Happy 2011!

Jared is changing so much lately - he really is becoming a little boy.

*He had a great Christmas with both sets of Grandparents. He liked ripping open the wrapping paper on the gifts, but wanted to play with the toys right away. He didn't understand he had a small mountain of gifts to unwrap. :)
*Jared got a play tent with a tunnel for Christmas, which is lots of fun. But the opening in the tent is just a little small for him. Jared hasn't really figured out that he needs to duck down to walk into the tent, he just kind of pushes through, which makes his hair look all funny.
*He LOVES the Christmas tree - the tree, the lights, the tinsel, the ornaments. He will be very sad when it's gone. I will too! It was a beautiful tree, and I was so excited to finally be able to decorate our house for Christmas.
*Our local fire company drove Santa around all of the neighborhood streets before Christmas. On our scheduled night, Santa never came, because he had a real fire to attend to. But two nights later, we all heard a huge amount of sirens and ran outside. Steve and I were expecting Santa on the back of a fire truck. Instead, we got every truck in our fire company driving through the streets with all of the lights and sirens going. You definitely couldn't miss it. Santa was in the back on his sleigh, getting pulled on a trailer. We took video of it, and the whole time I'm laughing for the absurdity of it all. It was really cool though.
*Jared loves turning lights on and off. He also still points out lights and ceiling fans all of the time.
*He gives kisses when he is in the mood, no hugs though.
*He gets very excited about laundry. He pushes the laundry basket into the laundry room. Then picks up some clothes, and I pick him and the clothes up, and he throws them into the washer. Then, I hand him the wet clothes out of the washer, and he throws them into the dryer. Later, he unloads the dryer, and shuts the door when he's done. What a big helper! Now I just need to teach him how to fold!
*He will stop everything and run to a window or point up in the sky whenever a plane flies overhead, which is all of the time.
*He loves to dig in the dirt with his hands. I will never understand boys.
*Jared is still just babbling, no real words yet. He knows how to get his point across though. He points a lot, and does a few sign language signs, mostly for eating.
*Jared got a book of pictures with the word name on each picture. He can point out certain pictures to you, like banana, fish (which is in there 4 times for some reason), cheese, tree (then points to our Christmas tree), etc. I am amazed how much he understands.
*He loves feeling like a big strong boy. He will pick up wide objects (his highchair tray, a big package of toilet paper), and walk around with it, very proud of himself. We went out to dinner recently, and he kept hugging the end of the table. I think he was pleasantly surprised that his hands reached to both ends.

In some non-Jared related news... (so you can stop reading now if you'd like to)
Steve and I bought a new car! The Passat wasn't doing so well, and we wanted to turn it in before it randomly died sometime. We also wanted to take advantage of the end of the year deals. After much consideration, we ended up with a 2010 Mazda 6. Since it's a 2010, we got a good deal on a nicely equipped one. And it's red! I never considered myself a red car person, but it is such a pretty shade of red, that we couldn't pass it up.