Being Polite

We work pretty hard on having the kids use words to express themselves and to use polite phrases.  This exchange happened when Dorothy was trying to take a toy away from Malcolm and he was very displeased with her actions.

Me:  Dorothy, did you ask Malcolm if you could play with that or did you just try to take it?
Dorothy:  Take it.
Me:  Why don't you try asking him nicely if you may play with it?
Dorothy:  May I take it, please?
Malcolm:  No, thank you.

So close.

Angry Birds

Kevin: Because it costs money to run the gas, and if I spend it all on bills I can't do things like buy you an Angry Bird.

Malcolm: Daddy, Santa brought me the Angry Bird.

*Santa put a small stuffed Angry Bird in Malcolm's stocking and it has been the hit of the holiday.  It is red and it goes with him everywhere.  It even has to watch him sleep.*

Happy Birthday, Dorothy!

Dorothy turned two on Christmas Eve and we spent most of the day in celebration.  We did presents in the morning so that the kids could play with them before naps and the Christmas Eve stuff we had planned for the evening.

It was just us and my parents and Malcolm got a little concerned and asked when the other people would be coming over.  When I said it would just be us, he went and lined up all the Little People in front of her gifts because she needed more people at her party.

She had a little trouble getting the ribbon off and brought in reinforcements.

Once the paper was started, she was good to go.

Testing out the cat ears.

She likes all of the dress-up accessories, but I didn't get any good pictures yet. I'll have to try to get some of Malcolm wearing the sparkly neclaces and carrying the purses so that I can embarrass him with them when he is older. In the meantime, here he is trying on the rabbit ears.

Bunny.

She is very into "babies" right now.

She was fascinated that the eyes open and close.

Until Dorothy started liking babies, Malcolm had no interest.  Now, he plays with them as much as she does.

My parents also brought the high chair that was mine when I was little.  Both kids really liked the high chair and lots of food was made in the play kitchen and fed to the dolls.

I asked Dorothy a couple of weeks ago what kind of cake she would like for her birthday, and she told me, "Blue." I asked her if an ice cream cake with blue sprinkles would be OK, and she agreed. I decided on an ice cream cake so that we could put it in the freezer and save the leftovers for another time when we don't have so many other sweet things in the house. The only problem with the blue sprinkles idea was that the dairy store I bought it from can't do any customization on their cakes. They are sent from the main facility, already decorated, and always the same. Luckily, Dorothy doesn't seem to remember our conversation and there was some blue on it here and there.

Getting her first look at her cake.  It passed inspection.

Blowing out the candles.  Once they were out (with some big brother help), she tried to grab a balloon off the top to eat.  I did cut her a piece with a balloon.

I had to cut the cake at the table because she started to panic that I was taking the cake away from her when I tried to take it back into the kitchen. The look on her face was equal parts panic and longing.

Merry Christmas!

It's still Christmas day, but the kids are napping, so I'll get this done while I can.  The kids pooped out before all the packages were opened, but will probably finish after nap time. Malcolm has one gift left and Dorothy has two.

Malcolm takes the Santa cookies to the table.

Leaving cookies for Santa.

My little elf.

Ready to go to bed and wait for Santa to arrive.

Phlox investigates Santa's handy work.

Dorothy kicks back and has some breakfast while the rest of us open our stockings. She really wasn't into the present opening this year. I think she got her fill on her birthday, yesterday.

She finally opens her stocking, with a little help from her big brother.

Every girl needs a tractor.

Malcolm checks out his round house while Dorothy gets out the Duplo blocks.

Trip took an interest in the bagel breakfast we set out.

Dorothy really liked the Bilibo...

...until there was a minor accident.

Engineer Malcolm tests out his "train that goes by itself on the tracks."

Time for a quiet story with dad.

Dorothy finally got dressed.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Charity is Hard

We have one of those wood houses with 25 numbered doors that you open each day.  Instead of filling it with candy or trinket toys (neither of which we need), I write an activity for each day that we have to follow.  Some days are big things, like going to the Botanic Gardens to see the trains exhibit.  Others are small, like wearing a Santa hat.  Yesterday said to drink a fancy hot chocolate.  Normally, I get out the fancy Irish coffee mugs, whipped cream, and sprinkles and call it good, but this time we walked over to Starbucks after school and the kids had peppermint hot chocolate.  I discovered that I really like their white chocolate mocha.

