It's been a busy and fun holiday season, with lots of toys and peanut butter sandwiches on the floor. Charlie had his 12 month doctor's appointment and he's doing great. And thanks to three big shots and Charlie's growing self-awareness, he now hates the doctor. Thanks, modern medicine!
Charlie is still opening birthday gifts. I thought he'd enjoy ripping open the gifts, but since it's not newspaper or toilet paper, he's not interested. Must not taste as good. Here he is showing off his new extra-loud music toy that Matt & Lynn gave him. Thanks, Matt & Lynn.
Here he is playing with the truck that Mommom and Poppop got for him (video alert, Julie).
He doesn't exactly get Legos at this point, but he knows they're
awesome. He especially likes the big truck Mommom and Poppop got him,
so he can push it until he hits a wall, then point to me to come fix it.
And then it's Christmas. Soon after Nilda and I started dating, we made a deal about how religion would work. Kids would be Jewish, but they'd have Christmas and there would be Santa Claus. Please witness, therefore, the first Heller grandchild to have a picture taken with Santa.
Santa's not what I expected him to be. Granted, all I know about Santa comes from "A Christmas Story," but aren't you supposed to tell Santa what you want? This guy just sits there as a never-ending parade of parents shove their kids at him for a 30-second photo opp, then watches as those same people go to pay for overpriced pictures. Charlie seemed intrigued.
One holiday thing that I recommended we do is take Charlie downtown to show him the tree at Rockefeller Center. This way, we could finally take advantage of living in the city, which we never do. Except I forgot about the zombies tourists. We live in a world where you can be walking in a straight line on a busy sidewalk, then someone will walk right in front of you and just stop with no consideration for anyone else, and then when you inevitably bump into them, you are expected to say you're sorry. And then I'm the rude one. I feel the same way about Christmas time in Rockefeller Center as I do about cheap garbage bags: never again.
Christmas is always a special time of year for the Jews. We never
had a tree or lights, and that was always my favorite
part. I have a strong memory of going to a packed showing of "Yentil"
with my family as a kid on Christmas. When I was in high school, my dad decided to make Christmas dinner, since there was nothing else to do. Now we have a big kosher Christmas dinner on Christmas day. Nilda's family does Christmas Eve and also has a lot of food, but it's a bit different. My favorite
part is the roast pig. Thank you, Cubans!
Nilda's family seemed surprised when I offered to help take it out of the outdoor cooker they have for this. I said, "There's a 40-pound pig out there. Do you think I'm going to miss out on that?" Charlie was trying out his game on a cute little 10-month old at Christmas Eve dinner. She's not like the waitresses and random women at checkout counters that he usually puts the moves on.
Here is the elegant ladies' man feeding himself oatmeal that very same morning, like a boss.
This is Charlie and his 3-month older cousin Serena. They're so close in age that it'll be fun to see them grow up together. But she'll always be in charge, since (a) she's older, (b) she's a girl and (c) she walked before 12 months and Charlie's not looking like he's interested any time soon.
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