1.9 or, Go For Christmas

Dear Miriam,

Your December was book-ended with visits to my cousin Sharon.  You started with a trip to Phoenix for a week, with Grandma and Grandpa Lam.  Grandpa's sister, Aunt Irene, and my cousins, David and Sharon, were visiting from the East Coast.  From what was reported back to me, you rode in the car a lot, didn't take any naps, entertained everyone while entertaining yourself and ate your own body weight in Chinese food.  At the end of the month, we drove over to Palm Desert for a day, with the whole family.  You had fun swimming in the pool and taking walks by the golf course.  We ate dinner at Sharon's condo unit, which you liked because you didn't have a high chair and got to sit on everyone's lap instead.

You've been steadily getting more teeth, your two year old molars and the rest of your bottom front teeth.  Which is good, because you've been steadily wanting to eat carrots.  You also still love fruit, and Mac & Cheese, and crackers, and cheese, and pork chops.  One day I asked the room at large if we should have spaghetti for dinner or pork chops, and you said, "Pork chops!"

We had a fun Christmas.  You still weren't quite sure how to open presents, I ended up helping you.  You got some movies, and some music, and some books.  You got a new noisy train from Grandpa Lam, which you liked to carry around as it played music.  Dad got you and Corbin a balloon that played Jingle Bells when you tapped on it.  (You liked it when the balloon lost its helium and was floating on the floor and you could tap the musical part whenever you wanted to.)  You got a set of Little People animals to go with your animal collection, and a Little People zoo train that you like a lot.  It's got lots of places for animals to ride, so you keep it constantly filled with piles of creatures.  The funniest presents were two Tigger stuffed animals.  You got Little Tigger from Uncle Alex and Aunt Lena, and Big Tigger from Corbin, and you love them both.

One of the new cds that we got was from "Grandma" Cora, our friend Heidi's mom, back in Minnesota.  She sent us the album Can You Canoe?  It became our new favorite album, partially because it's fun music, and partially because I just couldn't listen to the Dance Baby Dance music any more.  Although, that album did include the Chicken Dance, which Grandma Lam taught you.  Whenever that track started, you would come find us, saying, "Chicken! Chicken!"  I have a feeling that you're going to be the kid that ends up listening to music with your Dad.  I think that would be fine with both of you.

Other than that, you had a pretty quiet month.  Which is not to say that you're quiet.  In fact, the more talking you do, the more your volume seems to increase. You like to, "Go outside! Run around!" You like to, "Jump!"  Sometimes you count for yourself, "One, two, three, jump!"  You like to say, "Ready, set, go!" but you usually say it while you're already running.  Speaking of running, you rarely walk anywhere, unless you're doing some kind of funny walk.  Otherwise, you just run all the time.  You run away when we want to change your diaper.  You run away when we want to put your shoes on.  You run away when it's your bath time.  Grandma wondered the other day what it must look like when you're running down the sidewalk away from her and the stroller.  She wondered if the neighbors thought you were trying to escape all the time.  Maybe you are, but I'm pretty sure you'd be back pretty quickly, wanting to watch the Pooh movies.

Love,
Mom

By the Christmas tree:

Stacking cans while we made Christmas dinner:

Your new train:

  Helping you open presents:

Big Tigger and Little Tigger:

4.10 or, Have Yourself a Warm and Muddy Christmas

Dear Corbin,

This month started off with a week of the Mom and Corbin Show.  Miriam went to Phoenix with Grandma and Grandpa Lam, so you and I had a whole lot of afternoons to get through.  Fortunately, on Monday, one of my college friends was in town.  We met up with their family at the Tar Pits.  Their kids are much older than you, but we had a lot of fun going through the Page Museum and exploring the grounds with them.  We found a really interesting art installation in the courtyard of the LA County Museum of Art.  It was a 10'X10' square with these long yellow plastic ropes hanging down.  We walked through them, and moved them around with our arms and bodies.  It was weird and funny.

Since we didn't have any other plans for the week, I bought the ticket for a combined admission to the Natural History Museum.  We went up there on Tuesday afternoon.  It was the first time we had gone, so it was to explore.  They have recently redone their Dinosaur Hall, and the skeletons and exhibits are really great.  We did activities that showed us what their environments looked like, and how dinosaurs relate to both lizards and birds today.  Then we explored their Discovery Center.  We were the only people there for a while, so one of the gallery guides talked with us for a long time about the exhibits there.  They had some great insects on display--we took a photo of you with the hissing cockroaches and sent it to your old teacher, Molly.  She was pleased to hear from you and reported that their cockroaches were home with a student for the holiday break.

For the rest of the week, we did our usual things like go to the park and go to the library.  You ended up going with me to run errands like buying dog food and dropping things off at Goodwill.  The few afternoons that we came home late we discovered that we could watch PBS programs online, even though we'd missed them on the television, so you would do that while I made dinner.  The week ended up going well.

This month at school you have been working with the Moveable Alphabet, which is a set of wooden letters which allow you to start learning spelling without having to hold a pencil.  Your teachers often leave work that students have done out in the classroom with a name badge so that parents can see what their kids did that day.  You have brought things home that you've done, but you had never left work out before.  But one day I walked in to pick you up and there was your name next to a bunch of words spelled out.  I got all excited and took some pictures.  I probably got a little too excited, but since you never talk about what you do in school, having some tangible evidence was really fun.

The month ended with a little trip to where my cousin Sharon was visiting in Palm Desert.  She invited us over for a day so that we could visit and swim in the pool and have dinner.  It was nice to see her and fun to swim in the pool.  It felt incredibly strange that we would be enjoying an outdoor pool on New Year's Eve, but that's California for you.  Sharon had seen Miriam in Phoenix, but she hadn't seen you since Uncle Alex and Aunt Lena got married.  That was before you were talking, so she really enjoyed having conversations with you.

And of course we had Christmas!  I had told everyone that it would be a small Christmas this year, but somehow the tree still had a pile of presents under it.  Miriam gave you a stuffed pigeon, from Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Grandma and Grandpa gave you some craft supplies and a set of new little construction trucks.  You got Lego's from Dad and Uncle Alex and Aunt Lena and Grandma and Grandpa Thorne.  Dad also gave you a set of fantasy action figures, with a dragon that you think is awesome.  You also got your very own tablet from Grandma and Grandpa Thorne, which is pretty cool, and you've been playing all sorts of games on that.

So that was our first Christmas in California.  It felt strange to know that back home it was very snowy and very cold, while we were playing outside in jeans and t-shirt.  I told people we had a brown Christmas, because we played in the dirt most of the week.  Grandma managed to decorate a little bit, but I know she's looking forward to when we're really settled and she can put out all of her nativity sets and the Christmas village.  Perhaps the strangest part was that we went to Mass at the Lutheran church down the street.  They had a 3pm family mass, so that worked out really well.  You were well behaved for the most part, but you did manage to put your own stamp on things.  When I carried you with me up for communion, the pastor gave you a blessing, but when he said, "May God protect you," you interrupted him and said, "Anyway, I can protect myself."

Love,
Mom

 Spaghetti Art:

 Hissing Cockroaches:

 School Work:

 Corbin's Nativity scene:

 New trains:

 Hanging new ornaments:

 New tablet: