Daniel is 5 months old, and was baptized on December 2nd. Paul, Tracy, and Leah traveled to Arizona to be his godparents. We are so happy they were able to come!
I was in "Sounds of Christmas", and Andy and John came to see it. After the show, John was pretty excited about the new joke he learned "Knock knock, who's there, Mary, Mary who, Mary Christmas!" He also got another joke wrong but it turned out pretty funny: "What happened when Rudolph ate all the Christmas decorations? He got a sore throat!" (actual punchline: He got tinsel-itis). We also went to see A Christmas Carol together and had a great time.
Daniel is learning lots of new things. He is still rolling a lot, though he is much better at back to front than front to back. We often have to go to him and roll him over when he gets stuck on his tummy. He is learning to use his hands, and is reaching out to touch our faces and clothes, and is playing with toys and rattles. He got his first food last week, rice cereal, and he loves it. We tried sweet potatoes on Monday and his tummy didn't seem to like them so we'll hold off on those for a bit. He is also starting to babble, with sounds like "yeah", "nyah" and "na" (all short a vowels).
John is chatting up a storm and is very friendly with everyone. He loves talking and answering questions and making up stories. He is writing some words (John Will, Mom, Dad, Zoo) without asking how to spell them, reading some words (exit, open) on his own, and is always wanting to make lists and write things down, asking us things like "How do you spell "Who is coming to the Christmas party?" He loves playing pretend too, and always enjoys sitting down and doing worksheet-type activities, though he still needs to run and play most of the time.
John and Daniel are getting along great. Daniel loves to see John and smiles at him all the time. Watching Daniel watch John tell a story is just the greatest thing, as they are both so animated. John also told us the other day "It's true! Danny IS going to like all the things I like, because I like looking out the window while we're driving, and Danny likes looking out the window while we're driving right now!!!" Danny will usually calm down if John sings to him. It's adorable.
We're getting ready for Christmas and having a great time. John loves singing Christmas songs, and he knows all the words to several songs (Rudolph, Silent Night) and some words of other songs ("Have a Holly Jolly Christmas, kiss her once a year!" and "Snowing Christmas songs and cookies, fa la la la...") He was so excited to decorate the tree and wanted to sing Christmas songs while we did it.
Danny has had his helmet for about 2 weeks and we are already noticing a difference! He has a bunch of straight light blonde hair growing in, and it's really cute. He's just such a happy baby who smiles at everyone and everything, and we're just so blessed with our two precious boys.
