Christmas 2006

We made it through another holiday season all in one piece - whew! We'll post pictures soon. Christmas in LA was a whirlwind affair -- intense, full of family and love, with a healthy dose of craziness. Ronan had a great time exploring everyone's backyards, cabinets, closets, bathrooms, doorways, front lawns, and picking up everyone's phones, corded and mobile, for his own personal chats. He is very much an explorer and is quite (frightfully) fearless. Like a gleeful bunny, he races around from room to room, laughing and clapping, and inevitably bonks his head on a door or slips on a shoe or toy. After a short cry, he's sprinting and laughing again!

We had a yummy Mexican feast for Christmas Eve dinner, hosted by Great Grandma B in Whittier, followed by Christmas Day at Grandma Linda's house in Pico Rivera. We enjoyed spending time with the LA Bennetts twice in a row -- Papa Jack, Linda, B, and Uncle Brook -- and we're so thankful for everyone's warm hospitality and generous gifts. It's not easy hosting us now, since we come laden with lots of luggage and an adorable little boy who loves to nap 3+ hours and spend the other 9 waking hours racing around like a puppy. And who, for three days, decided that eating wasn't for him. (Thankfully, he rediscovered his appetite [focus?] once he got home.)

Ronan's mom and dad were lucky to have the week between xmas and new year's off this year -- what a treat! We filled the time with walks, house maintenance projects, and visits from lots of friends and their kids. Couldn't have asked for a more rejuvenating holiday break. We topped it off with a raging party on New Year's Eve that lasted until the wee hours of.... wait, wait... that was so five years ago! We capped 2006 with an "east-coast new year's," i.e. we were in bed long before midnight!

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At 21 months, Ronan's learning and comprehension is skyrocketing. I say every few months that this is my favorite age for him, but really, this is the best age! He is so much fun, so expressive, so unique in the things that he loves and the things that frustrate him. He's our sweet little rascal and we are absolutely, head-over-heels in love with him.

1. Ronan the Rock Star. He looooves drumming, playing the guitar, banging on the xylophone, playing air piano, and belting out songs (into his maraca microphone) at the top of his lungs. He even closes his eyes and clenches his fists as if he's "feeling" the music. Hilarious. He'll spend 20 minutes singing his loud, beautiful songs, stopping for breaks every few minutes to yell "YAY!!!!!" and clap for himself! He loves congratulating himself on his pipes and of course we clap for him too. :-) It's a good thing that this Christmas was the day of musical gifts. He has a maraca for every room and not one, but two xylophones and two guitars. Next up: toddler karaoke!!!

2. Ronan the Monkey. He started scaling things as soon as he became mobile (8/9 months) and with every month he becomes more and more like his primate relatives. He wants to climb everything, not just stairs, and we have to be really careful or we'll find him perched on a table, ready to jump. This would be slightly okay if he actually knew how to jump, but he's only a little over a year and a half, and jumping is not yet a strong skill (but we know it's a-comin!). Lately, he has started hating his high-chair and prefers to scramble up onto the regular chair and eat/play like a big boy at the table... Hmm, can we finally stow away the big Prima Pappa??

Along with climbing comes riding. He loves his cherry-red Radio Flyer car with a passion and now tries to "ride" everything. Down in LA, he took a liking to Papa Jack's decorative wooden duck, which was the size of an actual duck. Ronan made his "duck-duck-duck" sound and then sat on the duck like a horse. We laughed, and he continued to do it all weekend! When he sees pictures of ducks, horses, cows, or cars in his books now, he starts to whine and lifts his leg as if to get on. It's an interesting little cognitive display -- the picture must evoke the image of the real thing in his head, and he knows he can ride the real thing, so he tries riding the picture. He also tries to "eat" the bananas off the page and "turn on" the pictures of TVs. And he leans over to kiss the pictures of babies and Elmo. Awww.

3. Ronan the Chatterbox. He is saying more and more words. We think he can say "I love you!" His version of Happy New Year is "Happy Day Day" so Christian and I have incorporated that into our daily vocabulary. He still prefers to hold his voluminous and animated phone chats in his own dialogue, but he is definitely starting to speak more "conventional" words. "Row, row, row your boat" is "Row, row, yeah yeah" and we think we heard boat tonight. Ronan can spend 10 or 15 minutes talking on the phone to his imaginary buddies... He asks questions, answers, pauses, and then bursts out with a hearty laugh just like Daddy! Gotta catch one of these "conversations" on video.

Ronan is signing about 50 words now. Whenever he sees a baby, he squeals and rocks his arms (the sign for baby). Somewhere along the way, we confused "mommy" and "horse" so now he uses the same sign for both. Hmm...

Happy New Year, everyone!