Happy new year!

I'm all ready for the end of 2012 -- I've got champagne in one hand and a train in another -- but I wanted to take a moment to wish you continued good times in 2013.

My new year's resolution is to get my taxes done early this year, and to eat more macaroni and cheese. I'm pretty sure both of those are the secret of happiness. 

Christmas time again!

Sooooooo many presents!

Here's Pop-Pop Shane trying to figure out how my new Thomas the Tank Engine towel works. I kept telling him you need to take a bath first. Don't worry, he knew how to play with my new cars better.

And here's Pop-Pop Doyle and Aunt Olga helping me unwrap my new Skarloey train. I can't believe neither of them knew who Skarloey was. They clearly aren't watching enough Thomas when I'm gone.

And Grandmom Linda and Aunt Pat found even more presents for me to open! We should do this Christmas thing more often.

Hope everybody had a great one. I know I already sent out one Christmas card, but in case you didn't get it, here's my second season's greetings for you:

More trains than you can imagine

Pop-Pop took the whole family to some crazy train heaven called Northlandz yesterday, and you would not believe how many little trains they had there.

Seriously, it took us almost two hours to walk through the whole thing. Of course, after those two hours, I still wanted to see more trains, but Mom and Dad wanted to go eat instead. Amateurs.

Pop-Pop was as excited as I was to see the trains. Do you know how many bridges they had for the box cars to go over? A BAZILLION.

We took cousin Tommy along too. He doesn't full appreciate how cool trains are yet, but he will soon. I'll make sure of that.

 

 Dad's note: Seriously, after two hours Jonathan was upset that there weren't more trains to see. Two hours. And that still wasn't enough. 

 

'twas the weekend before Christmas

Ollie and I really liked hearing Pop's Christmas stories, but they coulda used more trains.

Identity crisis

No matter how many times I tell Dad my name, he still asks me more questions.

Christmas + trains = ohmigawd

You're never going to guess what Pop-Pop had at his house this weekend.

YES IT WAS TRAINS AND CHRISTMAS LIGHTS AND TRAINS.

I don't know how much more excitement I can take this holiday season.

School portraits

We got to draw our own portraits to decorate daycare today, and I think mine turned out perfect.

Of course, Mom and Dad wanted a "formal" picture, so we got one of those too. Honestly, I don't think it's as cute as the snowman one, but it'll do. 

Outside lights

Ohmigawd, there are lights OUTSIDE TOO!!! Pop has to see this. Where is he, anyways?

Fire truckin'

Here I am wearing my fire truck pajamas while reading a fire truck book and playing with my fire truck. Why? Because fire trucks, that's why. 

Simply having a wonderful Christmas time

Christmas lights inside the house are THE MOST EXCITING THING EVER!!!

 

Party time

This is pretty much all Dad and I did today.


That's a pretty good way to spent his birthday, I think.

Build it bigger

Pop-Pop Shane taught me how to build really, really big Lego towers this weekend. The toughest part on this one was getting the camera up top to take this picture. 

Just for perspective, here's me putting the final touches on that tower:

The trick is to go slowly. 

Overwhelming excitement

Did you ever love trains so much you exhausted yourself just watching them?


Because I've been there.

Tunnels

The awesome part is they have openings on both sides, so you get to go through them twice before you start over again.

That bear again

Mom and Dad missed my 33-month birthday celebration last week (nice work, guys) but they did remember  to take another picture with the big bear. To refresh your memory, here's me this time last year:

And here I am six months ago...

And here I am today:

I think I've really perfected the cute-leaning-head pose now.

For all my adoring fans out there, here's a little behind-the-scenes featurette of how we put that latest bear picture together (you're gonna want to turn the volume way down.)

Thanksgiving, part 1 and 2

I got to have two Thanksgivings this year -- first, I got a giant feast at daycare on Wednesday, which was awesome. Here's a list of what I ate.

Then I got to have an even bigger Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday with Pop and Grandmom and a bunch of other family members. There weren't as many kids at that party, but there still were cupcakes.

Aunt Olga (across the table) was trying to teach me how to steal a second cupcake, but Mom made her stop. She's pretty smart -- I've gotta hang out with her more often.

Hope everybody had as much to eat this week as I did!

Funnest playground ride ever

No question, there's one playground ride that beats all the rest. I could play on here for hours.


Dad's note: Actually, he did play on there for about 20 minutes straight...

Tommy's birthday party

Tommy's turning one-year-old soon, so we headed up to Aunt Beth's house to have an early party for him. We had a blast.

The only problem was that Grandmom only has one lap, so I had to share with him. Luckily, Great Aunt Jeanne was there to help too.

