Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas!

JJ got hooked up with lots of great new toys and clothes this Christmas!  Right after he woke up, he opened his two big gifts from Santa.  The train table will reside in his big boy bedroom.



Around 9:30am, Nana, Pop-Pop, Uncle E, Aunt Jess and baby Jonah came over and we opened our stockings and then ate breakfast.

 JJ was decent at opening presents but benefited from a little help from Nana.


Modeling his new "project smock!"

Then, on to tackling the mountain of gifts under the tree!

 JJ really needed a nap, so he slept during a lot of the gift opening.  When he woke up, it was "JJ time" and we watched him open all his gifts.  Here he is standing in front of his stack.  The big one ended up being a basketball hoop from Nana and Pop-Pop!



Checking out the quilt Nana made for his big boy bedroom.

Diving into his new book from Uncle Jeff and Chelsea.

Later we had Christmas dinner at Nana & Pop-Pop's house and then relaxed.

Before bed, JJ tried out Mommy's new chair massage pad.  He loved it!
Not pictured are two of JJ's favorite gifts.  One is a Lego/Duplo table from Grandpa Doug, which is perfect for this Lego-lover.  The other is a pet frog from Daddo.  JJ named the frog Bebop and looks forward to watching Daddo feed it live crickets every night before bed.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

First salon haircut

In preparation for having portraits taken, we took JJ to get his first salon haircut!  He doesn't have a whole lot of hair and so far all we've done is give the back a trim at home one day this summer.  But he was starting to get a little scraggly around the ears and in the back, so off to SnipIts we went!  JJ did pretty well at sitting still and the kid-friendly atmosphere definitely helped.  The cut probably took about 7 minutes.  He looks pretty spiffy with he new 'do!





After the haircut, JJ got to put a card into this machine and win a prize!

And here is one of the pictures from his photo shoot the following day, showing off his haircut.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Kiddie Acres is the place to be

In the northern reaches of Austin is an old, slightly creepy, miniature amusement park: Kiddie Acres.  It includes 7 attractions and JJ gave them all a try.  Some of the rides he tackled all by himself while we nervously watched.  He did great!  Turns out he loves going around in circles in various types of vehicles.

We started off with a carousel ride.


Next up was the ferris wheel.  He enjoyed this for a minute or two ("up high!"), then started getting freaked out ("all done, all done").

 Then we took a ride on the train.  JJ is pretty much a veteran train passenger at this point.

 Then came the part where he went around in circles on a boat, a car, and an airplane.  The airplane looked to be the most thrilling ride.  JJ did great flying solo.









And finally, a pony ride!  JJ's first time on a horse.  He kept saying it was a cow, though.




Mexican food for dinner after our afternoon of play.  JJ loved eating chips and guacamole.  Where did this guac gene come from?!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Chuck E. Cheese

Last weekend JJ had his first trip to the place where a kid can be a kid.  Yes, Chuck E. Cheese.  Daddo talked it up all Saturday morning so that by the time we were ready to go, JJ was excitedly saying "ChuckECheese!" even though he had no idea what kind of place it would be.


We ate some mediocre pizza, armed ourselves with tokens, and sought out all the games and rides that were suitable for JJ.  And one that wasn't, apparently, because this rising airplane scared the cheese out of him.



His favorite thing, which he literally rode on about 6 times, was this yellow truck.  When you feed it a token, it vibrates and shakes a little.  JJ had a look on his face like he wasn't particularly enjoying it but he kept asking to ride it again!






The other highlight of the experience was collecting the tickets from the machines.  At the end, we had 70 tickets and redeemed them for some sweet merch: a crazy straw and 3 temporary tattoos.  (JJ would later proudly sport a Chuck E. Cheese tat on his bicep.)


We have some leftover tokens so we'll need to return for more fun sometime soon!

Monday, October 31, 2011

Trick or Treat!

After weeks of having JJ practice saying "Trick or Treat", Halloween was finally here!  JJ decided to start the day off with a "trick" - he puked up his big breakfast of Cheerios and milk before he had even left the high chair.  We thought the evening's activities might be in jeopardy but JJ seemed fine the rest of the day, so around 6:30 we got ready to hit the neighbors up for candy!  Daddo and I both wanted to be in on JJ's first trick-or-treating experience so we set a bowl of candy on our front porch and the 3 of us took to the sidewalks.
Oh yeah - Nana made a gnome costume for Daddo, too!  I don't think any of us thought he'd actually wear it, but he wore it to work and for trick-or-treating!


We weren't sure if JJ would be into this whole trick-or-treating thing, but he loved it!  I guess that's not surprising given his passion for "picking" things; we had to hurry him along a few times when he seemed to be agonizing over which piece of candy to select from a neighbor's bowl.  In all, we went to about a dozen houses. Everyone liked his costume (though one person thought he was Santa. C'mon!).



















Back home, checking out his haul.  JJ's favorites by far are the lollipops.  He tries to eat them with the wrappers still on :)