Christmas week!

Christmas is coming soon!
(there are now many presents under the tree where the kids are sitting in this photo!)

Josie loves to help with wrapping the presents.

It's a pattern

"It's a pattern!" is possibly every other sentence out of Max's mouth. Sometimes it is truly a pattern, but mostly we think he sees patterns the same way John Nash did. However, if Josie initiates peek-a-boo, then there is definitely a pattern of hide-reveal-giggle-hide-revel-giggle...
As you can see, she's getting very stable and comfortable on her feet. Some free-standing and an occasional step, but not quite a true sense of walking, so we are holing out on declaring "first steps".

We are counting down the days to many things: all the candles for Hannukah, sleeps until Christmas, and most importantly- sleeps until Max can see Uncle Gary's trains again. (see posting in June for out last visit). We hope you are all enjoying your holidays and staying warm. It's very cold and windy here, though none of the 15 inches snow that has stopped everything for our friends and family in the UK.

Happy Hanukka!

And, suddenly it's December already!

Max has been having lots of fun at school, learning the dynamics of social groups. He has also started telling us about his dreams as well as making up stories. If you ever wondered why the spot on Jupiter is red, Max can tell you! You see, when you go down the steps into the spot, you see that the dragons are fighting with lots of red fire. If a dragon climbs up the stairs it cannot have fire anymore because it is a robot.

Josie is climbing on everything and nearly walking. She climbs up bookshelves, and is seen here trying to climb over a 5-gallon water bottle from a watercooler. She will say "ma ma" which indicates that she needs attention of some sort. I swear she also said "more!" when I was not giving her food fast enough, but it may have been a coincidence.