What happened to the rest of November?

Where did the month go? I can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone and Christmas is fast approaching. I'm completely ready to start decorating this year though. Erin is so much more aware of everything than she was last year. She already recognizes snowmen and Santa Clause and all of the other commercial holiday figures (it's sad how commercialized Christmas has become but hard to avoid at the same time). She is actually obsessed with Santa. Last year she was terrified of anything Santa, but this year she has seen Santa several times. He came to the end of the theater production I was in and she came to all the shows so Erin thought that every time we got in the car she was going to see Santa. It's very cute. I cannot wait for Christmas morning with her. I have a feeling it's going to be the most fun Christmas morning yet.

Both the kiddos are into everything - especially Jeffrey. I've got a gate up at the kitchen and doors closed at the stairs etc... He is certainly keeping me on my toes. He's not yet crawling on all fours but gets up on his knees and rocks back and forth. A few times he's made one move forward that way, but generally he launches himself forward and proceeds to army crawl around the rest of the house. The boy is going to have some super developed shoulder muscles.

He's still not sleeping really well - certainly not as well as Erin was at this point. He's up at least once in the night and often several times. Part of it may have been teething as he broke a third tooth through yesterday. I'm trying lots of different ways to encourage him to sleep through. I've stopped nursing him in the middle of the night so he won't think he HAS to eat to get back to sleep. Last night I was able to just go into his room and rub his back for a few minutes and he calmed right down.

I've also increased his solid food intake. He gets 3 solid meals a day now - cereal and fruit in the morning, fruit and veggies at lunch and then cereal with fruit and a meat at dinner. He's even sitting in the big high chair to eat his meals now. He certainly loves his solid foods now.

Erin is doing a lot of exciting things now. She LOVES to color and draw. She will put smiley faces in sunshines if you draw her a sunshine. She can sit at the table and do that for hours. She is getting much better at recognizing colors now too.

She still loves to play with Jeffrey and gets concerned if she can't see him at times. Her favorite game to play with him is "tickle" where she lays almost on top of him and tickles him under his chin. He LoVes this and squeals every time she does it. Thankfully she never puts her weight completely on him. I still have to watch her very carefully with him.

Erin's other obsession is the Disney cartoon "Little Einsteins." This is about 4 little kids and a rocket and they go on special missions each episode. The kids who are watching are brought into the show by doing special movements or helping to count etc... Erin can now count to 13 on a regular basis and mimics all kinds of physical movements such as clapping in a pattern. It's amazing to see all the things she can pick up on.

Well, I've written a novel here, but I feel like everything is happening so fast these days. One blink and I've missed something with both of them.