A SoCal Christmas

Things I like about Xmas in Southern California:
* Going to the store on Christmas Eve in flip-flops
* The only snowmen you see in your neighbors' front yard are made of wire and twinkling lights
* Celebrating Christmas and Hannukah at the same time and nobody bats an eye
* Eating Tofurkey for Christmas dinner, being able to find it easily at the grocery store, and other people have heard of it and don't say To-what-y???

Big News

Felix just went to the pediatrician yesterday, and she said he's getting to be a real fatty! No, she didn't say that, but she said that, at almost two months old, his size is the same as the average 3 1/2 month-old. He's at the 90th percentile for weight and 95th for height for a two month-old, weighing 13 lbs. 13 oz. (6265 g) and 24 1/2 in. (62 cm) in height. His head is only at the 50th percentile (15 1/2 cm), but no worries, I'm sure it'll catch up. He also got his first vaccination for Pertussis, Diptheria and Polio at the pediatrician's.

Oh yes, and Felix smiles a lot, as you can tell from the picture.



Here is Ella with a sling that Nicki made for her doll Big Baby. Nicki is always carrying Felix around in a similar sling, so Nicki sewed together a little one with fabric left over from a larger one. Nicki's boss, Becky, gave her a nice sewing machine that she's starting to get the hang of using. Ella loves her new sling and has been carrying Big Baby around in it all day.

Ella started a new preschool this week and she really loves it. This is a big deal for her, because she usually hates going to school and cries when we take her there. But with this one, she is excited to go to school and doesn't want to leave when we pick her up. She still whimpers a little bit when we leave, but hey, it's the first week. I think the school is going to work out.

Here is Ella and Nicki at the holiday party they had at her school on Thursday, with the school's director, Lynette.

Holidays Beginning

The holidays are here and over Thanksgiving weekend we went to visit my Mom, Blair and the three dogs Jasper (above), Tallulah and Cody in Palm Desert. Ella loves to play with Jasper and he's very accommodating, but he kept his distance with Felix. Babies are something new for him. Ella also took a golf cart ride and got a tennis lesson from her Granny. Ella had never even held a tennis racket before and was able to hit the ball.




On Friday night Ella and Felix visited their Tante Lynne's house, who was being visited Grandpa Martin; and cousins Jessica and Savannah; Julie, Riley and McKenna; and Jackie.

The pictures above are Felix with Savannah, and Nicki and Felix with Grandpa.



We've caught Felix smiling a few times, but its hard to get a good picture of it. Here's one we were able to get. He doesn't want to smile at our us or at Ella, only at our cat Toots.



Ella's friend from her old daycare, Amaya, came to visit yesterday with her Mom. Ella and Amaya both had a blast, and we hadn't seen Ella that happy in months. Ella hopes she comes back to visit soon.

Funny

I was set to take Ella to school the other day and was dressed in a t-shirt because it was a warm day. When she saw me, she said, "Can you wear a shirt with buttons?" So I had to change into a nicer shirt. It wasn't because I wasn't dressed nicely enough (this is a toddler, don't you know) but rather because one of her favorite games is to button and unbutton my shirt. She didn't do this game while we walked to school, but she liked to have the option.

Ella and Felix went to see the pediatrician on Wednesday. Felix was 24.5 inches in length (62.23 cm) and weighed 10 lbs, 14 oz. (4933 g). Ella was 36 inches tall (91 cm) and weighed 28 lbs. (12.7 kg). All perfectly healthy. Felix is growing very fast.

Here's a picture of Ella and Felix with the pediatrician, Dr. Liddy, and me.



Felix is one month old as of yesterday! He is already making cooing noises that are more than just grunting and gurgling, saying "oooo" and "aaah". Proto-language skills that most babies don't develop until the 3rd month.

Ella has learned to associate letters of the alphabet with words. She will say things like "B for book", "O for octopus", "D for Diametaceous". Well, I made that last one up. But I'm very proud of her.

Oma came to visit

Ella and Felix's Oma came to visit from Oct. 23rd to Nov. 6th and stayed at our house. We went to the Museum of Natural History (Ella wanted to see the dinosaur skeletons, but preferred to stay a discreet distance away from them, since they scared her) and the Getty Museum. Oma took Ella to her new preschool every day, a 30 minute walk roundtrip twice a day, so she got a lot of exercise.

It was great to have Dianne here, since she helped out quite a bit, especially cooking delicious meals for us picky vegetarians.

Here's a cool picture that Nicki took of Ella and her Oma at the kids' learning center at the Getty, drawing some masks inspired by the faces in James Ensor's "Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889":

Growing fast

Felix had his 2-wk check-up with Dr. Jena today; he is now 9lbs 9oz (4337 grams), so he has gained a full 2lbs 1oz since his last check-up which was 3 days after his birth.

Happy Halloween! Here is Ella in her new tights and shirt from her Oma, and Felix (10 days old) looking at his Mama.