Merry Christmas!

 This has been a nice Christmas.  I invited Thea over for Christmas eve dinner because I knew she didn't have plans and felt terrible that she'd have to spend Christmas alone.  I figured covid wasn't worth making a poor woman be alone on Christmas.  I'm glad we invited her because it was really nice to have her join us.  We had a big dinner thanks to Kelly and acted out the nativity scene (Bella was shepherd, Christian was sheep, Kelly was Joseph and narrator, Thea was inn keeper, I was Mary, Benjamin was wiseman, and Peter was baby Jesus for a second year).  Peter was squirmy in his role as Jesus at first, but I said, "Peter, can you just sit still with me for a little while?" and he did!  I never thought that would work, but he sat completely still from that point on until I told him he could get up.  Then we read the classic poem A Visit From St. Nicholas by Clement Moore and listened to part of the Christmas sermon from Ward Presbyterian that I'd heard on Sunday and really liked, and then we all played Family Feud together.  It was a lot of fun.

Christmas morning the kids woke us up at 7am excited as could be to open presents.  Benjamin got socks, underwear, jeans, sweatshirts, a fitbit watch, candy, money, and blue light glasses.  Bella got chalk pastels, charcoal pencils, an Xacto knife, a sleeping bag, a blanket, a pocket knife, sweatshirt, card game, candy, and money.  Christian got Addidas flip flops, church pants, pocket knife, board game, dot to dot books, candy and money.  Everyone was very happy.  After presents we had our traditional ham, cheese, and egg on croissants and went out to play in the snow.  We shoveled our driveway and Barb's driveway and made snow angels.  Christian wanted to play tic-tac-toe in the snow, so we crawled all over our yard drawing game after game in the freshly fallen snow.  Sadly it was too powdery to build anything out of it.

Since then we've mostly been busy playing board games and card games, taking care of all the neighbor's pets while they're on vacation (daily visits to 3 homes - 2 cats, 1 dog), playing Christmas songs on the piano, and Kelly has been enamored with the marble set we got for Peter.  Peter loves the marbles and loves watching them roll, but it's Kelly who has spent a lot of time building.  Sadly, this set is terribly flimsy and Peter is constantly knocking Kelly's beautiful creations to the ground as he places the marbles into the tubes.  I'm frustrated by the cheap construction of such an expensive set.  Kelly doesn't seem to mind, though.  He's loved spending time with Peter building and when they break, it's just an excuse to build it again.  We've also been watching Christmas movies such as Elf, Noelle, The Santa Clause, Christmas Chronicles,  Home Alone, and The Grinch and reading Christmas books, such as The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson and The Last Holiday Concert by Andrew Clements.

The biggest Christmas surprise this year was an offer by Kelly's parents to use their time share next week.  They aren't going and don't want it to go to waste, so we're off to Cancun, Mexico on Saturday.  We debated back and forth about the wisdom of traveling during a pandemic, but how do you pass up a free resort stay in Mexico??  Airfare is 1/2 price right now and the kids have online school so they wouldn't be missing anything.  Plus, we'll just be on the beach and in our private condo as isolated as we are here in Michigan, so we're going.  I'm nervous and excited.  It'll be fun but oh so much preparation and work to make it all happen with a 1 year old!  Warm weather, here we come.

Christmas Trees

We finally set up all our trees this week.  I made sure to accompany the set up with a fun new toy for Peter so he was busy with that while we put up all the ornaments.  It worked really well and now the tree has been up for 3 days and still he hasn't broken a single thing.  It's a miracle.  My older kids broke an ornament a day every year.

We decided to put a little tree up in Peter's room with no fragile things, Christian wanted a tree on his dresser in his room that he decorated all by himself, and then we have our main tree in the living room.  It really is wonderful what a festive spirit the tree, twinkling with lights, brings to a room.

Every year I'm amazed how much more independence the kids show as they set everything up.  Other than the tree itself and the lights and tinsel on the high branches, I didn't have to do a thing.  I just enjoyed watching Bella and Christian do it.  They love unpacking each ornaments and remembering when they got it or where it's from.  Benjamin was busy with minecraft and didn't want to participate, but I made him come in and help me with the lights at one point in the hope that he would stay, but he didn't. 

Christian loves to give Peter shoulder rides, but Peter has started wanting to hold onto Christian's face.  It looked so funny the other day that I had to take a few pictures.  Unfortunately for Christian it wasn't as funny as it looked. Peter grabbed so hard that his little toddler fingernails grabbed right into this gums and left his mouth bloody!  He's taking a break from shoulder rides for a while.

