Guess Who

So our nephew James had his 5th birthday earlier this month. I forgot that Joe had found some toys online and had sent them to Lisa in anticipation of James' birthday a while before the event, so I tried to figure out something fun to get the little guy. I'd love to say it was all my idea, but while browsing a great website, Pinterest, I found a picture of someone's personalized Guess Who game. Incredible!

I remember loving that game as a kid, and after a little research, learned that the suggested age was 6+. Guess Who is a two player game that is pretty easy to play. Each player picks a card that has a different person on it and keeps his card hidden from the other player. The players then take turns asking yes/no questions to try and guess the identity of the other's card. As the questions get answered, the players drop the board pieces down to eliminate the faces that don't match with the mystery person. The first player to correctly guess the identity of the other player's card wins.

James is plenty smart so we figured it could be a hit. The newest version of the game was stylized in a way that wouldn't work well for the version I was hoping to create, so I started searching for slightly older versions of the game. It took a couple of weeks of browsing ebay and local thrift/consignment stores and garage sales before I was able to locate a game in great shape that still had all of its original pieces and playing cards.

Another few days spent searching for head shots of James' extended family and photoshopping them to fit the small game pieces, along with lots of help from Joe with formatting and printing at the store that does his letterhead and business cards, cutting the pieces out and assembling the boards, and we finally had finished making the game.

The two game boards, with the new family pieces installed

Joe managed to copy the original game pieces, that have a pattern of question marks on the back side of each game piece. The printer had some perfect glossy cardstock that worked perfectly for the game pieces. Hopefully they'll hold up well to lots of wear!

A closeup of one of the game boards. All of the pieces pop out and can be rearranged to keep the game fun! I tried to make sure we had a good assortment of pictures with accessories - mainly hats and glasses/sunglasses which definitely makes the game more interesting to play.

We had a lot of fun creating the personalized game, and I actually am thinking about trying to keep locating more boards so that we can make a set for us. Not only is it a fun game, but I'm sure it helps the little kids to remember their far away aunts, uncles and cousins too! Happy 5th Birthday James!! :)

Mommy's Helper

*Disclaimer* As you may have noticed in the last post, Joseph looks a little banged up. I promise I'm not abusing or neglecting him; rather, we're discovering just how clumsy a 17 month old can be. The scrapes and bumps in these pictures are the result of Joseph watching the garbage truck a little too intently and trying to follow after him, while not remembering that the best way to go down the concrete steps is not, in fact, face first.

Joseph seems to enjoy playing in the kitchen more when I'm cooking, as opposed to just fussing that he's not the center of my attention. Couple that with his enhanced signing skills (he'll tell us when he's hungry now, even if he still doesn't eat much), and things usually run a little more efficiently at dinner time.

This particular evening, he had mentioned he was hungry, and although I don't remember now what I was making, I was in the process of pulling together dinner. I guess I was taking a little too long, because after a few minutes of noticing that neither Joseph nor Molly were making any noise, I started to look around and discovered this:

He was too funny to stop him. He was pouring the cereal so slowly that I had time to run, grab the camera, turn it on and still capture 95% of the action. It helps that I knew the cereal was getting fairly stale and there wasn't that much left anyway.

Even more entertaining was discovering that Joseph is apparently too light to stomp on the cereal when he walked around the kitchen. Instead, they were sticking to the bottoms of his feet without crumbing. At least, I found it funny. He was not amused at all.

Poor little guy. At least we haven't had any more escapades like this one.

And here's a random video, mainly for Aunt Jennifer. He's solidly figured out the rocking horse she gave him for Christmas, although he still needs help getting up on the horse. With the help of the hardwood floors, he manages to rock clear across the room! And yes, you're getting a clear idea of his little personality at the very end!

Mmm, Ice Cream

We finally got the little guy convinced that ice cream tastes great on its own, even without needing to add peas! It's been so hot out lately, we've had to spend more time than we'd like inside. One day last week Joseph got up from his nap and was feeling a little warm. Knowing that he's usually hungry after a good nap, I decided to try another ice cream sandwich.

Yes, on the couch.

Next to the snoozing dog.

I realized I'd need something to keep his attention so ice cream wouldn't go everywhere. Enter baby signing time to the rescue!

Although it took over 30 minutes, he managed to eat 2/3rds of the ice cream sandwich all by himself!

