For those of you who enjoyed Jonathan's Santa post, here's our other attempt, from my office Christmas party.Better luck next year, I guess. Nina tells me there's a whole book of these.
Speaking of Christmas, we also hit the Dickens Christmas Fair last weekend, for the first time since, I believe, 2004. Between the low light ambiance and the high speed toddler, we didn't get many pictures, but there are a coupleat Flickr, and you can always look at other peoples'. Finn loved watching the dancing and poking a (not really) 19th century French guy's (real) hermit crab in the eye. The grownups enjoyed pumpkin pie, warm mulled beverages, and people watching. Seriously, you would not believe what kind of attire comes to mind for some people when you say "19th century Dickens' London." Many were great, but a few... well, one looked more like Strawberry Shortcake.
Anybody remember way back in February when I posted a couple photos of Finn in a chair to show how much he'd grown? Apparently I didn't either, because I haven't updated it since then. But here you go:Isn't he huge, and grown up, and cute? Similarly poor posture, though. Anyone who's math inclined and bored is welcome to figure out when I should take the next one on whatever crazy log scale my brain seems to be operating on. More at Flickr. Probably no more videos until after our trip (which starts in less than 48 hours - yipes!)
Jonathan returned from the grocery store earlier this fall with a whole chicken, prompting a conversation that went something like: Me: Uh, what's this? Him: It's a chicken. Didn't you say you'd really like to know how to roast a chicken? Me: Uh-huh. I'd also really like to lose 20 pounds, learn Spanish, and visit the Galapagos Islands, but I don't think any of that's going to happen this semester. [Stares.] Him: [Puts chicken in freezer.]
The semester ended last week, and this weekend I roasted the chicken, which has been glaring accusingly at me every time I opened the freezer ever since. After a briefconsultationwith the internet, it wasn't that tough, and the results were mighty tasty. ARE mighty tasty, I should say - we're still working on the leftovers. And I was just so inordinately pleased with myself that I had to post a photo, so here you are.
Come visit! I'll roast you a chicken! Um. If I'm not taking nine credits at the time.
Finn's been pretty sick this week with some kind of chest cold. We decided not to bring him to daycare, so I stayed home with him Tuesday, Katie took Wednesday, and then today Katie had her usual Thursday at home. As you can see below, the illness hasn't effected his mood. We were moving too fast for the camera to know what to do! Friday he goes back to daycare. :)
He's been talking a bit more lately. "Bow" (ball) is pretty common, and today, out of the blue, he said "nana" twice when it was banana time at breakfast. And "dada" when I was coming in to put him to bed. So maybe he's been saving this up! He still says "mamamama" sometimes, but kind of randomly. On the food front, he's been enamored with graham crackers lately. He can't get enough! We think he likes the he can hold the whole cracker in his hand and decide how big of bites to take. Plus, they're real tasty.
Who's not excited to bring their 13-month-old baby on a 4-hour plane ride? We're not! He can't sit still for 2 minutes. Ug. It looks like a totally full flight, and we don't yet have an aisle seat.
Where to start? Well, here are a few more things Finn can do:
stand up in the middle of the room
point to the right picture in a book when you ask him where the ball is. Or the banana. Or the kitty. (This is SO awesome and exciting.)
say ball. Kind of ("baaow"). Often about a ball.
break bottles of vanilla. Oops.
Toddlers are so much more fun and interesting than babies. They'rea also crazier, sneakier, more opinionated, and have longer memories.
I am officially done with two of my three classes, and just have mostly housekeeping-type stuff left for the third. To celebrate we went to the Los Gatos Holiday Parade. Apparently our town is quite the local Christmas destination. There's the parade, carriage rides, shopping, and Santa in the plaza - Saturdays for pets, Sundays for kids. No, seriously. The parade was NUTS. Very long, very crowded, mostly pedestrians, but also a giant meat smoker on wheels. Here's Finn when we got home.
Last night we went to Aimee Mann's 3rd Annual Christmas show, which was lovely, and at times strange and hilarious. For instance...
We went two years ago, and it was nice to go back, post-baby, and sit with friends this time instead of strangers.
I'm also hoping to celebrate my new freedom by watching some movies before we head back to the midwest for the holidays. In the spirit of "Holy crap, it's December" (Christmas shopping! Christmas cards! Boy needs mittens!), here is a list, not exactly in order, of my ten favorite Christmas movies.
Scrooged, with Bill Murray. Carol Kane is the best Ghost of Christmas Present ever. Except maybe John Krasinski in the short at the Christmas show last night.
Meet Me in St. Louis. Not entirely a Christmas movie, but Judy Garland singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is just so lovely.
Love Actually. I am SUCH a sucker for this movie, the Colin Firth and Hugh Grant storylines in particular. And the Keira Knightley one. Okay, the whole thing.
Gremlins. But don't tell Jonathan; he has traumatic childhood memories of it.
Saturday Night Live: Christmas. Not technically a movie, but you can get it from Netflix, so I'm counting it. It's got Alec Baldwin in the Schweddy balls sketch, Eddie Murphy with Christmas in Mr. Robinson's neighborhood, and Adam Sandler singing The Hanukkah Song.
And speaking of movies, here a couple quick Finn shorts, first on a slide, then on a random stage they had set up at the park, where all the kids were having a blast running all around.
Better luck next year, I guess. Nina tells me there's a whole book of these.
Isn't he huge, and grown up, and cute? Similarly poor posture, though. Anyone who's math inclined and bored is welcome to figure out when I should take the next one on whatever crazy log scale my brain seems to be operating on.
Last night we went to Aimee Mann's 3rd Annual Christmas show, which was lovely, and at times strange and hilarious. For instance...
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