'tis the season, indeed

first of all, i want to just give lu some mad props for counting! he can count to 3 all by himself in english and french now!.. and we have some evidence that he actually understands those quantities, too. (aside: he can count by repeating after us up to 10). ph spends some time with him every evening while looking at his favorite books counting miscellaneous things in the books. but one particular night they spent almost the whole storytime counting, and the next day lucas brought 3 trucks into the kitchen and said "three trucks".. "one, two, (pause) two..." and in the pause i could see the thought bubble above his head saying "trois.." (pronounced twah for all you anglophones who want to hear it right in your heads)... but he knew that wasnt how mama says 3., so i said "oh! do you have three trucks?" and he said "ya, one two THREE! trucks"

now that ruby has it in her head she wants to walk, she spends a good bit more time crying for me to come over and hold her hands up so she can walk assisted. she is a motivated little girl, and i am starting to realize i only have a short time left of her babyhood! so now im freaking out a little, that i wnat her to stay a sweet little baby for a while longer. but she and i dont have the same agenda here, oh well.. growing up trumps sentimentality i suppose.

but with this growing sense of independence, she also wants to take fewer or shorter naps. she is just SO INTERESTED in trying her new-found body skills that she cant let herself get relaxed long enough to sleep. but this is precisely why she needs her rest! i had forgotten that lucas went through a phase like this right around the time he started walking too. but now i remember.. i had to strap him into his stroller and walk around the apartment. so im doing the same with ruby, and it works, too.

which brings me to my last tidbit. philippe and lucas broke my good single stroller with the big basket under it, while playing monster-trucks with it on our uneven sidewalks... or something like that. so as an early xmas gift, i got a new single buggy. and this time with proper snow tires! that's 12-inch/30cm wheels to get over big burly snow drifts. and in this part of the world - you really NEED it!

the day after i got my new stroller it snowed 10 inches/25cm.. the day after that it was just nice powdery snow.. but the 3rd day it was freezing rain and snow, another 10 inches/25cm, followed by 2 or 3 days of rest, and then another 3 inches/7.5cm on top of all the previous snow! it hasnt been above freezing (correction: one day it rose to 38F/4C) for two weeks now. so i guess we will have a white christmas this year.

gotta go, nap time is over.. merry christmas (its in 4 days i think)