Our Christmas

We celebrated our family Christmas on Christmas Eve because Jonathan was on-call Christmas Day. The night before I tried to get Josiah focused on others by coloring a page for one of our sponsored children.

When Josiah woke up from his nap Christmas Eve, we read the story of Jesus birth from his Bible and then opened gifts.

Mama and Daddy gave Josiah a new backpack.

Mama got presents for her boys: a medicine kit, so Josiah can learn more about Daddy's job, and The Dangerous Journey, a children's version of Pilgrim's Progress. The medicine kit is to the left; he was so cute giving shots and using his stethoscope. He also really liked the pretend food in his stocking. I see him playing in the kitchen in the church nursery often, and he likes to "feed" his stuffed animals.

Checking out his stocking.

Josiah was pretty thrilled with the goldfish Mimi sent him for his stocking. He actually stopped playing and opening gifts to eat goldfish. Jonathan was pretty excited about his Risk game too.

Mimi and Granddad also sent him some more pieces for his Thomas table. More train fun!

Big Boy Bed

Last Saturday, Jonathan sweetly let me sleep in. When I woke up, he had started transitioning Josiah's crib to a big boy bed! We'd planned on doing it soon, but I had hoped for some more mental preparation time.

He's been doing pretty well so far. He fell out the first few times, and then I started putting his quilt rolled up in the gap to give him a boundary. We didn't set any rules about staying in the bed, but he still stays there until we come get him. He's had more trouble getting settled when we put him to bed at night, but hopefully he'll grow out of that.

He looks like such a big boy indeed!
We also changed our night sleep routine a touch. I used to carry him while I sang, but now we sing in the rocking chair and then kneel at the bed to pray. He is so cute about praying. He always says, "Want kneel my big boy bed. Need fold my hands." Yep, I just about cry every time it's so precious.

Sweet random memory: My parents came up on Saturday, and Mom put him down for a nap that day. He asked her to read him a Jesus story. Then he told her, "I love Jesus, Nana."

What Do Worms Say?

Train Obsession

The Moseley grandparents gave Josiah a Christmas present early: a train table! It was a good present for Mommy and Daddy too to not have to have train tracks all over the floor.

Josiah couldn't get proper play position along the sides, so he had to climb on top.

Really we just hadn't set up all the track yet. He plays with it normally now.
And ALL THE TIME. He hasn't touched his toy basket in the living room in weeks (except to retrieve his phone...to talk to the trains.). Occasionally he wanders to the bookshelf (often to read a Thomas book) or his nativity, but he's pretty obsessed right now. First thing when he wakes up in the morning: "Let's play choo-choos, Mama." First thing Jonathan hears when he gets home: "Come play choo-choos wiff me, Daddy." And then about 45 other times throughout the day.

Baby's First Starbucks

We were in between errands, so Josiah and I stopped for a Starbucks break.

It's a kid's hot chocolate. He didn't like it that much, but he's still adorable with it.

Bass Pro Visit with Jack

Melanie and I took the boys out to Bass Pro Shop last week. It's a fun place to go when it's not Christmas, but they had even more fun things out in the Santa workshop area.

Checking out the fish

Jack getting in touch with wildlife

One of the cool Christmas things were remote control trucks and cars. Jack was working his remote well, but Josiah didn't quite get the hang of it.

Checking out the trains

They also had coloring pages out, but our boys didn't care about those.

We ate lunch at the cafe there, and let the boys "play checkers" after they were done and got restless and their moms still wanted to chat. Playing checkers was more like stacking and throwing checkers, but they still had a blast.

Back at our house. They were the cutest little playmates on this trip and seemed to interact more than in the past. We loaded both their car seats into the back of our car and rode out there together. The boys just giggled at each other the whole way and had their own "conversation."
We asked Josiah the other day if he'd like a little brother or sister. He said, "No. Jack my brother."

Some That I Missed

Here are some pictures from the same photo shoot I somehow missed.

Oh the Weather Outside Is Frightful...

I took a few pictures of Josiah playing outside last week, thinking I might get a cute Christmas portrait. Not really, but I did capture some things I want to remember.

It had just rained, so that means we hunted for worms. Most of the time Josiah plays a little too rough with his worm friends and kills them, but this one was already dead.

He likes to name them, and one time we even let him take one in the car with him. Yes, I have a little boy. If he looses it, he wanders around asking, "Where my wam go?"

Adorable. I just have to Photoshop out the car in the background.

Josiah's big thing the last few weeks has been getting out his phone and having Mom or Dad talk to his train friends. He hands it to us and says "It's Skarloey." or "It's Arthur." Sometimes he wakes up from his nap asking for his phone. Today he wanted to chat with the trains himself. Phone in one hand, worm in the other. We picked up the phone at my grandmother's; she removed the battery from one of her old ones.

These would be so cute if they were in focus!

Josiah's favorite thing to do outside is race. Momma races one cart, and he uses the other. He even scolds me if I try to just use one hand. Yes, I am willing to look very awkward to play with my son.

Country Boy

**Programming note: My husband has informed me that captions traditionally go below pictures, instead of above. Despite my journalism training, I have been doing the reverse in my blogging. From thenceforth, the captions will appear below the corresponding picture.**

This weekend we made a trip down to Montgomery to visit Jonathan's grandparents. Sunday afternoon we traveled out the country to see Uncle Ron and Aunt Joyce. Josiah loved getting to see the hunting dog and puppy play fetch.

Riding the gator with Daddy and Uncle Ron

Nothing like some good mud

Now Josiah has ridden on a tractor before, but this was a whole different ballgame.

My budding redneck

Happy, country boy.

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

Surprise! We actually had some snow accumulation on Saturday in Birmingham. They were predicting flurries, and I saw some as we were going to bed Friday night. I was still shocked when I got Josiah up that morning, and we saw a white blanket (a very thin blanket) outside our door.

Our street

Checking out the snow

"How does this feel?"

"Throwing" a snow ball. My child is not very athletic at this point.

Making a snowman

I know...he's adorable.

The finished product.

Josiah named him "Nez."

Mommy's snow angel. Josiah declined.

Thanksgiving Visit to Nana and Pop

We hopped over to Atlanta for the afternoon on Sunday to visit Nana and Pop. Pop broke out his electric "toy" set, he got a few years ago. Josiah, obviously, thought it was awesome.

Helping Pop set it up. Smokey is fascinated with the train in the background.

Nana showed Josiah this nativity set. Then he put gave Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the shepherds a ride on the train.

Happy Birthday, Mimi!

We had a wonderful time with you and hope you have a great birthday!