Wine

This is the wine we are having tonight (Saint Joseph - 2006 - Les Pierres Seches):
http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Daily_Wine/0,1142,5872,00.html

We had it the other day in London (brought it from France) and it was really good. And it only costs $26 here. I'll do my best to find all those notes, especially the shaved vanilla. I'm not betting any money on it though. I hope it lives up to its 91 points whatever that means.

While I'm Bragging

I'm going to brag about Michael for a while. I normally don't...and focus on things he could do better like not talk in 3rd person about himself. But today, I am going to brag about my "little buddy."

• He loves family anything. Family hugging, family dancing, family wrestling.
• He can dominate puzzles. Right now, he can do a 25 piece puzzle meant for 3 year olds and up. Now, he has been working on it for about a week or 2. But he does that. He works on it and he gets it. ALMOST entirely on his own.
• He's fiercely independent. If he can do it by himself. He wants to.
• He's an amazing hiker. Yup. I mean, he's no grownup. But he does pretty well for a 3'1" tall kid!
• He's observant. He sees how you do things and mimics it. I know it's standard toddler behavior. But I'm pretty proud when he knows his battery operated train is out of batteries so he goes to where the new batteries are and gets a new one. And it's nothing I've shown him, he's just seen me do it.
• He recognizes some of his letters and some numbers.
• He knows some colors.
• He knows some Vietnamese songs I sing to him. And some French ones. And some American ones.
• He can turn on the CD/DVD/TV all by himself. He knows which disks go where and how to operate each thing. And some of the remote keys too.
• He can take off his shoes/coat/zippable sweater. And he can put on his clothes. Almost always backwards, but at least they are on.
• He can count from 1-10 perfectly. 1-20 with some mistakes.
• He can almost do stairs all by himself.
  

What made me think of this? We were reading Go Dog Go. There's a page where the dogs are skiing off the mountain and he told me they were sledding. And I thought....gosh, I totally crashed and burned on sledding. But I remember Michael went with his dad and he loved it.

And not only that, when he got to the bottom, he started going back up the snow covered hill all by himself. He did not even wait for his dad. Michael was nearly halfway up that hill by the time Brian had gotten the sled and started himself. And I was really proud because it took bravery, independence, and confidence to do that and think that he could. I know because I looked at that same hill and thought, "Oh brother, how am I going to make it back to where we were sitting?"

I was just going to list a few things, but that turned into a lot. No comments necessary. I know this is a mom bragging post, but I felt like I needed to do it. I focus on how Michael can improve all the time, and I don't want him to grow up thinking that he can never be good enough or that I only notice the bad. I seem to have that effect on the people I love.

Me.