The Family Edelhay: Jordan, Alex, and Angus

Howdy everybody, happy holidays, happy new year.

Our 2008 year-in-review is now online. It's chock full of photos, witty anecdotes, and a dash of sentimentalism. Enjoy and leave some comments with what you have been up to lately. We'd love to hear from you.

Angus has learned the sidestep. When he's approaching something dangerous or when he's trying to get through a narrow lane, Angus turns his body sideways and cautiously side-steps towards his destination. More recently, he's learned to do this when he wants to hand something to one of us without getting picked up. He gets the item in hand, then inches forward, one side step at a time until his hand is just close enough to hand off the item without getting snatched up in the process.

Angus is getting good at pushing buttons. He knows how to make the glow worm play music. As soon as he hits the tummy button, he does his Angus-dance, which involves standing still and waving his hands above his head wildly. He has also added a new dance move to his repertoire. Angus does a set of high knee fancy-steps, reminiscent of Flash Dance It's super sweet, and pretty fancy. He does it whenever he's happy, excited, wants to get up on a couch, or is just in a dancing kind of mood,

Angus is still a big eater. He's eating tons of bananas. He easily eats 1.5 in a sitting. He loves eating huge strawberries with his grandfather. Sadly, he has started throwing food on the floor. Frequently Angus wants to drink from a real glass (not a sippy cup). But he's still working on setting the glass down right-side-up.

I went to Buffalo for my grandmother's funeral. Angus and dad had a weekend alone together. They went to a 1 year old birthday party for all of the kids in his Peps group and the zoo. They had dinner over at Amelia's house with Amelia, Kim, Hui-San and Nana Mary. They also took Angus's 3rd plane trip without mom. 2.5 hours to LA. Angus slept for half and wailed for half. It's hard to sit still when you can toddle around.

The plane flight was for a visit to Mamie's house. We stayed in LA for a week. Where Angus spent all week with Babette and Terry. He learned the word 'hot.' He and Terry saw watched tons of helicopters. He trick or treated for the first time. He had 4 different costumes -- dinosaur, lion, orange and black outfit, and cow. Angus also had a great time playing with the sand at the Santa Monica beach. He loved sliding on his tummy through the sand. I made giant piles of sand and Angus pushed all of the sand off of the pile. Angus experimented with sticking his face in the sand a couple of times. He got sand stuck everywhere, then he'd make a sour face, but he wouldn't complain. I taught him how to spit the sand out of his mouth by pushing it out with his tongue.

Angus is babbling all of the time now. He's also mastering his first words. He learned to say uh-oh and up from his grandma. He learned how to say hot from his Mamie. Angus really understands words. He'll go pick up the ball and bring it when asked. He knows how to 'find dad' or how to 'go to the bathtup'. Words that Angus can say at the end of 14 months: Hot, Light, This, Uh-Oh, and Up.

When Angus is sleepy, he'll go find his blue blanket. He'll either carry it to his bedroom, or he'll make a little nest out of it and lie down on the floor. Angus is sleeping in a little bit more. Instead of always getting up at 5:30, now he sometimes gets up at 5:30 and then snoozes in bed with mom and dad until 6:30. Sometimes, he sleeps on his own until 6:15.

Angus loves his book of family photos "Who Loves Baby." He carries it around by the handle. He and Amelia fight over it. He and Amelia start fighting a little more. Both want to be held at the same time, both want the same thing at the same time. Amelia is walking now, so they can chase each other.

He's grown more attached to his binky over the past month. When he sees it he gets visibly excited. Then he'll grab the binky and cram it into his mouth. He's starting to get more upset when Alex and I leave in the morning. He recovers pretty quickly once we're gone though.

Angus can play more advanced hide-and-seek now. He loves collecting leaves.

Angus can run now, and he's fast. He's wearing his first pair of real shoes, Merrells that Jan bought him for his birthday. He's a little wobbly in the shoe, but he can still run and get around well. He likes being able to walk on cold, wet, hard ground without feeling it. Angus is working on going up and down stairs while standing. He still needs to hold our hands to do it, but he's got the idea. Angus has also figured out how to climb up onto his play table so that he can look out the window and grab ahold of the brightly colored bug-shaped Gel Gems that we have on the window.

