Christmas

- Emily had bought "Santa Claus socks" -- red socks with a Santa design on them -- to wear on Christmas Day. Thought the kids would be into them. They were: Jack saw them on Christmas Eve and, enchanted, wore them for the next day or so.

- Emily found the "Elf on the Shelf," a tradition where an elf from Santa Claus would show up on different places in the house each morning in December, then disappear overnight (to report to Santa) and return somewhere the next morning, for the kids to find him. Jack especially was into the challenge of finding him each day.

- Late Christmas Eve, after the kids were in bed, built the art table for their play room with my Dad. That was nice.

- Christmas morning, we were sleeping/setting up in the living room. Still dark. Jack awake, padding about upstairs, talking with Nana. I look up, and he's peeking around the corner of the landing. "Wait!" I say. "Not yet." Jack, evidently feeling the need to elaborate: "I"m just so excited to open my presents!"

- They dove through their stockings. Kate: "Look, Jack! Oh, it's Jessie! It's Jessie, Jack!" (From Toy Story.) Jack saw his Bey Blades and I think he gave a little shriek of delight. At one point, they disappeared. Where'd they go? I asked. Oh, the playroom, said Emily. I went down, and they were sitting at the table and chairs we'd built the previous night, pulling out markers and paper and crayons.

- Baba picked out a model police car for Jack to build. He and Jack worked on it together. At the end, there were a bunch of decals to put on, which Jack did with his own unique style.

- Aunt Linda had given us a couple of cute stocking gifts, including tiny windup robots that danced. Jack wound them up, had them dance, and danced goofily with them. A riot.

- Nana read Kate "If you're happy and you know it." Kate did everything with great exuberance, clapping, spinning around, stamping her feet.

- Jack was so excited to get the "How to Train Your Dragon" DVD. "Oh thank you thank you thank you!" You've got to love the appreciation.

- Late in the day, after presents and dinner, I was in the kitchen cleaning up. Kate walked in. "Can we open more presents?" she said hopefully.

- Kate got a couple of dollies, asked me to play with them with her. I did. She asked, "Do you love my dollies? Do you? Do you love them?" Yes, Kate, I do love them.

- One of Jack's presents was a wooden snake that came with paints, so he could make it colorful. He asked if he could paint it a couple of days after Christmas. I needed to work, but said the heck with it, sure, you bet Jack. We went down to the playroom and I spread newspaper out on the table, opened the paints. He took the little thin brushes and held the little snake so carefully, the brushes so carefully, painted every inch of it, red and green with silver glitter glue. I just sat there watching him, concentrating as he worked, seeming so intent, focused, big.

swimming

Took Jack swimming at the Y today. His lessons had ended last week, but it had become a Wednesday routine, and they say kids love routines. Dads too.

We got there, changed, headed out to the pool. Jack grabbed a barbell-like floaty thing and headed into the water. I hadn't gone with him since before his lessons began. So it was pretty cool the stuff he was willing to do, now.

He jumped off the edge of the pool, floated on his back, swam on his front, put his face in the water. Raced me (with the barbell thing). Gave it up 10 feet from the edge of the pool and did a fairly ungainly scoop and paddle to the edge. Floated more on his back. Splashed about on his front. Jumped off the edge again, went under, bobbed up. Not afraid, not nervous. Didn't care that he didn't have a floaty belt on.

Nice to see.

Afterward we showered (he loved the warm water, didn't want to leave...I think we're scrapping baths for showers from now on), got dressed, went to the grocery store, got gas, got Kate. Came home and had French toast for dinner. Watched some of Rudolph, and they both went to bed.

funny jack

- jack and i were walking home from school the other day.

jack said, "i've been eating all of my carrots, and i STILL cant see in the dark! After you left the room last night, i looked at my hand" -- he held his hand out for effect -- "and i couldnt see it!"

yesterday, walking home, we saw a squirrel's body on the road. we'd seen it the past couple of days, and i decided it was time to mention it. Do you think he's sleeping? i asked. jack said, "No, he isn't, he's DEAD." Uh, i dunno, maybe he's sleeping, Jack... "He's FLAT. he's not 'sleeping.' he's DEAD. He's flat, Daddy."

Made me laugh.

Xmas Prep

Kate was home sick today, but there was a lot to do anyway, so we kept busy.

- Went to CVS to get her prescription for amoxycillin (probably misspelled). She has strep. Couldn't find a quarter in the car to feed the meter, so I spent some time looking. Told Kate that Mommy didn't leave me any quarters. "Mommy didn't leave you any quarters!" she said sympathetically.

- In the store, she walked up to a random shelf. "I get medicine, Daddy. I get medicine." She started pulling things off the shelf. Oops.

- We headed to the grocery store. Kate wanted to ride in the cart, and did. She said, "We get coffee? We get fyoot?" (fruit) "We get sooweeall?" (cereal)

- Came home and Kate had her medicine. Spat it all down the front of her shirt. My jaw dropped. After 10-15 minutes of pleading and yelling and cajoling, she finally took a dose. Said, "I like medicine!"

- She ate lunch. Halfway through she said, "I'm ready for my nap." She napped.

- We went to get Jack. Spent 10 minutes looking through the lost and found, again, for his winter hat. Jack also said he wanted to show me something. He walked us into the school, all the way down the hallway, to show me Christmas decorations in this big storage box. He walked us right over to it and opened it up. "See these? Aren't they cool? Can we buy them?" Woman nearby said, those will be for sale at the holiday boutique next week. I said, um, Jack, not now.

- Jack saw Aunt Cathy and stopped, set down his backpack, opened it, and gave her a Hanukah card he'd made.

- We came home and put up Christmas decorations on the lawn. The kids admired them. Kate went out and stood on the sidewalk. "Hi snowman! Hi Rudolph! Happy Christmas!" Jack corrected her. "It's MERRY Christmas," he said.

- We came inside and read "The Grinch." Then they watched The Grinch while I put up more decorations. Then they bundled up again and came out to admire the decorations some more.

- They set up the Playmobil Nativity scene. Kate walked over to me at one point and held up her hand. "I have rings," she said. I didn't understand her at first. "Rings," she said. She was wearing the little hair pieces of the figures. They did a pretty nice job setting it up; I was relieved that they put the Baby Jesus in the manger. Last year I think Jack put the donkey in there.

- Emily read Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to them. Multiple times.

- We had dinner, and then dug out the Christmas CDs. Emily played her favorite, Jack made critical noises. Then they played The Muppets CD, and were happy.

- Jack read a Charlie Brown book to himself. Slowly, carefully sounding out each word. Then said, "Daddy! You've got to see this funny joke! Her EARMUFFS are too tight! Of COURSE she can't hear!"

- Put Kate to bed and kissed Jack goodnight. It had been a day.