Oliver helped.
So did Madeline.
When the tree was ready ...
... we read Christmas books.
That night, I cleaned off the shells we'd gathered that weekend.
Beginning the second weekend in December, when the holiday season began in earnest, the kiddos have been very high energy.
Sometimes, though, they take a break from being little blurs of activity and calmly and gently play together:
The holiday season brings with it special perks, too. One night, Madeline got to stay up very late to watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Perhaps it's the impending new year that causes reflections like these, but sometimes lately Oliver has looked an awful lot like a big kid.
And maybe it's the extra energy surging through the house, but sometimes the kids are adorably weird together.
The Friday of the second week in December was a shanty sing night. It was great fun as always.
Then on Saturday, while Summer tended to Petey at another vet appointment, Madeline helped me start making our annual mega-batch of Christmas cookies.
Oliver had not slept well Friday night, and therefore neither did the rest of us. Then he was sick on Saturday. Between lack of sleep, a sick kid, and a rather dire cat-health-related situation, Saturday sapped a lot of energy from everyone (except Madeline, who's turbo-charged with holiday spirit).
To inject a bit of fun into the weekend, we visited the zoo on Sunday morning.
Oliver was very engaged, pointing out the different animals and naming the ones he could. In particular, he loved repeating "giraffe"; ones he couldn't name were "animal."
Both kiddos loved petting the very friendly goats.
I believe this was the first visit where Oliver was able to join Madeline in riding on the zoo's well-worn dog statue.
Back at home, a now-very skinny Petey was seeming to recover fairly well from his issues and vet visit.
So we spent the rest of Sunday making lots more cookies.
Oliver's not the only one looking a lot like a big kid these days. Sometimes Madeline seems to be practically a teenager.
Now we're caught up through December 14. Eventually I'll catch all the way up.
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