Daddy's Notes

Here are a few stories; I wasn't present for all of them, but luckily Kristin shared a few with me:

1. Look, squirrel! Not too long ago, we were driving to church and Max, per usual, had a fairly complicated question that Kristin had trouble answering with a simple response (sample questions from Max: how come the Moon never falls into the ocean?). In any event, Kristin was in the middle of answering when Max hollers from the back seat: "look, a squirrel." Kristin and I immediately looked at each other, laughing, both thinking of the dog from Up. As soon as we start laughing, Max smiles and says, "hey guys, remember that one show where that dog could talk and he said a lot, look squirrel. That's just like me." We were so proud. His first pop culture reference. Even if it was him being like the dog from Up.
2. Purple's a girl color, unless you really like it. Today, Max's friend Gianna came to play. Really cool girl. Andrea and Dan's niece (sort of). She mentioned to Max that pink is her favorite color and it's a girl color. Max responded, "I really like purple. It's girl color too. But I just really like it." (Don't worry, Gandpa Walt, later Gianna tried to put bows in Max's hair and he refused.)
3. Aviva loves Leo. A lot. Yesterday, she full-on straddled him and put her face right against his and repeated at least 10 times: you my best friend, you my best friend.
4. Smiley Leo. Just like Max at this age, if you smile at Leo, he'll smile back. Doesn't matter who you are, how old you are, or what you say. If you look him in the eyes, and smile, you are guaranteed a smile in return.

Daddy's Notes

1. Aviva now has two catch-phrases that I find adorable: "yeah, sure," said in a deadpan voice exactly how Kristin says it, whenever she and Max have been fighting and Max finally just asks something in a nice voice. For example, they could be screaming bloody murder over playing with the same toy and when we remind him to ask nicely. Once he does -- usually right in the middle of a hailstorm of negative energy -- Aviva almost always replies with, "yeah, sure." And immediately caves in. Aviva's second new phrase is, "that funny." Which she says instead of laughing when she is amused by you.
2. Yesterday we took our first family walk (with all 5 of us). It was really nice. We walked down to the smoothie store, which kept the older two kids interested. Leo fell asleep. While at the smoothie store, Aviva said, "Max ...," with her tone "motherly" tone (something she does ALL the time -- see earlier posts). It made me and Kristin chuckle a little bit. Max, seeing this reaction, imitated Aviva's voice. And his imitation was perfect. I cannot convey how funny it was. And I know it won't be funny to anyone reading. But hopefully, years from now, I can read this post and hear Max saying "Max" exactly the way Aviva says it when she's being motherly.
3. Max and Aviva will now sometimes watch movies together. Aviva won't usually last the full time, in part because she doesn't have the attention span and in part because she only likes two shows (Dora the Explorer and Max and Ruby). But it's cute when right after we put in a movie, Max and Aviva will cuddle under the blankets like the best of friends.
4. Aviva has been waking up first lately. And she just loves to wake up Max. Her money line is, "Max, [again, said in that 'I'm the mom' tone] it morning time." That usually gets Max up pretty quickly. It's usually a race between me and Aviva. I try and get her out of bed before she says "it morning time" a second time and she tries to get Max to wake up before I come get her. She hates to be alone in the morning. When Max does wake up, she is so excited. The other day we'd been up for a little while when we heard Max jump down from his top bunk. She hears the thump and says, "GREAT, Max awake." And she ran for the stairs.
5. Leo still reminds me a lot of Max. And now that Leo is smiling a lot, the resemblance is even more recognizable.

Snowpocalypse

This is a little late, but here's a picture of our deck after the big snowstorm. It was fun for the first few days, but it got old fast. I'm grateful for four wheel drive and a small driveway.

Smiley

I really like this kid. Leo has started smiling and it is the best! All you have to do is look his way and he bursts into huge smiles. I love him, love him, love him.