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.