Dear Leif

Dear Leif,

Christmas is approaching and we love watching you get excited by these new experiences. We decorated the Christmas tree the other day and I couldn’t tell if it was wonderment and amazement or you were just purely convinced we were nutcases to decorate a tree in the house. At first you helped with gusto and decorated two branches, each with 4 ornaments. Mommy is doing really good at resisting her Martha Stewart side to distribute the ornaments evenly across the lower half of the tree. You tired of this activity quickly until daddy pulled out the ladder to put the star on the top, then you were determined to help again!

Halloween is now over and we haven’t trick or treated in over a month now. Halloween and Christmas really are very different holidays since we thankfully don’t live in Tim Burton’s world. Really and truly, bulbs we have put on our Christmas tree have nothing to do with pumpkins. They aren’t even orange. Calling them “moons” is a little more acceptable. You are really loving the Advent calendar right now and adding a piece each night is really very exciting to you. Stopping at one piece is, however, nearly impossible.

We rented The Polar Express last week and it won’t be going back anytime soon. At least until we get it recorded off the TV and onto the computer and burned to DVD. (Blame daddy for the commercials, mommy just wanted to buy it.) You call it “Polar Bear Express” and ask for it routinely. The hot chocolate scene is really amazing and I do see the hint of disappointment in your eyes when mommy doesn’t tumble across the floor to delivery your hot chocolate to you. Although there was a day…

Little things everyday continue to amaze me. I had thought when you were younger that you had inherited my extreme picky nature regarding food that very nearly dominated my life as a kid. I don’t know if it is the vastly different attitude that we have opted to take regarding you and food as compared to how my parents approached food with me or if you truly just did inherit daddy’s “garbage disposal” tendencies, but wow what an eater you have become. When Grandma visited in September she marveled at the things you ate… and mommy beamed to get the compliment. (Hey, I take them where I can get them!)

Your favorite thing to eat right now is grapefruit. Like mommy, you would eat it at every meal if you could. Who can blame you? I can’t. They are fantastic this time of year. However, this obsession is proving to be a little un-kidlike. On Sunday you helped me enthusiastically make cinnamon muffins. After they got out of the oven I put one in front of you at the table. You looked at it and asked for a grapefruit. After eating the half of a grapefruit you got up and left your cinnamon muffin sitting there untouched. Oh don’t worry, it is gone… mommy ate it. Last night the vast majority of your dinner was steamed broccoli. You called them trees and ate all the tops off leaving the little stumps. Also leaving your steak, potato and macaroni and cheese untouched. I am not complaining in the least! I am just a little surprised is all. Today you squealed with delight to see that you had leftover trees in your lunch!

One of your favorite games to play lately (thanks to daddy) is “shark attack”. Nice, huh? Blame daddy when you have a fear of sharks someday. You have a stuffed hammerhead shark that you like to chase us around the house with screaming “shark attack”! Once again… thank you daddy.

You are increasingly curious about mommy’s growing belly and have started to comment on it pretty regularly. Usually while we are reading stories each night before bed as my lap gets smaller and smaller by the week. I am pretty sure you haven’t any real idea why my belly is getting bigger even though you do acknowledge the fact that there is a baby in there. I do want to assure you however, that despite the fact that other parts of mommy’s body are getting bigger along with my belly, it doesn’t need to be acknowledged (particularly in public, like at Taco Bell on Saturday) and there are most certainly not other babies growing in these other parts.

Your potty training was coming along nicely… until Sunday. You had three days with only one potty accident during this time. (We won’t talk about the poopy issue. New toy, new toy, new toy…) Then came Sunday. Nuff said.

One of your favorite things to do is still reading. You insist on doing a lot of the reading and are proving to be a very “skilled reader”! Your favorite books to read aloud are the Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Panda Bear, Panda Bear books. You have just started really enjoying books that are longer and more involved than most of your board books. Although Tails still reigns supreme. (Mommy will pull it out of its hiding place again really soon, I promise.) “In The Night Kitchen” is a favorite, which you call “the Mickey book”. Mommy hopes that means you will foster a love for cooking as your grow. But right at this moment, “How the Grinch stole Christmas” is number one. Dr. Seuss books aren’t always the easiest to read, and some are quite long. (Or maybe I am just being introduced to the world of non-board books.) But after a week of practice, mommy nearly has it perfected AND in the perfect Boris Karloff voice. Give me another week and I will have it memorized.

You are such an amazing little boy Leif! Mommy and daddy are really looking forward to Christmas this year with you.

Love, Mommy