Builders

TJ's love for Legos runs deep.  He tells about the hours and hours and hours he spent as a child playing with Legos: with his brother, with his friend, with his imagination.  In fact, he attributes his love of math to Legos, those 3 x 2 blocks that made him think through how to build things mathematically. 

For Christmas we got Reed some Duplo blocks.  I anticipated that Reed would enjoy them and that TJ would help them, but I did not foresee how much TJ would LOVE building with Reed.  I've watched time and time again as TJ builds elaborate (or simple) creations just for the joy of building: Reed promptly tears them apart and TJ starts again.

Last night TJ taught Reed to put the flower pieces on all by himself - I think it's the first thing Reed can actually build instead of just destroying.  When he realized he was doing it on his own he would announce "ta da!" after he put one on.  It was such a pleasure to watch these two sit and play together.  I think Reed sat in that exact position for about thirty minutes, which is maybe the longest he's ever sat in one place. 

Saying cheese, but he hasn't quite figured out how to look at the camera while saying it.

Blurry, but I adore his focused face.

My Laundry Partner

This morning I grabbed the basket filled with clean laundry and took it to our bed to fold it.  Reed followed me, climbed on the bed, and started emptying everything (faster than I was folding). 

I called for a truce, dumping the clean clothes by me in exchange for giving him the laundry basket (which is what he really wanted anyway).  We spent twice as long folding laundry as necessary because he wanted to keep jumping to me and I had to keep taking pictures of him jumping onto the pillows.  It was perfect.

This is how he says "Please catch me."

Christmas Books

I probably went a bit overboard checking out Christmas books this year, but we did manage to read 34 unique titles during the month!  Not too bad.

Because I have those titles all recorded elsewhere, I want to record here the titles I didn't get to.  I'll try again next year.

Letters from Father Christmas - I think TJ would love this if I could get him to read it :)
Cobweb Christmas
Apple Tree Christmas - one of my very favorites
Song of the Stars
Cranberry Christmas
The Christmas Cat
The Little Fir Tree
Twas the Evening of Christmas
Prairie Christmas
Great Joy
Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve?
Christmas Tapestry
The Dolls' Christmas - too long for now
The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas - L'Engle
Pick a Pine Tree

Weekly Family Photo #65

Merry Christmas!

Weekly Family Photo #64

Weekly Family Photo #63

Weekly Family Photo #62