It seems like the weather just likes to ping-pong back and forth. I always check the report in the morning before getting myself and Joseph dressed because today’s weather could very well be drastically different than yesterday’s was. For example, most of last week was super cold and today it’s supposed to hit the upper 70s to low 80s…BUT by Friday, the high is supposed to be 48. It just makes me laugh and say, “Oh, Texas!” This past week was pretty laid back since Thanksgiving was on Thursday (Paul had both Thursday and Friday off, so we had a lot of kick-back time). The first part of the week was pretty normal. We had a quiet Thanksgiving at home, which I was totally fine with because I know that Christmas at Mom and Dad’s is going to be crazy (but oh, so fun…I LOVE it when we can all get together)! We introduced Joseph to several different classic Christmas movies. He loves “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, as well as “Frosty the Snowman” and “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” (though he thinks that Pete is pretty scary as The Ghost of Christmas Future). Friday, when everyone else was out shopping, we put up Christmas decorations (which Joseph kept calling Halloween, lol) and then went to Sea World and saw Joseph’s favorites: the dolphins, sharks, fish, alligators, and penguins. They had the park decorated for Christmas and it was pretty neat. Saturday we went to Bass Pro Shops to see their Christmas decorations and Santa’s Wonderland. We didn’t have Joseph sit on Santa’s lap because we weren’t sure how he would deal with being put on a complete stranger’s lap. He had a blast doing other stuff, though. There was a model train that they let the kids control, so he got to make it go faster and slower, as well as buttons he could push that made different train sounds. He also got to color a picture and ride a carousel (as soon as I put him on the carousel animal and gave him the reins to hold, he got super excited and said, “Yee-haw!” even though he was riding a deer, hahaha).
Way to go, Joseph! moment: At some point last week, Joseph ran over and pointed at the clock on the wall and said, “Octagon!” in a really excited voice. I looked at it, counted the sides, and said, “Hey, you’re right! That is an octagon!” He then ran over to a display case that I have on the wall, full of shells (they were Beth’s) and he gasped before saying it again, “Octagon!” Right again. He knew that those two things were the same shapes…I give Sesame Street all the credit! Joseph also recognizes all his letters and can count to twelve by himself (after which he almost always yells, “Blast OFF!”)
Funny/Cute Stories for the Week: Joseph is now into giving everything (stuffed animals, toys, etc.) kisses. It’s pretty cute. He’s also quite into getting “boo-boos” (even if imaginary) kissed “all better”.
The other day, Paul was putting Joseph into his car seat and Joseph was humming something. It only took Paul a couple of seconds to realize that it was the Bonanza theme song, hahaha! When I bounce Joseph on my knee, sometimes I hum it, so that’s probably where he got it, since we don’t watch the show very often, if at all. He surprised us both by humming the entire thing.
When Paul was vacuuming (getting ready to put the Christmas tree up), Joseph went and grabbed his stroller and was pushing it along while growling. We realized that he was pretending it was a vacuum. 🙂
One day Joseph was eating some chicken nuggets and he looked at me with a bit of a mischievous look in his eye before saying (while holding up a piece of chicken nugget), “Mmmmm…squirrel. Yummy!” He also pretended he was eating monkey. I guess he’s got the Hall sense of humor. 😉
Lately Joseph has been wanting to say the prayer, so one day, I decided to let him do it. He folded his arms and said, “Heavenly Father, thank you day, food, bless it, Jesus Christ, Amen”. It almost melted my heart. Now he gets a turn more often. 🙂
Yesterday, when I went to get him out of his crib in order to get ready for church, I found him with his shirt around his waist. He’d pulled his arms out of the sleeves and stuck them through the neck hole. I have a feeling this is only the beginning….
This Week in Pictures:
And here’s a bonus video. A lot of the carousel pictures were turning out blurry (since it was moving and all), so Paul took a quick video of Joseph on the carousel:
