Ozark Christmas 2012

When you make a big production out of going to meet santa, getting dressed in some holiday attire to have your photo taken, then wait in line, outside in the cold, you at least expect to get a good photo out of it.  This is not what I expected.

No, that is not a muppet-baby from Sesame Street, it's my 5-month old baby girl in her first Christmas photo.  The bigger kid does not, in reality, have orange hair, and usually does not have this kind of look on his face. This santa had one of those dirty white hobo beards, and a wicked-sounthern accent. We now refer to him as south pole santa.

In the photo below you can see that Jack has been allowed to bring spider man to see Santa on the town square. 

The month did actually start off great with Jillian continuing to put on weight and learn to eat cereal and even some of Jacqui's home-made baby food.  She's rolling over onto her belly and making some crawling motions.  All pretty good progress.

 Jack's pre-school class had been practicing singing Christmas songs.  They had a celebration and the man in the red suit made an appearance.  

 Jack was more than a little disruptive during the program.

At one point he climbed into Santa's fireplace, took out the fake fire wood and whacked some kid in the mouth with it.

 None of these kids will be getting an award for singing any time soon.  Sounded like cats in an alley.

 

 Monday he's Spider Man, Tuesday he's Green Lantern, Wednesday it might be a ninja...

 

The kid below, with the red shirt and his back to the camera, is one of Jack's best friends. Something happened between the two of them which has caused a bit of a problem. Last time, it was an argument about which super-hero, Spider-man or Super-man, was more red. Not really a big deal, unless you are a 3 1/2 year-old.

Anyway, whatever it was this time, it pissed-off Jack so much, that after school, he told me he had a secret he needed to talk to me about.  He was visibly upset, teary-eyed and red-faced as he told me what was wrong and handed me this sheet of paper.

It turns out, Jack had created this "naughty list" and he "wrote" his friends name on it.  Yes, he put his best friend on Santa's shit-list.  "I don't know how to do it", he said.  "Get him off of it".  We had a talk about being friends, and not doing that again, and let him know we'd have to ask the elves to deliver a message to Santa to please fix it, so his friend could be on the "good boys" list.

This photo below is Jacqui falling into the tree, wearing high heels, with her son on her shoulders.  It was such a bad idea, I had to get a photo of it.  He was very proud of himself for getting that star up there.

 

 

 The photos with Santa came out so bad that we had some other photos taken of the kids.

Ok, one last story.  I took Jack to the mall to do some last minute shopping for Jacqui.  We made a short detour into a toy store when Jack saw they had a train set assembled in the entrance.  A few minutes later, he jumps up and says "hey, I gotta go".  That's code for - find a bathroom for me RIGHT NOW.  I can give you a sense for the urgency with which he said this, by telling you he had been draging around his Spiderman backpack, filled with his cars and other toys, but left it behind, as he turned and ran out of the store.  I know he'd sooner give up a kidney than this bag, yet he's saying - Nope, forget it.  I grabed the bag, and chased after him, into the mall, hoping he's running in the right direction.  Neither of us really knows where the nearest toilet is, but he's running.  We find the bathroom, a bit too late, and I had to strip him down, and throw out the underwear.  On our way down the escalator to purchase some new underwear, and pants, he does a complete split, one foot on the moving stairs, and the other still stuck on land, like that scene in the movie Elf with Will Ferrell.  I think it's actually called an Elf-split. Two more trips to the bathroom, and we had to leave because we were out of underwear.  We got home, and this 'sick' lasted about 12 more hours.  Jacqui got it next, then me, then I passed it to two guys at work.  I'm now known around the office as Cyrus The Virus.

We hope you are happy and healthy this time of year, and we wish you the very best in the new year.

October in the Ozarks

The weather really cooperated in October so we headed out for a few hikes.  We got to see the peak of the foliage in the Ozarks, and it was better than in the past two years.  The late season rains helped the trees tolerate the drought we've been experiencing.

 I got Jack to sit still here with Jillian, not swing this stick around, and not fall off the cliff in the background.  It was a great hike, but it started to get cold, and it was through an area where there are bears, so not everyone enjoyed it.

 Here we're going over our bear sighting strategy while we have a snack.  There are a few shelters along this trail, and we got a chance to take some more pics.