Build it Up and Tear it Down

We never miss an opportunity to play in freshly fallen snow.  We got only a little snow compared with areas farther east, but it was just enough for Christian to construct a snow wall as a defense in a snowball fight.  He (and later Bella too) used the recycling bin to form the blocks.  Bella, he and I all had snow shovels and shoveled our yard clean in an attempt to gather enough snow for the wall.  I felt rather foolish shoveling the grass but it was for a good cause.  Once the mini wall was built, Christian sat atop his wall in all his Trump-ish glory and Bella fanned him with her snow shovel like a slave would fan a Pharaoh.  All plans to use it as protection in a snowball fight vanished.  

After fanning Christian, Bella wanted a turn at the seat of honor.  She thought Peter might like to sit with her, but he was not in agreement.  

Within seconds of being done, Christian suggested destroying it.  Bella readily agreed.  I voiced the only dissenting vote as I exclaimed, "Wait!?  What?!  I just shoveled the whole backyard to make that!"  They were unsympathetic.  They hacked and kicked and jumped and in no time, the wall was reduced to snow rubble.  They declared that the destruction was every bit as fun as the construction.  After that they laid down to rest and caught snowflakes on their tongues.

After they'd rested, Christian played with Peter for a while.  Peter most enjoyed being pushed around the yard on the shovel.  I really need to get the sleds down out of the attic!

Yesterday the weather was wet and cold in a slushy, rainy, snowy way and Christian lacked all desire to go outside.  So we designed an indoor exercise activity.  Using varying treadmill speeds, varying bag locations, and varying jump styles, we created what will certainly be a new olympic event.  I kind of stunk at it but Christian was the champ.  I found I have a little too much self preservation instinct to allow myself to fly through the air as he does.  He makes it look easy, but I found I had some inner hesitations that were hard to overcome.  I had some decent jumps but Christian went home with the gold medal.  Here's a small sample.

Today we decorated our much anticipated gingerbread houses while watching church.  I hadn't planned to make one, but Benjamin got bored early with his and told me I could work on it with him.  Once I started, then everyone had ideas and his house became the family project.  His house got a swimming pool for the gummy bears, a frosting tree, a gum drop modern art statue and a whole field of pine trees, not to mention all that got added to the house itself.  Everyone was quite proud of how it turned out.  Then immediately they decided that it had been so fun to destroy their snow wall, why not their gingerbread house?  I was shocked they didn't want to leave it for even an hour!  Bella saved hers but was more than happy to join in the destruction of the others.  Sprinkles went flying, everyone was laughing, and in no time at all, they were reduced to crumbs.  They are psychos.  There can be no other explanation. :)

More Christmas Merriment

One of our favorite things to do is to paint/draw on our sliding glass door according to the season.  We repaint it every couple months according to holidays and our mood.  Yesterday we decided to paint it for Christmas.  Christian and Bella had a great time, however Bella got frustrated once Peter decided to join in.  He loved the idea of drawing on the window but wasn't happy to draw on the other side by himself.  He wanted to join right in with theirs.  Christian took it in stride as he scribbled and finger printed along the bottom of the picture, but artist Bella got so upset.  She ended up refusing to continue once he'd been at it for a while and Christian and I finished up.  In the end, I call it a success.  Today he saw the picture and remembered and wanted to draw some more.  This time I was able to convince him to draw on the other window. :) 

Sunday we we'd planned to decorate gingerbread houses.  Benjamin was excited about it and came into the kitchen asking about it.  The other two, however, realized that after all those cookies, they were no longer in the mood.  Thus gingerbread houses got postponed until next Sunday.  We decided to paint ornaments instead.  Everyone enjoyed it to a point.  The boys got frustrated that their finished products never looked like the image they had in their minds.  Bella ended up making most of them, but everyone had a fun time.  I'm excited when we put up the tree, to place our new ornaments on it.  We're holding off on the tree due to Peter and our cat who has a penchant for eating (and subsequently vomiting) the pine needles.  We'll put it up a few days in advance.

Just a few more cute pictures of Peter.  He found our headlamps and happily walked around with his own. 

  He joined us for a card game. 

Bella was doing some brainteaser puzzles with Christian that employed coins.  Afterwards she forgot to put the container away.  In addition, she left her water glass standing next to it.  Peter spied an opportunity.  I was cooking dinner when I heard the sound of coins being poured out.  I looked to see him pouring them into her glass.  As I hurried over, he picked up the glass and poured it all over the table and floor.  I turned to grab a towel and tried to get back to the table, during which time he decided to swipe his arm back and forth, shooting any water and coins left on the table all around the room!  The storms were coming faster than I could react!  In just a few seconds he had created a widespread wet disaster and I was powerless to stop it.  That's when I decided to give up and just take a picture.  He continued to swipe with reckless abandon and laughed and laughed the entire time.  It was really hysterical.  In the end, he helped me dry up the water and clean up the coins back into the container.  

