Merry Christmas!

Paul as the Christmas "elf", Alexander the scribe and Lucas as the Mad Middle Eastern Cow

Lucas wearing my headband and Paul's snowboots

Well, I guess it's been a little while since we've posted!  Pretty hard to believe we are just 5 days from the end of 2010.  We've had a great but very, very busy year. So, what's been going on since the last post?

Alexander began 1st grade and is *loving* it.  What a difference from this time last year.  For the first several months last year pretty much every day began with "I don't want to go to school" and "school's boring".  It was mostly the shock of having to do "work" all day as compared with preschool and still adjusting to having a new little brother.  Now, we haven't heard the evil 'boring' word once this year and he usually finishes his weekly homework within a couple days. He especially likes math but his reading is also really coming along.  Alexander also played outdoor soccer for the first time this Fall and just started playing indoors as well.  Alexander's shyness is slowly departing as well...although a very social and chatty kid, he tends to not want to be center of attention (pretty normal) but in the past couple weeks he had a speaking part in our church's Christmas pageant and was in his school's holiday show without any hesitation or clinginess.  But for all his maturity, he is still my little sweetheart...crying at the hint of sadness in movies and sleeping with the light on (and not to mention he still loves sucking his thumb - can you spell orthodontics?)  

Lucas began the Fall starting a new preschool/daycare and has really thrived.  Although his former school was supposed to be topnotch and we were verbally reprimanded for removing him and not allowing him to reach his full potential, if he was any fuller in his potential we'd be in serious trouble. At 2.9, he knows the alphabet and their sounds, how to spell his name and a couple other words, has a vocabulary of a 4 yo, and I could go on. Yup, too bad we had to move him.  He is also coming more and more into his personality - which is very determined, creative, and funny.  He has an awesome imagination - the other day he was removing stings (I assume beestings) with a sparkly wand acting as a "stingivator".  Our days are filled with such 'luc-isms' and other similar wonders living with a toddler. These moments are, of course, balanced with the opposite - whining, raving screams of protest for any real or perceived injustice. And then, a moment later, he is laughing about something so hard that he needs to catch his breath. I often look at his lengthening face and wonder what aspects of his current personality will be retained into boyhood.  Hopefully his strong spirit and easy, deep laughter. 

His strong spirit unfortunately doesn't help him when it comes to fighting illnesses. If there's a germ in the air, he'll get it.  A few weeks ago he developed conjunctivis, an ear infection and a cold following by the croup.  He's currently healthy but not sure if this will last until the New Year!  Lucas also had a little stumble in early Dec - riding his little bike in our house (without helmet, of course) and fell off finding the one nice sharp corner for him to gouge the area above his left eye. Several hours in the ER and a few stitches later he was fine.  Alexander's words to Lucas when he was picked up from school and told the news "Lucas, you and I now have something that's the same - you and I both had stitches on our heads!"

As fas as Alexander and Lucas together, let's just say we're beginning to see the light at the end of the constant parental-entertainment phase. Up until VERY recently, one or both boys would constantly chant "Can you play with me?" but only to an adult. Awesome fun, yes, and I know I will be praying to hear these words again in a few years but I love the fact that they are now turning to each other, brothers, for play. We had dinner guests last night for Christmas and at one point we realized the boys had been upstairs for the better part of 30 min building towers, playing with race cars, etc., without a single yell or "MAMAAAAAA".  Let's hope some of this continues through the next 9 days of holiday vacation.....

What does 2011 have in store for the Knights?  January will bring our annual holiday celebration with my (Laura's) Russian side of the family for Orthodox Christmas and then we get ready for some major work in our house. After living in our house 12+ years we've finally decided to finish our large walk-up attic to be used as a playroom/den.  Not a moment to soon considering my previous paragraph!  I'm so looking forward to a little breathing room.  The year will also bring Paul one year closer to finishing his Information Mgmt degree and hopefully in the summer we'll be taking a family trip to DC.  And, hopefully it won't be the end of 2011 before I post again!

Best wishes to everyone for a healthy and happy 2011!

Laura