 You can get a feel for the landscape in this photo.  The area surrounding this "mountain" is rolling hills and valleys.  Not the really rough landscape, and deep "hollers" you'd see in the south west and north east corners of the state.

The following weekend it was back to the trails, but in short sleeves.  Jillian co-operated again, so I think she'll be a good hiker.  Jack took this photo.

 While hiking he's got to have a hiking stick / weapon / sword, and has to pick up a rock every few feet to throw in whatever creek we are about to cross.

 Here's the little Spartan at the entrance to one of the caves along this trail.  Most of the bigger public access caves are still closed to protect the bats from spread of some kind of disease that's bothering them (I think it's called white-nose syndrome).

 Jack got tired on this one and fell down a few times.  I ended up having to carry him on my shoulders.  So that's 37lbs and a 10lb pack.  An ok workout.  Jacqui gets to carry Jillian.

 More hiking through bear territory.  We saw lots of bear poop, scrapes and other sign, but were careful to make enough noise, as not to surprise any.  It's the last of the hikes for a while, as we'll not get out there again until after deer hunting season.  That's probably for the best, because on this particular day, Jack decided to drop-trou in the parking lot, about 20 feet from the lodge (and bathroom), to "unload his wagon" as they say.  Yes, he left a full turd in broad daylight, right in the parking lot, without even mentioning it might be time to go.

 Jillian is putting on some weight, has been sleeping through the night, usually 9:30 till 5am.  She also gets a pretty good cat-nap in from 6 till 9 before her bottle.  Not much snoozing at school though, as her daily report card shows her averaging a few 30 or 45 minute naps during the day.

 Daddy's little girl started making a few more sounds, and is getting a bit louder when she "talks".

 Here's Jack on his way to church.  No, just kidding.  Here he is with Shelly the Skelleton, in costume as his favorite hero, Spiderman, for Halloween.  He's still is a big fan of the supers, particularly Hulk, Captain America, and Iron Man.  He's also loving the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (because of the karate and sword fights), knights fighting dragons (because of the sword fights), and Ninjago's because of the swords and fighting.  We have a weekly stick fight in the back yard, and most of the time do it in slow motion like in the tv shows.  We had been fighting with swords, but Jack recently cracked mine in half with a full swing.  He's still apologizing because he knows we can't have the fights with it any more.

 Enjoying a trail-side snack.

 Neither one of these kids is enjoying this.

An arm-load of rocks and sticks while hiking.

Hope you liked the photos.  Next month I don't know what we'll be doing, other than celebrating Thanksgiving and getting the Christmas tree.  Maybe we'll have some southern-style fixins and will share that experience with you.  Hope you have a great holiday.

September is "time to get back to basics"

Fall is here and, as Jacqui likes to say, "fall is time to get back to basics - football, Octoberfest, tailgating, going back to school".  Since we've moved south, some of those things have changed. Watching Big 10 football has changed to watching SEC games. Yes, I know Arkansas has been getting killed, and I blame it on poor management (John L. Smith coached Michigan State before coming here).  Every time he speaks, my management team at work uses his quotes as examples of what LOSERS say.  Quote to his assistant coaches last week: "When you are losing, just continue to believe in the things you are doing".  That gets re-worked as "When you are not selling, just change SOMETHING". Take a good look at what's not working, and change it. I don't care if it's just your underpants, just change something.

 

Speaking of changing your underpants, Jillian has been having some outrageous blowout poops, often requiring a bath.  She screams like a banshee when she gets cold.

Octoberfest doesn't exist down here.  When we lived in Chicago, Octoberfest was a big, big deal, due  to the large German population in that area.  When I lived in Boston, it was half-way to St. Patrick's Day, so was a good excuse to drink beer outside.  Down in the south, it would be considered absurd, and too ethnicky.  This is Jillian's St. Pauli Girl dress.

Tailgating is a BIG part of the Arkansas Razorback football experience.  We have a tailgate party at work every Saturday.  We can do it because 1 hour before game time it's like a ghost town there.  EVERYBODY is somewhere else watching the game.  Except, for some reason, people from India. 

We get some great BBQ, funions and sweet tea.  Somebody always brings a bag of apples.  I found this one just laying around at home.  Jack said "a shit-munk ate it".

