This has been a fantabulous week. We found a terrific nanny, who will be starting in a few weeks. The landscaping is finished and looks great. And in the process of looking for a nanny, we found a handful of good babysitters -- enough that at least one of them should be available whenever we want. We've already started going out more. Felix enjoyed Stella a lot, and keeps asking for her to come back and play Legos with him.
Milo's gotten into Papa in the last two weeks. He'll follow Dean around the house as he's getting ready for work, grab his legs and give him "pick me up!" puppy eyes. It's added 10 minutes to the morning schedule. He definitely knows the word Papa: Lucie was upstairs giving Milo a bath, heard Dean's footsteps downstairs and said "Papa's home!" Milo was nearly successful in scaling the tub, trying to get to Dean. And he was saying "Papa papa!"
Felix is inventing more and more stories. He's got a good narrative instinct: the stories don't meander, they have firm conclusions, and his best ones have fine details that draw you into the story. Some of the elements are starting to be dark: nice people with monster heads, dead people that can't move because they're dead.
Dean has started telling Felix vignettes from Dean's own childhood: what going to a big boy school was like, playing soccer, all about having a dog. Felix pays rapt attention. Dean has fond memories of his father's childhood stories, so it's nice to see the circle turn.
Felix sometimes has us say grace at the table. Weeks after we returned from Granny's, who says grace, he started asking that we hold hands and take turns each saying something we're happy about. Topics tend to be around being thankful for the food, sweet kids, and (Felix's theme) his toys.
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