Playing and Praying

We spent much of our Christmas break around the house playing this year.  Jacob is very consistent and loves tower building, letters, the iPad, counting, chase, re-enacting the Mass, and very occasionally sitting still to read!

Letters and numbers are the most wonderful thing all day and night whether you are in the kitchen or in the living room or in the bathtub.  Jacob can organize them in alphabetical order forward and backward.  He likes to lay them out on the carpet or on the table or on the chair.  This boy likes letters and numbers everywhere.  While riding in the car, Jacob will shout out the price of gas at gas stations and the letters on signs.  He will tell you the time on every clock and how many numbers/minutes are left on the dryer.  He must be channeling his Uncle Joe when it comes to numbers. 

Jacob has also memorized the order of the letters on the keyboard and surprised us with the QWERTYUIOP, etc layout while in the bathtub.  We checked the keyboard and sure enough he was correct.

Jacob also likes to stack and really does not get too upset when the towers eventually tumble.  He likes to hold the pieces up to his eye and yell out the color.  Mostly he likes to be loud.

Of course, wrestling and chasing are big activities.  Jacob yells out "gonna get you" and he and Dada run until Jacob is cornered and tossed on the bed.  There is plenty of laughter and luckily no broken bones have resulted!  So there is no surprise that Jacob likes to climb on top of Dada and to exactly what Dada is doing.

Jacob is good buddies with Father Jacob at Babcia's church.  Babcia said that a few weeks ago Jacob kept sneezing during weekly Mass and when he got up to get his blessing at Communion, Fr Jacob asked him if he was ok.  Of course Fr Jacob would be concerned about our little Jacob.  Jacob knows all the parts of the Mass and especially loves Communion where he pretends to read from the Bible and holds his milk cup up high just like the priest.  We usually get a comment from the people around us after Mass about Jacob's participation.  This past weekend, the couple behind us said to call them if they are still around when Jacob becomes a priest. 

Even at home, Jacob carries around a horse and performs little prayer sequences.  We know they are prayers because they always send in "forever and ever Amen" and some form of bowing.  He also offers us puzzle pieces and says "Body of Christ Amen".  Jacob even makes us line up behind him as he carries a book and Dada carries the horse.  We have to walk where Jacob walks and bow when he bows.  He is very particular and doesn't like when we are out of line.  At Babcia's house he carries around a little stop sign that says "Santa Stop Here".
We are so happy that reading has come back into Jacob's routine.  He didn't really care for stories, but now is back to bringing us books and having us read.  He has even memorized a beginner reader that Grammy gave him called "Let's Jump In" and another called "Oppps, I Made a Mistake".  Most recently someone introduced our darling boy to nursery rhymes on YouTube and reading has taken a back seat again.

And of course we love the Discovery Center and cannot get enough of that.  Even Babcia took Jacob one day and he was an old pro leading her around and showing her the ropes.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Christmas Eve was our traditional gathering at Babcia and Dziadzia's house.  This year Jacob did not hold back.  He played and ran and thoroughly enjoyed himself.

As always we had a delicious traditional meal that we wait for all year.  Paul and Annemarie made the trip from Germany and even Aunt Denise was able to join us for a short while on her way back to Atlanta.  We had a wonderful Christmas Eve.

Santa stopped in early and we opened presents.  Jacob must have been a really good boy since he got some more of his absolute favorite thing....LETTERS.  Dada mistakenly believed these letters belonged on his face, but Jacob got him straightened out pretty quickly since C is not for nose.

We even made an attempt at a Christmas Eve family picture since this is our last Christmas as a party of 3.

We are so blessed to have such a sweet boy and can't wait to meet our precious girl.

Christmas Day was also full of activity and our day started out with one of Jacob's favorite things.....going to Mass!  Jacob loves to be close to all the action so he can see exactly what Father Mark is doing.  Babcia has taught Jacob well. 

By the time we made it back home for breakfast, Jacob was ready to play with all his awesome new toys!  Santa left him some magnetic blocks and he has loved building towers.

Merry Christmas!

Dyersburg Christmas

Christmas fell midweek this year so we headed to Dyersburg the weekend before to celebrate with Grammy, Gdaddy, the girls, and Aunt Denise.

As soon as we walked in on Friday, Jacob made himself at home and ran around shouting.  He was inspecting all the holiday changes Grammy had made and he appeared satisfied with the results.  Grammy decorates nicely.

Saturday, Grammy and Gdaddy slaved away in the kitchen to make a delicious Christmas luncheon for our Hinson family Christmas.  In the mean time, Jacob worked really hard to nap, do puzzles, and generally make himself known.  Luckily he had plenty of attention.

After lunch we opened presents/bags, but Jacob still has no real interest in ripping into packages with his name on them.  So Dada took the task seriously and tried to tempt Jacob with all kinds of goodies in his bag.........books, basketballs, footballs, clothes, but nothing worked! 

While everyone excitedly ripped into their bags, Jacob preferred sitting on the couch playing with Gdaddy's home telephone.....aka dialing 123456789.  Jacob was probably just excited everyone was too busy to take the phone away or erase his latest number combination.

All was quiet UNTIL.........the magic box of magnetic letters came out.  Jacob LOVES letters and numbers, notices them everywhere and arranges them a million times a day so he was completely satisfied when a case full of letters was in his gift bag.  Once the letters were uncovered, Jacob got busy arranging the letters on the case, dropping the letters while standing up, and arranging the letters on a mirrored table.  We are happy to report that no letters have been lost and the letters have been played with daily since. 

After a little time of rest, Grammy and Jacob wrapped up the day with some good old fashioned chase. 

Sunday, after some delicious breakfast, we did what any family does........opened more presents of course.  Once again, Dada was tasked with the difficult process of opening boxes until Jacob became interested in a LeapFrog book with LETTERS and NUMBERS.  Of course we were not at all surprised he loved the book!

However, we were surprised to catch Jacob mesmerized by a rerun of the Lawrence Welk show on PBS.  We had no idea our 2 year old loved musical variety shows, but apparently he does.  Since it is rare to have Jacob sitting so still, we took this opportunity to pose for pictures around him.  We call this the Lawrence Welk effect.  We have since caught the show on TV at home and Lawrence Welk sure can cast a spell on our boy.

We had a wonderful Christmas with the Cole family!

Santa

According to Jacob, jolly old St Nick is best enjoyed from afar at your local mall.  Writing a letter instead of fighting mall traffic seems like a much better option.....besides by now Santa should be on Skype and have email.