8 months old – Oh, and Merry Christmas!

Today, Christmas day, you turn 8 months old. You have become such a little interactive human this month.

You are working on many new skills. You clapped your hands at Lily's concert – after being very surprised by everyone else clapping after each performance. You even sang along. Okay, it was a low moan, but the fact is you were trying to participate.

You look at books. Open the book, close the book. Open the book, close the book. Open the book, turn some pages. And you open cupboards. Open the cupboard, close the cupboard. Look at the grown-up holding you, smile and look for approval or praise.

You don't crawl yet, but if you want to get somewhere – like to the Christmas tree – you will roll there.

You have learned to show how much you want mama, usually in the form of lunging for me. I can't even walk by you when you're playing on the floor without you grabbing my leg. When you are in my arms, you smile and turn away from anyone else who puts out "uppy" arms for you. But you do give daddy love, too. When he got home from work the other day, you tried to crawl across the bed to see him.

Look! A new tooth on top there.

You provide ample comic relief by shaking your head when we ask you questions. Like the other day when Lily came home from the dentist we said, "Now that you have teeth, you'll get to go to the dentist soon." To which you responded no, no, no with head shaking. You also tend to say "no" to Lily the most, whether it's by shaking your head, pushing her away or by disapprovingly grunting at her.

Yes, you are a grunter. It's how you communicate a want. (Crying is still how you communicate your needs.) As soon as we sit down for supper, you immediately freak out and grunt with all your might in hopes that we will shove food into your mouth. So we do, whatever is on our plates. There's been lasagna noodles, chicken, stew, pineapples. You like it all. Especially toast. Sourdough to be exact.

You play piano and you do it with purpose. You travel up and down the keys in mad search of the high notes, then the low notes, then some light tickling of the ivorys followed by intense banging. You could be a prodigy. You also play ukulele; it's especially nice when you're banging the beaded garland from the Christmas tree over the strings.

And here you are pulling yourself up. Very talented.

You like to hit stuff. A lot. Bang. Bang, bang. That's the sound of your toys hitting each other. It's fun to watch, but we have to be sure not to sit too close.

You have lots of hair, but you scratch little cuts in your head when trying to relax.

You are overall a brave, beautiful boy who sometimes sleeps with the covers over your head so we have to find you when you wake up, but we're always happy to find you there.

One more sleep!!!

Merry Christmas! Have a wonderful holiday!

A little fuzzy on the definition

When we got home from the dentist yesterday, Chris asked Lily, "How was the dentist? Perfect checkup?"

"Yup," said Lily. "Only two cavitities!"

Somebody turned 33 today...

I'd tell you, but it'd be more fun making you guess.

Oh, and someone else finally popped out a new top tooth that had been bulging beneath his gums for what feels like ages and ages.

Tomorrow is the last day of school. We'll go out with a bang with a dentist appointment and swimming lessons in the afternoon.

Four more sleeps...

Busy for a bunch of introverts

Last week was our busy week. After the winter concert on Tuesday, I had my work xmas lunch on Wednesday, plus Lily's swimming lessons. On Thursday we made gingerbread cookies. On Friday Chris and I had dentist appointments, I had some friends over for soup (until midnight) and Chris was out at a work party until 2 a.m. On Saturday, we were very, very tired but we made it to Margaret's 80th birthday surprise party.

Brynn came over for a couple hours to play and then we went to our friends' Joanne and Paul's place that night.

Today we decorated the cookies and finished up the cards for some friends. Lily loves to make a mess and Finn really wanted to get his hands on those things.

Now we just have to finish making all our presents this week...

Wiggle, wiggle

We were munching on lunch yesterday when Lily said, "Ow. My quesadilla hurt my teeth." So I asked, "Is there a bone in there?" With a very disapproving look she responded, "You put bones in there?" And when she said it, I noticed her bottom middle right tooth was crooked. I stuck my finger in there and sure enough, it wiggled!

