Happy New Year!

For my New Years resolution.... I promise to not procrastinate any further and finish this post before midnight!

It has been a busy last two months of 2010 in the Robenalt household (apparently too busy for me to blog!) I made my Black Friday journey to NYC and watched the Bengals lose yet again to the Jets. Beth and I enjoyed shopping, seeing Promises, Promises, and eating huge calorie-filled cupcakes. While I was away, John took the boys to Cleveland, stopping in Columbus on the way back to see the Ohio State Michigan game. John played in a broomball tournament in Indy and we took the kids to breakfast with Santa. It was all capped off with a trip to Houston and a visit from Uncle Rory, leaving us to enjoy a quiet New Years Eve at home with some wine and our now traditional meal of lasagna and brownies.

Early in November, Liam and Charlie starting having breakthroughs on the eating front. Charlie decided that he did in fact like turkey-- at least the Boars Head Maple Glazed Honey Turkey that John likes so much. He also started sharing some apple slices with us-- although he declined the caramel dip that is my favorite accompaniment. This adventurousness with apples may have stemmed from a preschool exercise in which they tasted different types of apples and picked their favorites. Liam had at least one day where he ate some mac-n-cheese (although he outright refused it last night), and started to eat bananas when fed to him in small chunks from a fork. He's now an avid fan of graham crackers and drinking easily from a sippy cup.

We had some streaks of unseasonably warm weather in November, followed by a sudden bitter cold in December. Charlie requested Christmas lights this year, and we barely got one small bush covered before snow hit and lingered until just the past couple of days, when the unusually warm weather returned in time for New Years Eve. Charlie and I took Lucy for a walk today without even wearing coats! The week of Thanksgiving we had our new windows and front door installed, and we're anxious to see what that does for our winter heating bills.

Liam has been starting to mimic certain sounds from time to time. He has tried to repeat after me by saying "meow" and "bonk" and shaking his head to "no." Shortly after Thanksgiving, he started to get up from the floor to standing without holding on to anything. By the 15th he took his first two real steps toward John. On the Sunday before Christmas, while John was at the Bengals/Browns game, he really started walking around, several steps at a time. The trip to Houston completed his "training," as he spent hours trying to follow his brother and cousins around the house. He's a full on walker now. He's also popped through more teeth, although there are still a few gaps, which gives him a cute toothy smile.

Charlie has continued to entertain us with nightly re-enactments of Toy Story 3 in the family room. It is not uncommon to see him rolling around in a pile of stuffed animals, crying out "we're in the trash!" He was thrilled when I found an old barrel of monkeys in the basement. For Christmas, he asked Santa only for a Jessie and a Bullseye big enough for Woody and Jessie to ride on. He got both. Not only was this movie his first full length film seen in a theater, but it's the first he's really quoted specific lines from regularly.

Charlie started soccer classes last month and he is really enjoying them. I'm pleased with the exercises they run, and he seems to get a lot out of it. One Saturday after soccer I took him to Starbucks and treated him to a kid's hot chocolate. I now have a convert to the chocolate milk/hot chocolate fan club.

Charlie now wears big boy underwear all day every day, and only wears a pull-up at night "just in case." We're probably ready to try some nights without that extra security, but I'm nervous he'll have an accident and it will upset him more than me. We took the extra precaution of a pull-up for the plane ride to and from Houston also just in case.

Lucy will now be spending days in her crate while we're at work. Over the past couple of months, she started to carry around stuffed animals while we were away, leaving them in odd places in the house. Once in a while, she would tear a nose off a bear, or chew on a play hat. For a short time, a new plastic bone kept her chewing activities focused and the destruction of toys stopped. Then a piece of pizza disappeared off the counter, and a box of pasta was pulled out of a grocery bag and broken into. Gone are the days of her lounging on our bed while we're gone. The good news is that the reintroduction of the crate has gone quite smoothly, and she's falling into the old routine.

Perhaps my favorite story of the past two months, however, is what Charlie had to say after school on the day when the father of one of his classmates had come in to talk about Hanukkah traditions and Charlie was fascinated by the menorah. He wanted to know "Can we get one of those Hanukkah things, with the fire and stuff?"

Here's hoping you had a wonderful holiday season, no matter what traditions you observe, and that 2011 brings you peace, love, and joy.