Christmas 2008

On Wednesday, Christmas Eve, my parents had already driven up, and Cara and my dad and I spent a fair portion of our morning walking through the snow to pick up the rest of our holiday meal from the store. When we got back and put everything away, my dad and I put chains on my parents' car, and then we all went to see Biglittlethings, which a coworker of mine is performing in this year. It's an annual thing, but none of us had ever seen it before, and I think we all thought i was quite excellent. Elias was delighted with it - I kept alternating between watching the show and watching Elias watch the show. One of his classmates was also there, which was a nice surprise. Afterwards, we met Patrick for dinner, and then my parents picked up Joanna from the airport, and we were finally all assembled. Things were still pretty snowy that night, so everyone stayed at our place instead of going back and forth from houses or hotels. Before Elias went to bed that night, he left some cookies and soymilk out for St. Nicholas, along with a note.

Elias woke up at about 6:30 on Christmas morning. We weren't sure if everyone was awake yet, so he looked through his stocking in our bed. He was pretty excited about the little, plush Kung Fu Panda toys. After we went downstairs and had breakfast, it was time for the main event. Elias wanted to pass out the presents to everyone and he had a lot of fun doing that. He also had more presents than anyone else, too, so he was kept pretty busy opening his own stuff. He got a couple Wizard of Oz books (we've been reading him Wizard of Oz at bedtime -- he loves Jack Pumpkinhead) a talking globe, a couple games, some superhero and knight figures, a Spider-man puzzle, a TAG reading system that lets him read books to himself, and a big LEGO dwarven mine. He was very happy with all of his gifts. After opening the presents we spent the rest of the morning playing with variuos toys. Cara put together the dwarven mine, which took a very long time, and I downloaded some books on the TAG system so Elias could read them. Later, after taking a walk, eating, and more playing, we all watched our favorite Christmas movie, Millions. Elias was so tired that he fell asleep at 5:30 and we made him a little bed on the floor. I think that's a sign of a good day.

P.S. Many thanks to Cara, who wrote most of the second half of this post after I put it off for three days.

Walking and sledding

The snow continues to pile up today. We've spent most of our time inside, and most of that time watching movies over the internet, some of which have been better than others. Elias has been coaxed out into the world a couple of times, but never for very long, so Cara and I took turns going on walks by ourselves this morning. Elias would probably be perfectly happy to stay in all day, being read to, played with, fed, and shown movies.

Anyway, a little video:

...and even more snow

It just keeps snowing here. We went out early this morning to the grocery store but that will be our last trip out in the car this weekend because they generally don't plow the roads and also don't use salt to melt the snow (it's not environmentally friendly). Right now there is about four inches of snow on the road outside of our house. Elias has been in a bit of a mood today because we stayed out late at a friend's holiday party last night and is very tired. He was also not happy about leaving the party because he was playing superheroes with his friends. Luckily we had brought his Superman pajamas with us and his friend Oscar had his Batman pajamas so they had the proper attire, but it made it hard to convince him to leave. Actually, he never really agreed and we had to brave the winter weather with a pissed off 3 1/2 year old. We had to take two buses to get home and he was asleep by the second bus.

After our trip to the grocery store this morning we decided to take a walk in the snow. The going was VERY slow because Elias wanted to look back at all of the footprints he was making. We went about three blocks and that was the limit for Elias because the wind was blowing snow into our faces. When we got back home we made hot chocolate and watched a movie. Now we'll watch the snow from inside... and it keeps falling.

Snowman

We have been having uncommonly winter-y weather in Portland. Usually it snows once or twice here and though there is never much accumulation, it throws everyone into a frenzy. Well, this week it has snowed almost every day since Sunday night and school has been closed since Monday. A bit of an overreaction but it's has given everyone a bit of a holiday before the holiday. It snowed again today and we actually had good snow this time. It was wet enough to make snowballs and I was able to get Elias outside. So far he hasn't been a big fan of snow and being cold but we had a great time this morning. We took a little walk and Elias chased me and tried to hit me with snowballs. Then he said he wanted to make a snowman. I haven't made a snowman since I lived in Pennsylvania. We walked back home and began rolling our snowman body. Then John Paul came over; he is our neighbor two doors down and he and Elias are the same age and they're pretty fond of each other. After we finished the snowman, the boys ran around throwing snow at each other and then decided to use sand shovels to throw snow at my car. It really was fun and E's first time really getting to play in the snow. Now we're going to make hot chocolate with marshmallows and read some stories and stay warm.

