At the week of Christmas I am back to work from the maternity leave. But it doesn’t impact my earnest desire about the holidays. I have been wondering how many people at my age still feel excited like a little kid as myself. This year we missed the first wine tasting activity at the Farm because we had to go home early to put kids into bed - Uncle Jeff of course won the contest with no sweat. Congratulations, Jeff!

节日里有了小孩子就显得很热闹，很有气氛。去年易峰还对圣诞节没感觉，今年他就天天闹着要看圣诞老人了。这次圣诞老人抱他，他也不哭了。他也对圣诞树表现出很有兴趣，我们就老担心他把圣诞树下的礼物踩坏了。

The day before the eve of the Christmas, Santa came to Alex’s school to say hi to kids. Most of December, Daddy has been working very hard to drive Alex to see Santa and balloon in our neighborhood every day. Alex was not afraid to sit on Santa’s lap this time. I took one picture of Alex and Santa with my blackberry and will post it later.

As Santa’s good boy, Alex helped Grandpa distribute presents for everybody. “Here you go, Auntie Phet.”

易峰帮爷爷给每个人发圣诞礼物，他干得倒是勤勤恳恳的。

Santa also told Alex to help Grandma cook. Alex tried very hard not to make a mess.

易峰帮奶奶准备圣诞晚餐。

Next year, Alex will help Grandma and Grandpa to decorate the Christmas tree. Now he needs to study how Grandma and Grandpa did this year.

到了明年，易峰就可以帮爷爷奶奶装点圣诞树了，今年先好好学习学习吧。

Santa likes how much Alex helps out for everybody. Alex was allowed to sit down to open his first present.

易峰很喜欢爸爸妈妈给的齿轮玩具，每次看到齿轮哗啦哗啦的转，就高兴地大叫。

Alex has been such a sweet boy, and Santa is very generous. Look how many presents Santa gives to Alex. Can you see where our Alex is in this picture?

易峰很快就被许许多多的礼物给淹没了，大家对他太慷慨了。

Nicky is so happy to see his older brother likes his presents. He smiles so much.

易天是个爱笑的宝宝。每次看到他笑得眉毛都弯了，觉得做母亲很快乐。

Although Nicky cannot open presents by himself yet, Santa sent an angle to guard Nicky, and Nicky was in sweet dream.

易天也有自己的礼物呀。他身边的是个小天使。

Thank you, Uncle Jack and Penny, for holding Nicky. We love your sunny smiles!

Can you believe Alex had to get a flu shot at the eve of the Christmas? Can you even believe Alex set such a good example for his brother that he didn’t cry at all at the vaccine shot? We are so proud of you, Alex! As a reward to such a brave kid, Grandma let Alex pick oranges at the farm. Alex was very happy.

易峰在平安夜的下午打了流感疫苗的第二针，易峰很勇敢，一声都没哭。奶奶家有橘子树，易峰跟妈妈去摘橘子，很开心，抱着自己摘的橘子都不撒手。

Grandma in China said she hasn’t seen daddy and mommy for a while. Then, here you go. A picture of Santa sitting on mommy’s laps, ha.

When I started date Dave, I was worried he is an American and I am a Chinese, and Dave has tried to persuade that he is originally a Chinese:)) I am never convinced. But look at the Christmas card Grandpa made for Mommy — “Merry Christmas” and “Michelle” in Chinese wrote by Grandpa!!! Maybe Dave is right. Thank you very much, Grandpa!　BTW, Grandpa’s Chinese handwriting is better mommy’s.

看Ｄａｖｅ的爸爸给我做的圣诞卡，惊讶吧，中国字，还是毛笔字，比我写得都好。

Nicky, 1 month, and Alex, 2.5 months.

弟弟接哥哥的衣服，看兄弟俩是不是就像一个模子里刻出来的一样，易天在满月的时候就可以穿三个月大小孩的衣服了。

I might be imagining things but I get the impression that Nicky’s starting to sleep better after a rough couple of weeks. He’s pretty nocturnal and we’d really prefer he switch over to non-vampire hours.

Here’s Nicky again, at about one month old.

Height（身高）: 22.5 inches（22.5英寸），90% percentile
Weight（体重）: 9 lbs 15.8 oz（将近10磅）, 50% percentile
Head（头尾）: 15.25 inches　（15.25英寸）, 50% percentile

易天出水照。易天又在澡盆里又撒又拉了，印象中易峰只在澡盆里拉过一次，这已经是易天的第三次“不拘小节”了。当然不管他干什么，老妈我都有本事把他洗得干干净净的，看他多享受呀！

Alex and Nicky are buddies.

易峰非常爱弟弟，总是要亲亲弟弟。

The first thing Alex used to ask me when I opened his door was “where’s mommy at?” but now he usually says “where’s baby at?”

