Christmas in Nevada

We spent Christmas in a cabin at Lake Tahoe with Dave's family.

Grandma with lots of help.


The cousins had a great time playing together and we seemed to have more free time (or Kindle-reading time for me) than ever before.





Grandma and Dave read The Night Before Christmas, a family tradition, to three tired girls.


Santa came! Candy, oranges, a purple/blue car, purple/blue cup and purple/pink hair clips for our girls-- they must have been very good this year. Note: according to my sample size of two, letting your 2 year old eat an entire candy cane before breakfast is not good for her digestion.





Many fun presents (with variable uses).






Yes, we were dumb enough to buy a drum for our own children.


The sleds getting some outdoor use







Back at Grandma & Grandpa's house, the most people the hot tub has ever held. It wasn't very relaxing, as the kids delighted in leaping across the middle from person to person.



In all, it was a very nice trip-- the first time we've had seats for the girls on the plane (I read! A magazine! For a whole hour!)-- and the girls were quickly comfortable with the legions of people and dogs.

Happy holidays to everyone.

Thanksgiving

One little, two little....

so happy together

Adi & Mae are playing together more and more. Now that they can talk to each other, we love listening to what they tell each other (often parroting what we say to them). And if I'm busy, they will play our version of chase/hide & seek (otherwise known as "you get me") or push each other around in the laundry basket or take care of their babies together.
During independent playtime ("crib time"), Mae often climbs into Adi's crib (not really allowed) and, amazingly, they will play happily together there. One day I came into find that they had traded much of their clothing.

Of course, it's not all fun and games. In fact, "you get me" often ends up with tears. They seem to instantly escalate to screaming when one takes the other's toy and we are dealing with hitting, pushing and the occasional biting.
But we have been pleasantly surprised by how much they really interact-- not just parallel play-- and invent games together.


Riding an airplane


Paddling their boats


Ring around the rosy; The girls call it ashes.


Mae wiping Adeline's nose


Crib climbing

Cuties

Adi



Mae

L's

Mae's pronunciation has made a big leap- a leap with a capital L. Dave noticed last week that she is saying 'blue' (more like 'ba-loo' but it's getting there) and 'blanket' as well as 'slide' (again, sa-lide). Although she's been able to say lots of letters clearly since she started talking, specifically hard ending sounds like 'k', the 'l' has been missing until now.

Monologue

Direct transcript of Adi, playing alone in her crib:

Want some Mac & Cheese? Okay! A B C D. My going to pick up Daddy. My going to pick up Daddy in the car. Where we going? Afternoon. Afternoon. We go playground
afternoon. Q R S, T U V. W X. We just walking around. My go get
some... my go get baby's food. Okay? Here's the baby's food. Here's
your water.

The hills are alive

My cousin John got married this summer at a ranch near Steamboat Springs. (We just got these pictures from the photographer).