Highland Fling

With Hogmanay fast approaching, Callum takes it upon himself to practice his steps.

These few days, nestled, cosy and warm as they are between Christmas and New Year, are my favourite of the year.

Completely enjoying the break without the endless freeway miles to the schools and finally today I was able to look through some of the captures over Christmas and Boxing Day. It surprised me to hear on Absolute Radio a commercial beginning "Now that Christmas is over...". To me, Christmas continues til Twelfth Night and I'm happy to celebrate the feast til then. The sun's back, the tree next door is shedding its autumnal leaves, and although Reuben had a slight fever today which meant we stayed at home, we were able to enjoy a leftovers turkey dinner once again with all the trimmings, a huge stalk of brussel sprouts, home made cranberry sauce, honey roasted carrots and parsnips and plenty of Quality Street. I'm still yet to do any Christmas baking despite buying the bits and pieces to do so.

Reuben's doing amazingly well with his opposites and today he lapped up a huge new lesson with me whilst on the potty and emerged signing and saying ugly-beautiful, high-low, front-back, heavy-light and so many more. Great new concepts to understand. Of course it got to the late afternoon and I realized I should fall back on my staple for a quick shot: Callum in the late afternoon sun so this is pretty much my only quick effort today. My iMac's back in my office aka the bombsite and off the dining room table where it sat for a few weeks before Christmas so I could work late enjoying the tree before Christmas, listening to my Christmas playlist which I play til Twelfth Night and then Skype my family over Christmas. Oh, I do prefer to be working under the twinkling lights...

Tonight before bed when I was trying to get them to sit on my lap whilst reading a few bedtime stories, Callum was doing a funny "alararlaralaralara" thing with his tongue which makes both Reuben and I fall into fits of laugh, and Reuben couldn't hold back any longer, but jumped up from my lap and proceeded to chase Callum around the upstairs open floor plan, the two of them falling on the bedroom floor in reels of laughter, wrestling with each other, rolling around and actually listening to me when I asked them not to jump on the other one's head. I suddenly recalled my own brothers doing the same: constant wrestling. They both love rough housing and feed off the other's happiness and antics, tickling each other, dancing together, saying alaralaralarararas over and over again till they look at me with oh so tired eyes and I place them into their beds. Reuben will always be asleep in seconds, but Callum was too busy playing with the tiny baby Jesus ("baby jeez") from mog70 Sarah and the Russian dolls over and over again, from my cousin's wife, Karen, given to him on Christmas Day because he refused to go home without them. Returning from Reuben's breathing treatment, I peered into Callum's crib and saw the new dolls all lined up neatly and Callum, having tended to his babies, asleep too.