Catching up with Hijo

I realized it has been a while since I'd posted much about my first born. Hyrum has been a trooper, though it takes a little patience and perspective sometimes to recognize that. He was sick last weekend and has taken a good portion of this week to recover. The weather has been unseasonably warm, divine really, and that has helped. We've been on a couple walks and to the park which always raises his spirits. I think he senses change because he's been much more attached to me and Matthew, always wanting to be physically near one or the other of us. At least he still (usually) plays well by himself, as long as someone else is in the room. He's trying hard to be helpful, though that takes some patience as well. He likes helping put away the dishes, folding the laundry, and using the attachments to the vacuum. He's not sure how he feels about Christmas. He was mortified of the tree for the first couple days, but is getting more interested in it. He knows he's not supposed to touch the ornaments, so he does sneaky things like using his toes or making Panda touch them. He's still terrified of Santa though, and reindeer and snowmen. He's learned how to open the pantry door, which I'm not a huge fan of. He's usually pretty good at identifying what he wants (juice, chips, bread for a sandwich, etc.) and then letting me serve it to him, but I just know he's going to get into the cereal some time and I'll find Kix all over the kitchen. His learning curve continues to amaze me every day. His attention span is increasing and he actually sat through a movie that wasn't Cars. My favorite thing though is that he's started calling me Mama. He's always just sorta whined when he wanted me, but now I have a name!

In other news, Matthew's mom arrives this afternoon, an energy assistance program is going to install duct work in our crawl space, and there is a serious dearth of chocolate in our home.