Anticipation.

Ziggy has been telling me hilarious things. I wish I could keep up....

Yesterday he told me "It's not Thursday, it's Seven." He told me a couple days ago, "Yes, Mommy, I DO think about the potty trains." When I told him he could watch a show yesterday, he said, "Are you a good Mommy?" And that's just the tip of the ice berg. Goodness, he's a handful of high spirits and smarts. He's also so intensely sweet.

Ziggy has been talking about Santa Claus and told Papa and Diggy on the phone that he wants Santa to bring him "a present." He has a new red tractor, about two three times the size of a Hotwheel car that his father bought him last Saturday morning on their mama-free outing. Ziggy tells us it came from the "Coa-moc" or the "Farmer Store." (Came from the Farmer's Co-Op where they bought birdseed and dogfood and where Zig met Santa last year). Ziggy is really into bird watching. He HOLLERs when there is a cardinal. And each night he says, "Eric, why did you come home?"He has recently begun not only calling his father by his first name, but also Dad, as opposed to Daddy. As in, "Dad's home!!"

Last Friday night we had pizza and cuddled up on the couch and watched Polar Express-- the first ever family movie night. Ziggy loved it. We turned the scary parts off and did distraction moves.... the movie is a bit more intense than the book, we found. But quite lovely.

We went out to Cherry Valley on Sunday morning in celebration of the first Sunday of Advent, and got our Solstice and Christmas tree. Hurrah! It's an outing we look forward to each year, and is getting to be ever more fun.

Ziggy talks about Santa and Christmas trees and jingle bells a lot now. He has a pretend jingle ball in his pocket often, like the little boy in Polar Express (he also continues to love pretend veggie gardening, selling and eating, and planted me a garden in our bed the other night of peppers and tomatoes and potatoes. He also recently asked me for some "pretend coffee.")

We've been conversing a lot about Christmas and Winter and have been listening to carols and other seasonal music. My favorite is the Sufjan Stevens Sing Along Christmas Box Set that MBM got just befroe our Michigan journey for Thanksgiving. We've gotten some books from the library on Advent and Solstice and Christmas, etc. ("Look, Daddy, we got this book about the Seasons!") And receiving and looking at Christmas cards has prompted a number of discussions, not the least of which is about angels. I told Ziggy that I thought of angels as being closer to God and the way people show that in pictures is to give angels wings. He will tell you that angels are closer to God, or are "near God."

I have told him that Santa will know where he is at Christmas, that Santa will smell his sweetness. I can hardly wait to make a "Santa box" (a long standing La Grone family tradition for Christmas Eve) with him this year and see the look on his face when he sees the beautiful sturdy wooden Plan Toys Parking Garage that Santa has brought him to play cars....

Several nights ago, a cricket jumped into the middle of the living room floor. Ziggy went to it and talked to it. He then told us that the cricket was "looking for another cricket." He asked the cricket, "Are you the very quiet cricket?" then he turned to us and said, "He says, I AM."

The first Christmas My Beloved Mister and I were together, I gave him a copy of that Eric Carle book, declaring *him* my very quiet cricket, with the most beautiful song I ever heard. He actually wept the first time he read it, thinking of who the story might be read to one day....

And now, there is Ziggy.