Thanks Quinn!

Our friends Kevin, Dawn and Quinn came over yesterday and Quinn brought Stian a belated birthday gift. It was a big hit - 4 little jigsaw puzzles of trucks! Quinn showed Stian how to put them together.

Stian sandwich

Easy like Sunday morning

Stian doesn't normally play all that well by himself when he is at home. This is no doubt our fault. Because we work all day when we are with him we want to be with him. So we usually play with him. I don't mind that at all (though our house is rather messy), but I do want him to be able to entertain himself. This morning he played so nicely by himself for a long time. He was having such a nice time playing with his toys.

How old?

How old do you have to be ride the rides at the fair or at an amusement park? I think Stian is ready. This is his favorite activity lately:

First joke and first parent-teacher conference

Stian told his first joke yesterday while riding in the car with Daddy on his was home from school. It went like this:

Kris: What does a green light mean?
Stian: Green light means go!
Kris: What does a red light mean?
Stian: Red light means stop!
Kris: What does a yellow light mean?
Stian: Clear the intersection! :pause: And black light means BOO!

And then he laughed for the next couple of miles. I have no idea what it means, but I still think it's funny.

We also had Stian's first parent-teacher conference at his school on Monday. It was really interesting. He has met all of the milestones he should have by this age, and they have started working on his three year milestones with him. Not terribly surprisingly, he has met all of the language milestones for a three year old already. Overall he is, apparently, a pretty easy kid in class - easy going, talkative, funny. He does get upset when someone touches his toy cars he brings from home, so they are working on that with him. And he is a bit of a loner. Most kids his age still engage in parallel play, but some interact with each other more. Stian doesn't so much yet. That doesn't surprise me, I think he's a little slow to warm and a little more reserved than some of the other kids in his class. Hopefully he will start learning to play with the other kids soon. They also gave us a bunch of ideas for fun activities to do with him at home, so we've been doing some of those. Overall it was a good conference and it sounds like Stian is doing well.

Christmas Tree

Stian loves the Christmas tree, and the tacky sparkly garland with lights that goes up the banister. He's really good about the tree, he likes to look at the ornaments, but mostly he is very gentle or doesn't touch at all. But he likes looking at it and wants it turned on all the time.

We really do heat the house...

Stian has become very attached to this hat my mom made him. He wears it all the time. And he insisted on keeping his sweater on and wearing his snow boots (hand-me-downs from Sunny?) in the house tonight. Perhaps we need to get him some dress-up clothes?