I almost burst with excitement, her dad and I both telling her how awesome it was and all about the tooth fairy and how big a girl she is to start losing her baby teeth and how cool it will be to stick her tongue in the hole. But she burst into tears. She was suddenly terrified about losing her teeth after talking about them feeling different, sore, over the last few weeks, that maybe they'd be loose soon.

After some hugs and reassurance, she was as excited as we were. Standing in the mirror, wiggling it with her finger, she made a list of all the people she could tell. First it would be her swim instructor, then Nana, then the kids at school.

Always one to think of her brother, she said, "It's like, when I loose my teeth, Finn grows them! Like we're trading!"

The 2010 winter concert

Lily said it's not called a Christmas concert anymore because not everyone celebrates Christmas. Fair enough. But it was just as sweet. There were two performances; the first at 1 p.m. that Nana, Finn and I attended and the second at 7 p.m. that just Chris and I went to. (And yes, that second one started 15 minutes after Lily and Finn usually crawl into bed...)

Check out their entire performance in less than three minutes:


Lily's xmas concert performance 2010 from Hood/Anderson on Vimeo.

In other news, Lily said she was falling in love with three of the boys in her class today, so if we include Creeson, she now loves four boys. Oh my.

Party, party, party!

On Sunday we attended the SGI kids Christmas party. As always, it was a great time. Santa always gives good presents and there's lots to do and eat.

Here's the day in pictures:

This is just before Finn started to make strange with Santa – and Lily, again, held his hand to keep him brave.

This is Finn's first Christmas present. It was a hit.

This is Lily's gift; it was a denim purse, keychain and change purse with a bunch of beads, jewels, ribbon, sequins, etc. to decorate them with.

There were face painters who did a great job accommodating Lily's request for a butterfly.

At the craft table, Lily and her Dad made some beautiful gingerbread ornaments; one for her and one for Finn.

And games! Oh, how Lily has skill. She did everything so well, it didn't take long to finish all the activities.

Tooth buds and new videos

Here are Finn's top tooth buds. Could pop through any day now... Looks like he'll have four front teeth for Christmas.

Seeing as he's soooooo cute, even when he's crying, I've finally gotten around to posting some videos of him and his sister. Check 'em out...especially the huffin' and nose scrunchin' one. It's his new skill and it's too cute for words.

Let the festivities begin!

Today we officially kicked off the season with the annual FCC kids xmas party. It was a gymnastics party so Lily enjoyed an hour of activity before we all filed upstairs for a visit with Santa. Here's the party in pictures:

Lily was lucky to have a friend, Ella, in her group. While I was saying good night to her she said, "It sure was nice to have someone I knew there."

Today was Chris's first day out of the house since getting sick over a week ago. Finn, on the other hand, felt spry. Spry enough to make goofy faces which he did all day long.

Awwww. Finn sat on Santa's knee so good, but only because Lily was holding his hand to keep him brave.

Lily eats the Rice Krispie cake treat that was in her treat bag from Santa.

Finn got a treat bag, too, but turns out he was mostly just interested in the actual bag.

Only 24 more days until Christmas...

Yikes! With just over three weeks until the big day, we've got lots to do. (Well, lots in a manageable kind of way, I hope.) Lily helped me sign the xmas cards yesterday and her favourite part with the stamps is still to come...

Lily is home for the next three days, so that slows things down a bit. She got her very first report card on Friday and then there were parent/teacher/student/little brother conferences today – and tomorrow and then a personal development day on Friday. And there are no concerns about Lily. She does well in everything. She's there or almost there (developing or well developed are the terms these days) with everything they do. We went through her portfolio, saw some art projects they'd worked on and that was about it.

Chris is sick and has been home sleeping for three days this week; I think I'm catching it. Finn is sprouting his top teeth. But in the midst of all that, we still made it out over the weekend in the mountains of snow as it was only -5˚C and not windy. But don't tell Finn that his sleigh is pink. I think he's feeling self conscious already...