Tis the season

Most kids like to get presents. Tyler just likes standing on them. Honestly, this really captures Tyler's personality---he really likes to stand on things. I am so glad we took this picture, because now, this little idiosyncrasy will never be forgotten

This holiday season is inspiring Tyler's growing vocabulary. So far, his favorite word is kiki (a.k.a. cookie). He knows where we keep all the treats we've been given and he demands them quite often. He also loves all the balls (a.k.a Christmas ornaments that are round) and picks them off the tree everyday. As the matter of fact, the bottom third of our tree is pretty much bare, except for the lights. It's a good thing the ornaments are all plastic.

Our baby learned the word "baby" and he sure uses it. He always points out all the newborns. Today, as we watched "Luke 2" video, Tyler kept saying "baby," "baby." So I talked to him about baby Jesus.

Last bit concerning vocabulary: once Tyler learned the word juice he has managed to call a lots of things that. First, he started calling the drinks "jiu," then it spread on to his pacifier, then to other things. Now, thankfully, he only says that when he's thirsty, but I've got to say he is as adamant about getting his "jiu" as he is about getting "kiki"s.

We have this Christmas decoration---stuffed moose in a rocking chair. Tyler calls it "goggy" (a.k.a. doggy). He loves to hear the moose sing. Also, our little boy loves to push the button on the our jazz Santa, only he is not patients enough to hear the entire song; he just turns it on and off, on and off.

Lydia and Santa

 

Lydia is not shy about telling Santa how his singing really is.

When we got to this Christmas party at the church, Lydia got out of the car and said, "Hey, it's the church." I agreed and started getting Tyler out of the car. Next thing I knew Lydia was starting to cry, "I didn't want to go to church." Then I told her that the party was at church and her cry turned into one of those evil laughs of hers.

Lydia says and does funny things. She picks up things we say even just once. Yesterday I got sick. When I came downstairs after a long sleep Lydia asked "Why did you caught a bug?"

Boston trip

Yesterday we returned from such a fun trip I don't know where to start my story.

So it all started because Paul was invited to give a talk at MIT. To our utter surprise, they offered to fly us all to Boston. We flew out the weekend before the talk to have some time to look around.

In Boston, our home base was a fine historical hotel located within a block from MIT campus and a minute walk from a subway station. The morning after we arrived, we made a short excursion to see this well known school. Sadly to say, campus inself was small and grey, but we got the feeling that people who study there are serious about their work.


On Saturday afternoon we decided to go see Boston and it's many historical monuments. All I have to say is that things did not go exactly as planned. On our way to the USS Constitution, we faced some seiour weather challenges. It was about 30 degrees and the wind was pretty bad. Lydia was sitting in the front of the stroller and was almost in tears, begging us to go home. Needles to say, we did not see much that day except the "Old Ironsides". There, we tried to listen to one of the navy officers telling us about the history while kids climbed the stairs and cannons, and played with the cannon balls. Just kidding. Actually, those were all the things we tried to prevent them from doing.

On Sunday we went to church just a few block from our hotel, visited the campus of Harvard University and ate Bertucci's pizza (the best pizza Paul and I have ever tried).

Monday and Tuesday Paul was at MIT giving his talk and meeting the facutly while kids and I were riding around the "T" (subway), trying to find our way to various attracktions like Boston Chilren's Museum and Aqarium. Then, Tuesday night we almost missed our bus to New Haven, Conetticut. Luckily, the bus was late, and we got to spend the rest of the evening in traffic, trying to help our kids fall asleep.

So, last leg of our trip consisted of visiting Butlers, eating delicious Thanksgiving dinner while celebrating my birthday, taking a short drive through Yale university and a day of running around New York city trying to see all the tourist attraction. We've made so many memories in one week I feel like we've been gone for a long time.