Leggo my Lego!

A Lego elephant that spits real water out of his trunk - cool!

The little man is cracking us up more than usual lately because of his immense conversational skills. Just this morning I went in to get him when he woke up and he said, "Surprise!!! That's Tyto's hiding place," pointing to behind the door (he calls himself Tyto). Good thing he told me where he's going to hide, I don't want to spend all day trying to find the little munchkin and worrying sick that he somehow got out of the house and is standing in traffic somewhere. With his growing communication skills, he's gotten much better at being demanding. For my birthday, we took him to Lego Land down in Orange County (let's see, my birthday = Lego Land, does that mean his birthday = a day at the spa?). He LOVED it and went all day without a nap. Now he frequently demands that we go back there. Here are a few photos, you'll see why:

Lookout Pilot Paula! Tyto is flying your helicopter!
Do the daddy drench dance! (Nice, and without a change of clothes).
Perplexed by the Lego "guys" everywhere, we had to take full stock of them.

The Safari Ride! We saw elephants, lions, pandas, monkeys and alligators - all made of Legos! But the coolest part is that Tyto got to drive!

Tyler sings me the Happy Birthday Song, and doesn't notice the big crater in the middle of the cake (it still tasted awesome!). Happy Birthday to you! I know where there's a zoo! It's a place called Lego Land. You can take me there, too!
Aloha, all you freezing mid-westerners!

Meanwhile, back at home, we've been enjoying some beautiful weather. While the rest of the country is freezing, we've been going to the beach and making castles. You honestly cannot beat L.A. for the weather!

Picture day with Tyler's "guys." Everyone say "cheese!"

Last fall, Tyler was obsessed with these four little "ambulance guys." They were about 2 inches tall, very inconspicuous, didn't move, didn't make noise and could get lost at the drop of a hat. I went crazy trying to keep track of them. We still have two, the other two are buried somewhere under a couch cushion or a pile of sand. He's no longer solely obsessed with the ambulance guys, but has expanded his friends to include astronauts, mice, Little People and a Sigmund Freud action figure. One day he decided he wanted them to pose for "Picture Day," and this is what we got. Afterwards, I had him pose as well.

What happens after Picture Day? A fire and a crash, of course! All the guys were scattered to the far reaches of the playroom.

Christmas Joy & It's a.....

Boy! Yay! We are having a baby boy in April! One of our biggest surprises this Christmas was to put the gender of the baby in a box and wrap it and open it on Christmas morning. I was 85% sure we were having a boy, just because this pregnancy is a carbon copy of my last one, and because in the ultrasound photos, this baby already LOOKS like Tyler. So, because I was so sure, John was convinced that I had cheated and looked in the envelope (nice trusting husband, eh?). So, now Tyler will have a baby brother to be buddies with, smash cars with, climb trees with, and blame everything on. Lucky for baby "Ocho" that he gets an older brother who is sweet and kind and caring, as well as bossy and rambunctuous. John and I are just thrilled and when I think about our complete family, I feel like I might explode from all the happiness. And, speaking of happiness, let's talk Christmas!

I don't see the firefighters' moms forcing them to eat spaghetti!

Oh the festivities and activities we did this Christmas! We started out having a spaghetti dinner with the Manhattan Beach firemen in their firehouse. However, Tyler was so obsessed with the trucks and awed by being in the firehouse, very little spaghetti was eaten (he didn't miss much). Sadly, we did not get to go check out the fireworks or snowhill afterwards due to a little parking mishap. Let's just say that Tyler's catch phrase after that night was "Daddy crashed the car."

One for the house, one for me. One for the house, one for me!

We invited the neighbors up to make gingerbread houses one afternoon and in my infinite wisdom forgot to lay down a tablecloth to collect the mess. For two two-year-olds and a four-year-old, our house ended up looking pretty darn good. And, after Christmas we took a hammer to it and nibbled on it some more. Even dusty it was still pretty tasty!

Hmmmm, this sticker looks suspiciously like the one the firefighters give me!

Santa has started driving around the streets of Hermosa Beach with a huge entourage of firefighters and policemen and they stop at pre-designated spots along the way. T was thrilled just to be walking around outside in the dark looking at all the Christmas lights, but then the whole procession came by and he was mesmerized. He got to hang out with Sparky and Ruff, the two firedogs, and then all by himself bravely went up to sit on Santa's lap. Santa tried to give him a hug and Tyler gave him the heisman back. He settled with a candy cane and a sticker and talked about it for the next week.

Can I fit in this house?

The folks who live on Candy Cane Lane in El Segundo literally live for Christmas. Every single house is decked out with wooden cut-outs of houses, trains, the Grinch, the Peanuts gang, or the South Park kids. There are elves and teddy bears in huge planes, giant bushes cut to resemble santa and adorned with cotton beards. One guy brings in snow. It is a spectacle, even at 11am in the morning when no one else is there and the lights aren't on and the trains aren't working. Next year we'll go back at night and visit the Santa that comes to hear the kids' wishes. Aparently he looks a little less doped up than the one at the mall. Hyped up on sugar and Christmas spirit, how is a little elf supposed to sleep?

Finally - finally! - Christmas morning came. Tyler had a ball ripping open his presents and checking out what was inside. His favorite thing was this red rocketship that contained two astronauts, an astro-dog, a space vehicle and one martian. We have since enjoyed blasting off to visit the moon, Mars and Iowa.

Buzz, Neil and Spot, get their first earthling (mis)treatment.

Tyler cooks up some Swedish pancakes for us all in his new chef hat.

Dr. Tyto gives Daddy a thorouogh examination with his new doctor kit. Every "guy" that he has now has a masking tape cast on one body part or another.

And that was Christmas. We still, almost a month later, talk about Santa (as well as witches and skeletons) and how they are all "on vacation drinking margaritas." This one is not going to be easy to let go, especially when the next big holiday is ho-hum Valentine's Day (sorry Cupid, you haven't got anything on the jolly old man. I am frantically trying to get closets cleaned out and rooms put back together in anticipation of the baby. We will be moving Tyler (eventually) into the guest room and keeping his room with the crib for his baby brother. Our downstairs bedroom (our "catch-all" room) will be used for Carola, our au pair who is coming to live with us March 1st from Santiago, Chile. It should be an exciting, crazy year!