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.