Jiu Jiu and Jiu Ma send Ian a birthday gift last week. We had just come back from dinner (it was very warm out -- maybe 60F and we walked to Ian's favorite Italian place and walked back) and I made the mistake of opening it in front of him. It's a pop-up book for the "Wheels on the Bus" song. As soon as he saw it, he took it from my hands and blocked everything else out. I tried to take it back so we could go up the stairs, but he yelled, "Mine!" This was the first time I'd heard him say that (unlike his Jiu Jiu, whose first word was "mine"), so clearly he felt quite strongly about it. He carried that book up the stairs by himself. Luckily, he let us take it away long enough for a bath, but he was really excited to read it. He has been reading the bus book every day since.

Abuelita and Grandpa arrived on Wednesday afternoon and he stayed home with Abuelita and Tia Cindy on Thursday. I got home from Chicago in the afternoon and we read the book. Then he read it with Abuelita and I heard her laughing hysterically. It turns out that Ian pointed to one of the characters and identified her as "Abbadita!" Turns out the character is supposed to be a black woman with short curly hair. In that one illustration, she looks more Latina. Doesn't look much like Abuelita except her skin is a bit darker and her hair is very short and kind of looks like how Abuelita has her hair combed back, I guess. How funny is that? And he's only ripped one little thing in the back of the book, but I can easily glue it ("Mommy fix it!"). Otherwise, he's been fairly gentle with it.

On Saturday, we had the Second Annual Fondue Cook-off, where Grandpa and Gary both made their signature fondues and we tasted them blindfolded and cast our votes. Ian got extremely agitated when I had the eyemask on. He kept tugging at me and trying to get it off. Ian didn't really eat the fondue, but he enjoyed the bread and the cornichons (tiny sour pickles). And of course, he loved having Thomas and Alex over.

On Sunday morning, Abuelita made her huevos de Abuelita (eggs with tomatoes and onions), sausages, Taylor ham, English muffins, coffee and juice. We were sitting around after we finished and Ian started blowing raspberries. He looked at me and I frowned at him and he smiled and did it more. Then Jeff did it too, but even longer and louder. Ian laughed and said, "Silly Daddy!" We were hysterical. He's really getting the hang of this talking thing. He has also started distinguishing who understands which language. All weekend, he would say a word or phrase in Spanish to either Abuelita or Grandpa, then turn to me and say it in Chinese. He did the same on Friday with me and Jeff. Ian and I saw a lot of Christmas lights and trees on the way to meet Jeff at our Mexican restaurant. He would say sheng dan shu (Christmas tree) or sheng dan den (Christmas lights). When we saw Jeff, I said to Ian, "Tell Daddy we saw Christmas trees." Ian turned to Jeff and said, "Arbol de navidad! Luz!"

After Ian (and Abuelita, too) woke up from napping, we went to Gary & Makiko's annual Christmas party on Sunday evening. The whole way there, Ian was yelling out, "ThomasAlex!" The boys were very excited to see him and show him their games and movies, but Ian's still a bit too young to get into "Superman Returns" and online games with characters. Still, Ian followed them around. Ian and I were eating in the dining room -- Gary and Makiko always put out an endless array of fabulous food -- when he spotted Abuelita across the room talking. So he yells really loudly, "ABBADITA!" He's quite imperious sometimes. He did the same to Thomas later when he wanted his attention. Ian just had a blast because the boys have tons of cars and trucks and every single one of them was out in Alex's room. Ian spent quite some time alone in Alex's room, completely ignoring me. He sorted through all the cars one by one. Occasionally, he would bring me a car. And a select few were placed carefully on the bed. After about 15-20 minutes, he apparently came to a decision. He held up a "nano cool bus" (yellow school bus) and was ready to leave the room. When we went to Thomas' room later, there were Legos and toys spilled all around. He had fun climbing in Alex's trundle bed. Alex very thoughtfully brought a wooden step for Ian to get up and down more easily. Ian loved that, too. Then he went to survey what Alex was doing with the Legos. He stood looking down at all the toys and pieces and concluded, "It's a mess! Oh no!" I have never heard him say that and I was laughing so hard. When Alex left the room, Ian put all of the Lego pieces into the box where they belonged. And at the end of the night, Jeff was downstairs with his dad and Gary smoking cigars and Ian wanted his attention, so he yelled at the top of his lungs, "DAAA-DDY! DAAA-DDY!" Alex tried to help him out by yelling, "JEFF!" Ian took that cue and started yelling, "JEFF! JEFF!" I was dying watching this.