Jonah's 1st Dentist Appt

We took Jonah in for his first dental checkup today. He did great!
Here he's watching a Spiderman cartoon - 21st century dentistry! He
has a permanent tooth already. Typically kids are 6 years old when
they get those not four, but he has consistently gotten his teeth
early. I wonder if this means he will loose baby teeth early? The
dentist said to be on the lookout!

A Good Day for the Zoo

It was a bit nippy, but the animals seem to like it.  We saw more action from certain animals than any other time we have visited.  The red wolves were roaming and active.  The big lion was roaring his lonely song.  We saw the giraffes galloping.  And the most exciting thing was when a big chimp jumped off the glass right in front of us chasing off another chimp - thank God for 3 panes of glass.















Tons more pictures here

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Image by planetdavis23 via Flickr

In my experience, it's the wives and mothers that are the driving force behind holiday traditions (unless it involves hunting and fishing).  And this mommy likes putting up the Christmas tree Thanksgiving weekend.  The kids were anxious to get things decorated this year too after seeing Christmas trees up at a local Chick-fil-a and my Chiropractor the day after Halloween.  They did really well hanging the ornaments on the tree.  I enjoyed having a prelit tree this year - much less chaos and time.  (I purchased it at our own garage sell earlier in the year - thanks again Patty - prelit is definitely the way to go!)

Thanksgiving with the Althaus'

 
We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with some extended family members.  The first time in probably seven years that I haven't cooked - thanks again Patty. We introduced the Althaus family to Settlers of Catan - Kelly won - AGAIN!  Since the kids were dressed up I tried to stage some pictures.  You can see all of my failed attempts here.

Related articles

• 'Settlers Of Catan' Is The 'Monopoly' Of Our Time (huffingtonpost.com)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jonah came up to me at Marbles Museum yesterday with this fake turkey and said, "Happy Thanksgiving."  I made him say it again for you all.  To all our friends, family and blog followers - we hope you have a joyous Thanksgiving holiday.

A Hike in Umstead

For Livi - The Nutcracker Storytime Ballet

On Friday, I took the kids to a special story time at the Cameron Village Library. Representatives from the Raleigh City Ballet were on hand to read the Nutcracker story and perform parts of the story from their upcoming show to be held at North Carolina State's Stewart Theatre on December 10th and 11th.  Click here for more information and tickets.

Our friend Livi couldn't  join us so I spliced together some video for her.


My kids did really well sitting through the whole thing.  Elisabeth almost missed the beginning due to an impromptu nap. Afterwards the instructor attempted to lead the attendees in some dance moves. Elisabeth really liked the spinning and jumping but especially the spinning - I think she made herself dizzy and time or two.

A Rare Nap

Happy Birthday Grammie

Her First Braid

A lousy attempt on mommy's part but hopefully it will keep her hair
from becoming a tangled mess by morning.

Getting Ready

.... For her first bike ride with daddy

Scares and Scars of a Paleontologist

He got hit in the face with a shovel (accidentally) while digging for fossils at the museum.

Related Posts:

• Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry (shannafern.com)
• A Birthday in the Black Hills (shannafern.com)
• Playdate at the Museum (shannafern.com)

The Adventures of Jo & Eli - The Cave

Jonah Sings His Theme Song

His Kindermusik teacher would be proud!

A Beautiful Carousel Ride

One of my favorite moments during our time in New York occurred the day I took the kids to Prospect Park.  We rode the carousel and it was the first time I was able to participate with my children and ride instead of standing and holding on to someone.  I captured the moment on video and I love, love, love the way the video captures the moment and takes me right back there. And in this day and age of technology you can go with:



The first couple of times I tried uploading this video to YouTube the play time was cut in half (the video speed was increased).  When I attempted to enlist Kelly's input on why it was doing that he responded, "Not sure. But it looks cool that way though."  So if you want a bit more humorous perspective watch this version.

My Little Florence Nightingale

I began to get a clue something was up when Jonah didn't want to get out of the car at the grocery store and said, "Mommy, I want to go home and take a nap."  Then he nearly turned down the free cookie inside and kept laying his head on his sister who was next to him in the cart.  We got home mid-afternoon after being out a few hours and Jonah went straight for the bean bag to watch TV. After Curious George ended, he fell asleep.  Definitely fighting off an illness.  Elisabeth kept trying to cover him up with a blanket and give him snacks before he dozed off.  Then after he woke up and settled on the couch, she kept telling him to get up and tried to pull his pillow away.  She misses her playmate I suppose.  Later Kelly opened his office door and she went in to tell him, "Jonah sick."  I gave him some tylenol and his fever is down.  We'll see how he fares tomorrow.