Coziness and Growing

Sitting here in a quiet apartment, warm and glowing with lights from the Christmas tree. Waiting for the 6 inches of snow we might get tomorrow and basking in the delight that is the pre-Christmas hubub.
Today was the last Spanish and ballet classes of the term, which means a one or two week break from all scheduled activities. Very much looking forward to that.
As it turned out we got several inches of snow today. Central Park was beautiful, with snow piled on every branch. The kids loved throwing snowballs and catching flakes in their mouths.
Christmas time in New York...it is about as festive as it gets. Especially with the snow. There are so many things to do, and we aren't even doing them, opting instead to cozy up inside with our fat Christmas tree and the excessive amount of heat that apartment buildings seem to put forth. We made gingerbread houses, there are presents hidden in every spare corner of space we possess and the kids are doing 2 Advent calendars. I love knowing that outside are the hordes of shoppers and tourists and lines and herds filling up 5th Avenue.
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Someone is slipping my kids growing pills while they sleep--I can't believe how big they all seem. I always think of Maya as tiny...then today she bonked her head on the wall and was crying, and kind of jokingly I picked her up and bounced with her on our Yoga ball and I was shocked at how substantial she felt--so big and heavy and sure. Her legs practically folded over themselves they were so long. It was strange--I guess I don't snuggle her much anymore and I was shocked at her heft (for lack of a better word).
And Jonah--he recently was given size 10 jeans and wore them for the first time--I thought they would be enormous, but, well, they looked just right (as opposed to the highwaters he has been wearing). With his new haircut and shirt he was positively handsome and sweet with his two front teeth missing and his rosy, mischievous cheeks.
Today on the subway we found ourselves on a packed car with a gang of obnoxious teenagers shouting profanities to each other over the heads of the kids. I felt like someone was staring at me and looked down, sure enough, there was Simon. His eyes locked on mine, willing me to gaze back. His face broke out in a wide smile when I looked at him, his toothless gums sweet and bare. He kicked his legs with delight and was completely oblivious to the sea of thugs filling the car around us and he just looked at me with adoration. His babyhood is going by so fast, I want to slow down the clock--have those teeth stay buried and the crawling wait, just a little, so I can bask in his babyness a while longer.