Merry (belated) Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone (a couple of days late)!! We had a great holiday here, and I hope all of our family and friends did too.  In an effort to prove to Zane that he's not a scary stranger, Santa paid a visit to our house with a few new friends for him:

Zane has become a big fan of the Sesame Street gang, and he doesn't even watch their show.  We'll see how long it lasts!  He does have a couple of Sesame Street character books, and his love of his Ernie doll has been renewed too.  I was pretty tickled the other day when Zane stuck his finger into Ernie's open mouth and said, "No bite, Ernie!"  I guess he's had practice telling his toddler piranha friends the same thing. ;) 

And have no fear, Santa took care of Molly's stocking too:

One more Zane tidbit that I can't believe I've forgotten to record in the blog for posterity... Zane now says, "ticka, ticka, ticka, ticka" ("tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle...") as he curls up his little fingers and tickles you back on the neck or belly.  He's been doing it for about the last month or so, and we love it!  Zane also gets pretty tickled about blowing raspberries on us, but that's a far more slobbery experience :)

He keeps getting taller, faster, bouncier, climbier (??), and chattier every day.  Zane's also very big into cleaning these days - just give that boy a paper towel, napkin or wipe and he will go to town on any surface within reach.  It's quite handy :)

Zane's getting more and more into pretend play, at least in a way that's more obvious to me - he likes to offer his stuffed animal friends food and drink, and sometimes he'll curl up with a blanket, lay down, say "night night", and occassionally pretend to snore.

His love of trucks is only getting deeper - they even had a truck theme at school last week.  Since we were all home together on Monday, Zane was thoroughly excited to see the garbage trucks come by.  The recycle truck driver even waved to him through the window - he must be used to little fans!  We have 3 different trucks that come by - food/yard, recycle and trash - so that's a lot of TRUCKS!!!!  Walking home from school the other night, we were lucky enough to pass a tow truck in the midst of rescuing a stalled car.  It was pretty amazing :) 

Hope everyone had as magical, awe inspiring, and joyful a holiday weekend as Zane!!!