The past month has been a big one. We packed up the apartment and moved to East Bay. Two days later Arthur and mom flew to Indiana for the holidays. And in between we had a ton of fun with friends.

Likes: Being free to run, all the dogs ("hi da"), fruit of any kind, alphabet cookies grandma bought, remote controls

Dislikes: The cold, being stationary in his car seat (he wants the car to go!), bed time, eggs (no idea...), Santa (he got a chilly reception from Arthur)

Sleeping: Naps are good, night time not so much. He's had no problem transitioning to napping in a pack n play at grandma's. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for night time. I put him down in the pack n play for bedtime, but 3-4 hours later he cries until he can get into bed with me. Bad habit I know, but while in Indiana it seems like the best option. We will have to sleep train again once we get back to California.

Eating: Anything and everything. He does have his favorites (currently peanut butter bagels and grapes), but will usually eat some of anything on his tray. The other night we went out for Korean and he slammed some steamed rice, a crab rangoon, a spring roll, a dumpling, some fish, and some fried seaweed. I also had a good dinner, but was sad to give up my crab rangoon to the little monster. Yum yum!

Playing: Lots of interacting with friends and even strangers. He played happily with a few big boys (4-5 year olds) at the playground the other day. And I've seen him play with his similar aged friends at playdates and preschool. He's even making cars go now.

Medical Milestones:

Walking - Check! He is even starting to pick up the pace to a run... Watch out! Here comes trouble!
Going up and down stairs - Half-check. He's got the going up just fine. He crawls but can scale a staircase pretty fast. Going down is not so good. He gets onto his stomach and slides down, but if it's more than 2-3 steps, it's not a good thing. I'm sure he'll improve when we get back home where we have stairs. My mom's new house doesn't.
Climbing - Check! He's getting better and better and scaling objects and me.
Says a few words, understands more - So far, all he says is "Hi" and "Hi da" (Hi dog). He definitely understands a lot more.
Follow simple directions - Check! If you tell him to bring you whatever he is holding, he usually will.
Empties and fills containers - Check! His favorite is the small little trashcan at my mom's. It's become his play toy for the time being.

Schedule:Ha ha! That's a joke right? Moving and traveling make for cranky babies and tired moms. I tried getting Arthur back on a schedule, but so far it hasn't really worked. We'll have to really try when we get back home next month.

Out and About: Before leaving California we had our usual park playdates and preschool mornings. We also hit up the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo (raccoon pics). Plus two of Arthur's friends had their 2nd birthday part right before we left. After arriving in Indiana we hit the town seeing the downtown lights, Botanical Gardens with Santa and reindeer, trains at Science Central, Jefferson Pointe playground, lights at Franke Park, Festival of Trees, and lots of shopping. It's been a crazy month!