Christmas Joy

Christmas 2008

If you were to ask Linus about Christmas he would tell you about getting trains.  He would likely tell you about Henry, Thomas, Gordon, and Salty.  He received trains from the Thomas line from Stephanie and us.  As soon as he had a few of them unwrapped, it took coaxing from us to get him to open up the rest of his presents. I found it delightful to watch and listen to him express his excitement and love for the trains.  I got a bit of video of it and I'll try to post it soon so you can hear him talk about loving the trains.  You can hear the joy oozing out of him in the tone of voice he uses. 

We are all enjoying his new books, toys, and games.  Diggitty Dog is his very first board game.  We played it with him this morning. Instead of rolling a die, one pushes on the dog house in the center of the board.  You count how many times the dog barks and that is how many spaces you get to move.  Something that was fun to discover was that the dog playing pieces have magnets in their mouths.  If there is a bone where your dog lands, you get to pick up the bone using the magnet and check to see if the color on the other side matches your dog.  I think it is fun to pick up bones using the dogs.

When Linus was opening up the gift bag from Matthew's aunt and uncle he said, "Martha and Bill are good at wrapping things!"  He found a painted picture included with a gift from Johanna in Green Bay and said, "How thoughtful of her."  He received a bowling toy from his cousins out east and he said, "I will play it with Chase."  It was gratifying to hear him express appreciation for his gifts.

For the most part he has played with his trains non-stop.  We had to tear him away to go for Christmas dinner at a friend's house and drag him off to bed last night.  Tonight he cried as Matthew pulled him away to get ready for bed.  He recovered when I read him one of his new books for his bedtime story:  The Little Engine That Could.  He was engrossed with the story, but troubled that some of the engines refused to help out.  Matthew put him to bed and he was out in no time at all.

Munchkin

We were out running errands today and I said to Linus, "Come here little munchkin. Are you my munchkin?" He said, "No, I'm your sweetheart."  I think he is both things.

I had the car radio tuned to a station playing only holiday music and they played Rosemary Clooney singing "Suzy Snowflake."  Linus loved it and got the giggles.  He was singing one line over and over as we walked across a store parking lot. As we entered the door he continued to sing out, "If you want a sleigh ride, wheeeeeeeee!" and the customers in the check out lines and the cashiers all busted out laughing and looked in our direction. It didn't phase him one bit. He kept singing it as we went in search of paper doilies. 

Tonight I found the song on iTunes. The first version I bought didn't have the "wheeeee" part. I listened to the 78 RPM version and that was the right one. I can't wait to surprise him with it tomorrow.  

Here Linus is helping mix the pancake batter for our Sunday morning ritual.

Cookies and Gift Wrapping

Linus has helped me wrap many of the presents we've mailed out.  Some of you might find your gift wrap cut crookedly and will wonder whether it is my handiwork or Linus'. You may also see tape put on a bit messy or you might even see his handwriting on the gift tag.  They all turned out great one way or another.

Tomorrow the three of us are visiting our first preschool that we are considering for Linus.  At the moment I'm feeling sad about it and don't want to go for the tour.  I'm not ready to send him out into the world without me. My friend, Paige, reminded me that it will only be about five hours a week and I'll be able to handle it.  I suppose I will, but it doesn't mean my heart won't break a bit when we reach this milestone next fall. 

Cookie Party

We hosted a Christmas cookie party on Saturday and invited our neighbors.  One of the best parts was that Erin brought six-week-old baby Grace over.  She has the sweetest little bow shaped mouth.  Two of our kid guests played most of the time while Linus stayed at the table rolling out, icing, and decorating cookies. I was amazed at his staying power.  He also ate a bunch of cookies.

  

It was so cute watching Linus try to share his toys with Grace.  He put his baby doll right on top of her.  Good thing the doll is so small.  He giggled each time he reached out and touched her.  

We are inundated with Christmas cookies right now.  I attended a cookie exchange Friday night and came home with six dozen cookies.  I only succeeded in getting one person to take cookies home from our party, so we have probably eight dozen or so. I sent a bunch of them to work with Matthew.

Lyz sent Linus a scarf and he was so excited about receiving a package in the mail that he could open right away.  (We've been stowing Christmas packages away.)  One would have thought he'd received gold in the mail; he was that excited.  He said, "It was thoughtful of her to send it to me."  Then he ran around the house wearing it rather proudly.

