I have to write something positive
The boys are amazing and amazingly funny.

T is still bent on becoming a robotic engineer. He regularly says things like "my robots will make things to help the earth" and "my robots will protect us" and so on. I've been impressed with his ability to assemble fairly complex Lego sets with minimal help. He can add 2 or 3 low numbers together, he understands very simple multiplication, and he can read simple books now. He wants to learn to read and do math so he can learn to build robots. He also started Tae Kwon Do over the summer and tested and earned his purple belt a couple of weeks ago. J and I felt happy and proud. The other day he called the paper shredder a paper blender -- funny and true.

R is an abstract thinker. You can see it already at the age of 2 1/2. He does more pretend play than his brother ever did and he seems to be the master of one trial learning (which is a problem if you let him see how a seat buckle works). He have a very sweet and compassionate disposition and amazing athletic skills (he's fairly ripped for a 2 year old). He adores T and it's fun to see the two of them playing together. The other day we went to the Natural History Museum and the kids were able to pretend to be paleontologists with a chisel, brush, and safety googles. R looked up with a huge grin, held up his hand, and said I have a CHEESEL! Somehow that was hilarious and we all laughed  for a bit (including the employee who was overseeing the exhibit). R pooped in the potty for the first time on 11/25, then again a couple days later. We thought great, we'll be potty trained in no time. No dice. He hasn't done it since.

The boys do love Santa.