Lisa n Tom (n James n Joseph)

Lisa writes: The usual order of operations is: two bottom center teeth, then two top center teeth. Joseph has decided to skip the center top teeth and go straight to the laterals. The initial effect was sort of hippo. Then they came in farther and now it's a little more snake. Sorry, Shutterstock. I need to borrow this. I love my little fanged baby.

Lisa writes: I'm pushing so hard for this to become a bigger U.S. holiday. Dia de los Reyes, or Three Kings Day, or Epiphany, or the 12th Day of Christmas, is traditionally the day the three wisemen, or kings, or magi (we've really got to come to a consensus on our terms here, people) visited the baby Jesus and left gifts. In some parts of Latin America and Scandinavia, kids leave shoes or straw or carrots or something out out for the horses/camel/elephant and in the morning they wake to find a little present or coin. Anyway, the Anderson version of this is we leave our shoes under the tree the night before with some baby carrots on a plate (Tom's family also left a small glass of brandy -- it's cold in January, ya'll) and woke to find presents in each shoe in the morning. I love this. It's fun. And it helps me with that post-Christmas crash. You know what I mean? There are MONTHS of lead-up to Christmas and then it's COMPLETELY over in a day. Like, zer...

Lisa writes: It's too cold to play outside, so we headed to the mall again. Joseph is getting big enough to get into the action. He went down the slide about twenty bajillion times. James is almost too big. There's a sign with a high limit that just barely grazes. Lucky for him, nobody ever seems to enforce this rule.

Lisa writes: And we're back! And we have presents! And, as we lost James's beloved monkey hat somewhere between here and Colorado, these couldn't have come at a better time. P.S. The Owl hat is technically for James, but he was being photo-shy.

Lisa writes: We're on our way. We spent Christmas and New Years in Colorado at Lisa's parents' house. It was a worthwhile trip, but I'll admit a big chunk of my memory of this year will involve the multiple consecutive nights of late-night stomach virus. James started in on Christmas Eve. We were sleeping together in a play teepee in the basement. Poor kid was sleeping, announced his stomach hurt, then threw up and, because he was sleeping on his side, accidentally got it in his eye . I challenge anybody to top that. (I'm kidding. Please, please don't.) I was next. Then poor little Joseph.  Tom was miraculously spared. Prior to this, I hadn't thrown up in twenty blessed years. And it was every bit as bad as I remembered. But anyway, happy New Year, and here's James on his 28th flight in 3 1/2 years. He insisted on wearing pajamas and sneakers on the plane. Whatevs.