Exterior Decorating

This is as fiesty as Jared gets. He very carefully pulled off each piece, examined it, ate it and moved on to the next one.

Gingerbread house meets the drooly milk kid

Gingerbread House

Little cutie in his new outfit...  

 During naptime, on Christmas day, we built a gingerbread house.  We used a kit, so it looks extra fancy.  

Next year, I think we'll be more creative and build one from graham crackers and icing, like our friends, the Johnsons, did.Michael's cute gingerbread man with funky hair.

Margaux's not so cute snow man who was banished to the back of the house for falling into a snowbank.  (I'm better at napkin folding)The finished house!  Woot- we are so crafty.  It was fun to make.  :) 

Acting out the Nativity

     Now you may be wondering why we are still celebrating Christmas in February.   It would be nice to keep celebrating all year round.  And we try to remember Him as often as possible during the day and week.  

   Actually, these are from December and I am now more than a month behind on pictures again.  Can you believe that 1 month in this New Year has already gone by?   

 

  Michael, Jared & I acted out the Nativity with my Aunt & Uncle and 5 cousins.  It was fabulous!  My uncle narrated from the New Testament and the rest of us paraded around the living room in an assortment of bath robes & head gear. 

 

The whole group (Aunt Debbie is taking the picture)

The Angel comes to Joseph in a dream...

 Mary & Joseph ride to Bethlehem for the census and to be taxed.  Mary's donkey is being taken away by the cute midget.

 At the Inn in Bethlehem.  Jared decides he can do a better job than the baby doll. 

Shepherds are invited to come and see the Newborn babe.  (Jared helps the Angel spread the good news.)

 

The shepherds arrive in Bethlehem and celebrate with the little family.

Later, some very wise & beautiful queens arrive with gifts.

  King Herod sends out a ninja warrior to get rid of all cute midgets.  (Joseph is warned in a dream to take Mary & Jesus to Egypt).

Mary & Joseph return from Egypt to Nazareth. 

Woo hoo!   And that is part of the Naivity story.

     And then Jared met Santa...

It was a short lived experience even though Santa was perfectly ok.  Jared just didn't get what there was to be all excited about. 

 Oh, a candy cane!  Jared had no problem taking that and waving boodbye. 

Christmas Day was so fun!  Jared was excited to unwrap everyone's presents & play with everything. 

Finding ginger snap cookies...  (wheat free cookies are a pain to look for)  and his next favorite word was....  COOKIE!

Unwrapping gifts...

Jared loved decorating the fridge with magnets.

LOL- he's trying out his new church outfit and being silly when I asked him to smile.  This is the 'turtle face'. 

Signs of the Times

      Jared has a huge vocabulary!  I know it may not seem that way since he also likes his pacifier but I decided to keep a list of what he knows and wanted to show it off. 
      We've been using signs (American Sign language) with Jared since he was about 7 mon+/- for as many words as possible as well as for the ABC's and some songs.  I've studied a few books but most of what we use comes from Michael since he's been using ASL since he was a kid.  He's pretty amazing with what he still remembers.  :) 
      Anyway, Jared didn't start using his hands for awhile but once he conqured hand/eye coordination he's been communicating like crazy!  Signs are easier than speaking words at first.  And now that he can speak more words, he doesn't use his signs as often.   For anyone with a younger baby who is learning to talk, signing was an amazing experience and helped us understand Jared more quickly and have less crying and whining. 
     Here's what we started with, when we were teaching signs and words (April-Oct 09):
SIGNS                                                 WORDS
more            car                                     momma       hot
please          bird                                   dad            bubble
soft            hot                                       flower        bear
airplane        milk                                   ball           star
cup            diaper                                   hat
butterfly        dog
rabbit

And here's what he uses now, as of the beginning of Feb '10:
(All of the above and)
SIGNS                                           WORDS
cat (meow)                                         Hi         Bye       No
Aah (for toothbrushing)                      Um       Yes       cookie
Popsicle (licking noises)                      more      please      cup
kiss (lip smack)                                  diaper    doggy     book
prayer (folds arms)                           flip      spoon       fork
                                                        Yay!        Wow!     hop
                                                       door        light        hot
                                                       stinky      on         off
                                                       amen      wahwah (pacifier)
Pretty exciting! Jared is an awesome kid.  Now I have to figure out how to upload another video clip so you can see him in action.  :)