Jalen Meets Justin

Last Saturday, we met Erin and John's new baby boy Justin. It's been a while since we've held a newborn. We've forgotten how tiny they're! Justin was an angel the whole time, barely making a squeak. We asked Jalen if he wanted to hold Jalen but he did not. He didn't show much interest in the baby until I held him. He leaned over to look then all of sudden, *whack*, swatted at the baby's face. Luckily, it wasn't hard and didn't wake the baby. We're guessing that means Jalen is not ready for a sibling yet?

Jalen is Bilingual, Sort of

We've been teaching Jalen how to use the magic words, "please" and "thank you". When Jalen says "thank you", it comes off sounding like "doo doo". But he can say "thank you" in Chinese better.

Jalen Loves Mamma Mia!

We got Mamma Mia for Christmas and those songs are so darn infectious! They're also universally appealing since Jalen and Grace love them and the grandparents love them too!

Here's Jalen dancing to Super Trooper.

Jalen Opening Christmas Presents

This is the first year that Jalen has discovered how much fun it is to tear away at gift wrappings to get to the presents.

Some Christmas Pictures

We had a very low key Christmas at our house because of all the snow. We went to dim sum for lunch and opened presents at our house with Rick's parents and Betsy's family.

My parents were supposed to come visit on Christmas Eve but they were snowed in. My mom finally made it the Saturday after Christmas and Jalen was very excited about opening more presents.

My dad drove to Seattle on New Year's Day. We were happy to finally have all of the grand parents together.

Jalen Loves Pottery Barn Kids

After a recent trip to the mall, we discovered that Jalen loves the toys at Pottery Barn Kids. He especially likes the kitchen toys and household toys. I think he loves them so much because at home, we don't let him get into the kitchen cabinets. Jalen likes to copy everything we do and it just kills him that he can't copy us while we're cooking. As you can see in this video, he couldn't get enough of all the mini household items.

Jalen Plays in the Snow

We got about a couple of inches of snow on Saturday night. The next day we let Jalen play in the snow for the first time. At first, he didn't know what to do with himself. The snow must have felt so strange to his feet. The weather was still very cold so I tossed some powdery snow in the air and let it fall in his face. That got him really excited and he wanted me to do it again and again. After about 15 minutes we decided to go back inside. Jalen then whined for about 30 minutes wanting to go back out. He couldn't get enough!