January Fun

Despite the gloomy weather, January was filled with a lot of fun.
Josie and Benjamin make a great pair for the swing. She likes to push and he likes to be pushed... minutes of entertainment before one of them gets tired. Thanks Liz and Oma for the addition to the swingset!!

We had a great time at Talaricos with our friends Markus, Jen, Mia and Ellie. Josie and Mia are two peas in a pod and Benjamin is still just trying to keep his girlfriends straight. This is Ellie who is one day older.

Josie and Mia at the Children's Museum. They both enjoy getting dirty.

And painting.

Benjamin even got in on the action. He really just wanted to dive right into the padded box.

The kids now enjoy going to the store together as they can both fit into the car in front of the cart.

Or the front. Josie hasn't sat in the front for a long time but since Costco has the double wide ones she thought it would be fun to keep her brother company.

Thanks to Aunt Kelley and Uncle Tim, meal times are more fun now that ever. The "face plate" is requested at every meal and I have to say it is pretty fun to come up with ideas and decorate it.

Even snacks require the "face plate"

Swimming

Just about every week we head to the pool for some family time. Benjamin is extremely comfortable in the water and loves splashing around and floating on his tummy and back. He seems to have no fear at all.

Josie has really become quite a confident swimmer. She can "swim" the entire length of the pool and back without using a noodle. It is really more of a dog paddle but she does it on her own and reminds us often that she is able "to do it myself." She loves jumping in, going under and then "swimming."

Standing

The boy with the million dollar smile is STANDING... still not crawling, but standing very well.

Playing

Benjamin and Josie are starting to "play" together more and more.

Shockingly, Josie is quite patient with him and really enjoys making him laugh... which she can do like no other.
Here they are in the laundry basket

And playing ball

Josie is really an artist. At preschool, she spends the majority of her time in the art room and every week we bring home armfuls of art projects. A few weeks ago she got really creative and glued together a house.

My friend Siri (who I taught with at Shorecrest) had a baby a few months after Benjamin was born. He has so many girlfriends, he can't even keep them straight. He is such a lady's man.


Josie never really got into banging pots and pans but Benjamin sure does.. and now Josie gets into it too. It always starts out very calm with just a couple of things.

And before you know it the entire utensil drawer is emptied and they are having band practice while I make dinner.

Bath Time!

Benjamin has a new favorite activity... batheing with his sister!! At first he would just sit in the chair watching, longing to join her in the tub.

It took awhile for him to get stable enough while sitting to put him in the big tub but once he got his chance to go in he hasn't looked back. Now when we go into the bathroom and start the water he just goes crazy kicking his legs and waving his arms just dying to dive in.

We started out with just a bit of water and he was a little hesitant at first. Josie, well she has become quite the drama queen, in all different definitions of the word. In this instance, she just wants the spotlight. I can't really hold it against her. After viewing old family movies of myself, I think she may get that from me :)

But now he really gets into it. Look at his little legs going!! And, yes,he is falling over at the end. He falls over at least once a bath but recovers very nicely. We are ALL soaking wet after the bath these days.
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"Talking" and Playing

Benjamin wants to talk so badly. He has been saying "dada, mama and gaga" since about 5 months... often even practicing interspersed with giggles in the middle of the night. Not the best time to be working on his speech but even as sleep deprived as I am right now it still makes me smile.

This has been his new way of communicating. What he is trying to say I'm not really sure but he sure wants to say something. I guess growing up in our very talkative and loud family it will be a survival skill he will need for later.

And the almost nightly game of "hoppe hoppe reiter"

Christmas

This year Christmas lasted about 5 days for us and it was filled with family, friends, food and fun. Marty, Josie and I started off Christmas Eve morning by volunteering at Operation Sack Lunch (http://www.opsacklunch.org/ ) This is a great organization that Marty has had the privilege of sitting on its board for the past year or so. They feed the majority of Seattle's homeless population every day of the year. We both figured that it is never to early to start volunteering and were so happy that Josie was allowed to come and help. Benjamin, unfortunately, was too young and had to stay home with Julie. Hopefully he will have the chance to come next year or the year after. We are hoping to make this an annual tradition.

Marty did some dishes and worked in the kitchen.

Josie and I stuffed a ton of bags with basic essentials (soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, wipes, instant coffee, socks, etc) and wrapped them as gifts.

Josie then was in charge of handing out cookies to each person. She took her job quite seriously. When the line had died down she took off her gloves because we had assumed she was done. A few minutes later a man came up to her and asked her for a cookie. She told him "no". She frantically came looking for us to put gloves back on her so she could serve him a cookie :)

When we got home, Josie discovered that Santa had come while we were gone...And then the craziness began. Gifts for everyone.

Even a t-shirt for Benjamin. Julie wants him to remember that he is her boyfriend!

Josie LOVED unwrapping everyone's gifts and Benjamin LOVED playing with the paper. A good combination this year. Not sure how well it will go next year when Benjamin wants to unwrap his own gifts.

Later on that day we headed down to Marty's parent's house for the traditional Christmas Eve celebration. Great job hosting, Oma!!!

And for the final Christmas celebration this year, we headed up to Bellingham on the 26th to spend some time with the Wiley's and Grandma and Papa. Thanks for hosting, Kim. We all had a great time.

Uncle Fred and Benjamin

Jon and Josie

The girls