More Jujitsu

I just love the reaction to his victory.
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Later that same day.
Indiana to the other boy:"Oh, no you don't"
Other boy:"Yeah, I did."
Thanks for taking the movie, mom.

Happy Birthday

Part of the Christmas season for us the last 7 years is celebrating Indi's birthday. But I'm determined to make it a separate day, no tree wrapping paper, no red and green decorations, no putting it off until after the holidays. So far--so good. This year he chose a Wall-E theme. Yes, it was low-key, but it sure was all about him.

"birth"day

one

two

three

four

five

Greg Gibby, A.S.A

This Summer Greg passed enough exams to become an A.S.A. Officially it means he is an Associate in the Society of Actuaries. Unofficially it means that I can brag about his hard work. He studied for days and weeks, months and years so that he can now sign papers and have more responsibilities at work, as well as more letters after his name. We've been so busy this year that I didn't realize that I hadn't mentioned it on the blog. I am correcting that now--who knows? maybe someone out there wants to know about the parents of Indiana and Mimi:)

The above picture is from the out door Bar-B-Q party we had in his honor. It of course poured and poured rain with thunder and lightning. We adjusted and crammed everyone into our little place. The food stayed dry, but most of the people did not.

Way to go, Greg!

paint

Dinning room/Lego room paint possibilities. Hmmm, what do you think?

light work/work light

Christmas Dinner

Curler-head--just like Grandma!

Mimi in Granddad's boots.

I'm not sure what the real phrase is, but when you have many hands, LOTS of home improvement projects do actually get finished! I'm sad Christmas is over, but I'm happy to remember the fun things we did (including all the holiday festivities!): changing light switches and outlets to be a consistent white with white plates (instead of the ivory/white mix), painting the (empty) living room a peaceful buxton blue, changing the walls in the living room/entry way, and getting a good start at the popcorn ceiling removal.

Thanks for all you help Mom and Dad, Tina and Sonya!

Christmas Photo

Merry Christmas From Mimi and Indiana!As we struggled to take a Christmas photo this year, Aunt Sonya thought of a way to help them

stand up straight:"Stand like a Storm Trooper!"
Mimi and Indiana immediately pointed their hands like blasters and made blaster noises.

What Christmas involves

Making ornaments


Cuddling
and home renovations?
And Mimi "helping" out

Baby R2D2

Family in Town

Mostly we wrestle
Mimi:"Help me, Superman!"

Bob Dylan

Mimi's Bob Dylan-inspired Clean-up Song.
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Another first, we finally have room for the encyclopedias we've been carrying around for 7 years in boxes. I've heard tales of Greg reading the encyclopedia as a boy. When my parents moved away from their beautiful home in NJ they got rid of a lot of stuff and one thing was their set of encyclopedias. Greg asked for them and my parents were happy to see them go to someone instead of the dumpster. We had a question about flag etiquette and we thought we would look it up, well the computer was off, so I surprised Greg, he of course loved it looking it up in the written form.

Preparing for Christmas

At my favorite garden store, picking out the trees--we went with the expectation of Boston Christmas tree prices, and we were surprised buy Ohio's smaller prices, we went ahead and bought 2!
Mimi:"A baby tree!"
Indiana:"A big boy tree!"

Mimi:"Santa lost his sock!"

We continue our firsts with our first house. Our neighbor's advice for hanging up lights: "Don't start."
Greg went up on the roof, I offered moral support from the ground and carried a phone in my pocket, just in case.
Indiana keep us entertained with LOUD Christmas songs he has learned at school and church.

More Jujitsu

Indiana showing us something that he has been practicing.
"That wasn't weird"

Mimi Eats

Eating a hot dog like a cob of corn.

"My gigner the boon" [My finger is the spoon]

1 down 19 to go.

Indiana pulled his first tooth out.

Exhibit A: The Tooth

Exhibit B: Gappy Smile

New Edition

I heard some laughter and this is what I found. Mimi:"I get down now." See her white-knuckling her knee? She seems brave, but she also has times of being scared.

Late Monday Post

Mimi:"You da bread, I da cheese". A Gibby sandwich. I was late again with my Monday post, a whole day late this week, here's why:

We put in 9 NEW windows! We even replaced 2 replacement windows. I feel a difference already!

Cookie Jar that never holds cookies

playing with Mimi

It's cold and yucky outside, and we are playing the part by staying in PJ's all day and playing with whatever we can find around the house. Here's her "boots". She LOVES this basket. I can't keep anything in it.

"It a grog damp!" [it's a frog stamp]

Nerd Cred

Indy, in a attempt to further establish his nerd credentials, asked how to say Rancor in Spanish.

Math

Indiana is taller then a chick, a duck and a pig. Those lines? That means he is EQUAL to the height of a sheep. Math nerd.

Let's Party!

I love apples. I love apple cider even more. Here's a fun commentary about them.

Feel like wasting time? I can't seem to save more then 73 apples a game. Thanks, mom.

Pea Toss

Mimi has started trying to toss food in her mouth--NO idea how where she got this idea. I personally haven't tried it since I nearly choked myself when I was 12 with a skittle.

"and try another one"
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And here's a joke:

"Why did the hippo cross the road?"
punch line:
"it was the chicken's day off!"

97 bulbs, 2 cars, and a dvd player

That's what we did today! Greg has been studying since we moved in and we haven't really had a day to get things settled. Today was our day. We cleared out the garage so now 2 cars can fit! And we planted 97 bulbs, Mimi is surprisingly helpful at some things --thanks for the tulips, Nana. One box we found had some of Greg's childhood toys. This one is a Transformer, keep in mind it's from the 80's, it's a robot that changes into a cassette tape player--ah, my child of the oughts.

Mimi's Star Wars dialog

Mimi, referring to the toilet paper tube on her wrist, with her right arm and left arm talking about it:
"Look! I R2D2! Yup, you R2D2! It brake, it perfect. It fits, yup, it fits, yup, you R2D2. It's mine, no it's mine! Hey, share"
*munch*munch*munch*
me:"AUGH! don't eat the tube!"
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More of Darth Vader
"I put my helmet on! Yeah, this I little Darth Vader, this my little Darth Vader."
*Breath like Darth*
As I'm uploading this Mimi says:"Dis is gonna be great!"

A post about Greg

So there's this guy who hangs around sometimes, and we are getting to know him again. Greg's new job allows for him to be home SO much more, it's like heaven to all of us. And especially when he doesn't have an actuarial exam to study for, it's even better! This weekend he put in a new toilet downstairs. It's funny how owning a home suddenly makes you a plumber. Now when we flush, it doesn't feel like Lake Erie is running through our living room.
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One birthday/Two Cakes
Mimi set the table. Greg's never had a Halloween themed cake, even though it's in the beginning of Nov. Our friend Drew was our inspiration.
Greg picked hamburgers for his dinner, for BOTH parties.
We had another party when we could get together with Greg's mom and dad and sister, thanks for coming! Can you see the change in the window covering from one day to the next?
Mimi and Greg making Orange juice for his belated birthday breakfast.