Cleaning and Handy Work....

At this point Jetta thinks helping me clean and doing chores is fun. She always want to be in the middle of what I'm doing and in the way. Every week when I go to clean the house, she always wants to help.

When I go to sweep the floor, she waits for me to get a pile of dirt and then will stand in front of it and stand with her feet apart, hands on her hips and want me to sweep the dirt between her legs/feet, so it goes thru her feet, behind her. She thinks its the funniest thing. She insists we do it and would want to do it over and over if I'd let her. So, to humor her, we do it once and then I ask her to move out of the way. Then she will let me finish sweeping, but has to hold the dust pan for me as I sweep up the pile of dirt. Sometimes, I get lucky and that pile makes it to the trashcan on the dustpan and other times, well, as I'm sure you can guess, it doesn't and I have to sweep it all up again.

From there, as I try to swiffer the floors, she'll let me get that done, but then once I finish and move onto something else, she will go back and pick them up and start spraying the floors and pushing the swiffer around cleaning the floors all over again. Oftentimes, creating a huge puddle of the floor, telling me, "mom, look I cleaned the floor", with a huge smile, all proud of herself and I just look at all the cleaner in a puddle on the floor. Knowing I need to go get a paper towel to wipe it up, so neither of us slip and fall as we walk thru the puddle she claimed to have just cleaned up.

Then, when I clean the bathrooms, she has to always help me "wipe and spray". She will wipe everything, from the toilet, to the cabinets, to the walls. It doesn't matter, what it is, she will wipe it. She tries so hard and is so proud of herself when she is done.

She also loves to help put the dishes away from the dishwasher. The trick is to beat her to the sharp knives before she gets to them. She will grab them and say, "mom, no knife" and will hand it to you holding the blade, because I have always told her that she can't have the knife with any silverware we have. So, she knows, but doesn't realize that the blade is the reason why.

Now, just for her to continue to have this interest and drive, but I'm sure the fun will wear off when she really can help. But for now, it's very cute and allows for some good pictures.

Now, for those of you who know me and are wondering.....yes, she does wipe out the sink after she brushes her teeth - most times! I don't even ask - she just has seen me do it some many times that she thinks is part of the process!

Okay, now for her handy side. A few months ago we noticed that one of the pieces of quarter round on the kitchen island was broken. Not really sure how it got broken, but nonetheless it was/is broken. Jetta, too also noticed it was broken. So, she being the child she is, didn't like that and she decided that it needed to be fixed. So, she asked me for some sticky tape (this is what she calls scotch tape). So, I said, okay, just to see where this was gonna go. Well, pretty much a whole roll later and a true 2 year old repair job, the quarter round was back on the island and wasn't going to go anywhere. I think enough can be said with pictures, so I will leave it at that and will post pictures of her handy work, along with some of her cleaning.

I'm thinking her future as a handy man may need some moe training.

Jetta reading....

I've been reading to Jetta pretty much every night since we've come home from China. I try to read 3 to 5 books to her each night so we can spend some quality time together and also for her to learn from the books. I think she has benefited from it in both ways. One, I think she really enjoys the snuggle time, cuz she asks if we are going to read books and two, cuz she knows alot of her books and her vocabulary is very good for a year old.

It is 20 minutes of my day and I think a benefit of a lifetime for her. One day I was somewhere else in the house doing something and I came back into my room to check on her, to see what she was up to, cuz it was a little to quiet and when I came in, I found her standing beside my chair, reading a book to her bear - Fred, telling him to listen. It was very cute. I asked her, what are you doing and she looked at me and said "I'm reading to Fred" - like I was a complete idiot. Like, mom, this is what we do everyday, why are you asking me.

She continued to read her Chinese New Year book to him, as if he was interested. The interesting part was - she had a lot of the story right, but did add some of her own story to it, but regardless, it was very cute.

Anyway, I went back out and grabbed the camera, cuz I thought it was so cute I wanted to capture a few pictures of her doing it. It was very sweet and it made me smile, cuz it made me feel good that she enjoys reading and the time we spend doing it.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Family Christmas Pictures....

It seems so strange to be posting these pictures as the year is nearly a quarter over already, but as I promised in my post, I hope to get caught up.

We had these pictures taken just before Christmas. We decided we should get an updated family picture, as the last one we had taken was when Jetta first got home and needless to say we have all changed a little. Jetta the most of course.

I was pleased with how the pictures turned out and very happy with the one of Jetta and I. I don't even remember what exactly she was laughing at, but I fell in love with the picture and think she looks absolutely adorable. Everday I am just amazed at how much she is growing and how beautiful she is.

I will attach several of the pictures we had taken. Hope you enjoy them and again sorry for my delay, but still wanted to share.

Time to catch up....

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted, but my work schedule has been crazy busy and I have just not had time. I'm still busy, but told myself, I need to make time, as I have lots to post and if I don't do it now, I will never do it.

So, I will try to post the last few months and get you all caught up. This post will start with Jetta and her two visits with Santa Claus. She had 3 visits this year and didn't seem to confused by it. I was really sure how that would go, but she seemed to not care that Santa was if different places at different times.

The first was at the Mills Mall, which I posted some time ago, which was the Santa from last year, who even makes me believe. I was hoping she wouldn't be afraid and if you remember that post, she was not at all and nearly knocked others over to get to him.

Her second visit was at our house just a week or so before Christmas. We have a very dear neighbor, who loves kids and he and his wife offered for him to play Santa. He used to work at the Federal prison in Greenville for years and he has a Santa suit and always played Santa for their Christmas party. After he retired from there and moved away for a few years, he kind of retired from playing Santa and really missed it.

Last summer they moved back to this area and they now live across the street from us. They are very sweet people and Jetta is very fond of both of them. So, when they offered. I was excited to accept. However, as mentioned in the beginning of this post, I was very busy with work and was worried I waited to long to accept and was afraid he may not be available. However, when I went over to ask if he was still available, he was more than happy to do it. So, we made arrangements for him to come one night after work and were all excited to see how she would react.

His wife came over a litte before he came, brought some cookies over so she would be here and then he came over, ringing his jingle bells and brought his big red bag, all dressed up and came to the door. Jetta's face lit up, she was so excited, she said, Santa is here. She was running around, hiding behind me and was not quite sure what to make of the fact that Santa was really at her house.

He came in and they sat down together in the chair. He told her he had her she was a good girl and told her he had heard what she wanted. She was very excited to know that he knew what she wanted. She was smiles from ear to ear. He pulled out a barbie and she was thrilled. Then he gave her a train, that to made her happy. He then gave her a Curious George book, a gift that he and his wife wanted her to have. He gave her some M&M's also, which of course she was thrilled with. They shared some more stories and then we snapped some pictures. It was all very sweet and she had no idea it was him.

After a little bit, he said, he better be going, he had many other little boys and girls to visit. She gave him a big hug and he said goodbye. She watched him leave and was just smiling. His wife asked if she could have a hug as well and said she best be going as well.

Jetta asked where his reindeer were and we said, he must have already flown away. She was very happy for the rest of the night. He had told me he would not accept anything for doing it, that his payment was seeing the kids and how much they enjoyed it. So, I decided to frame a picture of him and Jetta together. I scrapped it with special paper and tried to let him know just how much it meant that he did this for us. He and his wife are very special people. They don't have any grandkids yet, but know that they will be great grandparents when they do. I will include a few pics from his visit.

Then her next visit was at Grandpa Denny's. We traveled to Peoria on Christmas Eve as we always do. Denny always has Santa Claus and this year was no exception. While the group of kids was smaller, it was still a very nice day.

As we waited Jetta was patiently waiting for Santa to come. She wondered if he would read a story again, like he did last year. I was surprised that she remembered that from the year before. She always surprises me with what she remembers.

It was time. We gathered downstairs and then we heard Santa coming, ho, ho ho, down the stairs he came. Again, she was very excited and she jumped in my lap. As he came down, he rounded the corner and she got even more excited. I was glad to once again see that she was happy to see him. You just never know how they will react.

He sat down and he talked with all the kids. He remembered Jetta. It was very sweet. I think he remembered her because she climbed up in his lap last year and helped him read the Christmas story. They read a few trivia questions and then it was time to hand out the presents. She was very excited. She and Olivia got baby dolls. They played side by side and had a lot of fun.

Then it was time to read the Christmas story. This year she wasn't as eager to get in his lap, but she still was eager to listen and help. She still enjoyed the whole experience. Overall she had a great time and am glad that Denny does this for the kids and am just sad that all the kids didn't get to enjoy it this year.

After Santa left we all had dinner together and then opened presents together, of course something Jetta enjoyed.

I'm going to include pics from Santa and from opening presents, as we have some good ones from both. Hope you enjoy all of them.