Jacqui's maternity leave ended, and the kids are both back to school.  Before school started, we took a family trip to the bizarre animal safari.  We got too close to an emu here, and also too close to some long-horn cattle.  We didn't see one nursing, and she swung her horns at the car, nearly ripping off the passenger-side mirror.

We also celebrated fall by going to a pumpkin patch.  Because of the drought, I was very skeptical of the pumpkin progress. As it turned out, they've been irrigating, and prices are about 20 times the retail price of store pumpkins, so the drought hasn't affected them as much.

Here Jack is showing that he's more than "FREE" (3) feet tall.

We went on a hay ride through the fields, past the ghosts and gouls, scarecrows and the alligator pond.

I think Jillian slept through the whole thing. 

I talked Jacqui out of wearing heels, so she wouldn't let me photograph her below the knees.

It's a jack-ass

 This is a hay tunnel.  Jack said, "hey, there's a bunch of stuff crawlin around in here".

It's one of our traditions to pick our own pumpkin.  Down here you should watch for big snakes when you do this.

When the pumpkin patch-girl saw us take this picture, she asked if she could take one of our girl too, to post on the patch's Facebook site.  They don't have a bathroom, but they do have a web-page and facebook site.

 

 

 Jack fell here, and hit the back of his head on a rock.  It litterally knocked him silly.  He's fine now.

I can get Jillian to stick her tongue out and smile.  I'll try to get some video next month. She has a shy-girl routine she does, where she looks away and covers her face with her hand while smiling.  Then turns back and raises one eyebrow.  Very cute.

 

My parents took a trip from Massachusetts to see the kids and attend Jillian's baptism.  My mom did her best to try to get a photo of the two of them together.  This is the closest she got.  I think Jack's saying, I'll stand here but I'm not touching that baby.  Nana, you should put that baby down so you can play with these cups with me.

Pa got familiarized with all of the matchbox cars.  Featured here are "star-car" and "Pam-car".  Pam car was a gift from TuTu's friend Pam.

Pa tried to get Jack to "play by the rules".  An important lesson, and becoming more important at pre-school.  During board games, or any other game for that matter, I let him play the way he want's to play.  I haven't enforced any rules on games.  You want to always roll the number 4?  Fine.  You want to always land on a red color?  Fine.  My only rule is that we take turns, and you don't win everytime.  We've modified that plan now, and he's working on it, but after my parents left, he said, "tell them I'll play the rule".  He's been a bit more willing to play by the rules since then.

 

We baptised Jillian in September.  She wore a beautiful christening gown that my Mom got for her, but you can't see it here, or in any other photo, unfortunately.  She was very fussy, and Jack was impatient, refusing to even sit in the church for the service.  During the ceremony, while the priest was speaking, he yelled in his best Boston accent "when ah we gonna get ATTAH heah".

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Jillian's god-parents are Michelle Callahan, Jerry Privasky and Chad & Teresa Donath (Chad above in blue suit with head cut off, and Teresa holding Jillian, below).

 

That's about it for now.  We hope you enjoyed the photos, and our view of life in the south.  In October you'll probably finally see some photo's of the all-new re-designed 2013 Honda Accord, a link to my walk-around video of that, more pics of the kids, and if we buy a house, some photos of that.

August dog days - not much to report

August came and went and the kids are growing and learning (hopefully).  Jillian is learning how to make a sourpus face.

 This is the "wha chu you talkin' 'bout" face

This is what she does when Notre Dame scores

This is what she does when she hears a song on the radio she likes

 

This is Jack asking if he has to put on pants when it rains.  He makes a good point by noting that the'll only get wet out there.

We told him that when it rains the earthworms come out of their holes and crawl around on the grass.  So, he's out there looking for some.

 
Jillian is getting taller, as evidenced by this photo which shows her car seat needs an adjustment.  Alhough she's only in the 10th percentile for height, the doc keeps forgetting that she came out of the oven three weeks early.  So, when you look at it that way, she's doing pretty well.

 When she's on her belly she can hold her head up and can roll over.

And she looks good in her skinny jeans

I think this is the mom's group Jacqui almost joined at the botanic garden

 

We don't have much more to report, but September's post will have more pics of Jillian growing, Jack with pants on, and some photos from the baptism.  Until then, we hope you like these pics and we look forward to sharing our view of life in the south.