Merry Chremis!... that's what you call it. All month you've been putting your stocking on your foot. At first you would say: "Look! It's like a sock!" until we told you it was a stocking. You still put it on your foot, still thought it was funny, but you called it a stocking.
Several milestones this month.... but picture taking was lacking, I apologize. You are officially potty trained. My version of the story is that it was pretty easy. That's because most of it happened while I was subbing for a week straight at school. Daddy reminds me that we've been kindof working on it for a couple months. When you were first trained I was super nervous about going out with you in just underwear. Daddy would reassure me... and you've never had an accident out of the house. I think what helps is that you seem to have a bladder the size of Canada!
The other big milestone that happened this month is you are now no-nap-Noah. Officially. You've never been a "good" sleeper (who can judge that?) so naps have been hit or miss over the last couple years. Now though- no naps- no more. The options became: lay with you for an hour before you nap and then lay with you for an hour before you fall asleep for the night at ....10:15 OR you crash around 7pm. The second option seems to be working better.
Anyway- back to Chremis... we've told you over and over that balls are for throwing... so when shiny silver and red balls were hung on the Chremis tree- well- it seemed only natural that these balls were for throwing. Fortunately you listen to our words.... most of the time and we only had one Chremis ball break this year.
This was the first year you sort of "got" Christmas. That made Christmas that much more fun for all of us. You wanted to open ALL the presents. You didn't care what was inside- you just wanted to open them. So everyone else opened very little this year. We saved your gifts for last because we learned during our first unwrapping session (I think there were 4 "Christmases" total this year) that when you started opening your gifts you would want to stop and play with each one before moving on. I think next year maybe we should spread out the gift opening a bit more for you.
We (meaning, Daddy, Del, and Mommy) woke up Christmas morning to no power. We waited and waited and waited for you to wake up (with this new no-nap plan you tend to sleep in every couple days). I was anxious to get going because after we opened presents at home we were zipping off to Nina and Poobah's. When you finally woke up we decided we should shower and dress before opening presents... not sure how many more years we'll get away with that. You were super excited about Signing Time videos and wanted to watch them immediately. You understand that "no batteries" mean things won't work.... it was a little trickier explaining that there was no electricity.
We got on the road fairly early and there was very very little traffic. It was a wonderful relaxing day at Nina and Poobah's. Your favorite gift from them was a giraffe bank. You love "little tiny money" (don't know why you call it that, but you do) and you love loved watching the money go down the giraffe's throat and fill up it's belly.
The day after Christmas we were off again- this time to Grammy and Grampy's. After Grampy came home from the barn and after dinner we opened Christmas presents with Grammy and Grampy. After you helped everyone else open their gifts you started opening yours. You loved the doll house sets that Grammy and Grampy got you and it was hard to convince you to keep opening gifts instead of stopping and playing.
The next morning we got up and had Christmas #3 at Great Grammy's house. There was a kid gift swap and two yankee swaps at Great Grammy's. Uncle Philip continues to freak you out. I think he's very excited to see you so he tries to (shock!) talk to you, play with you, tickle you.... and you freak out and start crying. It took a while to convince Uncle Philip not to take it personally. A similiar thing happened with Grampy. He teased you a bit too much, I think, and then from then on every time his truck pulled into the driveway you would panic and climb into my lap making whimpering noises. As soon as the door opened though you were asking where Grampy was- so a quick recovery.
While we were spending the week at Grammy and Grampy's you wanted to go to the barn.... a lot. One night Grampy's hired man had a dentist appt and was going to do chores all by himself. I wanted to go do chores anyway- so you and I went. You followed me around for about 4 hours while we did chores. You got lots of rides in the wheelbarrow from Grampy or Mommy as we brought hay and feed to various parts of the barn. You loved petting the cats and didn't even panic too much when one super friendly cat leaped onto your shoulder- nails out. The hired man ended up coming to the barn and he offered you fruit snacks. You had never had them before and I think you gave them two thumbs up. It's fun to see you fall in love with the farm.
It's been fun seeing your relationship develop more with your sister. When she's sad you often do things to try to cheer her up- like laugh, or make a silly face, or do a silly dance. Often you say "Del laugh at me!" as a command while you do something you think is funny. Just as often you are also the one to make Del sad... usually by taking a toy or bopping her. When I ask you what you did you either say: "I bop her... like this!" and then demonstrate OR you say "We don't bang her!"
I think every week I look back on the week and I'm shocked by how much more you can say. It's very very amazing. Not just that you have this huge vocab but that you also have the understanding of concepts that I would think should/would be beyond you- like other people's feelings. Oh! And you're still signing like crazy. During playgroup recently you were calling a girl "Michael"... which isn't her name. So I said you should ask her what her name is. You signed "name" at her. It's funny (but it also makes sense) that you assume everyone can sign. At the doctors the nurse person had a shirt on with all kinds of animals. I was pointing some of them out to you. The nurse person asked if you could see the monkey. You said: "it's like this" and signed "monkey". She didn't know what you were doing. Oh well. I love that you are signing and I'm curious to see how much you and Del sign to each other, if at all.
Well- this letter seems to taking on oceanic proportions and I really should wrap it up.
Keep growing,
Mommy
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