So busy, very little time to post.

Christmas is breathing down the back of my neck. I have baking and a fairly small amount of shopping to do before next Saturday.

The babies are still loving their freedom. The playard is still around the tree, and Brodie gazes longingly at the gifts through the bars. :) Cate and Brodie have become good friends. He dances around the room and she laughs hysterically and chases after him. They play together with Mega Blocks and Little People and sometimes they snuggle on the floor. Cailey prefers to do her own thing. I think Cate and Brodie are cut from the same cloth and are a bit too rambunctious for her. I think she may participate more when she's walking. Her "cruising" is improving. I think she's taking her sweet time with walking, and that's okay. The ironic thing is that she has figured out how to climb stairs, but Cate has not.

Both girls are responding to "no" (notice I didn't say "listening to"). Actually they respond more to the "Ah-ah-ah," noise that every mother is involuntarily capable of making. When Cate hears it, she drops into a headstand or Downward Facing Dog, as if to hide from me. As a result, she has a black eye from dropping directly onto the edge of the toybox. Cailey has a line of a bruise on her forehead from the end table.

Tom and I have gotten out a few times over the past two weeks. My sister watched the kids so that we could go Christmas shopping, and last week, we went to his work's Christmas party. Too much booze, too much food. I was full!

This weekend I'll be baking cookies, tomorrow night we plan to go to Candy Cane Lane in Milwaukee, and on Sunday we'll have some friends over.

Brodie's favorite new saying is "Spill the beans." He told me as I walked into his classroom that he "can't tell me that he made me a candleholder because it's a surprise." I told him he spilled the beans and that sent him into a fit of giggles and he uses it whenever possible. Brodie went to the dentist for the first time last week. He was so good. He flirted with the hygienest, laughed whenever she suctioned out his mouth, and got to wear sunglasses during his checkup. He had an excellent report!