Bye Bye 2011

First of all, what happened to 2011? Actually I am kind of glad it flew by. I hope the first part of 2012 goes by just as fast and as smoothly as 2011 did.

We are all Christmased out. We agreed that our Christmas was wonderful. We are so thankful we got to visit both families and that Chuck adjusted well to all the traveling. Besides a little bug that Chuck left Jackson with and seemed to share with some of is family members, all went well.

Chuck enjoyed staying up late, learning how to jump on a bed, and playing baby dolls. He really is maturing. There was a noticeable difference just between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was unable to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner but I actually got to savor Christmas dinner so that was a nice change.

Chuck's choice words over the break were "go" which could mean "go" or "come" depending on what he was talking about. He also said "octopus" on his first try which really bothers Dr. Chuck is at the age where he should say "I love you" any day now. But when you tell him you love him he says "no". When you say "octopus", he says it. He also is using the word "uncle" a lot. He is very concerned where his uncles are. Today when we walked in from daycare, he saw a baby picture of uncle Chuck on the fridge and he started yelling "uncle" and pointing. He also thinks Toby Keith is his uncle. He really enjoys dancing to Toby Keith at Granna's house.

My mom made the kids an octopus like the octopi she used to make in her sorority in college. I didn't get to see the expressions of the kids when they all opened it but my dad said it was priceless. I think Abby might have jumped back and Chuck made a face of pure disgust. They had no idea what the octopus was ( I will get a picture tomorrow). The octopi has grown on all of them. Chuck took it upon himself to take all of the eyes off the octopi. He had the nerve last night to ask me where the octopus' eyes were. I told him that he had removed them. So now you see why one of our words for this week was "octopus".

As I said earlier, he is talking in sentences. My dad just laughs hysterically whenever anything comes out of his mouth because it is pure jibberish and only every few words you can understand ( or at least I know what he is talking about).

We didn't get many pictures because either we have to put it down to catch a flying two year old or he sees the phone and demands to play a game on it. Oh yeah, another new word... "game".

Here are some pictures we did get.

Chuck playing on a guitar ( which wasn't even a Christmas present... it was jacked from Marmee's house.... however it is his favorite new toy by far). He is playing for his new Cabbage Patch baby doll named Marlin, who could possibly be of Mexican decent.

Santa brought Chuck some awesome animals that he is obsessed with. His song of the Christmas holidays was "Old McDonald". He started singing "moo moo moo moo". I think he was missing school after being gone eight days.

And his Schwinn. Santa brought Chuck a bike. He walked into the living room and pointed and said "bike". Then he said "no" and started crying. Not the reaction we thought we would get since he talks about them a lot. His Schwinn grew on him and he is really enjoying it. I guess we will get to ride some more this weekend since it will be 70 for New Years Eve!

One more day for me to get the house straightened and all of us unpacked. ( We will probably have someone coming to look at it after the first of the year. Dr. has to work for the next gazillion days and our schools are both closed on Monday so Chuck and I have a long weekend ahead of us. Thank goodness for warm weather.