Frith O’Steen

Decker sings all day long. His favorites are “Rudolph” and “Jingle Bells”. But being a multicultural kid, he also sings that classic for the ages, “I had a little dreidl”. Here’s his version: “Oh dreidl, dreidl, dreidl/I made it out of clay/And when it’s dry I’ll play with you”. (It’s cute in person, trust me).

The countdown to Christmas has begun. He continues to ask me when it will time to open the presents. And then goes back to report the results to his baby brother. The two of them have been pretty good together, considering they’ve been stuck inside quite a bit with various bugs and rainy days. Sutter’s quite mobile, so he tries to do EVERYTHING that Decker does, and most of the time Decker is a good sport about it. Last night they started squabbling over a toy phone and the next thing we knew, they were playing ‘follow the leader’ in an impromptu game, running circles around the couch, with Decker as the ‘leader’, pulling on the phone receiver, and Sutter bringing up the rear, grabbing onto the pull string and laughing his head off.

And Sutter has a new game - if you wink at him, he blinks his eyes very deliberately back at you and then grins - such a flirt. Very cute.

Until again, faithful readers…

Decker to me, after singing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” : “I’m gonna ask Santa to give Rudolph a game for Christmas, because the elves are naughty and won’t let him play. Then he’ll be happy”

Decker, explaining Christmas to his baby brother on the way to preschool: “So we have to go to sleep, and then Santa comes down the chim-a-nee, and hides presents under our Christmas tree, and then he takes the carrots back up to the roof for the reindeer, and then he has milk and cookies, because that’s how he does!”

Notable quotes from Decker over the past week:

“Stop making my nose smell your food”

“The Grinch won’t steal OUR Xmas tree (?)”

“I love Xmas! Sometimes I hate Xmas and it makes me grumpy. But today I LOVE Xmas!”

“Mommy, you can come downstairs with me and have juice tomorrow morning, because you are my friend”

“Sutter, stop playing! It’s sleepytime” (this, after having wound his little brother up with multiple rounds of ‘throw and fetch the toys from the bed’)

Decker, do you remember where Santa lives?  “On the roof!”

“We’ll give Santa carrots to bring up to the reindeer on the roof. But not oats, because they don’t taste very good”

(Pulling my hair up into two tufts on either side) “Mommy, you look like a fox!” (hey, I’ll take that one!)

“All of us, all of us smell…” (attempting to sing along to “Rainbow Connection”)

This child has lost his mind this Xmas season, and is nuts for all the stuff. Particularly the advent calendar, tree ornaments, and battery-operated singing Rudolph toy. He cuddles it in a near-hypnotic state, and plays it over and over and over and over and over and over and over. And yes, Sutter adores it too.