Milestone Minutiae

Emmett's favorite present was a complicated LEGO Starwars kit, but with shifts from both me and David, we got it built. It's pretty impressive and he carried it around all day - including wanting to bring it to the dinner table. It's been smashed once (Luke somersaulted into it) but the repairs went fine. Luke's favorite present was an ipod touch, which he is of course thrilled with. He played with it a lot today, though he did put in time with his other toys, too. Emmett is happy that he won't have to share his ipod with Luke anymore, though he didn't seem thrilled that Luke's has a camera and his doesn't. Technology marches on! Henry's favorite present was his new stuffed version of Curious George. I wasn't sure he'd recognize a stuffed version as the active little guy from TV and books, but he clearly does. He's been carrying George around a lot today, and at dinner he didn't put a single bite into his own mouth before offer

One of our favorite holiday traditions is singing Christmas carols each night in the light of some candles and our Christmas tree. This year is no exception. Luke has been picking Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer every night. Emmett likes to learn new songs, and has been working on perfecting his timing for turning the lights back on at the end of the evening (they get turned on with the last word of the Christmas chant we end with each night). He also has a tendency to roll the "R" in words like "Merry Christmas." Henry isn't talking much, but that doesn't stop him from singing along. He sits in my lap bouncing excitedly and he really does sing along, even though we can't understand the words. He "sings" way more than either of the other boys did before they were talking. He's also figured out how to blow out candles!

While we were at the aquarium, they were feeding the penguins. Someone from the aquarium was by the exhibit, telling us about penguins and answering questions. At some point, she explained that penguins don't fly, but they have hollow bones that help them dive down deep under the water. This didn't sound right to me, but I ignored it and watched the penguins. Near the end of the feeding she asked if anyone had any questions and Emmett's hand shot up. He said, "Don't hollow bones help birds fly?" Of course he'd picked up on the error and wanted clarification. For a brief second I wondered what she'd do and was worried that Emmett may have put her on the spot. She correctly answered his question though, explaining that hollow bones help birds fly and penguins have solid bones. I realized that she had simply misspoken earlier. But factual errors never escape Emmett's notice.

While working on a math problem, I asked Emmett to multiply 50 times 6. We've been talking about how multiples of 10 are easier to deal with, so I reminded him that the problem can also be considered 5 tens times 6. He got an "a ha!" look on his face and said "It's 300!" I don't think he knows 5x6 so fast, so I asked him how he'd gotten that. His answer? "There are three 2s in there!" It took me a few seconds to figure it out, but I'm pretty sure he was doing 50 x 2 to get 100, and then multiplying by three (or adding it up three times, I'm not positive which).

We've gone out driving to look at Christmas lights a few times this month. We'll turn on the stations playing Christmas music, or sometimes we'll sing carols in the car. A few nights ago we'd been to a great display, one where the homeowner broadcasts music and the lights flash in time. As we left, we were singing Christmas carols. I could hear Emmett singing, but then I noticed Luke wasn't singing with us. Instead, he was punctuating our song with the word "poop" several times each line.

While taking Henry to bed a few nights ago, he made a complaining noise and motioned towards the bed where the alligator puppet was sitting. It's a pretty cool puppet with a big mouth and lots of pointy white teeth. I picked it up and he made another uneasy noise, so I took it into another room and told Henry that the alligator was going to sleep there. After that, Henry was happy to go to bed.

When Henry spills a drink, or notices the water on the floor after playing in the sink, he'll go get a rag from the drawer and wipe it up. Then he puts the rag back in the drawer.

We've had a really great experience with swimming lessons, so I've been trying to figure out if we should give them some kind of "teacher gift" at our last lesson before Christmas. I asked the kids if they could think of anything they'd like to give their teachers and they were mostly stumped. Then Luke said, "We should get her a diving board. Their diving board is getting all used up."

The older boys (Emmett, Luke, and a neighbor) are having fun with Henry's new word - "yeah." They're holding things up, and asking, "Is this a (not what it is)?" He'll say "yeah" and then they say, "No, it's a (what it is)!" The exchange is finished when Henry says, "Ooooh."