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.

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a delightful celebration with Martha and Bill for the second year in a row.  Linus asked me several times why we were going to their house and I told him we were going to have a Thanksgiving feast with them.  Before we headed out to their place that morning Linus asked about the feast and I guess he thought we would eat the second we got there.  Shortly after we arrived he asked me about the feast again.  

I hung a guest towel in the bathroom that I cross stitched a number of years ago with a mouse in a pilgrim outfit.  Linus asked me what we were going to dress up as.  When I told him we don't wear costumes for Thanksgiving he wanted to know why the mouse was wearing one.  Then he wanted to know about Pilgrims.  I told him that a long time ago Pilgrims came to North America on a ship called the Mayflower.  I edited down all the details to this version of events: They got caught here in the winter time and didn't have enough food and many became sick. In the spring some American Indians taught them how to grow gardens and the next fall they celebrated together because they had enough food.  Apparently this was enough of an answer for him this year.

I told Linus he could try some turkey at dinner, but he declined.  He did, however, have both apple and pumpkin pie for dessert.  After dinner Bill put on some music and we danced around together with scarves.  He was asleep within five minutes of being in the car to head home.  He was really tuckered out.  I got him into jammies and then he played for a while.  After he ate a few leftover rolls, he came to me and asked to go to bed.  I can't recall that ever happening before!  When we went to bed we could hear him snoring very loudly in the next room.

Shrinky Dinks

Linus made his first shrinky dink yesterday.  He chose to do a snail pendant. I traced the picture and he colored it with colored pencils. We punched the hole in it together.  I asked if he wanted to turn it into a zipper pull or necklace and he chose necklace.  He selected the beads and slid many of them on without help.  We did a few of them together and he pointed out, "We're working together. We're a team."  He also told me I did a good job.  He wanted to spell a word with the letter beads. We didn't have an "S" so we couldn't spell Linus or snail.  He then told me he wanted to spell "me."  He is very proud of it and showed it off to his friend Chase.

We've had two play dates at home in the last week and he and his friends have played very well together.  The moms and I intervened hardly at all and Linus gives his friends hugs when they leave.  One of the best things about play dates at home is how excited Linus gets. He stands on the couch and watches out the window for his friend.  As soon as he sees them he starts squealing and runs to the door. Linus is playing with Chase and Barrett for the most part.  We don't have play dates with Lucero any more because I find her mom to be too taxing.

Project

One day last week Linus took his scissors and a ball of yarn downstairs. Then he came back up to get his little chair.  I asked him what he was doing and he said, "A project. I'm making Thomas." I continued doing dishes and then my mother's intuition kicked in and I thought I'd better go see what he was up to with those scissors.  He was cutting the yarn into many pieces.  I suggested he do it upstairs by me, but he said he had to do it downstairs.  While he was cutting he said, "I'm being careful. I won't cut my pants."  This was a risk as you can see from his technique.  Then he took some of the yarn pieces into my craft room and brought Winthrop and Bee in for a sewing lesson.  I watched him proceed to sit at my sewing machine, put down the presser foot, and pretend to sew a Thomas.  (He is all about Thomas and those trains these days.)  Then he made a Percy, James, and Skarloey.  He kept referring to it as "my Skarloey project."  Can you tell he hears about projects from me all of the time?

Singer/Songwriter

Due to the low light level and the poor video performance of the digital camera, the quality of this isn't that great. On the other hand, Linus makes up for it with his cuteness and talent.

First Snow 2008

I find it laughable to look at this picture today because that first snowfall last week melted by day's end and yesterday we had a record-breaking high of 78 degrees.  Lest the Wisconsin folks think I'm lording over you with this, I'm not; I'm actually quite annoyed that I'm sweating outside one week before Thanksgiving.  I'm pestered by the yard work that still needs to be done and I have no excuse to put it off until spring because it is nice enough to work outside.  