While we were there, I saw that they had a giving tree set up.  On closer inspection, the gifts were mostly for kids around Malcolm's age and many of them were for clothing items.  I decided that this might be a good time to try to teach my son (age 4) about giving and sharing and helping those who are not as fortunate as we are.  We talked about how not all kids are as lucky as he and his sister are and that we could pick out something to give someone to help them have a good Christmas.  He was excited and chose a card for a three year old boy who would like car toys.  Fantastic!

Today, the paper in the countdown calendar said to go pick out a gift for the giving tree.  After school, we headed over to Target to find a car toy that a three year old boy might like.  We stopped by the post office first, so when we got to Target it was 20 minutes before lunch time.  I knew I would be cutting it close, but both kids had a granola bar on the way to the post office and I thought that would hold them.  Besides, we didn't have any other shopping to do.  In and out.

Malcolm tested every toy in the aisle and I picked out three choices that were in our budget that I thought would work.  Malcolm looked over all three options, and even though he really wanted to get the giant $50 set, settled on the Little People Batcave.  Then, the drama started.  I hope the little boy we bought this for likes it half as much as my my son wants it (please, no one buy it for us).  Picking out a toy for someone else is good in theory, but once you find something you really like, it is very hard to not want one for yourself.  My son does not care one whit that this is a toy for a little boy who might not be getting anything else for Christmas.  Nor does he care that he has a whole house full of very nice toys to play with.  All he knows is that the Batcave looks so fun and he wants one too!  (Never-mind that he has no idea who Batman is.)  I then had to walk through Target with my half whining, half sobbing child who thinks, "It looks like so much fun!  Waa!  I want to buy one for me too!   Waa! I want to play with this!  It looks so cool!" *sniffle* *sob* 

The best part was that Dorothy was completely fine and happily sat in the cart until we were waiting to check out.  Then she started mimicing her brother.  Not because she was upset; just because she could.  So then I had two whiny children at the checkout while trying to buy a gift for charity.

I decided that dropping the present off right then would be too traumatic, so we will tackle that portion tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!  Maybe next year I'll insist on him choosing a card for someone who wants pants.

Holiday Photo Shoot

I wanted to attempt some holiday photos early so I would have time to try again and still get the cards ordered and mailed out, so we went to a local mall that has a beautiful old carousel.  I envisioned wonderful pictures of the kids on the carousel, smiling, laughing, and being cute and natural. Of course, I couldn't get either one of them anywhere near any of the horses. They did ride it, Malcolm once and Dorothy twice, but they only wanted to sit on a bench.

Not bad, but not exactly what I had in mind either.

I told them to hold on to the pole, in an attempt to salvage my vision of a carousel Christmas card.

This is the face Dorothy makes if you tell her to smile.

After failing at the carousel, we tried some pictures at some of the giant trees.  Dorothy didn't want to sit down and pose, so I promised her a cracker.  Then, I thought better of it and tried to get her to take a Tic-Tac instead.

You promised me a cracker.

What do you mean I can't have a cracker?

I just want a cracker!

She finally got her cracker, but she still had no interest in holding still.

They are both getting suspicious that this photo taking business is going to go on for a while.

Dorothy makes a break for it while Malcolm simply refuses to face me.

And thus ends another holiday photo attempt.

Making Music

Kevin brought up the old keyboard for the kids to play with.  He set it on the toy box that holds the trains because it it the perfect height.  One, or both, of the kids drug over the little chairs that go with their table and chairs set and they were too cute sitting there, playing the keyboard together.  After a while, we heard Malcolm yell, "Doh-fee, come back!  We have to make a musical!"  We wonder if this is what life was like for George and Ira Gershiwn's parents.

With the turkey hat from the school feast.  They both had to go get hats to wear for a while while making their music.

She watches everything he does so carefully.

