Christmas and New Years

Like most people at 6am, Luc can be a little a grumpy sometimes. This morning; however, he was awake and feeling very chipper. When I walked into the bedroom he stood at the edge of his crib and said "Good Morning Daddy!" It was a nice way to start the day and a reminder of how quickly he is learning to speak. Another example came this evening when we had the TV on and there was a newsfeed scrolling along the bottom of the screen. Luc pointed fiercely at the feed and used his finger to try and push the text off the screen and started saying "Get outta here!" to it. I guess he's developing a sense of humor too.

Speaking of TV, guess what his favorite show is now? No not Barney, the Wiggles or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (though they are right up there). It's Jeopardy! Seriously, not only does he insist on watching it every night at 7pm but we've gotten to dvr'ing it too because he can sit and watch 3 or 4 episodes in a row. Apparently what he likes is the music, the applause and the overall atmosphere (the graphics, the clue board, etc). Whenever it comes on he has a whole ritual he goes through. First, he starts to growl under his breath, and then points to the TV and mimics the announcer saying "THIS... IS... JEOPARDY!" He claps and laughs vigorously when the audience applauds. And when the Final Jeopardy "thinking" music comes on he hums it out loud and sways his head back and forth in rhythm. Just before the closing credits come on there is an announcement that Jeopardy is sponsored by International House of Pancakes and Luc yells "I HOP!". And finally when the closing credits music does come on he usually insists that we get up and dance around with him. And inevitably this is followed by him saying "More!"... which is why we have taped episodes. It's quite a sight.

Anyway, on to other things... like Christmas! We had a nice one this year though Luc does not really know what is going on yet. Apparently Santa Claus visited the day care this year and Luc was quite frightened of him. And when we gave him his presents he didn't really understand that they were to be opened and toys were inside. I imagine by next year this will change. In any event, once the toys were opened he had a joyous time with them and we enjoyed watching him.

A couple nights before Christmas we ventured downtown for the annual Christmas Light Show at Macy's. In the center courtyard they have a huge church organ that accompanies an equally huge light show with a narrator telling Christmas stories. We let Luc watch it until he decides "I don't like it" which was about 10 minutes this year. They also have a small winter festival near Macy's with a carousel and we took him on that this year too. He seemed to enjoy it and so did Daddy.

New Year's Eve was kind of quiet this year because we went to bed around 10:30. It's just not realistic for any of us to stay up past midnight anymore so we didn't even try. But the next day we went to our friend Dave's New Year's Day party and that was fun. We got to catch up with some old friends, enjoy some good food and Luc got to entertain the crowd with his antics and cuteness. For example, Luc is big on "washing the dishes" (ie, getting them wet and playing with them in the kitchen sink). So when he saw how many dirty dishes Dave had in his kitchen he had me hold him up over the sink so he could have at them. This drew the attention of some guests who asked if he wouldn't mind doing their dishes too, to which Luc firmly said "No." and then got a good laugh. When he does the dishes at our house he stands on a small stool and will play in the sink for 30 minutes at time. I have a photo of him doing that in the new photo set.

We also got to see our old friend Steve (from Villanova) who was in town for the weekend with his family. We spent a few hours with them on New Year's Day at Franklin Square Park, which is a very nice kids playground and park downtown. There's a photo of Luc in the new photo set steering a steering wheel there. It was nice catching up with all those people that day and letting Luc charm them all, which he does so well. And it was nice that he was so very well behaved around all these new people... and even a dog at Dave's party, which he really enjoyed petting.

And speaking of being charming, I was speaking with one of the women at his daycare about his behavior the other day and she said "Luc is an angel. He never misbehaves, he plays well with the other kids, plays well by himself, and is very engaging during circle time (when they sit in a circle and talk about stuff)." She added "We've never had to put him in the time out chair. I just don't think he has it in him to be bad." It was nice to hear that he is so well behaved outside our home with other adults and children.

So now we enter into 2011 and look forward to what new things will happen. Presumably Luc will be talking like Alex Trebec soon (my prediction is February). He'll get taller and even more nimble on his feet. He'll start asking tons of questions. And, if it's possible, he'll get cuter still. But no matter what happens he will always be loved by his Mommy and Daddy and he really will always be our angel :)