...without losing sight of the small but precious moments right under your feet.
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For more Wordless Wednesdays, visit
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Wordless Wednesday: Looking Ahead
May you anticipate the forthcoming new year as time rushes forward...
...without losing sight of the small but precious moments right under your feet.
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...without losing sight of the small but precious moments right under your feet.
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Monday, December 28, 2009
The Christmas She Didn't Want Presents
Mommy did not get up at 5:30 a.m. Christmas morning to wrap the last gifts.
She did not have visions of the three of us drinking hot chocolate and eating cinnamon rolls while reading the last Jesse tree devotional, then gathering around to watch Esmé gratefully open her presents while listening to Christmas music.
Esmé had not stayed up til almost midnight the night before, and she did not get up at 7:45 a.m. while Mommy was still trying to make the cinnamon rolls. After all, she is a morning person and does not like getting up early. (Translation: She always gets up at the crack of dawn for fear of missing something, but she is definitely NOT a morning person.)
Mommy did not holler at Pappa to wake up, over and over, to join in the festivities.
Esmé did not insist on watching a DVD upon waking. She of course was delighted to color her Jesse tree coloring page while Mommy read and did not throw it all to the ground and trample on it.
When Mommy gave up on the devotional idea and tried to point Esmé toward the wrapped presents under the minuscule tree, saying she was sure there was a DVD under there somewhere, Esmé did not kick around a pile of presents, saying "I don't want presents! I don't like presents!"
When Esmé finally picked out and unwrapped a Care Bears DVD with a little foam Care Bear included, Pappa did not grouse that he had been awoken to sit around and watch Care Bears.
Esmé did not bring the little Care Bear into the kitchen (where Mommy was finishing the cinnamon rolls) three minutes into the DVD with its head torn off. And of course, Mommy had super glue readily available to glue that cute little head right back on.
The cinnamon roll dough did not turn out flat due to dead yeast. Esmé loves cinnamon rolls and happily ate hers, not requesting any candy. And Mommy did not abandon the hot chocolate idea and drink a Monster instead.
And with all the happiness going on, Mommy snapped lots of Christmas photos, so we are showing you all the happy photos here today!
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Enough Not Me! Things did start to improve. While the cinnamon rolls were baking, Esmé happily helped Mommy make the Happy Birthday Jesus cake, which of course had to be frosted pink. And she was ultimately appreciative of her presents. She just opened them up very slowly - she didn't get through them all until the afternoon. We lounged around and watched DVDs in the morning, then spent sometime outside on (or near) the schoolhouse in afternoon. And the Jesse tree devotional was read, and Esmé enjoyed putting the last ornament up.
Mommy's notes: I initially wasn't going to post anything about this, especially after reading about how wonderful everyone else's Christmases turned out. But it does seem a little funny after the fact, and I figured I should memorialize the time Esmé didn't want presents - who knows when that will happen again?!
I did learn a few things...
She did not have visions of the three of us drinking hot chocolate and eating cinnamon rolls while reading the last Jesse tree devotional, then gathering around to watch Esmé gratefully open her presents while listening to Christmas music.
Esmé had not stayed up til almost midnight the night before, and she did not get up at 7:45 a.m. while Mommy was still trying to make the cinnamon rolls. After all, she is a morning person and does not like getting up early. (Translation: She always gets up at the crack of dawn for fear of missing something, but she is definitely NOT a morning person.)
Mommy did not holler at Pappa to wake up, over and over, to join in the festivities.
Esmé did not insist on watching a DVD upon waking. She of course was delighted to color her Jesse tree coloring page while Mommy read and did not throw it all to the ground and trample on it.
When Mommy gave up on the devotional idea and tried to point Esmé toward the wrapped presents under the minuscule tree, saying she was sure there was a DVD under there somewhere, Esmé did not kick around a pile of presents, saying "I don't want presents! I don't like presents!"
When Esmé finally picked out and unwrapped a Care Bears DVD with a little foam Care Bear included, Pappa did not grouse that he had been awoken to sit around and watch Care Bears.
Esmé did not bring the little Care Bear into the kitchen (where Mommy was finishing the cinnamon rolls) three minutes into the DVD with its head torn off. And of course, Mommy had super glue readily available to glue that cute little head right back on.
The cinnamon roll dough did not turn out flat due to dead yeast. Esmé loves cinnamon rolls and happily ate hers, not requesting any candy. And Mommy did not abandon the hot chocolate idea and drink a Monster instead.
And with all the happiness going on, Mommy snapped lots of Christmas photos, so we are showing you all the happy photos here today!
