As a followup to the last post describing the walker Alex got for Christmas, here’s video of him driving it. He’ll do his ‘hey, pick me up’ arms raised move at the end of it.

It’s a tradition in the Pease family to hang out at the farm for Christmas. We all headed up there Christmas Eve afternoon, so we could get some cooking done and Alex could get some intense hanging-out-with-grandma time. In addition to being very excited about his first Christmas, Alex is teething again, so grandma was an especially calming influence.

The festive hat is from Alex’s grandparents in China. We’ll be visiting them in Beijing in under a month!

We got up bright and early Christmas morning–there’s really no other option when Alex is in the house–and discovered that despite the whole crying jag Santa had been very good to Alex!

Alex got a lot of great presents, and wants to thank everyone who was so generous on Christmas. He didn’t have opening the gifts down quite yet, but everyone helped him out. What he does know how to do is put anything he can get his hands on in his mouth. Here he is sampling a plastic ball from a cool playset the Cahills got him.

Grandma and grandpa got a heads-up from Santa that Alex would get a walker for Christmas, and he was very excited to start playing with it! His friend Olivia has a walker that he’s very interested in whenever we visit her, but he didn’t have one of his own until now. Of course, it’s a John Deere with cool horn and engine sounds, and now Alex can push his walker around and pretend he’s grandpa on the tractor. He’s played with it every day since Christmas and is pushing it around faster and faster.

We hope you had a happy Christmas!

Alex has been up to a lot of stuff over the past few weeks. He’s finding the holiday season to be a very action-packed time.

１１月最后一个礼拜四是感恩节。我们一起去爷爷奶奶家过节，爷爷烤了两只火鸡，每个人都带了些自制的食物，我们做的是corn stuffing with leek. 易峰开始时还有些认生，后来就谁都可以抱，满屋乱爬了。

Thanksgiving was a big deal for Alex. We went to grandma and grandpa’s house for dinner, and Alex always loves visiting the compound. Here he is relaxing with grandpa on the patio.

I think Thanksgiving dinner was Alex’s first turkey that wasn’t pureed and extruded into a little jar.

Of course, Alex didn’t eat enough turkey to hold him, so here’s mom giving him his bottle. We were looking at this photo later and comparing it to some of his earlier feeding photos and geez, he’s grown a lot. Nice going, son!

The sharp-eyed among you will notice the little Beavers logo on his sleeve.

易峰长的好快，看！我都快抱不了他了。

Alex’s brother Thomas came to Thanksgiving and gave Alex some shoes. Alex has virtually no experience with shoes (except for the cool shoes Uncle Andres got him), so he’s not quite sure what to make of them.

Thomas给了易峰一双他已经穿小的鞋。易峰很好奇，琢磨着是不是可以咬上一口。

Whatever they are, he’s thinking they might be edible.

Speaking of Alex’s white loafers and Beavers apparel, he got his first school picture taken.

下面的是易峰在托儿所照的。 我叫这张叫“三毛照”。

Alex continues to work on crawling and pulling up, and it’s really made him very mobile. He will crawl up and down stairs and around the house, and now he’s getting better at manipulating things with his hands. Here he has crawled his way from the living room into the kitchen.

易峰爬到厨房，开着关着柜子，不亦乐乎。

He’s decided he wants to know what is in this cabinet.

It’s my understanding that when a child learns how to open cabinets by themselves that’s the beginning of a really special period in the lives of a parent. Needless to say we’re very excited…

…but not nearly as excited as Alex was in his first photo with his friend Santa. Good luck with those presents this year, son, and happy Christmas to all!

第一次和圣诞老人合影。易峰大哭着“我的礼物呢？为什么没有？？”