And the best part? He was so still he didn't really spill much on the couch. Much to Molly's dismay. :)

Joseph-isms

A couple of quick funny things Joseph's been up to these days:

1. Now that he knows the sign for diaper, he has decided to use the sign to inform us that it's time for a clean diaper. Or maybe he's just letting us know he's dirty and ok with it. Regardless, he'll only sign diaper after he's gone #2, and he'll do it once, maybe twice before he's off to play and won't sign it again. We're optimistic that we'll be able to potty train him early, butwe are no where near ready for that yet!

2. Yesterday I was trying to get my coupon binder organized. Joseph came over to me and shook his head no, then signed all done. At first I assumed he was finished playing with his toys, but he proceeded to shut the binder closed and signed all done again. Quickly catching on, I opened the binder again, to which he once again shook his head no, signed all done and closed the binder. No further interpretation needed. Such a direct little kid!

3. Joseph really has fun hanging around Molly. Lately he'll climb up on top of her while she's on the couch to try and get kissed ( or try to ride her like his riding toys, but she doesn't really cooperate like they do.... yet). He'll kiss her on the ear or head, then lean in really close and wait for her to sniff him, anticipating a quick kiss. When she delivers, he laughs hysterically and repeats. Luckily for Molly, Joseph usually has a treat in hand or remnants of his last meal somewhere on his face/hands/shirt so she gets a reward too.

BVI Trip Recap

A few weeks ago, the entire Parsonage family clan packed up and headed to the British Virgin Islands for a weeklong sailing vacation. We've been planning this trip since last fall, and it was so nice when it finally arrived. My parents took the family as our Christmas present, and we all stayed on a Moorings 4700 catamaran, which had 4 staterooms, each with its own bathroom, and a crew's room, which was attached to one of the forward staterooms. Talk about a nice boat!

Joseph waving at us in the San Juan airport. Notice the toy plane in his hand?

 But I'm getting ahead of myself. First there was a full day of travel, starting with a 6am flight out of St. Louis, a layover in Miami, another layover in San Juan, and our flight into Tortola/Beef Island, which arrived around 5pm local time. Let's just say that it made for a very long day, but somehow we all managed!

It didn't take long before Joseph attached himself to Grandpa's side. Anywhere Grandpa went, Joseph wanted to go too!

We called ahead to see if we really needed to bring Joseph's carseat with us, thinking that we wouldn't be able to use it. Of course, the local law, as we learned, is that children must be in car seats.

In reality....

this is what happens! Why? Because none of the large taxis that are used to transport 10-20 people even have seatbelts! We figured this would happen, but still hauled the carseat all the way to the islands, stowed it inside the boat, and didn't see it again until we headed back to the airport a week later. And thanks to some less than intelligent airline workers, we weren't able to use it on the planes because according to them, planes that have a half dozen open seats were apparently "full to capacity"... thanks guys. 

We knew that we were going to take the forward room with the adjoining space for Joseph, and the Moorings representatives had told me that the door separating the two rooms needed to be kept open for the air conditioning to reach the forward space. (Yes, this boat even had a/c!) I spent tons of time trying to prepare for how we'd keep Joseph in his room without him crawling out, and ended up sewing a mesh opening that I hoped would fit, and brought a number of different things for attaching it to the walls.

Unfortunately, after the first day and a half, none of the attempts were working. Our temporary solution was to rock Joseph to sleep (he wasn't a fan of sleeping in a new space anyway and kept fighting being left alone) and hope that he wouldn't wake up. So, of course the first night he woke up around 4am, pushed through the mesh gate and crawled into bed with us.

After a few hours, yes, hours of trying to get him to quietly go to sleep, he finally gave in. And then managed to squeeze me out of my space! This is how my boys ended up looking that morning:

Eventually, we realized that we could use the retractable mesh baby gate that we had brought (like I said, I tried to be overly prepared!) in an upright position (with the tension rods on the ceiling and under the mattress, as opposed to wall to wall) and it perfectly blocked the space. Problem solved! Other than a few nights of rainstorms, we didn't have any middle of the night visits again.

