Lisa n Tom (n James n Joseph)

Lisa writes: Here we have Joseph weeping because he can't fit into the firetruck. He kept opening the little door on the side, trying to stick one foot in, and announcing, "Bye bye." All to no avail. Poor guy.

Lisa writes: James asks to go to the mall all the time. When he says, "the mall," what he means is "the playplace next to the food court at the mall." That, and only that. He does not want to walk around. He does not want to windowshop. He does not want to buy anything. He rarely even wants to eat at the food court. He wants to play at the playplace until they shut it down. What he has figured out yet is that there is a height limit to the playplace ... and he's a tall kid. He's technically juuust over the limit. His playplace days are numbered.

Lisa writes: Joseph brought this home from PreK. It's a Christmas craft, but that facial expression may or may not be sacrilegious.

James's PreK teacher posted pics of their impromptu adventure. They all put plastic baggies on their feet and went to play in the snow. There will be more snow adventures tomorrow -- she already asked us to send them all to school with boots and gloves.

Lisa writes: Two things: 1. Joseph pulls everything out of the bottom of the pantry so he can hide in it at least every other day. It's cute.  2. Joseph says "hello" like a French person answer the phone: "'allo." This is also cute.

Lisa writes: Joseph liked the snow a lot more in theory than in practice. James, on the other hand, will stay out until his fingers turn blue and vehemently deny that he's cold through his chattering teeth.

Lisa writes: I have 100 of these on my phone. That is all.

Lisa writes: Joseph is 2 years and two months old. He has a pretty limited vocabulary, but he still says funny stuff sometimes. Examples: 1. A couple of weeks ago, he made his first joke. It goes like this: Me: Joseph, are you a baby? Joseph: Noooo. Me: Is Mama a baby? Joseph: Yeah! The joke has evolved over time. Now he points to everybody in the room and announces whether they are or aren't a baby, and sometimes he'll concede that he is the baby. 2. Last week, Joseph obviously had a dirty diaper. I picked up a clean diaper and the wipes and started towards him saying, in a singsong voice, "Oh, Jojo!" and without missing a beat, he jumped up and ran away calling back in the same voice, "Oh, no no!" ---------- Joseph also legitimately recognizes at least five letters of the alphabet (which may be a few more than James). He points out and says A, B, O, R, and S.

Lisa write: Tom's family celebrates Dia de Los Reyes or "Little Christmas." AKA the 12th day of Christmas when, traditionally, the three wise men show up and leave a little present in your shoe. This year, we hosted dinner at our house, did a mini gift exchange ( got some excellent socks) and got two fun surprises from Tom's half-brother's ex-wife-who-is-still-a-full-fledged-member-of-the-family, Isabel: White House Christmas cookies and news that she is engaged to a lovely fellow named Juan.

Lisa writes: In the past year, we've been two two birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese and two at Little Gym. Tom calls these "turn-key birthday parties" because the parents can basically write a check and -- boom! -- birthday party. The boys love them.

Lisa writes: James got a real haircut. From a real barber. For the first time. Dear Future James,  I'm really, really sorry for all of your haircuts between 1 and 4 1/2 years old. For what it's worth, all of the money I saved on haircuts is probably in your college savings account. Love, Mama