Our Christmas finest...

My, my, my! We have to use this precious little sweater vest as often as possible these days before our last little tike outgrows it. Gage: What a precious piece of work! (And Daddy too, of course.) He's been doing so much fun, new stuff lately. The other day he started hiding things in his crib, and then we'd play "peek-a-boo" to find them and get 'em back again. The smiles on his face at his own new discoveries are really priceless. And the best games, by far, are the ones that my kids make up themselves.

Gavin is saying and doing such grown-up things these days! Just look at him, for Pete's sake!! He threw on his little red backpack today and played "school" with me all morning. "Ok, Mama, it's 6 a.m. I'm going to school." He'd go to his room to fill up his backpack with the funniest, most random collection of things, and then he'd run downstairs, say "hi" to the "teacher" and swiftly return to me as if he were home from school. And what's killing me lately is how much he can repeat the same scenario over, and over...and over again. My part in today's little drama was pretty funny too. I'd look at his random collection of things dumped out on the floor and start looking for themes: "Oh, it looks like you were learning about the letter 'W' today. Here's a whistle and a wagon, and what else do we have here?" Don't doubt it: The teacher in me always finds a Way to Work herself into the scene.