What happens when a girl takes a week off from blogging, because Christmas is coming up and she is crazy-busy??

Her phone rings and her email inbox is full of people asking to be sure that everything is okay!

Yes...everything is okay. I'm sorry that I sorta left y'all hanging. I'm sure you are wondering if Iliya is still afraid of bubbles...or better yet, if my finger is still attached.

I'm pleased to report that both situations seem to be under control. My finger is still attached and is healing up nicely. I think the fact that the cut is on the backside of a finger on my left hand helps (since I'm right-handed). It's still pretty sore, but overall I can't complain.

About the bubbles. Iliya just had a couple-day-long fear of those bubbles, and then one day seemed to forget until he was about halfway through his bath. In fear, he began pointing out bubbles...and each time he seemed like he was getting upset, I simply said, "nope. bubbles won't hurt you." No explaining or anything. Just a simple "nope." Last night, I started showing him that bubbles go, "pop! pop! pop!" -- and he had fun with that.

So maybe we are over that fear.

As far as his language goes, this child adds new words every day. He can identify over 25 people by name and says something (if not 4 or 5 things) new every day! I can't keep up on his word list! And I think he may be getting close to another growth spurt. He woke up at 3:30 this morning, and took a half-hour to get back to sleep (thank goodness it wasn't 2 hours! *knock on wood*). His three 2-year molars are in - and he's working on the 4th one. I tell you what, I'm exhausted just thinking about it all!!

Okay...I'm sorry for the disjointedness of this post, but that's all you get for today. Except for a few pictures. He had his daycare class Christmas party on Friday, and we had a good time. Unfortunately, Nathan couldn't come to the party, but I was able to walk down the hall & attend. Here are a few pics from that - click to enlarge:

And a couple pictures from the weekend. I think you will agree...my boy is growing up!!