Overachiever

I really feel like these playground ages are more of a suggestion than a rule.

New bed, sorta

I let Mom and Dad know this weekend that I was getting a little too big for my crib, so they got me a new one. It looks a lot like my old crib, but without that fourth wall.

Now all I gotta do is convince them to let me jump on this one.

Haircut time again?

Seriously? Why can I just grow my hair long like Dad did?

Coin catalogs

These Dr. Suess stories are nice and all, but looking at the grading values on Liberty Head dollars is much more stimulating.

Voter fraud

You'd be surprised what you can get away with when you're cute. Not only did I vote today, I voted twice.

But I cast a ballot for each guy, just to be fair. I just wanted the stickers.

Cross-training in Autumn

Remember that leaf-stomping post a few weeks back? A lot of people assume that was just something I did for a laugh, but it's actually the culmination of hours upon hours of intense outdoor workouts I complete every month. Here's a look at me building up my leaf-battling stamina over the weekend:


Dad's note: He really did want to do this for hours this weekend. Just back and forth, back and forth, then pause for me to re-rake the pile. 

Ready for Halloween

OK, maybe I'm not the scariest dinosaur you've ever seen, but I'm the noisiest one.

By the way, if you've ever wondered what it's like to be attacked by a T-Rex carrying a football, here you go.

Wrestling turtles

They may look small and cute, but you'd be surprised how exhausting it is to wrestle these guys.

Answering reader questions

For everyone who keeps asking where the blond hair comes from ...

On the right, that's a picture of Dad from grade school that Grandmom dropped off a few weeks ago. Apparently he once had hair just like mine. Now his hair is ... not the same color.

Maybe there are some blonds in Mom's family that we don't know about?
 

Passing skills

Dad wanted me to make a Mike Vick joke here, but, honestly, that's just too easy. It cheapens us all.

Pumpkin party

I got to hang out at Isabella's birthday party this weekend, and where we decorated pumpkins as part of the fun. Here's Mom and I posing with my creation, and Uncle Tom acting like a nut job in the background.

Then we all posed for a picture with our pumpkins. There's me up in the right corner, birthday girl Isabella in red on the bottom right, cousin Tommy over on the pumpkins and ... well, there were a lot of other kids there too. Somebody should have thought about name tags.

Time for a close up

It just never gets less funny.

Calling plays

They've got four wideouts and their pass-catching back out there and you're gonna call a linebacker blitz with a soft nickel zone? Geez, even Juan Castillo could have told you that's a bad plan. How do these guys get hired? 

A weekend on the rails

Grandmom and Grandpop invited Ollie and I up to Lancaster for a train-tastic vacation this weekend. I agreed to bring Mom and Dad, once they promised not to elbow in on my time with Pop. 

We saw steam locomotives and diesel locomotives and electric locomotives and passenger cars and box cars and coal cars and big cabooses and small cabooses and oh my gawd there were so many trains!!!

It took me a while to explain all the different kinds to Grandpop, but he's a pretty good listener. 

He even took me for a ride on a real steam train! I wore my Thomas the Tank Engine shirt, so everyone would know I was already a train expert. 

You could see so much stuff from the train, but when I asked to drive, they said I had to be at least 16. That's ridiculous. What am I going to so, make a wrong turn off the tracks?

We got to see all sorts of neat toy trains too in a museum nearby. Grandmom and I liked the ones that went around and around and made train noises. How do people think of these things?

Of course, no trip would be complete without at least one ride on my favorite train, Thomas. I wanted to take him home, but Mom and Dad said there wasn't enough room in our garage to keep him. That's a shame, because he's a really useful engine. 

Problems of autumn

Look, somebody has to clean up this porch. That's the best I can do until I'm tall enough to pull the rake down from the shelves.

Handyman

I don't know why Dad's always complaining about getting work done around the house. These screws are pretty easy to drive in and pull back out.

The agony of defeat

I don't understand ... The baseball playoffs started today, and I can't find the Phillies playing anywhere. What gives?

Down in the wine cellar

Hold on, when did we get a wine cellar?

Just kidding. Here's a picture of my visit this weekend to the big house around the corner. Dad says it's the old governor's mansion, but that's not a very descriptive name. I like mine better.

Dad also kept complaining that I moved around too much to get a good picture in the cellar, but I don't know what he was talking about.

Gameday preparations

Jonathan, since you have your Eagles shirt on, can you do a touchdown pose picture for the blog? Raise your arms.

Funny kid. OK, please raise your other arm.

You're a riot. No, raise them both at the same time.

HOLD THEM APART -- THIS IS WHY THE PHOTOS TAKE FOREVER.

Fine, good enough. Whatever.

Now you're just showing off.