Neighbourhood tour

On one of our walks I took the camera along and decided to take some photos in my neighbourhood of some of the more interesting buildings. This walk is in the other direction of the one taken on Thanksgiving day. the first building is a very interesting house. The second is a Jewish Temple. The fourth is a Presbyterian Church, and the last is our house, taken from the south end of the street.

Good Morning

One of the things about story time that Joseph likes is that we sing a song at the beginning and end. The one we sing at the end goes "Our story time is over, its time to go home. Goodbye, Goodbye, until we meet again." I started singing it at home, with a variation in the words, after coffee/snack time to let Joseph know it is now nap time. When I finish he always repeats "Goodbye" in a singsong voice, so as to let me know he wants me to sing it again. On another day I started singing "Good morning" from 'Singin' in the Rain,' and he loved it. He kept singing 'Good Morning' throughout the afternoon to get me to sing it again. Then, when Jim came home he said 'Good Morning, Daddy' clear as a bell! Jim and I just looked at each other in frank amazement.

It is COLD here

This morning after breakfast I checked the temperature to see how cold it was, planning to let Spot out to do his thing. Nine degrees Fahrenheit (-12 degrees Celsius) is what our thermometer read. I went to check the computer weather station, just to see what it said, and it said 9 degrees Fahrenheit, feels like -8 (-22 degrees Celsius.) Needless to say, Spot hasn't been out longer than a minute today, and he is even wearing his sweater. I called Jim and he said that his fingers were numb when he got to the office, and he was even wearing his gloves.
E-shopping is very attractive under these conditions. At first I thought I might go down to the 'Barns and Noble' bookstore to look at a knitting book (Knitting Nature) that the library doesn't carry. I started looking at it on the internet, and decided to just go ahead and buy it because I don't want to take Joseph anywhere in this cold, or maybe it was because of the cover photo of these people on the beach. In reality though, I just can't see driving anywhere when it is this cold. I mean, what if something happened to the car when I was out? I really wouldn't want to be caught out like that, especially with a toddler.

There's a pig in our family!

At least that is what Joseph said. The other day at story time the librarian was asking the kids about their families. After asking about the people (if the kids had a mom, dad, brother, sister, etc.) he moved on to animals. He asked if anyone had a cat in their family, and Joseph said 'meow.' Then 'does anyone have a dog in their family', and Joseph said 'bow-wow-wow.' Then the librarian asked if anyone had any other animals in their family. Joseph then shouted out, without pause, and with great enthusiasm, 'a pig!' Everyone (most of the kids there were preschool age) turned to Joseph and giggled. He doesn't usually say anything at the story time like that; I guess he is getting used to it.

You Little Sneak!

Today at the library I sat down on a couch with my diaper bag next to me and called Joseph over so that I could read him 'My Truck is Stuck', an other favorite book of his. He came over and stood next to me on the side where my diaper bag was, with one hand on my knee. The other hand slipped deftly into the outside pocket of my bag, where I keep my cell phone and my hand lotion (two coveted objects.) He stared up at me with serious eyes and then looked over to the book, all while rooting around in the side pocket of the bag. I said 'You little sneak, what are you doing?' He started giggling hilariously, and then so did I. So, my one and a half year old is developing skills as a pickpocket.

Trains and Jackhammers

Yesterday morning during coffee, Joseph was quietly eating a Graham cracker. All of a sudden I heard him say 'chukka- chukka- chukka, whoo, whoo,' and while doing this was making his cracker move along the front edge of his highchair. And if this wasn't entertaining enough (for me, not him) during the next cracker he started tapping his cracker into the tray, saying 'dat, dat, dat, dat, jack hammer.' (When he says jackhammer, he makes it like two words.)
Now, you may be wondering 'how did he come to know what a jackhammer is?' After all, I wouldn't think that the word 'jackhammer' is something that most one and a half year old toddlers would know. Well, at the moment Joseph's favorite book is 'The Construction Alphabet Book' by Jerry Palotta, and J is for Jackhammer. When we were reading the book one day he became fixated on the jackhammer, so I held him in front of me by his thighs, making him jump up and down and saying 'dat dat dat dat.' Then I said 'that is like a Jackhammer'. He loved it and now sometimes he grabs hold of his pant legs and declares 'Jackhammer! dat dat dat dat.' I was really surprised, however, to see that him transfer that experience to understating that the Jackhammer is a object that makes a sound.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! What a great way to start the new year- with snow! Jim made a snowman during Joseph's nap. We showed him when he woke up, but he didn't react too much because he was so excited about being outside with his snow shovel. This morning we looked down at the front yard from his alcove and he was very excited about it and kept saying 'snowman, snowman!'
For dinner we made fettuccine with my new pasta maker that Jim gave me for Christmas. It was the best pasta I have ever had! Even in a restaurant you can't get it this fresh and boy, does it make a difference!