He stopped momentarily when he saw I was taking a picture (guilty little face), but then he continued to swipe and laugh.

Cleanest Painting Ever

 I'd heard about "painting with water" with toddlers before, but I'd never tried it.  I always have washable paint so I figured it's no big deal.  However, given Peter's reticence to use paint, I thought I'd give water a chance.  I got a piece of construction paper that readily changes color when wet, some brushes and some water.  Peter first tried to drink the water and dumped half of it on himself, but I showed him what I'd really intended and he caught on right away.  We painted in the morning before nap time and again in the afternoon when he saw the brushes and asked to do it again.  He had a wonderful time experimenting with different brush strokes and different size brushes.  He also loved the little spiky balls I had in the box.  I hadn't intended him to use them, but he loved dropping them in the water, fishing them out, and rubbing them on the paper.  The best part of the whole thing for me was that I simply threw away the paper, wiped a towel across the countertop and cleanup was done!

I've been trying really hard to make sure the time I spend with Peter is quality time.  It's so hard with everyone home all day long.  I am drawn in a million directions and the amount of time I have to focus solely on him is so small compared to the time I had with the others when they were little.  I'm always busy helping with homework or piano or making food or even just spending time reading to or talking with someone.  Even when I'm sitting with Peter reading or playing, I'm constantly being interrupted. Yesterday I was interrupted 3 times during the course of 1 little board book! Given that there are three older ones and only one little one, even if I give equal time to each, that's still 3:1 where I'm doing something in which he really cannot participate.  We try as best we can, such as when I'm playing a card game with Bella and Christian, I give the jokers to Peter so he can sit with us and hold cards and feel included.  When I'm helping with piano, we have him sit on the bench with us and play in the higher octaves out of the way.  However, it doesn't assuage my mom-guilt that he doesn't get enough attention.  When I was pregnant I always pictured having those 7 hours/day uninterrupted with him to go places and do things with just the two of us.  I feel sad all the time that we can't do that more.  I do realize that allowing him to play independently is valuable and good for him and I'm not saying I think I need to be with him 24/7.  However, I still mourn the loss of the activities I so enjoyed with the other kids at this age and so I try hard to find other quality things to do together with him at home at least once/day.

Christian recently received some hand-me-down games from a friend of mine whose son didn't like them and he has been having a blast with them.  One was a kit to build an electronic model of a spider.  Initially he was frustrated because it was complicated but we sat down together and worked through it.  He was so excited when it crawled across the table.  "I built that!  Look, it moves and I built it!" he kept saying.  I can't believe I didn't think to take a picture.  Here's the online pic.

Another gift he got was a marble track game that goes on a tray which you tilt back and forth and make the marble follow a run you design.  It was okay, but I thought it would be more fun on a wall or the fridge and make the marble run down the track with gravity.  So we superglued the pieces together so they would keep the ball from rolling off the front and Christian has been playing with it for days.  At one point all three boys were actively engaged in designing the track - quite a feat around here to get all three in one activity.  Of course, as soon as I pulled out the camera, Peter lost interest and Benjamin saw me and jumped out of the picture (so he thought!).  Trust me, it was cool to see them all so focused together.  It warmed my mother heart. :)

I've been trying to do at least one Christmas-y thing every day.  Today we decorated Christmas cookies.  I only started doing this last year because I always hated all the sugar and junk (and money on sprinkles,etc.) this activity employs.  However, last year I realized how much Bella LOVES decorating cakes and cookies and I'd tried to enroll her in a cookie decorating class.  Sadly the class didn't have enough participants and got cancelled so I felt bad and said we'd decorate some at home instead.  Turns out it was a blast!  I know so painfully little about how to do it well, but YouTube helped and we had a great time.  This year I learned a little more and we did it again.  When Covid passes, we'll try again with classes, but it's been nice to do it together.  We spent two hours today decorating cookies.  Long after Christian said, "Okay, I'm all decorated-out!" and left, she went on and on.  The result was pretty impressive.

In case you're wondering, Benjamin didn't join us.  This is what he was doing and he wouldn't be drawn away.  

It made me sad.  I know he would have enjoyed decorating.  It's hard when he's always so obsessed with the screen that he puts it before all other activities. Tomorrow is Sunday so minecraft will be on pause and he'll hopefully join us for gingerbread houses.  That's another thing I put off for a long time because I hated all the sugar and because they always made one in school.  Then two of the three grew out of that school and I felt obligated to take over.  I haven't regretted it.  The kids almost never eat any of it because they are too proud of it to destroy it and it's a lot of fun to do.