SNOW!

Zoo Lights

Tonight we went to see the Zoo Lights with our good friend Maria and her daughter Ramona, who is older than Elias, but someone that he very much likes to see. We were worried that it might be kind of miserable, as this weekend is supposed to be unusually cold, but it wasn't too bad, and we all had a good time.

Naturally, the kids didn't care for the lights as much as they did for climbing on statues, hiding in bushes, and eating candy canes. They also had a chance to see Samudra, who Elias has seen a couple of times before. It's always a bit of a gamble taking Elias out in the evening; he's usually pretty cheerful, but he can sometimes be a bear if he's tired. Tonight, however, he was in top form.

On the way home, Elias started chatting with Maria about superheroes, which is pretty much his go-to topic in any given conversation. The finest moment was when he told her about his plans to be a superhero when he grows up, named "Power Lightning," with a red and blue costume, and that he'll shoot lightning out of his hands. He told Maria that if she also has a dream about being a superhero, her wish will come true, and "it will come in the mail; your powers and your costume."

"Is that a killing song?"

To get home from school, Elias and I walk for about twenty minutes to the bus stop. Cara thinks it sounds like kind of a hassle, but I like walking, and it's nice to have a little while together to talk about our day. Earlier this week, there was a little lull in the conversation, and I started singing "Firing Squad" to myself, which is a song about the aftermath of the Iranian revolution. Elias asked, "Is that a killing song?" I found it kind of difficult to explain; I think Cara and I both feel like it's important to try to communicate things in an honest way to Elias, which means sometimes running up against some pretty complicated ideas. In the end, I told him that yes, it was partly a song about killing, but it was also about people feeling that they could act in whatever way they wanted without stopping to consider if they were right or wrong, and how important it is to think about those things. Then we went back to talking about animal crackers and comic books.

Underwear dance

A little bit of silliness from earlier this evening:

Quiet morning

I'm finally done with school for the term, so now I can actually spend some time with Elias. It is cold and rainy outside and we spent the morning inside on the couch reading book after book. After almost two hours I told Elias that my voice was getting hoarse and I had to stop; he continued on his own for a little while longer. How awesome is it that I have a son who can spend two hours reading? Not to mention that I have that kind of time for the next three weeks.

As I started writing this, Elias saw the picture of himself. When I told him that various aunts, uncles, and grandparents would see this he told me that they would say, "Oh, look. I really love that boy." He does not suffer from a lack of confidence.

Christmas lights

It took a long time for Elias to get ready for bed tonight because he decided to have a dance party in the bathroom after his bath. He has been in an exceptionally good mood today and I enjoyed his crazy dancing quite a bit.

It was dark on the way home from preschool today. I drove past some big houses with impressive Christmas light displays so that Elias could see them. After passing one particularly impressive house Elias breathed "Wow!" and then said "This world is really beautiful." After that he told Harry and me that Portland didn't exist before he was born. Apparently there was nothing until Elias came into being. It's been a pretty good night all around.

My boy

Elias loves words; he never stops talking. His new words are "repulsive" and "prefer." He was very vocal about what he "prefers" which threw me off a bit. When he uses words like that I can't help realizing that he is growing up and it breaks my heart. The other day when he unexpectedly used the word "repulsive" we spent twenty minutes or so sitting on the couch talking about the things that we think are repulsive (snot, poop, pee, slime) and it was fun. But mostly I just want to hug him and pretend that he is still a baby.

Beginning

Elias is three and a half years old today. He almost always wakes up by seven o'clock in the morning. He eats bread with white butter and jam, cut in half. He likes The Wizard of Oz, and soccer, and "Father and Son" by Cat Stevens. He used to dream of butterflies. He can't wait to save people, and be a superhero, and fight villains. Sometimes, just before he falls asleep, he lets us know that he'll love us as long as we're alive.