The holidays have arrived, and you love the Christmas lights. Grandpa and Uncle Alex and Corbin put them up on Thanksgiving Day. You love to turn them on and make them blink. One night after you helped Grandma turn them on, you went around saying, "Red, green, red, green, red, green!"
The only way you can tell it's the holidays is because people seem to really enjoy decorating their houses. The weather has gotten cooler but it still feels like fall to me, with warm, sunny days. You still go on long walks with Grandma in the mornings. We still play outside most afternoons. It's really nice to be able to just play outside in a hoodie without getting all bundled up. It has gotten cooler at night, cool enough that I got out your space heater for your room. I have to remember to set it lower than we did in MN, though, otherwise your room gets way too warm.
We did some science this month when a package of frozen steaks came with a big block of dry ice. We spent some time making plain water and soapy water bubble. You thought it was pretty interesting for a while, although not the several hours that Corbin did.
One of your favorite things to do right now is to take your farm animals (and cars, and insects, and whatever) and put them on the kid sized table in the living room. You will spend an hour putting them all in the right spots. You bring them in a show them to us and then take them back to the living room and rearrange them on the table. It's funny to watch because I can never figure out why something goes in the spot that you choose. To me, they just end up in random places, but you seem to have some kind of organization in mind.
You also love to watch movies. You love the Sorcerer's Apprentice part of Fantasia. You like the beginning of Black Beauty. You really like the Dora DVD that we have, which you pronounce, "Dorda." And you especially love Winnie the Pooh movies. We have two different stuffed Pooh dolls and you carry them both around. You carry around the stuffed Piglet doll. You even carry around a Tigger Pez dispenser. Pretty soon, I'll need to move the Pooh books to your room, since Corbin doesn't read them much anymore.
Dad went to China for work this month. He was gone just over a week. I don't think you really realized that he was gone during the week, since you mostly see him on the weekends. I know he missed seeing you.
We had a lot of holiday visitors this month. Grandma's sisters, Aunt Cele and Aunt Alice, came to visit. We took them to the Botanic Garden and the Cabrillo Aquarium and the Santa Monica Pier. You walked with them down to the nature center at the Madrona Marsh, too. They helped us celebrate Grandpa's birthday and we even had a Christmas party with them. We called it our first Christmas. You had fun seeing the little Christmas tree that we put up and helping me open your presents. Aunt Alice gave you a little stuffed duck which you liked very much and a donkey and a dog to go with your animal collection.
Then for Thanksgiving, Uncle Alex, Aunt Lena, Maria, Aunt Tabetha and our friend Ty all came over for dinner. Aunt Lena and Maria made a delicious turkey with stuffing. We put up Christmas lights and played games and had a very nice day. You ate a pile of turkey, which Maria particularly enjoyed watching.
You are sleeping much better now. We spent a week doing some sleep training with you, and now you're much better about laying yourself down and falling asleep without us in the room. You still protest when we put you in bed, but you're usually asleep in five or ten minutes. Although one day, instead of taking a nap, you played with your stuffed animals for an hour. Grandma tried to take a nap, but she kept hearing you say things like, "Oh, no!" and "What's that?" and "I see you!" Those are some of the new words you've started saying lately. You've also started saying, "No!"and, "here." What really surprised us was when you started counting with us (up to 12) and when you started singing the alphabet song with us.
We were not surprised at the singing part. You love listening to music and you like it when we sing to you. Sometimes that's the only way I can get you to hold still while I change your diaper. You like to dance around with us to any music, but you really love one CD with dance versions of all the usual nursery rhymes. That CD also has the Chicken Dance, which Grandma and I danced for you once. Now when that track starts, you say, "Chicken! Chicken!" and start trying to flap your little wings. One of these days, I'm going to get video of it, because if that isn't the perfect blackmail material, I don't know what is.
Love,
Mom
Playing with dry ice:
Playing with Scout:
At the Botanic Garden with Grandpa:
Playing in the sand box:
Miriam's Table of Toys:
Watching movies:
At the Cabrillo Aquarium:
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