Getting the Hang of It

Just after I posted the last post, Kevin called me down to the basement to see the improvements that Lewis had made with the walker just in the course of the day! Go, buddy, go!

In between Lewis-Does-the-Walker video attempts, I took some pictures of him monkeying around the basement:

:)

Big Belly. :)

Those bottom two rows of bookshelves used to house books--they've been temporarily moved up and out of reach.

Attempting to break the disc door on the Blu-ray player

(We have since hoisted it up on a big, hefty Bible, but he can still reach it with his fingertips, so we'll be figuring out another solution before long.)

This week, I've started tackling Christmas crafts during naptime when I can and during some evenings. My two main projects are stockings for the family (the three humans and two dogs) and part of Juniper's gift. I'm halfway through the human stockings and maybe 20% through Peter's and Hattie's. I have not yet started Juniper's, but I do have a vision (and online tutorial bookmarked) and did buy fabric! I have 25 days from today--go!

I still need to figure out the Christmas tree situation. We donated our old, ratty, artificial tree last year and went with a small, transplantable tabletop tree (and then planted it in the hard, frozen ground at Waycross which was probably [er, most definitely] an unsuccessful endeavor). I think tabletop is the way to go for us again this year, given Lewis' great curiosity. I did complete a small cross-stitched ornament for his 1st Christmas last week! It's a small framed Santa to which I added 'Lewis - 2011.'

Also, I've started looking around for the best prices on items on my Christmas shopping list (haven't bought anything yet). We went to Goodwill last weekend when Kevin was off and found an 80-piece set of Mega Bloks for $3. The same set is normally $20 at Target (they were down to $10 on Black Friday, but still not as awesome as $3). What a score! I just washed them last night and counted to see if all of the pieces were there--we ended up with 81 pieces instead of 80. Even better. :) I'm going to wrap them and give them to him for Christmas.

I few other small items in mind for him that I'm looking for at Goodwill and/or Target, and then Kevin came up with the idea of each of us secretly picking out a gift for Lewis and being surprised on Christmas Day, so we are going to do that to round out his gifts. We aren't doing gifts for each other this year except for a much-needed laptop. Ours has one broken hinge (from me dropping it off the couch--oops!) and the power cord is 'held in' with duct tape (and I say that very loosely because you have to manually find the sweet spot and hold it there in order to have constant power). And it drops the wireless signal like it's hot. It is time. I have had daydreams of going all Office Space on the old one. We'll see. (Might want to turn down the volume if you're easily offended by cuss words.)

I also bought another pull-toy (he really likes dragging around his Fisher Price phone)...this one is a Playskool dog whose legs move when pulled and who makes dog noises when you tug on the string. I had a little fun with Peter and Hattie the other day during lunch. Peter left the room once he saw/heard it, but Hattie stuck around--partly to examine the new toy but mainly because she didn't want to miss any Lewis Lunch Droppings (Cheerios, cheese, sweet potato, etc.)