---------------
Enough Not Me! Things did start to improve. While the cinnamon rolls were baking, Esmé happily helped Mommy make the Happy Birthday Jesus cake, which of course had to be frosted pink. And she was ultimately appreciative of her presents. She just opened them up very slowly - she didn't get through them all until the afternoon. We lounged around and watched DVDs in the morning, then spent sometime outside on (or near) the schoolhouse in afternoon. And the Jesse tree devotional was read, and Esmé enjoyed putting the last ornament up.
Mommy's notes: I initially wasn't going to post anything about this, especially after reading about how wonderful everyone else's Christmases turned out. But it does seem a little funny after the fact, and I figured I should memorialize the time Esmé didn't want presents - who knows when that will happen again?!
I did learn a few things...
- That "unwrap and read a book each night of December idea" that apparently works so well for other families? Didn't work so well for us, since Esmé was jaded with the idea of gifts by Christmas.
- When you work so hard on toning down the materialistic aspect of Christmas throughout the season, you shouldn't expect your little one to be all excited by it...
- Cheap flimsy wrapping paper is best. The expensive metallic kind is hard for little ones to open.
- If she's not a morning person, don't expect her to be one on Christmas day, either.
- Don't hold on to traditions because YOU'VE always done things that way, or because everyone else does things that way. Do whatever works for YOUR family.
- Happy birthday Jesus cake? That's a definite on next year's to-do list.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Wordless Wednesday - Last Minute Special!
Attention, all last-minute shoppers! We've got a special deal going on - with a reduced price! Smile included.
I'm working out a deal with the Claus's. My penguin in exchange for... it's a secret!
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I'm working out a deal with the Claus's. My penguin in exchange for... it's a secret!
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For more Wordless Wednesdays, visit
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Tiny Talk Tuesday & Faces
Esmé at 32 months is talking so much, it's hard to keep track of it all. I get running dialogues like this one while she was wanting me to find her toy camels to play with in the bath:
"I found the dromedaries! They were in my belly button, and I took them out!" (Holds up imaginary speck.) "I looked everywhere for them, and I found them right in my belly button! You can hug them now!"
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And she is already learning how to "fix" the books to suit her purposes. I may have an accounting background, but she did NOT learn this from me!
Esmé gets to pick five books to read before bedtime each night. Last night she handed me seven. We asked her to count them again - only five allowed!
So she counted them out: "1-2-3-4-5-6-------5!"
Nobody said anything about not counting backwards, right? No rules broken, no harm done. (We're working on the alphabet backwards, too.)
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She's very particular about her ice. "I don't like hot ice!"
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Someone brought out a bag of sugar and asked Esmé what it was. Her answer: "It's for the ants!"
Yep - the ants have been feasting on any sugary thing we leave lying around at our house! The one good thing about colder weather is there are fewer of them around.
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She's been tearing around the house, yelling, "I can fly! I can fly!" Rudolph, anyone?
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And Esmé was carrying a "staff" around during one of her impromptu nativity enactments (you never know just what role she'll be playing from moment to moment). I asked if she wanted juice.
"No. Shepherds drink coffee, not juice!"
I have no idea where that one came from. We're not even big coffee drinkers here.
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And here's Esmé's recent Christmas observation after the Christmas party we went to on Friday (hosted by the company I do work for):
"That was the bestest candy cane I ever heard!"
I'm still wondering what the candy cane said to her.
For I Heart Faces, here are some shots of said candy cane and the traditional party...
"I found the dromedaries! They were in my belly button, and I took them out!" (Holds up imaginary speck.) "I looked everywhere for them, and I found them right in my belly button! You can hug them now!"
---------------
And she is already learning how to "fix" the books to suit her purposes. I may have an accounting background, but she did NOT learn this from me!
Esmé gets to pick five books to read before bedtime each night. Last night she handed me seven. We asked her to count them again - only five allowed!
So she counted them out: "1-2-3-4-5-6-------5!"
Nobody said anything about not counting backwards, right? No rules broken, no harm done. (We're working on the alphabet backwards, too.)
---------------
She's very particular about her ice. "I don't like hot ice!"
---------------
Someone brought out a bag of sugar and asked Esmé what it was. Her answer: "It's for the ants!"
Yep - the ants have been feasting on any sugary thing we leave lying around at our house! The one good thing about colder weather is there are fewer of them around.
---------------
She's been tearing around the house, yelling, "I can fly! I can fly!" Rudolph, anyone?
---------------
And Esmé was carrying a "staff" around during one of her impromptu nativity enactments (you never know just what role she'll be playing from moment to moment). I asked if she wanted juice.
"No. Shepherds drink coffee, not juice!"
I have no idea where that one came from. We're not even big coffee drinkers here.
---------------
And here's Esmé's recent Christmas observation after the Christmas party we went to on Friday (hosted by the company I do work for):
"That was the bestest candy cane I ever heard!"
I'm still wondering what the candy cane said to her.
For I Heart Faces, here are some shots of said candy cane and the traditional party...