Malcolm does a little mixing while Dorothy composes.

School Feast

The Friday before Thanksgiving, Malcolm's school has a feast and a little show afterward.  The kids make most of the food, then sit down and eat together.  That morning, I cooked a turkey breast then got to use the electric knife to carve it.  We wrapped up the turkey, and Malcolm and I headed off to school.  Dorothy was not happy with the thought of being left behind, but she and Kevin joined us soon enough.  There were lots of stations set up where the parent volunteers would supervise the kids making the fruit salad, lettuce salad, corn muffins, and flower arrangements.

I got set up at a fruit salad station and the kids loved using the apple peeler and slicer that peels the apples in one long slinky. There were also grapes, bananas, pineapple, oranges, strawberries, and honeydew to peel and slice. Some sections were much bigger than others, but the kids did a great job and were very proud of themselves; even if I had to keep a couple of them from sampling as they were working.

Once all the food preparation was completed, the kids all found a seat and each table said something they were thankful for. The kids then went through and got a yummy plate of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, mac & cheese, corn muffins, fruit salad, and veggie salad. Dorothy and Kevin were there by then, so Dorothy got a plate too and ate lunch with the big kids.

After the meal, pie was served. Malcolm had apple pie while Dorothy had pumpkin. Both of them, of course, had whipped cream.

Eating the whipped cream off of the top.

After the meal was the show which consisted of funny songs about turkeys being on strike, mashed potatoes, pilgrims who got a bit stinky on their voyage to the new world, and more. It was very cute, but we could quite tell if Malcolm was singing. He barely did any of the motions either. He was very excited about the show, but was really reserved this time.

Adjusting one of the hats he was very proud of making.

Malcolm had been telling us bits and pieces about the show, including that there were two kinds of hats. He mentioned the Indian hats, but when Kevin guessed pilgrim as the other kind of hat, Malcolm told him, "No, turkey!" in the "how dumb can you be?" tone.

Having the Blues

Last night, Malcolm was having a hard time playing nicely with his sister, so he was sent upstairs to his room to have some alone time and calm down a little bit.  Once he was past being angry, he started singing, loudly.  He was making up a song about a train, going out to sea, and having the blues.  It took a while, but he finally settled on these four lines for his song (the last word of each line gets held a really long time):

I saw train
Comin' down the tracks
I got the blues
It goes out to sea

Mr. Steve

We love our local library and are usually there a couple of times a week.  They have some great programs for kids and, of course, we check out lots of books.  The children's department has really expanded since Malcolm was born four years ago and the ladies there are all very nice know us by sight.  I think some of them even know the kids' names.  I'm not really sure of the details, but the library won some sort of a contest sponsored by PBS Kids and Jet Blue.  They will be getting $10,000 worth of Random House Children's books and today there was a special program with some of the characters from PBS Kids.  They had Hooper (A hamster? who does little educational promos between shows), Super Why (I have no idea who this is), and Mr. Steve (who sings songs between some of the shows).  Malcolm loves Mr. Steve and always wants to watch the parts he is in when they happen to be on. It took a little reorganizing of our schedule, but I decided that I thought hte kids would enjoy it, so I took Malcolm out of school a little early and scheduled a make-up class for Dorothy for gymnastics and took the kids to the special program at the library.

They were both a little overwhelmed, but enjoyed themselves. There were a lot of people there and it was a little louder than they are used to, but they both did great.

Hooper.  Both kids wanted nothing to do with either of the costumed characters.

Super Why.  Malcolm is on the far right in a black sweater vest.  Mr. Steve and David Carter are the first two people sitting against the far wall.

Malcolm waiting for it to start with Mr. Steve's guitar, Woody, int he background.

The first guest was David Carter who is a children's book author and illustrator. He read a few of his pop-up books to the kids, and they all got a copy of Lots of Bots which Malcolm had to read before nap time.

David Carter reads his book, "Lots of Bots."

David Carter also did some drawings based on kids' suggestions.  Malcolm suggested something, but I couldn't hear him because I was too far away.

