February. We recently made a list of all the things we need to get done in the next six weeks or so, and it's just this short (indicates small distance between thumb and forefinger) of overwhelming. At the same time of course, exciting to be embarking on this new adventure. We started December off with a visit from Heather and her mom Donna, and Heather's son Jackson. They treated us to many wonderful home cooked meals and babysitting, giving us a chance to actually go out to a movie one evening (I Heart Huckabees) for the first time in many, many months. Thanks guys! Christmas was nice and quiet. We stayed home a lot, and had a nice little tree with a surprising number of presents under it. Tasman played Santa's little elf on Christmas morning, helping each of us open our packages. It seems like this process was more important than the end result - he often went on to the next present without really looking at the contents of the first. In addition to Christmas itself, our big project was potty training Tasman during the week that Adham had self-study time at home. We seemed to make some real progress for a while, but let's put it this way: we continue to be impressed with Tasman's ability to make up his mind and stick to his guns! Atlas is a wonderful little person, but of course you already knew that. He's a big smiler, laugher and coo-er these days, which delights his parents no end. However for both kids we're back to working on the "sleeping through the night" thing. At the worst of times, we have visiions of rocking a 14-year old back to sleep at 2 am - that couldn't possibly happen, could it? Here are some photos of the family taken over the last month - enjoy! | 
