Merry Christmas!

The house has been very giggly today. We got a box in the mail yesterday from our friends the Nevens. It had some cool stacking boxes and a "Dodge Tag" game. There are two vests, each with velcro bulls-eyes on the front. Each person gets three soft balls to throw at the other person. Both boys have really enjoyed playing although so far just with me, not each other. Erik, in particular, gets very, very giggly when we play.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

So we are on two weeks of break from school, and sometimes the days get long. By the time I'm making dinner, my patience can be quite thin. Yesterday, Erik was bugging, bugging, bugging me in the kitchen, not with anything particularly bad, but the cumulative effect finally drove me over the edge. I pushed him out of the kitchen and scolded him. He started to cry, which annoyed me more, because I first assumed he was crying about not getting to be in the kitchen, pestering me. I asked him in exasperation, "Why are you crying?" He said, "Because you yelled at me! And you hurt me!" Talk about a low point in parenting. However, it gave me the chance to model a sincere apology. I told him I was sorry, it sounded like I scared him and I was sorry I hurt him. It's a fine line, I can't expect him to understand my perception of the nuance of the situation: he had behaved badly and wasn't listening, I was justified in my anger, but not in what I did with my anger. I can only hope that although he couldn't understand it now, someday he will be old enough to parse situations like that. I asked him to forgive me, and he did, but I still felt pretty bad about what I'd done.

Tonight while we were playing, he told me I have a tender and loving heart. I truly feel forgiven and washed clean.

Merry Christmas!

Lest you think it's all Hanukkah, and Festivus around here, we are participating in Advent activities as well. Lots of faith based ones like lighting Advent candles, and secular ones like watching Christmas specials. A couple years ago there was one on TV called "Elmo's Christmas Countdown" and I taped it. We watched it several times that year, and last year as well. The kids were so little and/or sensitive that even Charlie Brown's Christmas Special was too hard for them to watch.

But this year, it all changed. We watched Charlie Brown talk to his friends about Discipline! and respecting their Director! We saw him choose his famously pathetic tree.

I found eight specials on You Tube that I favorited to show the kids. There's our clear favorite so far, Wil Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration. We have the book, "The Berenstain Bear's Christmas Tree" but I found a video for it on YouTube, as well. Can't wait to show them that! One I'm saving for Christmas Eve or Day is two hours of the Yule Log burning in someone's fireplace.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Happy Hanukkah!

Adin's preschool/daycare is learning about different December holidays. Today they talked about Hanukkah and made latkes. Adin wanted to know more, so I went to Shalom Sesame and we watched a couple videos. First, we learned about the first Chanukah with Veronica Monica, then we learned about fixing the temple on Extreme Makeover: Temple Edition. I followed some links to a recipe for oven baked latkes, and we are now at the flipping part of the recipe. I'm sure Adin regrets ever asking, but I'm excited about giving them a try.

Oops, I guess flipping latkes is easier when you remember to oil the pan.

Big Cheese Adin

At Adin's new daycare/preschool they have a kid of the week, called "The Big Cheese". They ask the parents to make a poster board of pictures, fill out a survey, and parents can come in and read a book, bring lunch and/or participate in an activity. This week is Adin's turn. Joe selected some photos, which you can see in the background of the first picture.

This morning, Adin was very reluctant to go to Lenox, and to be the Big Cheese. He told me he wasn't big, he was a little cheese. So we started back pedaling and making a much smaller deal out of it. I got to read the book "The Gingerbread Baby" to the kids, which I loved doing. (The teacher took several pictures of me reading!) Then the class made gingerbread houses by taking empty half pint milk cartons, smearing frosting on them, sticking graham crackers to the frosting, and then attaching candy with more frosting. The teachers allowed Erik to stay and make one. That was quite fun to see the way different kids had different strategies. I related to the girl that hoarded as much candy as she possibly could on her plate!

Afterward, Erik and I played a couple minutes, and then left. Adin desperately wanted to leave with us, so that was hard! An hour later his teacher called to say he didn't really get over us leaving, complained of an ear ache and when she took his temp, it was 100.8! So Erik and I returned to pick up Adin and take him to the clinic, where he was diagnosed with a double ear infection! Poor big cheese.

Fortunately, he was well enough that we made it home for: Erik's first playdate with a school friend! He has a buddy from Kindergarten, and has been begging me for months to invite T over for a playdate. I finally called his mom last week and she said T had been requesting the same thing. So today T came over and they got to play superheroes, draw on magnadoodles, play a board game, and 'reminisce'. It was adorable to see them aggressively hug each other and refer to each other as "best buddy". They often would say to each other, 'remember...' and talk about little inside jokes they had from Kindergarten. T has older brothers so it didn't seem to phase him when Erik got a little over excited. T's mom has said several times that they plan to reciprocate and have Erik over, which I'm excited about.

All in all, it's been quite a day!