Christmas was good. Quiet, and good. My grandmother was here for Thanksgiving, and she commented on how noisy all of the kids' toys were. I thought she had an excellent point, so we intentionally didn't buy the kids any toys that made noise. Instead they mostly got old fashioned toys. Puzzles, Legos, blocks, balls, books, dolls. It was great. That's not to say a couple of noisy toys didn't sneak in. Leon and Michael got a cool gear set from one of their uncles that makes lots of noise. They also got a kitchen from my parents that lights up and plays all kinds of sounds. Oh, and Santa brought them another ride on car that makes noise. But that was it, and not that it mattered. Leon spent Christmas pushing boxes (as usual) and Michael spent a good part of the day sitting and looking at the new books. All of Ree's gifts were blissfully silent. And most of the time the kids make enough noise that they more than make up for the fact that their new toys don't!
Christmas was extra quiet when the electricity went off in the middle of the afternoon. We had no power for over an hour. Thankfully, it was a warm day and we were just having a turkey breast for dinner which had not yet gone in the oven. I called the phone company and had a distrubingly high tech computer talk to me. All I did was dial their number from my cell phone and press "1" to report a power outage. Then the computer told me my address and the time my electricity would be restored. Creepy and cool.
Leon has been unintentionally walking for several weeks. He will take steps between toys or between pieces of furniture, but he will not walk holding our hands or if he realizes what he is doing. On Christmas, he finally realized that he could intentionally take steps. Over the past week, he has decided that he is tired of crawling, and he wants to be vertical as he travels. However, he's not that fast yet, so he is always grabbing the closest thing he can to use as a walker and pushing it in front of him for balance. He will grab boxes, toys, our kitchen chairs, Michael, whatever, and take off. Michael has been watching and learning, and Michael now does the same thing.
The boys preferred walkers are their ride-on cars, and they can get them going pretty fast. Our house often looks (and sounds) like a demolition derby with random toys parts strewn everywhere and the boys crashing their cars into everything. I can't help but wonder if this is a preview of them in 80 years, racing their walkers around a nursing home.The other night the boys were screaming, so I went in the bathroom and turned on the water in the bathtub to start baths. Michael came crawling in. A few seconds later, Leon came charging in, pushing one of the ride-on cars. He "parked" his car in the middle of the floor, sat down, and waited for me to put him in the tub. After his bath, I dressed him, he stood up, grabbed his car, and took off again out the door. He had things to do.
One of those things was learning to really walk. Two days ago, Leon started really taking steps. He started by walking the length of the bathroom. Since then he has walked about 15 feet from our bedroom towards the sunroom, and the same distance from the front door towards the living room. Last night he also surprised us by running across the bathroom. He followed that by climbing on top of Ree's step stool in the bathroom and standing on it on tiptoe while trying to flush the toilet. He is going to keep us busy in 2010!
Over the past week, Michael has been playing more and more with Ree. Well, more precisely, Michael tries to play with Ree, and she tries to get away from him. Lately Ree has started "reading" books. Sometimes she recites the story as she flips the pages, other times she makes up stories as she looks at the pictures. Michael is enthralled and always plops down to listen, even though she cowers on the couch, trying to get as far from his as possible. Michael also likes playing "Tag, you're it!" as Ree calls it. He crawls after her, trying to grab her ankles. She is not amused. This morning I did see them actually playing ball together. Ree would hand Michael a ball, and he would throw it back to her. They actually did this for over 10 minutes while I got breakfast ready.
When Ree isn't trying to run away from her brothers or busy reading books, she is playing in her room. She is spends a lot of time and effort keeping up with all the "people" in her room. She already had lots of dolls and stuffed animals. Then she aquired 7 Disney Princess dolls, a Barbie, and a large Abby Cadabby doll (Abby's mommy, she explains) over the past week. She is always busy taking care of them. I can never keep up with who has a doctor's appointment or is having a birthday or couldn't make the tea party. But she keeps it all straight!
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