We had lots of fun sailing to the usual islands and experiencing the vacation with a toddler in tow. A group of ladies we were docked next to at the charter base were leaving for home the day we arrived, and offered us their water floats, among other things. For some reason, they had a kids lobster raft in the mix, which Joseph quickly took to. He loved hanging out with us in the water in one of the rafts and requested to go swimming (by signing "fish") almost every time someone was in the water.

Mealtimes were always entertaining. Usually there was a concerted effort to get Joseph to eat as much as possible. Our first dinner at anchor at Norman's Island, Dad grilled cheeseburgers for everyone. Apparently Joseph was really hungry, and ended up eating almost an entire burger! 

I'm sure it didn't take this long, but Joseph quickly noticed that everyone's attention was focused on him, so he was hamming it up.

 Hey, whatever works to keep him going, right? He also picked up some new dance moves during this dinner, while watching my mom and Jennifer dancing to some classic Michael Jackson. I think he was trying to imitate the "Thriller" moves, because now, even still, he'll start dancing by raising his hands above his head and swing them side to side.

The next day we sailed to Marina Cay. Joseph did his best to spend as much time on Grandpa's lap, helping to "drive" the boat. He made sure to point out all of the other boats around us during much of the trip - he perfected his signs for "boat" and "fish" by the end of our vacation!

Such a hard life, huh?

I'm sure someone else took pictures of the group, but this is one of only a couple pictures Joe and I took together all week. At least this was early on, just before everyone started getting burned!

Joseph was really good about wearing his harness when on deck. Instead of making him stay in a life jacket, we opted to keep this 5 point harness on him, with a tether so we could attach him to one of us, or clip him onto a fixed point on the boat.

 The only problem with this arrangement? He soon had no fear of going over the edge or railing, because someone was always there to hang on to him. So he insisted on walking everywhere and not being held. At least we were able to convince him to hold onto the lifelines when he'd walk around, even if he didn't realize what was going on.

The catamaran had a huge trampoline stretched between the hulls, and by day two Joseph had learned to look between the lacings to see the water, anchor and anything else below. If he was anywhere near the trampoline, he made sure to sneak a peek just to make sure he wasn't missing anything exciting.

These are some of my favorite things from the trip - watching him sprawled out, peering down at the water below. So cute!

Mommy and Joseph at Marina Cay.

 We remembered to bring Joseph's sunglasses, but he wasn't really into wearing them. Putting them on and then tearing them off became a fun game.

The cockpit had a few hatches in the hardtop. Although we didn't spend much time sitting way up on top of the boat, Joseph couldn't help but to check out everyone below...

On day three we headed to Anegada, an island that is only as tall as its tallest palm tree. It's all sand and reef, and has gorgeous beaches. By the time we made it up there, Joseph was down for his afternoon nap, so Dad stayed behind while everyone went ashore to "shop" and have a few rum drinks. Ashley and Mikael ended up having dinner ashore alone, while the rest of us ate on board.

After Joseph went to bed, Joe introduced the group to Mormon Bridge... a huge hit! We played a few rounds before switching to Hearts. Apparently dad played the game quite a bit in college, and no one else really had much experience. Joe managed to "shoot the moon" and the rest of us screwed up just about every plan dad had. Between a failed amateur game of Hearts and mom & Mikael's success at Mormon Bridge, dad sulked off to bed, a sore loser. :)

The next morning we toyed with the idea of visiting some of Anegada's beautiful beaches, but ended up opting just to head to Virgin Gorda and Saba Rock so Joseph could nap. I guess that with all of the fresh air and sun he was taking in, Joseph managed to take two full naps each day, and was not his happy self without them.

Having not been off the boat in more than 24 hours, Joseph was happy to head ashore and visit the beach at the Bitter End Yacht Club. We spent about an hour playing and letting him run wherever he wanted.

 By this time, Joseph was completely fearless about charging right into the water, which made us a little nervous. The waves were very calm, as the beach is in a protected area, so we didn't have to worry about him getting knocked over or anything.

Hanging out with Uncle Mikael in the water. Saba Rock is in the background. We were moored just off Saba Rock and spent a good part of the evening running back and forth in the dinghy between the boat, Bitter End and Saba Rock. While Joseph took his afternoon nap, Joseph shuttled the group from Bitter End to the boat, and then over to Saba Rock for happy hour. Joseph woke up just in time for us to grab one round of happy hour drinks, and then we rode back over to Bitter End for pizza.

