleigh. We figured these sleighs would make festive decorations in the boys' room for Christmas. The boys were excited for another building project.

The kit even came with a reindeer to steer the sleigh.

Both boys were eager to paint their sleigh after they were done building.

They were very proud of their final products and each wanted a special pose next to their sleigh. :)

German Festival

Attending this semi-annual festival in our area has become a December tradition for our family. We bought a set (small) number of tickets for the kids and let them each pick out 3 or 4 rides to go on. Adley was thrilled about the carousel!

The boys' favorite was this random spinning dog ride that they enjoyed last year too. They got it spinning quite fast!

Mommy joined the boys on this ferris wheel ride. We got a beautiful view of the night lights. It was a bit chilly for us up high though!

We let the kids pick a special treat to eat too. They ended up trying Dippin' Dots for the first time. Not surprisingly, it was a hit for all three kids!

While we ate, we listened to this local German band perform a few songs. We especially loved hearing the yodeling and the rendition of Edelweiss on the musical saw (see videos below). Amazing!

The chilly evening had rain in the forecast, so we brought along our umbrellas. We ended up not needing them (for rain anyway), but Adley didn't want to let go of hers! She screamed when we tried to take it away for the picture, so we settled on an umbrella + happy toddler picture rather than a tantrum picture sans umbrella. Good choice, I think. :)

Little Beakers

Jason and I thought that having a Mommy/Daddy date with the boys would be a fun new Advent box activity idea for this year. We decided that Daddy would take the boys to go play tennis one day, and Mommy would visit Little Beakers (a kids' science lab) with them. I've been wanting to take Jaden and Cody to this place ever since my sister told me about it a few years ago! It ended up being so much fun! We paid for a full hour's time in the lab, during which the boys could  choose to complete as many science experiments as they wanted. The boys' first pick was to make slime. We had to gather all our supplies and then follow the step-by-step directions carefully.

The above pictures were of a beach-sand type of slime that was very wet and gooey. The boys chose immediately to make a second type of slime which was made with shaving cream. This one was very puffy and much less messy to play with.

Then, we moved on to a new lab station and watched pepper "dance" with static electricity.

Our next experiment was probably the boys' favorite-- watching Coke fizz and erupt out of the bottle after dropping in a Mentos mint.

For our next experiment, we poured oil and water into a large flask and then observed what happened when we dropped in some food coloring. It was amazing watching the food coloring pass right through the oil and then only disperse once it hit the water!

Our last experiment was using a mortar and pestle to grind cereal into fine powder and then trying to pull out iron with a magnet. I didn't get any pictures of this last one since the boys lost interest with it fairly quickly. Overall, though, Cody and Jaden really seemed to enjoy their time here. I was excited about all that they learned too, not just about the experiment results, but simply about the process of conducting an experiment and following step-by-step directions. This will definitely be a place to visit again!

21 Months Old

The beginning of December marked our little girl's 21 month milestone. Her month leading up to this was a stretch of huge extremes. At times, she can give us the sweetest smile, tightest hugs, and say the funniest things. Then only moments later, she can throw the largest tantrum if we don't let her have her way. She is definitely becoming more independent and opinionated. 

Adley has amazed us this past month with all she can say and do. She watches others carefully and closely imitates what she sees. We love seeing all that Adley is learning, and we are so thankful for her health and growth!

Other Notes about Adley at 21 Months:

PHYSICAL

• Can slide down the large twisty slide at the playground independently
• Brings out a diaper and the changing pad when she needs a diaper change
• Takes off her shoes and socks in the car between every stop, often chucking her socks and shoes to the far corner of the van!

LANGUAGE

• Sings/shouts out random words along with songs (like TOWN at the end of The Wheels on the Bus)
• Says color words, but does not yet correctly connect the words to the right color
• Can count to three, especially when she wants someone to swing her
• Says "Bless you, Mommy" when we sneeze or "Thank you, Daddy" when we give her something
• Can correctly distinguish her twin brothers "Co-wa" and "Jay-na" both in person and in pictures!
• Learned a few new animal sounds (gobble gobble and cock-a-doodle-doo)
• Will regularly say "Adley turn" or "Adley help" or "Adley push" when she wants to do something

PLAYTIME/OTHER

• Has become VERY antsy on errands with Mommy and regularly refuses to sit in the shopping cart. She asks to "help push" or tries to ride on the front of the cart
• Best way to entertain her in the car is by having her recite her animal sounds and point out various body parts
• Loves dancing along to music, sometimes putting pillows on the ground and "jumping" on them or running around the room while flailing her arms around
• Loves listening to her toddler songs in the car, especially BINGO and Farmer Grover
• Likes bouncing or jumping on her poor brothers when they are lying on the floor trying to read (which does NOT make them very happy!)
• Enjoys exploring with dot painters, and is often entertained just as long by screwing off and on the caps

A video of Adley dancing and singing along to her current favorite Christian radio song: