I'm one! A very Merry Christmas!

I'm one! I've changed a bit over the past year! I kinda like having a birthday. The Termers and the Kurtzes came for dinner and Oma and Opa were in town already for Christmas so we had a large crew for turkey soup and cake (I love turkey soup). There were balloons, party hats, birthday signs and lots of fun!

Uncle Mike and cousin Caleb at my birthday dinner.

I got a snow suit from the Kurtes. I can't wait to get out in the snow and play!!

Mommy and Daddy bought me a pelican pull toy. I love it. I also got a pull dog (I love dogs) from Oma and Opa and a really cool banana car that runs when you shake it from the Termers. And an air ball toy from our friends the Wandels. I have lots to play with for the rest of my life! I have another birthday party next week with the Hoffman side of the family. I can't wait!

This is my first cake ever. It looked yummy--but I gotta admit, I wasn't a big fan of the chocolate icing.

Cousin Sydney wiped this icing on my face because she thought I was being too neat.

So, two days after my birthday was Christmas. This is my second Christmas, though I don't remember much about the first Christmas. Look how little I was last year! Oh my!

Christmas 2008! Christmas morning 2009 with the Kurtz cousins!

Santa must be a skinny guy! He made it down the chimney and through the wood burning stove. It's good to know he was able to do that at the Kurtzes because he needs to do that at my house too! Santa left good stuff for the Kurtz kids. I had to wait until after the Jesus birthday party breakfast and the Kurtz kids Santa presents before going home and seeing what Santa brought for me! I was pretty patient. I really enjoyed seeing what my cousins got from Santa!

Fun with Daddy Christmas morning!

I got to play with Arin's Amazon.com iPod box after she took her iPod out. It was a huge box for a very little iPod, but I loved the box!

Well, this is me after Christmas morning. I fell asleep on the way home in the car, so Mommy laid me on pillows on the floor. This was even before I got my Santa gifts. The morning was lots of fun, but I was exhausted!!

Looking at my gifts was a bit overwhelming! I did not know where to start. Besides, I was still trying to wake up from my nap.

Santa brought me a ball! I LOVE balls! This is just like the one I love to play with at church. How did Santa know?

Santa also brought me my very own tooth paste and tooth brush! I'm not quite sure what to do with those yet though.

Santa really does know what I like! Mommy and Daddy were thrilled that Santa brought me my very own Elmo cell phone. Now I won't need to take their phone all the time!

More gifts!

When I finished my stocking, we went on a Christmas walk with Gabi--Oma and Opa's dog. It was good to get outside! While it was a white Christmas, it was a mild day! At 3:30 p.m., it was back to the Kurtzes for Christmas dinner and family gifts. This year we had a German Christmas. On the menu was sauerbraten, duck, weinerschnitzle, spaetzle, a couple of German salads, apple strudel, and linzer torte. There was a lot of good food!

I unfortunately was over tired and daddy put me down for a nap during dinner. I chose to cry instead. After 30 minutes of crying Arin came and got me and I joined the yummy German dinner. I especially enjoyed the spaetzle! After dinner, there was a full evening of presents. My gift to my family was that I decided to take my first step on Christmas day--right before dinner. I still need lots of work to get this walking thing down--but I did take one step unattended on Christmas day!

I do love Christmas--being with family and celebrating the birth of Jesus! Tuesday we go north to visit Mimi and PaPa. Aunt Lucy, Timmy and Sarah will be there too and Uncle Steve will be there later in the week. I can't wait to spend time with the Hoffman side of the family!

Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year everyone!!

Love,

Jamee

Thanksgiving, Touchdowns and Trees

Hi everyone!

Well, it's been awhile since my last post--so sorry. As you can agree, life is full--especially during this so-called holiday season.

You'll be pleased (I hope) to learn that I survived my first Thanksgiving! I had it all--turkey, stuffing, potatoes and beans. It was very yummy. I'm already counting the days until the next Thanksgiving. We went to our friends, the Reed's, since daddy had to work the next day. Then we did head to Ohio for Che Che and Uncle Mike's baby shower over the weekend. It was a very full weekend to say the least. It's a good thing that I don't mind traveling.


Thanksgiving with the Wandels and Reeds! Good food and good friends!

During my Thanksgiving dinner! After dinner!

I hope it's okay, but I'm going to brag about my latest trick! I can do touchdown! Check out the video below to see what I mean. I can also clap my hands. So at church when we are standing and singing choruses, these skills come in very handy. Little do the people around me know that when I raise my hands at church, it's because daddy is whispering "touchdown" in my ears.

With Thanksgiving behind us, we Hoffman's are in full Christmas mode. Last weekend we cut down our tree. How surprised was I when daddy actually brought the tree inside. Then mommy and daddy started putting lights on it and hanging pretty shiny things on the branches. I decided to help, so I pulled on the lights and tried to pull off the shiny things--but they were too high for me to reach. Mommy didn't seem to appreciate my help. Well the tree is up and looks pretty--except for the bottom two feet, which is a bit bare. We've been celebrating Advent nearly every day. I'm looking forward to Christmas!

There is one other big event coming up before Christmas--my 1st birthday. It's hard to believe! Mommy and Daddy say I've changed a lot over the last year. I know I couldn't do touchdown a year ago--that's for sure!!

Well, I'll write more after my birthday.

Love to all!

Jamee

Bzzzzzzzzzzzz--One of these 7 is not like the others . . .

So, has the suspense been killing you? I was a bumble bee for Halloween this year. It was a lot of fun--though I wasn't allowed to have any candy yet. Something to look forward to I guess.

We started off by visiting Uncle Paul, Aunt Susanne, Arin, Sydney, Obi and Eli at their church where they were giving out candy at the "Trunk n Treat." Holy cow, there were a ton of cars and a ton of people. The Kurtzes were--can you guess?--Dr. Seuss characters. They looked pretty amazing! We walked right by Thing 1 and Thing 2 and didn't even recognize Sydney and Arin. We only stayed for a few minutes because we had to go to our church to help with the Fall Festival.


Well, Mommy went crazy with the bee theme and Daddy graciously went along with it. Check out our Halloween family photo below.


In case you need help figuring out what we all were--I was the bumble bee, Mommy was the Queen Bee and Daddy was our hive! And yes Mommy made the hive and the queen bee costumes. (Don't tell her, but you can tell!) All the outfits together put us back a whole $1.25 thanks for stuff we had around the house. It was fun to be a bee family! Now the pressure is on for next year!


At the end of the day, I was soooo beed out. I barely fit into the car seat with my bumble bee outfit on, but once I was snug as a bug in a rug I was out like a light!

No this isn't a Halloween costume, this is an event at my Daddy's store. They had Skippyjon Jones visit the store, Halloween morning, for a book reading and signing. Skippyjon had the biggest ears I've ever seen in my life. He also thinks he's a dog. I thought Pippi and Delala needed some counseling--but this cat really needs some serious help! I had fun--we even had a little Skippyjon Jones parade. I hope that I can go to Daddy's store again when they have other visitors.

Not really much new since the last time I wrote. One thing I forgot to mention last time though is that for the first time, I was leaving work with Daddy and we were walking to the car. We passed this college kid and he asked Daddy how old his grandson was. Daddy laughed and said I was his son. Good thing this happened to Daddy and not Mommy. She might have slugged the poor guy!

Well, Halloween 2009 is history (hey, I already have a history!!). I'm looking forward to next year when maybe I can even eat a little candy--we'll see. Hope everyone enjoyed my photos.

Love to all!

Jamee

I Love Fall!

Hi Everyone!

"They" tell me that it's been a beautiful fall here in western New York. Since I have no point of comparison, I'll have to take "their" word for it. It is very pretty.

On Sunday, Mommy and Daddy were raking leaves in our yard. Mommy got the camera and started shooting. I like playing in the leaves and I'm pretty good about not eating them. By the end of an afternoon of raking and mowing, the yard looked perfect. Today, after a night of wind and rain the yard is all covered in leaves again! I'm excited, because I'll get to play in the leaves again soon--after they dry.


Mommy, Daddy and I took advantage of a beautiful fall Saturday and took a walk on the canal. We stopped at lock 32 for the above photo op and grabbed a snack before we headed back on the return hike (my snack was cereal and pear--yum yum).

A few weeks ago a family in our church invited everyone to a hayride. So I went on my very first hayride. It was fun! After the hayride, I got to meet their horse. Look how close I got. Horses are BIG!

I love puffs!! Yum yum!

Mommy and Daddy celebrated their 5th anniversary earlier this month. We spent their anniversary weekend doing fun family activities (though they did have an evening out to dinner without me). We went on a hike in the woods. I really enjoyed the first 45 minutes of the hike, but then got a little tired of the whole thing and decided to take a nap.

Before I fell asleep! I love riding in the backpack--I feel like such a big boy!

The other family outing was to The Strong National Museum of Play here in Rochester. This was my first visit but I'll be back (Mommy and Daddy got a family membership). What fun I had--and Mommy and Daddy did too.

Don't we look funny!!! This was a funky mirror at the museum.

I think this was the goose that laid the golden egg! I don't think the egg was really gold! Too bad, it could have helped out my college fund.

Life continues to be full. It's hard to believe that in less than two months I will be 1! Some new things I'm doing these days are:

• Crawling faster than Mommy and Daddy can. I play chase with Daddy and I can almost always catch him.
• I stood up once for about 10 seconds by myself and then got freaked out and sat right back down.
• Pout--yep, I can put on quite the pout now. Mommy's so not impressed by it!
• I understand "no" when I want to.
• I can put my toys back in the box (again--selectively).
• I walk behind my walker as long as Mommy helps by not letting the walker go too quickly.
• I scream, twist, kick and rollover during diaper change time 60% of the time--not my favorite activity.
• I've eaten mango, and stew and really like both!

Well, Halloween is Saturday--stay tuned for my next blog posting. Guess what I'm going to be for Halloween . . .

Love,

Jamee

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor . . .

Hi Everyone,

Well my apple a day did not keep the doctor away since I was already scheduled for my nine month check up. On Wednesday, I had my check up. I am now 19 lbs. 2.5 oz. and my height is 28". I'm still growing. The doctor and nurse always say what a happy baby I am--I try not to let all this go to my head (it's tough though). I also got one shot at this visit--a flu shot (just the regular flu shot not the H1N1 version). So, hopefully, I will make it through the winter without getting sick. It was a pretty easy doctor's visit. I don't have another appointment until I am 1 year old!

So, my coolest adverture was on Saturday! A nice lady who works with Mommy, her name is Joyce, told Mommy about a fruit farm not far away. We went for a visit on Saturday to pick some apples. It was the greatest place with a train that we rode on, a petting zoo and lots and lots and lots of apples. Check out the pictures below. Stay tuned for future adventures.

Chicago, Train, PaPa's B-day, and Teeth!

Hi Everyone!

I'll write more after my 9 month birthday coming up on Tuesday, but wanted to post a few pictures of my first train trip (overnight) and my first trip to Chicago to visit my "Aunt" Helen.

Mommy wanted Daddy and me to meet Aunt Helen who lives near Chicago. Oma and Opa were going to go too. We decided the cheapest and the most convenient way to travel there was by train. The train allowed Daddy to work all day on Friday because the train did not leave Rochester until 11:00 p.m. It arrived in Chicago at 9:15 a.m. where Oma and Opa met us and picked us up. From the train staition, we traveled to an amazing bakery--The Swedish Bakery in Chicago. Mommy, Daddy, Oma and Opa got lots of yummy looking things to eat. I of course am still too young to eat any. But, Mommy and Daddy liked this place sooo much, I'm pretty sure they will go back some time when I'm a little older.

When we were finished visiting the bakery and the other Swedish stores around the area, we headed west to visit Aunt Helen in Downers Grove (near Wheaton--Mommy's college). We spent a lot of time with Aunt Helen over the next two days. We even had Chicago style pizza--Mommy's favorite (I just watched everyone else eat the pizza).

It was a great and quick trip--we were in Chicago for approximately 36 hours before we were on the train again heading back to Rochester. Mommy and Daddy were very proud at how well I did on the train--I pretty much slept most of the time so it was easy to be good!

The traveling wasn't over as the following weekend we headed east to visit Mimi and PaPa for PaPa's 89th birthday. PaPa makes 89 look very young! I had a great time visiting. We walked down to look at the lake a few times and I had fun crawling around on the grass while Mommy and Daddy were digging a flower bed for Mimi. Of course the birthday celebration was wonderful too!

Well, I've gone on longer than I planned to. I should briefly mention a few new things I'm doing. My spoken vocabulary is growing--I'm now saying mamamamamama, dadadadadadada and babababababa. Sometimes I even mix them up--mamababababa. I'm into everything--I really love to explore. The other day, I figured out how to open up the wood burning stove. Mommy and Daddy were thankful that the stove was not on yet for the season. I can now wave hello and good-bye and can do a pretty good high five as well. I also enjoy riding on the vacuum cleaner when Mommy vacuums--and she vacuums a lot!!

The biggest change since my last entry is that I now have teeth! Two bottom teeth that came in last weekend while I was visiting Mimi and Papa! I'm very glad to have those teeth come in--they were a real pain!

Well, enjoy the pictures--no teeth picture yet. Mommy and Daddy have a tough time getting me to show my teeth, so that will have to come later.

Love to all!

Jamee

Mommy, Daddy, Aunt Helen (90 years young) and me.

Che Che and me at Che Che's work. In February, Che Che and uncle Mike will be having my new little cousin! I can't wait!

On the train!

Mommy and me at Wheaton.

Happy birthday PaPa!