Christmas Time Is Here...

HOP ON POP

BAGS OF BABIES

I don't know what we would have done without Aunt Kristin's advice and generosity in lending us these sleep sacs.

Since September Lennox has been scaling his crib and jumping out. Lamb and I would be watching t.v. around 11pm, and we'd hear the tinkling of piano keys from the living room. X would have made his way upstairs in the dark for a little music (and who knows what else before we heard him). On our trip to CA where the boys slept in small port-a-cribs (and in the same room), X showed Oli how it's done. We must have lifted them back into those cribs 700 times.

Not long after we got home from CA, Oliver started waltzing into the family room long after we had put him to bed, trains in tow, ready to play. Instead of chaining them to their cribs, we zip them in these warm and cozy bags. Now they can't swing their legs up or grip the bars with their little toes to escape. Oliver freaked out the first night. He quickly figured out how to unzip and shed his straight jacket, so now we have to safety pin his zipper.

Because Oliver mastered the "child-proof" doorknob covers ages ago, this system gives me peace of mind. I don't worry about finding him in the backyard in the middle of the night.

Months ago we removed the chairs from our kitchen to prevent the boys climbing onto the table, counters and stove. Recently I unscrewed the handle from the lowest drawer in the kitchen; the boys were using it as a ladder. Half the furniture in the family room has been relocated. And nail heads in the wall indicate where pictures hung before, tiptoeing on the couch, our boys swatted down the frames. Maybe for Christmas, Santa could bring us a monkey.

A CONVERSATION

Yesterday X and Oliver held what I consider their first conversation. I put in a Thomas DVD so I could stand at the stove and make dinner without mini men climbing my legs. As the copyright warning came up, Lexy said, "Elmo!" Oliver responded,"No, no Elmo. Choo choo show." Ta da! Up to now they've really only told each other, "No" or "Oli's turn."

It's a crying shame that I ruined our video camera while saving Oliver from being swept out to sea from Laguna beach (Notice the swirly hairdo he is sporting in our beach photos. I had to yank him out of the Pacific by his ankles--and he wasn't even upset until I pulled his sandy t-shirt off over his head.), because he is doing some adorable talking. One reason I have slacked on the blog is because for the past several months, it has been impossible to get photos of them together. X is incapable of holding still without being buckled down. They're both so busy that it has been more effective to take video footage. But, as I don't know how to post video online....

I hoped Brent would put together a video/photo montage of Oli's birthday party, like he did for the boys' first birthdays. That's why I never posted Oliver's second birthday pics. Happily, Sony was able to recover most of our data from the saltwater-corroded video camera. So Brent's not off the hook. And I'll try to catch up on the backlog of photos that I have meant to post.

PUMKIN FUN

The boys get very excited about pumpkins. Oliver lights up when he spots one, squealing, "Pucky!" He was thrilled when, two weeks ago, we brought home a couple of plastic jack-o-lantern trick-or-treat buckets from Mega Lo Mart. But last night we finally let him and X loose in the "pumpkin patch" in front of Macey's. Loved it. We came home with four choice specimens--each with a good "handle" (the requisite stem that tops every pumpkin purchased by any of Marsh's progeny). This morning both boys shouted, "Puckies!" as they rocked and smacked their heavy harvest. Tonight we had fun poking plastic facial features into one of the pumpkins as well as a squash that has been rolling around our kitchen. The boys began by kissing the pumpkin. We ended the evening eating orange, pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies. Prepared by Nestle Tollhouse, slapped onto the baking sheet by toddlers' hands, and baked in our oven, they were delightfully mediocre. The entire evening was a slice of heaven.

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