The next morning we woke up and expected to find Joseph pressed up against the mesh gate, like he normally would be. Not so. I had to put my contacts in before I could finally figure out where he was sleeping...

He managed to fall asleep in the furthest forward space possible, with the pillow hiding him from view! We're not sure what prompted him to head all the way up there, but it was cute nonetheless.

After everyone woke up and got ready, we headed to the other end of Virgin Gorda and spent the morning enjoying the Baths. Ashley and Mikael headed down to the beach, while the rest of us stayed at the Top of the Baths restaurant and pool area, enjoying the view.

Joseph had lots of fun chasing the lizards that were running through the shrubs along the paths and exploring the pool area. Around lunchtime we headed back to the boat, just in time to miss out on some storms that had rolled in to the bay. Or so we thought.

We ended up motor sailing the rest of the day to Cane Garden Bay, a protected anchorage on Tortola, after having the storms catch up to us. They weren't terrible, but we did see lots of lightning, which is somewhat unsettling when you realize you're in the open water with a giant metal pole sticking up above lots of water.

The storms stayed around for the rest of the afternoon, but did break long enough for us to eat dinner on the boat and catch some great sights.

 Once again, Joseph provided the entertainment for the evening at dinner. Apparently he's going to stay flexible, as he alternated between bites of pasta and nibbles on his toes.

The next morning we headed a few miles away to a beautiful little island, Sandy Cay. Our dinghy had taken on lots of water after the rains, and apparently it lost some air during the week, so Mikael and Joe went to work cleaning it up and inflating the sides.

Ashley made sure to do what she does best... hang out and watch. :)

Joseph wasn't interested in going swimming, and neither was my mom. So we decided to give them an opportunity to need a freshwater bath after Joseph enjoyed a blue raspberry sucker in Grammy's lap.

After raising the anchor, we headed to Jost Van Dyke for the rest of the day. Once again, but the time we arrived at our anchorage, Joseph was ready for a nap. I stayed behind while Joe delivered the group to the Soggy Dollar Bar, which got its name from the fact that it doesn't have a dinghy dock, so patrons have to swim up to the beach and thus pay for drinks with soggy, wet dollars. Joe left them with a handheld VHF radio and then came back to the boat, since they hadn't decided whether they wanted Joe to pick them up at the bar or the dock closer to our anchorage.

The radio didn't work as planned, and by the time we finally figured out where to meet them, Joe had taken the dinghy back and forth between the dock, bar and back to the boat. The group apparently decided to walk back, thinking that it would only be about a mile...since that's what GPS said...as the bird flies. And birds don't really care about the mountain that it flies over during that mile. Thus, when Joe finally managed to pick everyone up, they were exhausted, drenched with sweat and starting to be hungover from their drinks at the bar! By this time, Joseph was up and happy to join them all for a quick swim before dinner.

We went ashore to Foxy's for dinner, which Joseph wanted no part of. Instead, we walked all around the restaurant, visiting other families, and checking out the locals hanging out in front of the restaurant. He also wanted to play on the beach for as long as possible, so by the time we were finished and headed back to the boat, he needed yet another shower to get all the sand off him. Showers, by the way, were his least favorite part of the whole trip. He hated just about every one of them, whether they were inside, outside, hot water or cold water. I guess they just cramped his style!
Our last day of sailing was beautiful with great wind. Joe spent a lot of time learning about sailing from dad and helping to trim sails while we made our way to Cooper Island. We decided to eat at the only restaurant on the island for dinner, and this time I was at least prepared with an additional outfit for Joseph.

 Once again, this is how I spent much of the evening. I can't blame the kid, though. Every time people would go ashore, he'd nap. By the time he was ready to play, it was mealtime and we were trying to get him to sit still. I'm pretty sure I'd rather be playing on these beautiful beaches too!

I wish our family pictures turned out better, but here we are, on the final evening. Tortola is the island in the distance.

 Joe and I took turns letting Joseph play on the beach. Joe managed to keep Joseph from running into the water by blocking him - a much smarter move! The catamarans in the background, by the way, are what our boat looked like. There were tons of the same model out sailing too.

 We had a wonderful time, and are so thankful for the experience and time spent with family. Hopefully we'll be able to do a vacation like this again, probably with additional grandkids to compete for Grandpa's lap!