The Hobbit

At J-girl's age, her news might be a bit more exciting than J-man's. Within the next few months, we anticipate postings like "J-girl's First Steps" or "J-girl's first word." However, I will do my best to come up with some news concerning J-man in order to give him equal blog space. Possible future postings for him might be: "J-man Learns Inappropriate Word at Preschool" or "J-man Decides Kissing isn't Yucky After All." Here is my first attempt to balance the blog:

For bedtime we have been reading The Hobbit to J-man. We had been able to get through the first two Oz books without too much trouble, but he hadn't shown much interest in continuing that series. (Did you know there are 14 Oz books? Jeez.) When I started reading The Hobbit I fully expected him to lose interest by the second chapter. But chapter two has the trolls in it. That got him hooked. He really listens, too. During some of the more exciting parts he'll pull his knees up to his chest and cover his mouth, waiting to find out what happens. You would think he was watching Star Wars. (We did watch Star Wars shortly after his birthday. Next year, we'll do Empire.) We're about half way through the book and so far his favorite part is Gollum.

And now for your viewing pleasure, here is J-man "dancing" to the String Beans. This was taken around Christmas time.

Other notes:

We now realize that the title for the last posting may not have been the best choice. Sorry if anyone was offended. We assure you that noone has been Smackin' Johanna.

We recently borrowed a children's C.D. from the library that featured "The Name Game." We learned two things: (1) Don't ever put yourself in a position where you have to listen "The Name Game" everytime you get in the car for three weeks, and (2) "The Name Game" is really hard to do with the name Johanna. Seriously. Try it.