Re: Santa fun and new house!

One of the greatest things about our new house is being so close to grandparents!! Last weekend was lovely weather and Mina (Maman) and Monty (Baba) took Dahrius for an adventure (AKA: walk) around the neighborhood.

Lovely fall colors and a little rest.
Dahrius is already learning to carry his own water here.
We all attended (except Ahrash) Monty's annual Christmas party at UCSF for the gastroenterology group. Despite some initial worry about driving to SF during rush hour around the kids' bedtimes, a good time was had by all. Both kids were quite well-behaved and charmed everyone with their cuteness, though Dahrius quickly ditched his nice shoes and untucked his shirt.

Here Ranier was demonstrating his reach by grabbing someone's nose (a favorite trick of his).

Maman and Dahrius goofing around.
A big highlight of the party was a visit by Santa! Dahrius was very excited at first (once he heard about Santa and the toys), but was then scared, and then once his name was called for a present of his very own...was over his fear enough to claim his present. It was his first time to see Santa Claus, that I recall. Santa was a grad student or postdoc who was not very experienced in costume. He was snickering (not ho-ho-hoing) and kept losing his hat and was actually one of the funniest Santa's I've encountered. He even got into a tugging match with one of the older children who sort of grabbed his present out-of-turn. It was hilarious. Luckily, most of the kids were <5 and didn't get it.
The boys clowning around in one of the best play spots in the house (Dahrius' room...where nearly all the toys are). Dahrius plays and Ranier is largely amused just watching.
I rolled (pretty fast) this tennis ball towards Ranier half a dozen times, and he caught it quite accurately every time. He is very coordinated!

Dahriusism of the day: Ranier was eating some avocado at dinner and we were talking about what he can and can't eat. We mentioned "persimmon"that Ranier DOES eat and Dahrius said, "well, he can't have "gerlimmon." When I asked him what a "gerlimmon" was, he confidently described it as a small thing that exists deep underground and is about the size of a marsupial. That's why so few people eat it, because it's very tiny and so hard to find. ...in case any of you were wondering what a "gerlimmon" was.