Saturday: boxing day

It really seems as though should be called unboxing day.

We took out/put away many of the presents today.  There are still some in boxes to spread out the fun.  We played quite a bit of pirate ship.  The ship has a name... and I can't believe I can't remember it now.  It seems like the first real name that Isaac has given something.  (As in, it isn't called "Ship" or "Shippy").  The name starts with a B.  Maybe Bucky?  We also pulled out an alligator whose eyes keep coming out (by design).  I've liked the addition of the alligator.  I feel as though attacking, and possibly killing, mean animals not unethical.  Attacking and killing mean people toes the line, so we don't do it in our house.  But Isaac knows it happens and yeah...

The package was also missing the projectiles and the flag.  So I contacted Fisher Price.  (This is the second time, by the way, and I've been very happy with their customer service both times.)  Here is the fun response we got.

"I'm so sorry that your flag was captured and your pirates are out of ammunition! I know how important it is they get back to their sea adventures, so I'm sending you out a new flag, some projectiles, some extra swords, and even a couple of extra guys to join your crew. You should be ready for the high seas in no time!

The captain is sailing over with everything now, so he should be there within 7 days!"

Friday: Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

We started out the day by discovering that the animals finally found Jesus.  Isaac took a few additional pictures too.

We opened some presents as a family.

We went to Ben's parents' house and had brunch and opened presents.

Joshua was very excited to have his own alphaberry.

 Isaac's favorite was the pirate ship.

Playing the the paper was also a lot of fun!!

The whole day was excellent and truly merry, but my favorite part was at the end.

They went around and around and around.  Sometimes Isaac joined them and sometimes Isaac was a half lap behind singing "We wish you a Merry Christmas".  It was so cute.  At one point everyone stopped following Joshua and he turned around with a puzzled look on his face, wondering why no one was behind him.

Thursday: Joshua

Joshua has really had a change in personality this week.

*He has sat with previously unliked grandparents.  (They found out the way to his heart is through food and exploited it.)
*He started waving to everyone, even strangers in the grocery store.
*He blew kisses to his grandparents.
*He started saying mommy instead of mama
*He started saying choo-choo.
*He identified three different trains.  (One in a book, one mega-block one, and a duplo one.)
*After identifying the choo-choo in the book, he went around to all the grandparents and told them it was a choo-choo.  I've never seen him so social before.

It's been fun and cute.

Wednesday: leaves

Well, we finally finished our raking today.  Our neighbors have some trees that don't lose their leaves until about two months after normal trees.  It was slightly wet but rather warm.  We were all in light coats without hats.

Tuesday: pictures

It turns out that camels like pomegranates.

...so much so that they sneak into your refrigerator to be close to them.  (It even happened that Isaac found the camel and he is rarely the first person in the fridge in the morning!)


This happened when Isaac decided to clean the front of the refrigerator and Joshua decided to stack the groceries.  It was loud and messy.  I don't actually mind the grocery stacking, but coupled with the magnets it was a bit much.

I do really, really love my kids, but I also enjoy being away from them.  I pondered that quite a bit today and decided it is just one of life's paradoxes.  And I'm ok with that.

Tuesday: houses and movies

We made graham cracker houses today.  Well, Isaac and I did.  Joshua just ate the ingredients.

He was too busy eating in the picture below to look at me.

This evening we brought Isaac to his first movie, The Good Dinosaur.  He got some money for Christmas and said that he wanted a movie or maybe dinosaurs.  So we got this one in before it left theaters.  (It wasn't really that good.  The plot was pretty standard.  Not bad...just not great.  However, prices dropped at the Star, so we were pleasantly surprised about that.)

Isaac did well at the movie and seemed to enjoy it, although there were some scary parts.

Sunday: double squish