Getting Out the Nativity

 Today we got out the kids' nativity set.  Peter was delighted.  He and Christian played for quite a while and Peter then continued on his own.  I actually got him to wear a santa hat for a few seconds while he was distracted playing and it was so cute.  

Otherwise, he's been a bit challenging these last 3 days.  He's been waking up and crying a lot at night again and he's been having crying fits during the day for no apparent reason.  It's so good to have the older kids at home to help out with him when I'm tired from dealing with it.  Bella took over at one point and brought him her blanket and Christian's dinosaur and one of his favorite books and read to him.  That calmed him down and made for a very cute picture.

Tonight we went to the Wayne County lightfest - several miles of Christmas lights along the road side that you drive along for $5/car.  We go every year, drink hot chocolate, and listen to Christmas music as we drive.  This year it was fun to see Peter's reaction.  I wish I could have gotten a picture but he had a great time.  The perfect covid activity.

Another cute picture of Peter just for fun.

Getting Ready for Christmas

 I asked the kids what Christmas season traditions they most enjoyed and wanted to be sure to preserve despite the covid situation.  Top on the list was Advent, then making paper snowflakes, decorating gingerbread houses, going to the Wayne County lightfest, decorating the tree, and watching Christmas movies.  We've been happily working through that list.  Sunday we celebrated the 2nd advent, made paper snowflakes which we hung in our window (as always), and watched the First Presidency's Christmas devotional.  The day prior we watched Home Alone - one of my favorite Christmas movies.  It's been fun getting ready for Christmas.  To me, the lead up to Christmas is the best part.

I always love making paper snowflakes - the geometric artistry of it and the time spent sitting around the table together.  This week we were assigned to attend church virtually, so we made them while watching church.  I noticed after I took this picture, that I snapped it just as Kelly was getting up to sanitize the podium between speakers, so he made it into the picture too! :)

Peter was getting a little bored as we cut, so Bella made him a hat to wear.  

Bella also had a ton of other fun ideas for Sunday afternoon.  We played pictionary with cheerios.  Instead of drawing, we placed cheerios in the shape of something and the others had to guess.  Then we played Don't Eat Pete, a favorite in our house because it allows for copious amounts of cheerios to be eaten.  Finally she suggested we make marshmallow structures.  Benjamin wanted to have a contest to see who could build the highest.  I had a good design, but the marshmallows were so soft that they never held.  Benjamin and Bella went with lots and lots of really small triangles stacked up.  The competition was fierce (notice Benjamin even took off his sweatshirt because he was getting heated in the excitement) but Bella pulled it out in the end.  It was a lot of fun to see them joking with one another and having their friendly competition. 

During our advent celebration, I noticed the all three kids were wearing their black hoodies.  Craziness ensued.  Not sure what they're doing here but it was fun to see them goofing off together.  My favorite was Benjamin - hard to take the gang signs seriously with that little button nose sticking out!

New Toys and The Pumpkin Smashers

 Being stuck at home all the time is hard.  Peter goes days on end without leaving our house and yard.  Other than the grocery store and the playground, he doesn't go anywhere at all.  I was passing by the salvation army on the way home from an errand this week and decided to see if they had any fun toys for him.  Their selection was grim but I found a ride-on toy I knew he would like and a pogo stick for Christian.  The two have had a blast this week playing with their new toys.  Peter hasn't quite mastered going forward on it, but he can push off and roll backwards like a champ.  Luckily he has Christian to push him around forwards and between this toy and the cozy coup car, the two are racing around the house all day long.  It's fun to see them together like that.  I hope Christian takes a long time to outgrow his fun, childlike playfulness.  He's always up for physical, imaginative play.  The other two have a very short attention span for play with Peter, but Christian can entertain him and play with him nearly all day.

Bella and I have been decorating for Christmas and so all the pumpkins needed to go.  I had several small decorative pumpkins and all the ones we'd painted sitting around the living room as decoration.  I took them outside and told Christian he could smash them up so I could place them in the compost bin.  He was so excited.  I don't know who enjoyed it more - Christian or Peter.  Peter was laughing the whole time Christian was smashing.  He loved watching the gourds explode and the seeds fly out.  It was adorable.

Peter still loves to sit in the fridge.  He also loves to mess with people's laptops, so we gave him an old, broken one to play with as his.  Today he dragged the laptop over to the fridge and created his own little office space, complete with rubber band ball.  He sat and typed for several minutes.  I guess he doesn't want to be the only one in the house without an office.