A Jolly Holiday

We're having a beautiful holiday season so far.  I wish I'd remembered to take photos while family was in town!  I was too caught up in all the fun.  Hopefully, Grampa Lou will send a few that I can post here.

All Elijah wanted for Christmas was a trumpet.  Santa came through, of course (and then some).

Elijah had so much fun creating his very first gingerbread house.  He made sure there was enough building materials by refusing to eat any of the candy, but only to discover that his uncles and aunt had less self-control than a four year old.

This Christmas we discovered Elijah can read!  Funny enough, the first word we caught him sounding out was "Santa" off of a gift tag.  Later, I tested it out with a series of three letter words and, sure enough, with a little help here and there, he really has started to read.  We can't believe it!  He only just turned four.  I swear, I totally underestimated kids until I had one myself.

Here's to new adventures and discoveries in 2010!

Happy Fourth

Elijah proudly turned four this November 30th. Everything these days is about being a "big boy," doing things for himself, and testing his boundaries on a relentless basis. It's a chess game, that's for sure. And it's easy to forget we're always playing. It takes serious presence of mind to anticipate the different chain reactions one single move on our part can set off. I can barely think straight these days, let alone diagonally or straight and to the left! For example, how'd we get into the habit of having to tell him ten times to do something? We totally dropped the ball on that one. Fortunately, we've been able to undo that mistake and so now we're down to three times before he'll take us seriously. I think it's the best we can get out of him for now.

He's a tricky little guy, but honestly we're so lucky he's not prone to meltdowns (knock-on-wood). Yep, that means no temper tantrums (although I'll confess I've found myself on the verge of one from time-to-time). Rather, he likes to be more subtle with his torture, like pretending to be deaf or saying "yeah, but" a million times a day.

The rest of the time is fun, fun, fun. He's all about using his imagination these days. Here he is pretending to be a racecar driver...

He surprised us one morning by coming downstairs fully dressed:

He's so excited about all the traditions of Christmas this year...well, all except for the part where you watch classics like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Year Without a Santa Claus, and Frosty the Snowman. He claims they're "terrible and stressful" and asked us how we can make him watch Frosty melt away. No conflict/resolution for this kid. He does love Charlie Brown, however, and has added the words "stupid" and "blockhead" to his vocabulary. Good grief.

Happy Holidays!! ~Nasreen