现在易峰回家总是不忘问“弟弟呢？”一说去看弟弟，就特别高兴，还会给弟弟“tickle, tickle”挠痒痒。

Alex is always available to give Nicky a kiss.

Here’s Nicky just about ready to try and chew on his entire fist.

Vivian and Olivia came to visit on Sunday. Olivia and Alex had a good time playing.

Ｏｌｉｖｉａ和易峰在一起总是玩不够。易峰喜欢模仿别人，olivia想吃苹果，易峰吃的比她还香。

They hung out on the couch between sessions on the slide and with the blocks.

Many a wedge-cut apple was eaten yesterday, I assure you.

We were watching the Charger game. What a game! The Chargers win again!

他们俩在看美式橄榄球比赛。易峰非常喜欢看球赛，每天晚上我们家吃饭的时候都放橄榄球赛，易峰心情来潮的时候还喊加油呢。

Here’s a poorly-lit shot of Alex and Nicky with Mommy…

易峰要抱弟弟走走，谁想弟弟原来这么沉呀。

…and here’s an unfortunately less-cute one with the flash on. Nicky might look like he’s in pain, but he’s probably just constipated.

抱着不好走，就亲亲吧。。。

Finally, a theme picture outfit blew into Alex’s daycare a couple of weeks back and took free pictures of all the kids. I don’t know how they stay in business doing that, but more power to them for doing so as I bet it is a rewarding job. Here is Alex, discussing the merits of a particular strain of grape.

总有一些专业的摄影师到易峰的托儿所给小朋友们照相，父母喜欢呢，就买下来。下面的照片我没买，学校送的。易峰打扮得象个意大利小面包师一样。

Soon after we brought Nicky home from the hospital, Eric and Vivian and Olivia picked up Alex to have some fun with him and give his mom and dad a chance to take a little break.

Here are Michelle holding Olivia and Vivian holding Nicky.

Nicky was having a good afternoon.

Alex gave his didi (younger brother) a kiss goodbye.

Here are Alex and Olivia clowning around in the clubhouse.

I wasn’t here for these pictures so I don’t know for sure, but I think someone just got open-field tackled here.

Alex finds the clubhouse a spiritual place.

Alex and Olivia checking out the local squash match.

“Wow, they’re not very good. My dad would cold smoke any of these fools at any game played with a racquet!”

Later, everyone went to the park. Here are Alex and Olivia having fun on the slide.

Alex booking across the bridge.

He seems pretty secure in a stroller of that colour scheme, doesn’t he?

We’ve been so busy over the last month. I hear there’s been a lot of clamouring for updated material in the wilds of the Internets, so I do apologize if you’ve been anxiously awaiting a new post. I can assure you that we have nothing to hide!

We’ll try to get a few more catch-up items up this week.

Nicky is doing great. Unfortunately, he still sleeps better during the day than at night, so mom and dad are tired.

Everybody thinks Alex was louder than Nicky at this stage in their respective lives, so I guess we have that in our favour.

He’s a grunter, like Alex was. He’ll go on these weird grunting jags where it sounds like he’s straining to excavate. Perhaps all kids do that at this age as they’re getting the plumbing worked out.

Last Sunday, we went up to the compound to celebrate Mommy and Grandpa’s birthdays. While we were there, Alex took his first picture.

It was Nicky’s first trip away from the house other than visiting the doctor. We were excited to get him out seeing new faces and pressing the flesh. Here he got some cuddle time with Aunt Nancy.

Alex was able to enthusiastically confirm the location of his ear. You can see Nicky was impressed.

Now, a personal interlude if you’ll permit the intrusion. When I was young, I used to be surly and annoyed at someone who wanted to take my picture in a family-and-friends situation. It was usually someone’s mother precisely documenting an afternoon so that it could be dropped in an album and forgotten about. Somewhere in teenager-hood, though, I decided that I’d respond to the camera with as good a shit-eating Eddie Haskell fake camera smile as I could rather than dropping attitude, and it really brightened everyone’s day. I was only passively being a jerk, and people often didn’t even notice after they got their prints from the photomat.

It took me until puberty to figure that out, but Alex and Nicky were hanging out with Grandma for the following two photos and I told Alex to smile. He’s not even two and he’s mastered the technique.

I teared up a little as I took these–that’s my boy!

For his birthday, Grandpa made ribs, and a whole lot of them.

Alex did his part to resolve the pork surplus.

Alex has become very good at eating corn on the cob.

We’d just seen Karen before dinner, and she’d cut the hair of the men present, other than Nicky. Alex did a great job with his haircut, but I didn’t get any pictures of it. I think someone else might have, so we’ll see if we can get some. That’s why Alex looks like he was casting for the bowl cut commercial in this picture.

Meanwhile, Aunt Phet held Nicky for much of dinner.

After dinner, it was Alex’s job to help people open their presents and relieve them of their chocolate birthday cake.

Grandpa needed the help–cooking his own birthday dinner had made him tired.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa and Mommy!