Our house is all ready for Christmas. A fun tradition that we started this year is The Elf on the Shelf. It freaked David out at first. When asked to name his elf, he wanted to call him "Bad News" and "Bad Guy!" Since the elf's name will be around for years to come we intervened and named him Jack. The elf changes locations every morning (after his nightly visit to Santa to report on the kids' behavior). Both kids love looking for him each morning. Anna found him first today (in all fairness to David she was up nearly 3 hours before him). She saw him hanging from the paper chain that counts down the days til Christmas, laughed and yelled out "Jack!" When David got up he couldn't find him and Anna was so proud that she could lead her brother to the elf.
It's hailing/sleeting (I don't know the difference between all those) - gross! I am not adjusting well to winter weather. David is looking forward to the first real snowfall. A white Christmas would be beautiful, I'll admit...
David is so excited about Christmas this year and Anna feeds off of his excitement for everything. I think it will be so much fun this year.
Anna has so many words in her vocabulary now that I can't even try to count. She will try to repeat almost anything. Some of the cutest are belly button, Dayday or Deeeed (for David, depending on how excited or mad she is), monkey, bubble... She says so many words correctly that you wouldn't expect her to know. She is very energetic. She loves playing rough and can be aggressive at times. She adores cats, likes to help feed Penny, throws her cup everytime she's in her booster seat, says NO all the time, gives huge hugs, feeds herself with a spoon or fork, and loves to read books. She also does a very cute gorilla impression. Oh, and is super attached to me. It's very sweet, but I can't often leave the room without her screaming.
David is becoming very independent. He can dress himself and does a pretty nice job picking out clothes that match. He loves to do arts & crafts. Scissors are his favorite art supply which can be messy but can keep him entertained for long periods of time. He is trying to figure out abstract concepts like measurement and time. He often asks how long things are, when things will happen, and how long things will take. He loves dogs more than anything in the world and sleeps with about 20 of them in his bed each night. More and more often he is sweet to his sister. They are learning to play together nicely. It is a wonderful change! He talks all the time, earning himself the nickname "Mouth." Though his speech and voice sound like a child, his words and phrases sound like a mini adult. He will tell me that something looks fantastic or remind me that a lego house needs a good foundation. He has gotten very good about remembering to say please and thank you, but gets frustrated when I do need to remind him. He is inexplicably scared of caves.
