He gets it!

Dream no more, Bing. Your white Christmas has become a reality. Well, at least for those of us here in Northwest Georgia. . . Jude and I both experienced our first white Christmas together this morning. And as opposed to any of the snows we had last winter, Jude really seemed to know what to do with it this year!

He also seemed to understand some things about Christmas this year. When I told him we were going to go to grandma and grandpas and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, his face just light right up. Last night, at Christmas Eve service, he sat relatively attentive while Travis gave the children's sermon about persecuted Christians in Arab nations who were not able to safely celebrate Christmas like we could. And when he gave the little gift bags to the children, Jude came running back to me with his, excitedly exclaiming, "Tra-bis! Tra-bis!" He was so proud of that little gift from Travis.

Here is our day so far:

Thomas shirt from Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa















Thomas bath toys from Mommy and Daddy
















Thomas books from Mommy and Daddy
















Do you notice a trend yet?

And then there was. . .

Checking out the snow
















Eating the snow. . .

Jude Is All Boy!

My child can spend HOURS going down the same slide, climbing back up and going down again. This realization sent me scurrying to Craigslist to find a Little Tikes plastic slide for our house --so that I can get things done around here while he's occupied with that thing! Can't get house work done if I spend 2 hours at the park;-)

We went and picked up our $30 find tonight and I really thought Jude might just decide to forego bedtime because we put it (temporarily) in the living room until we can scout out a flat spot in the yard in the daylight.

Not only was he completely enthralled by the new slide, but also by the fact that he could see exactly what I was filming, since I used the iCam on my work MacBook. This video is a bit longer than I usually take (because my other camera will only film 3 minutes worth) but your patience will be rewarded at the end when Jude counts to 10. (With help!)

Psychology according to Winnie the Pooh & Friends

I borrowed this from a fellow Bradley teacher who posted on our teacher message boards today. She said:

"My son (who's studying animation) showed these "psychological profiles" (animations) that he found on a forum to me tonight. I happen to be a Winnie the Pooh fan, so I'm sure there are some others here that will get a laugh out of these too."

Enjoy. . .

Thank you, LeapFrog!

Sometime before Jude was even old enough to know what TV even was, we got this LeapFrog Letter Factory DVD free in the mail. (I'm really good at finding freebies like that. I think I may have only actually paid for 2 of the DVDs he owns!) It came in handy for our road trips to Florida to pick Vickie up and bring her home back in July and August, since Jude doesn't have any sit in him. But until maybe 3 weeks ago, that was the last time I played it for him.

Then the whole Comcast debacle happened where our service went down one Saturday morning and they said they couldn't come to fix it until the following Tuesday (it was a holiday weekend) so out it came again. And out of nowhere, one day last week I realized he was singing the letter sounds. I totally blame it on this video because I certainly didn't teach him that yet.

So, with no further ado, I give you Jude and his letter sounds! (Yeah, I know it doesn't really mean anything to him at this age. But it is sure fun to watch!)

Thanks!

I have to say, I am thankful for ALL of the military veterans who have selflessly given of themselves to serve our country. But, I am especially thankful to these three today.

My dad

My sister

My father-in-law - no military picture:-( All I could come up with was this one that I nicked off of some fishing web site!

It couldn't have been an easy decision for them to choose to be away from their families for such a long time; to know that they could be called upon to sacrifice more than just their time if duty called. But each one made that choice.

So, who are the Veterans you're thankful for today? Have you told them?