James, Tiffany, and Co.: And a Happy New Year!

Ah, the holidays. There is so much frantic preparations, eager anticipation, and then *poof* it's all over in about 20 minutes. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating, but the actual day never quite lives up to the all the planning that goes into it. But, don't get me wrong. We had a wonderful Christmas, full of family parties and presents. Christmas with an almost-3-year-old is an experience that everyone should have. The great part is, Little Man gets excited about everything! As we were sorting the presents Christmas morning, he looked at his pile and exclaimed, "Holy cow, Mom! That's a lot of presents!" It was a dinosaur-themed pile of presents, but his favorite gift was his set of Tinker Toys. We've played with them nearly everyday since Christmas and Mom and Dad are definitely glad to have some new toys in the rotation.

Also in recent weeks, Little Man has found an new friend... an imaginary friend. I've been waiting for this day, actually. He's got such an imagination and is always acting out scenes from his favorite stories. And he has no one to play with her besides boring old Mom and Dad, so I've been thinking it was inevitable. His friend is a baby T-Rex named Baby Cass and LM is his momma. Whenever Baby Cass is about to make an appearance, LM sits himself down (on his nest, you know), says "Cwack, cwack. My eggs are hatching!" and Baby Cass spends the next hour or so with us. Baby Cass likes to sit in your hand and be petted, play on the Tinker Toy playground, and eat hot dogs. Today in the car, I corrected LM and told him that he would not be a Mommy when he grows up. He proceeded to have a complete break-down. James later explained to me that I had essentially told LM that he couldn't be Baby Cass's mommy and that was the reason for breakdown. I think I'll still chalk it up to the terrible threes.

Our silly little Christmas tree.