Kiddo's First Parade

We took the bus downtown last Saturday night for the holiday parade.  There were many great high school marching bands, gorgeously lit up floats, and gigantic balloons.  Linus' favorite part? The tractors that pulled the floats.  Oh, and he kept talking about the flute players the next day. Flutes and trumpets.  The weather was perfect for standing around outside and when the parade finished up where we were, we hurried over a few blocks to see it some more.  Then we stopped for hot chocolate and bused back home.  We all went to bed late and on Sunday Linus told me he was still tired from the parade.

The pace around here is wearing me down.  Linus feels a need to go, go, go and then go some more. I told Matthew the reason moms send their kids to preschool when they turn three is because they can't keep up with them any more.  Plus, I need to find a boy or two for Linus to have playdates with. He needs kids who like to wrestle and play more physically.  Poor Chase really didn't want to wrestle with Linus this week.  Barrett handled it okay because she is used to it with her older brother. 

Shoveling and Shopping

I was so very happy that it snowed all day yesterday. It wasn't big, fluffy snow, but it covered the ground nonetheless.  We stayed inside and sipped mulled cider and decorated a bit. The high today was around 40, but that didn't stop us from shoveling the sidewalk when we had the chance.  Actually, I shoveled the sidewalk and Linus shoveled the lawn.  The snow here is so dry and light that it takes little time or effort to clear the sidewalk.  We hadn't had our fill yet, so I shoveled for our next door neighbor and Linus tackled her lawn.  He liked pretending that he was Thomas clearing snow from the train track and I was both of his coaches, Annie and Clarabel.  Then we went inside and I got him started on an art project while I worked on Christmas cards.  I cut out wreath shapes from construction paper (he chose orange) and he decorated them with stickers and coloring. 

After lunch we went to the mall.  He hasn't been there since last winter.  He was a delightful shopping companion for much of the trip.  He was mesmerized by the glass elevator and all of the pretty decorations.  His favorite shop window had motorized decorations.  Two were the kind that work using magnets:  an ice skating rink with skaters and one was a sledding hill with sledders zooming down it.  The shop also had a window with a train going around a Christmas tree, but it wasn't working until the shop keeper took pity on Linus and got it going again.  We were there a very long time watching the displays, but I couldn't afford to buy anything in the store. They had argyle socks in Linus' size (wouldn't that be cute?!), but I couldn't justify paying the asking price.  Maybe they'll be super cheap in January.  

On the way home from shopping he fell asleep in the car holding his stuffed Santa.  He received the Santa for his first Christmas from my friend Pat.  When we got it out with the holiday decorations yesterday I was instantly reminded of sitting across from Pat at Kavarna having lunch.  Linus was eight months old and sitting on our laps while we visited.  He was delighted when I pulled it out of the box.  

Here are some recent quotes from him:

Talking about one of his cars, "This is where gas goes so it can drive and breathe."

He was playing swimming pool and said, "The water is cold. I'm going to get polar bear."  He came back from his room with snowy owl and polar bear and said, "I got them because they both like to be cold."

He was coloring on some paper and all of a sudden announces that it is for grandma and grandpa.  A few minutes later I find him trying to open the front door.  He told me, "Hang it up so letter carrier can take it and put it in his van and go to grandma and grandpa."

He put on his snail necklace and said, "I'm wearing it!  It's so pretty!"

"I'm excited about Thanksgiving. We get to have rolls!"

Today he said, "I like turmeric because it's yummy and good for me."

Snowy Day

Saturday morning we woke up to find snow on the ground. He rushed to eat breakfast so we could go play in it before it melted.  It actually stayed around for a couple of days.  We bundled Linus up in his new snow pants.  Previous to this winter he has had snow suits.  He looked like a big kid in the snow pants.  The playground was a completely different experience with snow on the slide and jungle gym part.  We tried to get him to go down the snowy slide, but he refused. I could understand why when I climbed up there. It was so slippery up there.  The snow was wet enough to make snow balls, which never happens here.  Linus thought it was fun to play catch with them.  The best part was making snow angels.  He looked so cute backing up and then flopping down.

Snow Angel Lesson

I'm especially tickled by the way Linus backs up so much, says, "Plop," as he flops down, and how his legs go up in the air.  Too cute!  We got enough wet snow that the three of us went to the park and pretended we were in Wisconsin.