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Christmas School
We have been amazingly busy, but Mommy says there is no way we are completing our Christmas projects by Christmas. Good thing we've got nothing planned for next week!
Let's start with nativity stuff. Here's a nativity scene I created with stickers, clipart, and glue. Lots of artistic license involved!
And another nativity set we started using toilet paper rolls! Very cool, huh? They even have a backdrop you can paste around two toilet rolls.
Here's a "gingerbread" house we made using graham crackers, peanut butter, pretzels, and frosted shredded wheat on the roof. 
For decorations, we used dried cranberries, cherries, blueberries, and pineapple, as well as pumpkin seeds and a wreath-like cracker. 
And I sprinkled the snow (unsweetened coconut) all over!
We built it tall for reason. Like the size of graham crackers? No - it was built for my 
Look too healthy for you? Well, Mommy kind of compensated by letting me make white-chocolate-covered pretzels. I was in charge of sprinkles. And I learned all about why you shouldn't double-dip. (Notice Penguin in the back, doing a face-plant into the bowl of pretzels?)
Pretty, huh?
While we're on the subject of food, we made cinnamon stars out of tortillas, spread with butter and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. I spread the butter. I LOVE butter - especially eating it plain! Of course, they needed green sprinkles, too.
They were so cute I was inspired to call for a picnic! So Mommy made some sandwich spread, brought out the crackers and a bowl of frozen berries, and we had our picnic on the living room floor!
We made pastry cutouts using pie dough. Mommy was going to make ornaments out of them, but they were too small. As far as I was concerned, it was just like play dough... Except you could eat it!
Speaking of cookie cutouts, Mommy made a sheet of cutout prints, and then I had to match up the cookie cutout to the print. Easy peasy!
Here's a holly man I made at daycare... I love the green teeth!
I also made this dancing holiday bear at daycare. The body parts are connected by brads so I can make him dance easily!
I made the obligatory paper plate wreath. First you paint it green...
...then you glue red pompoms and ribbon and glitter and tinsel on it. It's so easy I can do it while I'm on the phone!
I practiced my counting with jingle bells. There were five stockings, each with a number from 1 to 5. First I put them in order, then I counted out the right number of bells and put it into each stocking.
And then I had to try on the stockings for size, of course! I was saddened to learn they were too small...
I practiced my tracing with circles. A snowman, and some gingerbread man circles, too! The gingerbread man printables come from http://www.earlychildhoodprintables.com/ - they have daily free printables that are just perfect for me right now! You have to download the daily printables while they are up, though, so we can't give you a direct link.
Here I am doing some gingerbread man size matching - I match the right gingerbread to the right box and glue it on.
And I wrote my "name" in a gingerbread man box. You can see I love Ss, As, and Ps right now...
Here I am with my first circle cutout of an ornament, also from http://www.earlychildhoodprintables.com/. 
And I did some ornament word matching (printables from the same site as above). Mommy had to show me how to compare the letters because at first I just wanted to match colors, but I figured it out! It would have been easier with capital letters, of course.
I am figuring out the rules to dominoes! We played a Christmas version from Activity Village.
And from the same site, I practiced matching Christmas animals.
We got bunches of cool printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler, like this "J is for Jesus" do-a-dot page.
And this cutting practice page.
I made a candy cane (with lots of glue) from 1+1+1=1.
And I practiced beading on pipe cleaners while Mommy made a candy cane from beads, 
and then I added the final beads to her candy cane!
I practiced my "life skills" by sweeping up the beads into a bin with a little paint brush. I worked very carefully, and hardly any dropped onto the floor!
I worked on some foam picture frames from a kit.
We went for a pine-cone hunting walk... See my beautiful walking shoes!
What we found, instead, were cats. A cat on a fence...
...a cat in the "creek" by the road...
...and a cat that decided to walk with us!
I played with my 
I made a shark while studying about the ocean at day care. Mommy told me to show my teeth, so both me and my shark showed our teeth!
I played on my felt board with some bird felts Grandma left me!
I made some dinosaur sand art.
And I decided my shapely Santa needed some stockings to keep his feet warm. The little erasers from my matching Christmas eraser game were just the right size.We read lots and lots of Christmas books! Here are a few...
- The Family Christmas Tree Book by Tomie De Paola
- The Christmas Drum by Maureen Brett Hooper
- The Little Boy's Christmas Gift by John Speirs
- The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
- The Chanukkah Guest by Eric Kimmel
- The Snowy Day by Ezra Keats (and the Scholastic DVD, too)
- Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
- The Gingerbread Man by Jim Aylesworth
- My Christmas Gift by Crystal Bowman
- J is for Jesus by Crystal Bowman
- Jesus, Me, and My Christmas Tree by Crystal Bowman
- A Star for Jesus by Crystal Bowman
And now we got LOTS more to do still! Excuse us, please!
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