Playing Together

You know what I always forget about winter? The intense amount of outwear needed. Its gotta add at least ten minutes to leaving or arrival to put the hats on, put the coats on, convincing Theo to keep his
hat on, trying to make him stand still long enough to zip up his coat, help Levi turn his coat right-side-up after he puts it on by himself, then take the coats and hats off upon arrival, put mittens and hats in sleeves and pockets so we don't lose them, hang them up...

And static. ugh static. I shock the kids all the time, and it makes everybody jump.

So tracking back to December, we had a great Christmastime. A wonderful holiday party with friends and then a road trip up to my parent's house for our time off. It's always a bit of mayhem with everyone together, but the best kind of mayhem :)

Theo got a book called The Pout Pout Fish from his Uncle Pat, and the plot line is that the pout pout fish is always dreary weary, because his face is always just pouty. But then he has an epiphany, and realizes his big smushy lips are good for something better: being a kiss kiss fish! And Theo always leans forward and gives the little board book a big smooch when that happens. So funny.

Theo is also a very sturdy walker nowadays, and is pretty content to toddle around, rearranging everything small enough for him to pick up. He loves to climb up the stairs and bring back down books for us to read. He'll pretty willingly listen to directions....except when they come from me. If I ask him to come over here, he waits until I look at him, then laughs and runs away. If I ask him to give me something, he looks at me and throws it in the other direction. This doesn't happen to Tim. Only me. I should say that Theo will often listen if its a direction to both him and Levi, because he wants to be like his big brother.

Levi does a nice job these days of playing with Theo. He still has to be first ALL the time, but he'll go get a toy to trade Theo instead of just taking them away - progress :) They both will "wrestle" or play laughing or peek-a-boo games, and they always need to have tubbies together these days.

Levi has been learning to be more polite - and more conversational. Although the conversations are usually quotes that came out of  Tim or my own mouth days or weeks before. The other day he said he "would really love if" in exactly the inflection I would use. He also loves to tell stories, usually recapping whole sections of the Cars movies He'll just use "and then" to keep telling part after part after part. We went bowling on Friday night to celebrate a very successful week of Levi being polite, respectful, and a good listener. He was SO excited about it the entire day, and even picked his bowling name "Nitro." ha.