Steven, Sammy and Amaya are talking up a storm. I really can’t get over it. Steven, in particular, is in the middle of a word explosion. He was a bit behind Sammy and Amaya but he’s saying everything these days and probably has the most consistent verbal monologue. Steven and I were out together this morning and he narrated the entire visit. “Car. Go go. Home. Man. Orange. Ball. Animal. Play.” This morning we looked through an alphabet book together and I couldn’t believe how many pictures he could verbally identify. More and more, Sammy and Amaya are starting to string words together. In the morning I raise the shade and turn on the light. Sammy will say, “Light on. Dark out.” He also loves to repeat us saying “goodness gracious.” Amaya has a nice string of “do its.” “Amaya do it. “Mama do it.” “May May do it.” It’s so much fun to hear the kids talk and express themselves.

On Monday, Nana was still visiting so she and Megan took SSA to Funtastic. It was their 4th visit so hopefully they’ll be comfortable when it’s birthday party time. It’s such a great space for kids with an awesome toddler area but also a big climbing space for big kids!

Everyone was fighting over the packing material so Nana suggested a parade.

On Tuesday, it was time for Nana to go home to New York. SSA will tell you that she went home on an airplane. “Nana. Home. Airplane.”

There was no music class last week but Stephanie came by anyway to spend the day with the kids. They love their Steffie.

A new gift we love is a xylophone. I’m pretty sure I had this when I was their age. Though I think mine made noise when you pulled it. I’ll gladly take this version.

We know how to relax in the Land of Cheltenham!

Selfies with Megan!

On Christmas Eve, Jason got home from work early enough to wake the kids up from their naps. There’s nothing quite like a surprise opportunity to read with Daddy!!

We love holding hands these days. Fortunately, Daddy has big enough hands to hold everyone’s at once.

Another new activity are these little squeezer things. They’re supposed to help with fine motor skills and, seeing them in action, I can understand why that is. The kids have to learn the motion of squeezing to open and releasing to close. Sammy got that down pretty quickly. It’s more complicated to try to pick up a pom pom. I think we’ll be able to play with these for a while.

Saturday, Christmas Day, was a fairly lazy day.

We took funny face selfies!

We made cushion seats.

We held Daddy’s hand for some Daddy play time.

We FaceTimed with Grandpa Home Home and Grandma Betsy.

We capped off the day with a Chinese dinner out. It’s been a little while since we all went out to eat as a family! For three almost 2 year olds, I’m so impressed with how well SSA do in restaurants. The big transition is that we can now use regular restaurant plates. Bit by bit, the details are getting easier. We may be about to hit some terrible twos but at least we know the logistics are more straight forward than they used to be!

Steven wanted to hold Daddy’s hand while they ate.

Sammy was flirting with a woman at a table behind us. I’m told he looks like me in this picture. Agree? Disagree? Let’s say AGREE!

On Saturday, Anna came to spend the morning with us.

It turns out you can make a great hat out of Mommy’s mail.

SSA love to help Daddy with his projects. Here they were helping him remove the legs from this table. Hopefully the novelty won’t wear off too long before we need to put them to real work. 😉

Steven, Sammy and Amaya have watched very limited tv to this point. In the fall, we started watching football with the kids. I think there was a chance they’d think that’s all the tv shows. Yesterday we found some 4K content on our new tv and all watched a 25 minute program featuring underwater sea life. SSA loved it. Fish! Fish! Seal! Man, Amaya loved the seals. I think we’ll be able to watch this again (and again).

Today Steven and I ventured out to Michael’s so I could get something framed. As I mentioned earlier, he narrated our entire trip. It was so cute. Steven really wanted to play (“Play! Play!”) so, after I was done, we walked around the store together holding hands most of the way. I let Steven pick out one toy and he picked this orange football. (“Fa fall”.)

Also on his list was this orange My Little Pony plush. We left the stuffed animal behind but I think Steven and I might share the same favorite color. 🙂

Amaya still loves to build with the magna tiles. She’s a very busy girl!

And, finally, here’s Sammy enjoying headphones from Aunt Ouize. If I ask him to take a picture, he comes around to my side of the phone for a selfie.

Have a great week!