My boys

Yes, the Christmas spirit is finally starting to hit me. In the absence of office parties and due to the fact that I already celebrated a chunk of Xmas in Winnipeg in November, it's taken me a while to rev up the engines. But now we have a tree (with the ornaments arranged out of Leo-reach so that it looks like the bottom ornaments were eaten by deer or something), lights are up, cookies are baked and I'm getting all schmaltzy. Although I've still had enough of Christmas music, which has been playing since Nov 1st, I swear.

This past weekend was a busy one, involving a lot of parties and running around. But we managed to sneak in a little time as a family to go out and stroll in the snow. The weather was warm, the kids loved being dragged on their sleds and it was a great time to be together. Together with all of the merriment of the season, this time together really got me thinking about my awesome little boys and how much I've been enjoying this time off with them.

Max is definitely growing up. He's in underwear almost all of the time now and I don't think he has any clue how much older that makes him in my eyes. Every time he gets a haircut, he comes out looking about 5 years old and it repeatedly blows my mind. It's also getting a lot tougher to get things by him anymore. His steel-trap memory is still reminding me every now and then that I promised him X or Y so I have to be a lot more careful about announcing tentative plans to him these days. He's also starting to process things faster now, making distraction a little bit tougher. It's hard to dupe him into having a nap he doesn't want to take. All this to say that he's definitely giving our negotiating and diplomacy skills a workout.

I'm really glad we chose to enroll Max in preschool. I think he's gotten a lot out of the more structured setting and the social interactions with his classmates. When he comes home, we spend a lot of time talking about his music classes (he loves to sing the latest class song for us!), the friends he gets to play with during the day and his teachers. He says he already misses school, but I'm sure the Christmas break will have enough going on to keep him busy.

One other thing about Max that just kills me is his vocabulary. He uses a lot of words that I never expected a 40-month old kid to use properly, but he's also picked up some expressions that have surprised me. Every now and then, he says something that sounds so grown-up. Like "actually", "I feel like...", and "so I guess...". While we're on the topic of Max's words, I suppose I should treat you to a few more funny Maxisms we've jotted down:

MAX: I don't like the sun.
DAD: That means you don't like the summer. Is that right?
MAX: I like summer! I like the construction!

MAX: Why did Bob put his hammer in his lunchbox?
DAD: Because he's a forgetful guy and sometimes he puts things in strange places.
MAX: Just like Dad.

(At 7 a.m., two months ago)
MAX: I thought it was nighttime. It seems that it's not.

DAD: So are we going to play or what?
MAX: Can we do a little scoochy over here to where I am?






Watching Leo grow up at this point has also been amazing. When Max was 1 to 1.5, he was in full-time care so I only had evenings and weekends with him. Watching Leo full-time as his brain explodes and slurps up all sorts of new tricks is really something else. I'm pretty sure that Max is responsible for teaching Leo a lot too (these days, he's trying to get Leo to say "Merry Christmas", as in "Leo? Can you say muh, muh, muh? Merry Christmas!!"). Leo doesn't need any assistance to walk around anymore and, in fact, is a crazy climber. His favourite thing to do is to climb on the dining room chairs, which leads to either a) grabbing things on the dining room table or b) getting on the dining room table. Needless to say, we spend a lot of time pulling Leo, crying, off the chairs. I've even been known to stack the chairs on the table to keep them out of reach.

Leo has also learned to indicate yes and no by nodding and shaking his head. This has been super helpful, particularly at meal time. It's so nice to get some information from Leo when we don't know what he wants. He's also picking up some more words, particularly those starting with B. At this point, he has Bob (Bob the Builder and all others wearing hard hats), ball, balloon ("boon"), bye-bye, baby, more ("mo"), mama, dada (although he still doesn't always associate me with dada), dump (dump trucks and all other heavy machinery...as well as the act of dumping out), jump (easily the cutest thing he says), moo, nana, and attempts at barking, roaring and gorilla-grunting.

Finally, Leo officially weaned earlier this month and so we've been able to work him into a much better sleep routine. This makes our night-times a lot easier and makes Leo much more baby-sittable at night. In the mornings and after naps, when we pick Leo up, the first thing that he does is wrap his arms around our necks as tightly as possible and serves up some super hugs. It's really cute!






I feel really lucky to have a pair of kids who are well-mannered and socially adjusted enough that I'm not really concerned to have them in any situation. Restaurants, museums, parties...they're a real treat to have around.