Christmas Toys

One month into winter, and we're glad to be living in the South. Most of the time we've been in the 50's and 60's so far. Lots of rain though. Makes for some dark and dreary days.

Thomas and Nancy love the new swing set they got for Christmas. Thomas has become a master pumper, which is fine by me. One can only do so many underdogs for a kid as big as he is. Nancy, who has yet to accomplish proficiency with pumping, has taken to the glider. It's fun to watch her ride that thing to its maximum height, wind whipping her little mop of curls, her nervous smile stretching from ear to ear. Charlie likes to climb the ladder--at least to the first rung. Then he screams. Can't go farther up, can't get back down. He is also very grateful to Grandpa and Grandma Baker for purchasing a bucket swing for him. Thomas and Nancy have fun pushing him, which is great for Laura and me, and he's also content to just hang there for awhile.

Thomas has been obsessively playing with his Lego Batman set and Lego Batman video game that he got for Christmas. As a result of all this extra Batman exposure, his already-pretty-good drawings of the Caped Crusader have really become quite impressive. Thomas recently celebrated the 100th day of kindergarten by dressing up as a 100-year-old man. At first he was very hesitant about coloring his hair white--he wouldn't believe me that old men have white hair (or no hair--but Laura wasn't in to the idea of shaving his head) until I verified this by showing him several pictures of old men, at which point he happily let Laura smother his locks in white eye shadow (by the way, white eye shadow is apparently a thing).

Nancy has been enjoying her new barbies and accessories and legos that she got for Christmas.

But one of her favorite gifts is the pink bubble gum Santa left in her stocking. She is especially fond of begging for the gum, then despite all of our warning and pleading, sticking the chewed-up slimy stuff to her toys or the carpet. You'd think I would learn and quit giving it to her. But Nancy has magical powers to get me to do anything for her. Her latest speaking troubles include all things past-tense (for example, "goeded," as in "I goeded to the store with Mommy!" or "gotted," as in "I gotted on top of the table!") and the "ch" "j" "dr" sounds all making the same "sh." As in, "Sharlie got shressed in his shammies!"

Sharlie's latest trick is to initiate chasing Nancy. He screams at her and they run in circles. He also enjoys a good dance party, where he grabs my hand and grabs Nancy's hand and we dance in circles.
For Christmas he got a little toy keyboard/bells thing that he attacks with serious vigor with his little mallet. Sometimes he feels extra creative and moves to the piano, standing up on the bench, shuffling up and down the keyboard and pounding the keys, squealing with delight. But possibly the best thing he does lately is to grab any nearby book, open it up, plop himself down, and just jabber away as he looks at the pages. Brilliant!

We'd like to give a special thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Baker for spending Christmas with us, and for spoiling the kids with all of the aforementioned Christmas presents (except for the swing set--that was the kids' genius father's idea), such that every Christmas yet to come will surely be a disappointment in comparison. 😁

See more pictures and videos here!