"It's Chwissmas!!"

Last weekend Spencer surprised the boys with a short visit. Spencer pulled in to West Bend on Friday afternoon and since Peter spends Fridays at home he was the first of the two to see him.

After the initial greetings were over Peter said, "I'm so happy! It's Chwissmas!" As far as he and Eliot knew, Christmas was the next time they were going to see Daddy. So for Peter it followed: Daddy was here so it was Christmas. Tears were shed when we explained that wouldn't be Christmas for another month.

He recovered though and was happy to show Daddy some of the new things he has learned with reading and numbers.

Peter has recently become very interested in reading and math. He loves being given addition problems to solve so long as it's adding 0 or 1 to another number. His imagination has also blossomed into a force of nature and he spends most of his energy pretending to be characters from his and Eliot's new favorite show "The Odd Squad." This usually involves him approaching us and saying, "what's your odd problem?" and then fixing the problem with some kind of -inator. As in fun-inator or de-pumpkin-inator.

We surprised Eliot by picking him up at school. He and Spencer chatted all the way back to the car. Eliot's conversational skills continue to expand and he and Spencer had some interesting discussions during his visit about black holes and other topics that six-year-old boys are apt to find interesting. He loves playing Uno right now and will sit down anytime, anywhere, with anyone. He's a gracious winner and loser and is able to hold his own, though still working on holding a hand of cards.

While Spencer was here we took the boys out, with my parents, for some Hibachi. It was a first for the boys and they were pretty impressed.

Peter wasn't so sure about having food thrown into his mouth, thank you very much.

Both boys were willing to catch a jet of water though.

They both did really well.

They had a wonderful time with Daddy. We took him swimming at the YMCA, and hiking of the Ice Age trail. We visited the library and got in some good story reading time. We're all looking forward to seeing him again in December.

Now jump ahead to this weekend. Saturday morning Peter came running in to wake me up. "Mummy! Come quick! There's a surprise!" I followed him to the kitchen where he threw up his arms at the window--through which we could see the backyard blanketed in snowy white with large flakes continuing to fall fast--and declared, "Look! It's Chwissmas!!"