Angus is getting to be a fast walker. He's also mastered the backward crawl down the stairs. Now he'll get himself in position at the top of the stairs -- feet down, tummy to the ground, and instead of carefully going down each stair, he'll streamline his body so that he can slide all the way down the stairs on his tummy. Angus can get off of sofas and beds by himself. Sometimes he can even climb up by himself.

Angus loves riding the trike that his grandparents got him for his birthday. He rides it around his grandparent's driveway, around the Madison Park playground, and up and down the flat street near our house. His nanny, Chelsie, got him a little red bike bell for his birthday and he rings it all by himself.

Angus stopped using the bottle this month. It was an easy transition. He just got less and less interested in it. Angus loves eating blueberries at his grandparents house. Grandma froze lots of Anacortes local blueberries in the summer and now they're Angus's favorite food.

When Angus wakes up in the morning or after a nap, he lays around in bed, lazing around and enjoying a slow morning start. This is a totally new thing for him. A month ago, he'd be up, ready to go, standing at the edge of his crib as soon as he was awake. Now, he likes a little bit of laying about before he gets going. Angus also started snoozing in bed with mom and dad after he wakes up. It's so warm and snuggly.

When Angus wakes up or when his ready to go to bed, he will carry his blue blanket around the house with him. It's a pretty long blanket, and he has to work hard to keep himself from tripping on it.

Angus's first word was "this". He spent a week going around the house pointing at everything and saying "this", "this", "this", and every once in a while "whatisthis". Angus loves looking at picture frames. He'll go into our library and pick up old pictures of mom saying "this," "this," "this," pointing.

Angus is starting to respond to the word "gentle". When we say gentle, he'll touch things more carefully. He's good at being gentle with art, flowers, and Amelia. Angus and Amelia love babbling to each other. Angus used to be the silent partner while Amelia chatted up a storm. Now, they're both babbling all the time. Angus likes to share his food with Amelia. He offers her his big boy food when she looks at it covetously.

Angus likes knocking over piles of blocks, and he loves opening and shutting the doors on his latch board. He has a whole bunch of puzzles, but he has singled out the crocodile and the giraffe pieces for extra attention. Angus is also getting really good at playing ball. He can dribble the ball halfway across the room. He can throw about a foot away (but not always in the right direction).

At Amelia's house, Angus loves playing with her pooh bucket. The baby inserts square blocks into a little square hole and it counts the blocks with a pooh voice. At home, Angus is enjoying all of his new birthday toys, but he loves the Fridge Farm most of all. He pulls it off of the fridge and carries it around on his shoulder like a boom box while dancing around the house. It sings: "I'm Farmer Tad. Listen to my banjo..."

Angus loves all magnets. He pulls them off of the fridge. He carries them around the house. He holds the magnets up against every vertical surface that's 2 feet high. At first, Alex and I sort of laughed at Angus... silly Angus, the magnet won't stick to the wall. But he's found a whole bunch of surfaces that we didn't realize were magnetic -- the dishwasher, the bathub! He's a little experimenter, and he's finding new things every day.

Angus loves pulling things into and out of containers like his block sorter. He loves putting all of his bath toys into the bathtub before his bath. Dad will line them all up on the bathtub ledge, and Angus will push them into the tub one by one, laughing the whole time.

Angus loves ready "Peek a Who?" and "Grow up", two board books by Nina Laden that let you peak through a cut out before you see the next page. He loves the mystery, and he loves turning the pages by grabbing the cutouts. He also likes the bright, bold illustrations

When Angus gets tired or upset he wails and whines and gets a little crazed. When he gets really upset, He likes to snuggle with me. I'll sit cross-legged on the ground and he'll come sit on my legs, facing me with his head nestled into my chest.

This month, Angus spent an afternoon at the Museum of Flight with Grandma Grandpa and Uncle Owen on a workday. They had so much fun running around in the open space and climbing stairs. Angus also got to see real firemen and a real fire truck with Chelsie at story time at the library. Story time was packed and all of the kids were really excited.