We went for a pleasant walk in the neighborhood to look at everything with snow on it.  When we got cold we came home and had hot chocolate together.  Linus asked why and I told him that it is fun to have hot chocolate after playing outside in snow.  He accepted that answer.  

A woman at the grocery store was laughing at me while she listened to Linus' constant stream of questions.  We ended up at the check out together and she asked how old he is. When I told her he is 2 1/2 she said, "I can tell."  She got a kick out of it.  I'm so used to hearing him ask me why that when I say things to him I immediately start thinking of an answer, even when he doesn't actually ask why.

Leaf Prints

I've been working on improving my Colorado bread making skills.  I'm finally starting to see some improvement in that my last batch turned out more than two inches tall.  Linus is getting better and better at putting the ingredients into the mixer without spilling as much.  He likes to knead the dough a bit. He thinks it is fun to leave his hand prints in it.  

While the bread was rising we went for a walk around the neighborhood to gather leaves for a fun painting activity.  We painted the leaves and pressed them on paper. He had fun smearing paint all over and specifically made one of the pages for Matthew.  

One of Linus' pretend games lately is to act like he is going to work.  He'll announce to me, "I'm going to work at the farm!"  I'll tell him to have a nice day and then he goes through the motions of driving there on his trike.  He still doesn't know how to pedal so he sits on it and talks about driving to work and some people getting off the bus at their stop.  Today he pretended to feed the farm animals sugar, which was really sand from his sand table. Other times he talks about having to go to meetings.

At the Model Train Show

Road Construction

Linus received the most wonderful and complete set of wooden blocks from his grandparents.  They have brought him nothing but joy and delight since they arrived in the mail.  He loves to build roads more than anything else.  He plans out detailed routes and narrates the building process down to the tiniest minutiae.  He puts on a pretend hard hat and then sets up ramps, curves, and parking lots.  At times he uses his wooden lock box to be a destination to which the pig car drives home.  He sets up a road every day and then he and Matthew put it away before bed time.

For obvious reasons, this has been a big week.  I'm still giddy that Obama won the presidency and I'm feeling so much more proud to be an American.  I also made a point to tell Linus that hopefully by the time he is grown up, men can marry men and women can marry women.  The passage of Proposition 8 in California saddens me great deal.  It conflicts greatly with Obama's win.  The Personhood Amendment was soundly defeated here in Colorado.  I can't believe I am still fighting the battle over a woman's right to choose. I've been fighting this since I was 18 years old.  I hope by the time Linus is 18 it is no longer an issue.

Leading up to my birthday Linus told me, "We are hiding your presents because it is a secret. We wrapped the book so you can't see it."  All in all, he did a good job of keeping the presents a secret from me.  

2008 Presidential Election

I voted by mail last week and I was so emotional as I drew the line to vote for Obama.  I've never photographed my ballot before, but this one seems so significant.  I'll be working at a poll all day tomorrow and sending Obama vibes to each and every voter who shows up.  The messages of this campaign are messages I want to pass on to Linus.

We are the ones that we've been waiting for.  There is nothing false about hope.  We can repair this world.  Yes we can.

On a lighter note, I was complaining about Republicans recently to Matthew and rather than using an expletive I said, "Grrrr."  The next time Linus heard the word Republican he said, "Grrrrr."  That's my boy!

Autumnal Chores

We raked leaves together Friday morning.  The weather has been very pleasant and our neighborhood gets a golden glow from the sunlight shining through the yellow leaves.  The little boy from across the street came over with his mom. She and I visited while the boys raked leaves together and jumped into them.  Linus got very upset when I started bagging the leaves up.  I had to explain a couple of times that we need to bag them up for the city to compost them.  The bags are huge!  The first time I asked Linus if I could put him in one he declined.  Then he let me do it about a half hour later.  When we went into the house a bunch of leaf bits came out of the cuffs in his pants and I was pulling leaves out of my shirt.

Candy Stupor