December so far...

Practicing Writing

Asher has been really into practicing letters.  Deenesh got him a special notebook. 

Christmas came early this year.  Yup, that's a guy 30 feet up in the air above our house with a running chainsaw.  What did Santa get the kids this year?

He got them debris removal from the Hurricane so that it wouldn't fall on the house.  That's a good use of the Christmas budget, right?

See?  They were riveted.  Santa did an awesome job.

Table Dancing

And here's a clip of my son table-dancing.  But hey, it was for a good cause, he was entertaining his sister.

Okay, clearly as a responsible mother I could not endorse table-dancing.  Tables are for eating or drawing, not dancing.  Plus it's dangerous.  What if he fell off the table?  And clearly it will lead him down a bad path.

So I did what any responsible mother that is stifling her laughter would do.  I admonished him and left the room.  With the video running.  I can't help it if he promptly got back on the table to resume his dancing.


Of course, little siblings have to do everything that their big siblings do, so next it was Kiera's turn to do a wiggle.

Richmond Roller Derby

We also went to Richmond to meet up with one of Asher's friends and watch a roller-derby.  It was very cool, I felt very Drew Barrymore Hollywood.

Asher:  He is...The Navigator!
(My brother may just be the only one geeky enough to get that reference)  

A proper pre-schooler greeting. 

Kiera checking out the roller derby fun.  

Free candy!! And a t-shirt!!

Even better - it wore him out. 

and her. 

So, as you might expect, the roller derby involved a lot of bashing and crashing.  Which led Asher to ask "those people are mean people?  They knock the other people down."  Which led us to conclude that perhaps it's not a good idea to make him a roller derby fan just yet...

Big Girl 
Kiera took a break from her high chair to have breakfast at the kid table.  She clearly felt very cool about the whole thing.

Manger 


Once again, Asher got to place the figures for the Christmas manger.  Everyone, even the cows and sheep, is tightly crowded around to see the baby.  Once again, poor Joseph does not get to stand by Mary.  Or even all that close to baby Jesus for that matter.

And truth be told, Asher's not very interested in the manger scene this year.  He is far more interested in the menorah candles.  And who can blame him.  Candles!  Fire!

(As a side note - explaining Hanukkah to a 3 year old?  Not so fun.  "Why were there mean people?  They took our temple?  Why?  We hit them?  They were bad people?  We're the good people?"  Christmas is a little easier - A baby was born and everyone was happy.  Yup.  That's easy)

Bike Trailer 


Moving on.  Kiera got a chance to try out the bike trailer.  She did better than Asher on his first trip in the bike trailer.  

Standing


Kiera's also been practicing standing.

Trains

We decided that train tables stifle creativity and have gone back to making hugely long tracks.  (Asher loved train tables elsewhere, but no matter how cool the track we set up on his he just never got into it).

The Christmas box.

That's right.  It's Christmas in a box. 

Glimpse of the Future 
We had our friends over for dinner.  Their older son is Asher's age, and their younger son is a few months older than Kiera.  And he's very mobile.  And active.  And it gave us a glimpse into what life is going to be like in just a few months.  Ummm...daunting.

No, don't worry, he wasn't stealing Kiera's food.   It was actually quite adorable.  He kept putting food on her tray and then taking it back out again.

Slip-sliding away 


After Asher built a tunnel with couch cushions, Deenesh came up with a "fun" little game to taunt play with Kiera.

Fish 


Kiera likes fish.

ooooh.  Pretty fish.

Birthday Party!

Asher (and Kiera) got to hang out with big kids at a rocking birthday party. 

STINKER!!  Caught red-handed!  This is not the first time
he's tried to "help" a friend blow out the candles.
Fortunately, she was already done.  Usually I keep him
away from the cake for this reason, but I forgot and didn't
even realize it until I saw him dash away from the table, got
suspicious, and found this photo.  (Cool mask though, isn't it?)

  And there was dancing.

Big Brother 


Asher is still a good big brother and willing to help with diaper changes.  Usually he prefers to operate in a supervisory role these days, though.

Gingerbread 
And he got to make a ginger-bread man in music class.  And a gingerbread house at Nana's - but I don't have  a photo of that.

Rolling Over

According to a very angry Kiera, someone has been sneaking in when she is trying to go to sleep and flipping her onto her tummy.  She is not happy about it.  

 Chillin in the jammies

This kid is getting too comfortable in our bed

Also - very typical sleeping style.  Asher is sprawled out
and Deenesh is completely hidden under the covers. 

The olden days

And finally...If you were a three year old, what would you notice about these pictures?

 Ah.  Poor Alexander and his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. 

"Mommy?  Why is that kid riding in the front?  She's not allowed to ride in the front!" 

Whew!  Okay, so that's it.  The first half of December.