Will and Francis, coincidentally dressed alike, playing

Saying Yes to Milk

Bear Grice

Francis is getting more and more active every day and keeps finding new ways to enjoy the same environment. He has discovered that he likes to climb and has started climbing on the stereo, the couch, the stairs, and pretty much anything else that isn't the floor. He doesn't understand, however, that he can't just throw himself down and we've had some close calls in catching him.

Francis has become a very picky eater. He used to be good at feeding himself, but the past couple of weeks he won't feed himself anything except for the cheerios he has previously thrown on the floor. The only thing he shows interest in is blueberries and wouldn't eat anything else unless we distract him with some toy and stick food in his mouth.

Francis has started talking a little more and we're now pretty sure he can consistently say car, bird, tree, cheese, and ball (plus some other sounds that may mean something). He has mastered shaking his head Yes and No and it's pretty funny to see him do it. He still loves taking baths (and drinking bath water) and playing outside (even if it's freezing cold).

Below are some pictures of Francis at the Dragon Park, using his new Christmas elephant towel, painting and being painted, sitting in boxes, and demonstrating that he's a long way from sleeping in a real bed with a blanket.

Francis eating a lime and other activities

Despite having a bad cold over the past week that has zapped his appetite, Francis has been as active and crazy as ever. The snow and cold have kept everyone indoors, which means Francis can spend more of his day exploring his pastimes, such as throwing hard objects at the kitchen floor, emptying drawers, trying to open the garbage can and toilet, and demanding that the same book be read to him 5 times in a row. Below are some photos taken over the past month, including Christmas.

Francis in the snow

Our apologies for the delay in posting- this is the third attempt to upload a video on blogspot, each time taking over an hour. We promise to add more to the blog soon. Until then, here is Francis playing in the 4" of snow that fell on January 10th.

Snow Day

On Sunday it snowed about 3 inches in Nashville and has been below freezing ever since. That didn't stop Francis from getting outdoors to roll in the snow and get wet. Below are some photos from his 5-minute adventure in the yard.

Francis prepares for Christmas

Francis has no idea that Christmas is around the corner despite all the new things that have been going on. After returning from Columbia last week we decided Francis was due for his first hair cut. He did very well and didn't seem to notice that anything different was going on (thanks to the Sesame Street DVDs from Aunt Sam). Don't worry, we didn't cut too much off and saved every last curl.

We got a live tree last weekend which Francis seems to enjoy having in the house. We were only able to decorate the top two feet with ornaments after Francis tried to pull some off, but he doesn't bother the strands of lights too much. He has fallen face-first into the tree several times while trying to lean on it but has mostly left it alone. He can almost say "tree" and points to it if you ask him where the tree is.

Last weekend we took Francis to Toys R Us for the first time. Now that he can walk he refuses to sit in a buggy and insisted on touching everything in sight. Fortunately, there were hundreds of other children losing their minds and Francis did fine in comparison. Geoffrey the Giraffe and Santa were on hand to greet kids, but Francis showed little interest in either.