Next up was Mr. Steve who I thought Malcolm would be super excited about. He was a great listener and stood or sat when asked, but he didn't really participate beyond that. He took it all in though. At the very end, Mr. Steve invited the kids to come up on the stage with him, but Malcolm didn't want to. He sat in his spot and listened to the song, but kept a safe distance. Dorothy had made me hold her the entire time we were there, but then wanted down to join the other kids up on the stage.

Mr. Steve takes the stage.

Mr. Steve, singing a song while Malcolm stands, frozen on the spot.

Dorothy makes her way to the stage.

She made it!

Mr. Steve walked around a bit during his song while the kids were on the stage.  Sorry the camera work isn't better.  I was far away, and people kept getting in front of me.

Once it was all over, it quieted down pretty quickly as most of the kids were eager to leave and see Hooper and Super Why who were out in the main part of the children's library.  Dorothy got a little one-on-one time with Mr. Steve, but Malcolm hung back and was feeling shy.

Yes, she insisted on wearing her necklace today.  You can't see them here, but Mr. Steve liked her shoes (which she also picked out) and said that his daughter has a pair just like them.

I'm glad we went, even if the kids were overwhelmed at times.  Neither cried, but Dorothy was mighty suspicious of that giant hamster and practically climbed me to get away from him.  When Super Why asked them for a high five, they both declined.

Happy Halloween!

We have had an entire weekend of Halloween fun.  Friday night, the park district had a Hallow-Palooza festival that I took Malcolm to.  We went a little early because a half hour before the official start, they had a "lights on" version of their spooky walk.  He had been watching a Halloween special of Dinosaur Train that had a haunted roundhouse and he was eager to do the spooky walk.  About halfway through, he complained that it was too scary and I ended up having to pick him up.  It was still too scary, so we dropped out of the walk and went back upstairs.  Luckily, everything else they had there was a big hit.

Doing a scratch off craft.

Climbing up so he can slide down the inflatable slide.  He had already had a turn in the bounce house.

Fishing for a prize.

Throwing a football through a wreath.

Tossing beanbags into plastic pumpkins.

Throwing a plastic skull through a toilet bowl lid.

This was his favorite "game."  He had to knock on the coffin, then a gloved hand would reach up and hand him a prize.

He wasn't tall enough to get his head in the other cut-out.

Sunday, we carved pumpkins. Malcolm wanted a spider on his, so I found a tmplate online and printed it out. Dorothy wanted a kitty, so Kevin free handed a cat face onto her pumpkin. They both helped scoop out the pumpkin guts with appropriate comments about it being gross and yucky.

Malcolm appears to be dressed for the wrong holiday.

Dorothy thought sitting on the pumpkins was great fun.

Kevin preps the second pumpkin while the kids scoop out the other one.

Each working on their own pumpkins.

Malcolm started out cutting out his spider, but it was hard work, so I took over.  While I was cutting Dorothy started climbing spiders up my back to my head.  It made it difficult to cut the pumpkin.

Kitty pumpkin.

Spider pumpkin.

I put these guys up a few weeks ago and they still make me smile.  It's nice to have rats in the house again.

Finally, it was Halloween and time to trick-or-treat. Malcolm really got it this year and didn't need any help with going up, knocking, or saying, "Trick-or-treat!" and, "Thank you." Dorothy quickly figured out that people were giving her candy and was eager to get more treats. She was very cute telling people, "Happy 'Ween!" and talking about, "More treats," when we were walking between houses. She also really liked the doggies we saw while we were out, especially the two golden retrievers dressed as bumble bees.

White rabbit (she's is more excited than shows).

Tigger didn't want to wear his hat/mask, so I drew on a nose and whiskers.  I was going to do a black nose, but was informed that Tigger has a pink nose.  It was a costume we picked up for $1 at a neighbor's garage sale.  It's pretty terrible, but he loved it.

Malcolm kept petting Dorothy because she was so soft and fuzzy.  When Kevin put her costume on, she kept saying that it was tickling her.

Choosing candy at the first house.

Waiting for the door to open.

Checking out their loot.

They both got quite the haul and I have already stolen one of Dorothy's Butterfingers.  It's a choking hazard.