Working on: Whittling down Christmas purchases
---------------------------------
We attended a surprise dinner Friday night for my Dad, whom my niece calls "Bop" (so we're trying to get Roman to call him that too). Dad has officially retired after 40 years with his company, so a woman in the office arranged a big dinner. Close to 30 people, including some men who Dad has worked with for 30 years or more, plus one of the co-owners. My brother's family and us made the trip to surprise him as well. It was a nice dinner. The kids did amazingly well for a dinner where we just sat down when it was bedtime. Roman finally made it to bed at 10ish. What a party guy!

Tonight at dinner he made us laugh the hardest since he joined our family. He was whining because Doug took his yogurt spoon away because he was flinging it around. Then all the sudden - mood change. He began to look back and forth between us while he babbled, like he was telling us a story. His voice went up and down, different inflections, funny sounds. Then he burst out laughing! We laughed with him too, because he was funny - then he kept talking, laughing... talking some more, bursting out in giggles again... I was laughing so hard I was crying and holding my stomach.

Then, I think, he was re-enacting what I was just doing, because he would repeat the same sounds a few times, then bend over and laugh quickly; then repeat them again, and bend over and laugh. He absolutely was a hoot!