A Bunch of Berries

A Bunch of Berries

Monday, March 19, 2012

Catch-up time: Christmas 2011,Jensen's walking debut and other stuff!

Yes, I am just getting to my blog about this past Christmas.It is time to catch-up! I know compared to other people, I am not THAT busy but it sure feels like it here. The laundry, dishes, and dog hair needing to be vacuumed never ends! I never, ever seem to get caught up and at moments I get frustrated. A friend of mine at church gave me some great advice. She tells herself that these are just going to be her "messy years" and to remember to enjoy her children while they are still young. Great advice! I have to keep reminding myself that in 15 years from now the kids will not remember the piles of laundry in multiple rooms in the house. My mom helps me, especially with dishes, every time she comes over and that is such a blessing. Thanks Mom!!! Despite all her help, I will not be winning the clean/organized house of the year award.....if there even is such a thing....HA!

Now, on to the family update.............Christmas 2011 was a great Christmas. We got each kid one big gift and a few small ones. I have noticed that when the kids get older, gifts are much more expensive! Liesel had asked for a fish tank. We have never had fish before. We are dog people. I grew up with cats so I love both. So we decided to get Liesel a fish tank. For Caedmon we gave him a train table that my mom snagged for a great price at a yard sale. We gave him some new trains to go along with it. Family also bought him some new trains as well. Craig set up the train table in the living room and had the fish tank box out as well. Liesel was excited to see her fish tank. The first thing she asked was "Are there fish in there?" Ha!

Now Jensen's one big gift and really only gift was........wait for it..........a fisher price piggy bank. :) It is very nice when they are this young and have no idea why they are even getting gifts. HeHe!! Jensen loved it and still plays with that gift often.

However, he was excited about a hanger as well that morning. He carried that around for a while. LOL!!!
I love these pictures of Jensen napping. They are so sweet when they are sleeping.

Jensen turned 1 year old in October. He had not shown much desire to walk until early January. January 8th to be exact (I only know that because I posted it on facebook, gotta love that) we shot video of him taking those first steps that are basically only a few steps and much more falling into Mommy and Daddy's arms. When I understand technology a little better, hopefully I can post the video on here. I love the beginning stages of walking and how excited you get when they take a few steps. We clapped and said "Yeah" every time he walked to the point that he was clapping along with us :) Here he is in February showing that he is an expert walker........and happy about it :)

We are now in mid-March and Jensen is walking really fast and getting into everything. He loves getting into stuff much more than he likes to play with toys. There have been many times I have had  to chase Jensen after he took a plastic fork he got out of a drawer. I really do not know the fascination with plastic forks, but that was his favorite trick to play on his mother for some time. We now have locks on most of the drawers and cabinets in the kitchen. However, we missed one cabinet that I figured would not be of interest to him since he could not pick up any of the items. Instead, he puts items in there. LOL! Here is our blender with a pair of socks, a bib and some toys in it.
How can you get frustrated with my cute blue-eyed sweetheart?!?!?????
Caedmon has been his fun self as usual the last few months. He now has received a new job that Liesel passed on to him......putting the silverware away from the dishwasher. He used to help with plastic plates and cups but one day he asked me if he could do the silverware like Liesel. Liesel was very willing to let him try it....I wonder why? HA! Jensen loves helping in his own special way too. We give him the plastic stuff and he puts it all in the same drawer. LOL! When Caedmon was doing the silverware one day he told me he was done because all the forks were in the fork family and all the spoons were in the spoon family, etc. HeHe!
One raining morning recently, Caedmon had a great idea to make a "snuggly spot" for him and Jensen. Before I knew what was going on, Caedmon had gathered many stuffed animals and pillows and was so excited to show me what he called their "snuggly spot." I just love these pictures. Caedmon is such a good brother. Jensen was not so cooperative at being as still and snuggly as Caedmon wanted.

Last little tidbit on Caedmon: Before he even got dressed one day, he made a letter/number train on the kitchen floor. After he put this all together, despite Jensen's many attempts to break it apart, he asked me what the BIG word said? Oh my! I do not think I can pronounce that!

Now on to Liesel.......She is maturing more and more each day. Sometimes though I think she is too anxious to grow up. She is always asking me how old she has to be to get an i-phone, get her ears pierced, babysit, etc. Liesel please slow down. She has shown in interest in scrapbooking. I have plenty of pictures for her to use. She has only done it a few times but I know this summer that will be a fun project for me and Liesel.

One funny thing.........we had a good friend of the family Caitlin over for dinner one night. Caitlin is in charge of the preschool ministry at our church. Liesel just loves her and admires her a lot. Liesel apparently wanted to know how old Caitlin was but did not want to just ask her so she says this instead: "How long have you lived in America?" LOLOLOL! We all laughed about that for a while. Liesel told me she was trying to be polite without asking her age. OR....maybe Liesel thought Caitlin was from another country. HeHe! Now everytime Caitlin sees Liesel at church she says "WELCOME TO AMERICA!"
Liesel is also playing school a lot. Caedmon is her student most of the time. That is very fun to watch. She reminds me of myself as a kid. I found this in her pile of stuff:
I did the same thing as a kid. I made the test, took the test and then graded the test. Liesel is just scribbling stuff down. She will get better at it. HeHe! I will have to teach her how all this "play teacher" stuff really works :)

I think that updates our family for the most part. Many more wonderful things happen daily in the Berry household. It is a fun place to be!

No comments:

Post a Comment