When we were getting ready for the party, Angus knew that something exciting was happening. Dad was making cupcakes, Mamie was in the house, and there were balloons everywhere. Angus was so excited that he couldn't sleep. Finally, Mamie took him to the car, strapped him into his seat, and drove him to Snohomish. He got a nice nap in and was ready for the excitement of the party.

We wanted to have Angus's birthday party in the park, but it was so rainy that we had it at our house instead. Guests included:

• Colleen, Matt and Bram
• Eden, Eric and Addie
• Mamie
• Grandma and Grandpa
• Jules and Ian
• Kim, Hui-San and Amelia
• Lauri and Andrew
• Doug, Nancy, Finn and Elijah
• Scott and Gigi
• Jan and Roxy

Thanks to everyone for coming.

Jordan made pasta and carrot salad while dad made Angus 4 dozen cupcakes from scratch. Angus ate a whole cupcake in one sitting -- no problem. He started by cautiously probing the frosting, and ended by shoving almost the whole cake into his mouth. All of the kids chased balloons around the house. Angus was so excited to have real 4 year old big kids in his house playing with him.

On Angus's actual birthday, he went to the doctor. He got all of his shots. We also took a blood draw to test for allergies because his eczema is so bad. The test turned up negative for all of the allergies -- nuts, milk, egg whites and egg yolks.

See more photos.

This month we had great visits from Cathy, Russell and Josie, and from Paul, Cat and Felix. It was so much fun to spend time with our old friends now that we all have little smiley monkeys.

Angus loves getting into big boxes, sitting in the boxes and riding the boxes around the house. He'll climb into the pampers box, which conveniently has a cushy layer of diapers at the bottom. Then he'll stay in there to listen to stories or play with toys. Dad and I also drive him around the house in the box, which cracks up.

Angus loves going to playgrounds. Sometimes we'll go 3 or more times in one day. He started out with the swings. Then he discovered playing in the woodchips. Finally, he discovered that he loves going down slides. He'll ride with mom or dad, or we'll help him go down by himself. He thinks it's hilarious and wants to go down over and over and over again. Angus actually threw his first temper tantrum when we had to leave the slide at volunteer park before he was ready.

Angus has started noticing airplanes. When he hears a plane, his whole body tenses up and he looks up at the sky. Once he spots the plane, he watches it fly all the way across his field of vision.

Angus likes playing hide and seek. He'll sneak behind the gliding chair in his room. Then he'll laugh while his dad and I look for him... "Angus.... where's Angus... have you seen Angus?". Finally, when the time is right, Angus will pop out from behind the chair, with his eyes all lit up and a giant smile on his face. Pleased with himself for being so clever, and happy that dad and I are so excited to see him.

Whenever Angus sees himself in a mirror, he zooms right in to look up close and then kisses himself in the mirror. He loves to check himself out in our full length mirror. Then he moves in for the kiss. He also loves any book that ends in a mirror. He'll sit in my lap quietly listening to me read the book. Then as soon as he sees the mirror, he smiles in delight and zooms in for that kiss.

Angus walked for the first time on Labor Day on the blacktop at Stevens Elementary. On that same trip, he figured out how to crawl down the stairs backwards all by himself. At first, Angus could only walk when he was distracted by carrying things in his hands. As soon as he was thinking about it, he couldn't do it.

By the end of the month, Angus was walking all the time. He loves being mobile. He loves going fast. He teeters around with both hands in the air for balance He was so excited to be able to get around on his own, that we had to put new foam corners on the kitchen tables because he kept knocking his head on them doing laps around the kitchen.

Angus has developed quite the Flashdance impersonation. When we come pick him up from the nanny at the end of the day, he walks over to the sofa, puts his hands on the cushions, and does a flashdance like high knee dance. It's awesome. He does the same dance when he wants to get up on the couch.

Angus is dancing all the time now. He has a 'fridge farm' which plays banjo music. He'll hit the banjo button then he'll Angus-dance, which involves standing still while waving his hands around. He's even learned how to pull the farm off of the fridge and carry it around the house like a bizzaro country-kiddy boombox.