Quick December update

Alice has a new game. While I sit on the couch, sometimes feeding Peter, she will get a book and a toy phone. She will hand me the book and command: "Read." She was pretend to have a conversation on the toy phone while I read, aloud. If I do not read aloud and merely pretend to read she will stop her conversation long enough to point at the page: "Read!" If she would hand me one of my books this game would be great, but there's only so many times I can read the Berenstain Bear's Christmas book sans audience.

So far the Christmas tree has not been the draw we thought it would be. Peter is close but not yet crawling. Sitting, he'll lunge forward until he flips onto his belly, and he'll wiggle around, sideways and backwards, any way but the way he's trying. Levi said the other night he got from his stomach back to sitting, which is impressive. But no crawling. The tree is safe.

Safe from Peter, but not Alice. She's had so much fun with the tree. The night we decorated it she picked her favorite spot and piled it on. She had trouble hanging the ornaments, so she just set them on one branch. Every couple of minutes I'd find a stash of six or so tiny ornaments, hang them in other places, and then come back to find another little pile. In the days after she took great delight in playing with the ornaments until we threatened to take them all of the tree. She's done better since. Nathan and Clara got little star ornaments from Primary after the Primary program (why they neglected the nursery, I'll never know. Oh, the unfairness of it all.) and Alice wanted one so badly. So we found a star-shaped ornament in the box and now that's Alice's baby star. I'm not sure why it's a baby star but you had better not call it anything else.

Nathan has learned to keep a secret! He saw me buying a present for Levi online and has not yet spilled the beans. It was either Christmas or birthday last year that he did and I was so mad. He's so proud of himself and I am too. In first grade he wrote a letter to Santa and boy is he in for a great Christmas. He's pretty sure Santa is going to deliver: a tv, a ninja turtle, a viteo game [sic], a bb gun, a crocodile. I wish I could remember all the creative spellings because they were pretty priceless. He was all set to mail his letter to Santa but then it got lost. (I had nothing to do with this losing, unlike some others...) I'm hoping the loss of letter appeases his disappointment at not receiving maybe all of these things. He told me that (1) he would save the bb gun until he was 15 and (2) he had written an xbox on his list, but erased it, thereby showing restraint. Never mind he doesn't know what an xbox is; he needs one.

Clara will get her very own post, about her very first dance recital. Other than that, she's so excited for Christmas and her birthday. The other day she told me she was ready to be five because she could read books (e.g., make up words to go with the pictures). She just wishes her birthday could be moved up a little because (1) it's too hard to wait and (2) she can't bear to be behind her beloved Ainsley friend for an entire week and a half.

Five days! Maybe I should start wrapping presents. Being tired and a little sick is not an excuse. Peter has slept through the night three nights this week! Continuing that would be the best Christmas present.

Signs Clara has been reading too much Fancy Nancy.

"Mom, I want to make my hair look like boy hair."

I told her I could make her hair look like boy hair, with some clippers. She responded that she knew how to comb her hair to look like Nathan's. "So people won't make fun of me for being too beautiful."

She disappears downstairs to doctor her appearance with a comb and a squirt bottle.

She reappears later, her bangs wet and combed to the side, wearing a sparkly headband.

"How is your boy hair coming along?"

"I accidentally followed the wrong recipe that made my hair even more beautiful."

I hate it when that happens.

***

On Saturday I took Clara to The Nutcracker. She's in ballet this year so I figured she would think it was magical. She was really excited all week. She dressed up in her sequiny Christmas dress and put on lip gloss. Then she helped me pick out my clothes and insisted I wear the same lip gloss so we could match.

Somehow she decided she didn't want to look too beautiful, "so the Egyptians won't want to get me." (Other than the venue being Peery's Egyptian theater, I really don't know where this is coming from.) On the drive to the theater she talked about how she likes to be fancy every day, which is why she wears skirts all the time, so she can be a little bit beautiful every day. It was very informative.

She had a great time until we arrived at the theater. The lobby was super crowded, and she got bored sitting and waiting for it to start. She couldn't see so she had to sit on my lap. Then she got thirsty. At intermission I couldn't find a drinking fountain so we bought a soda and twizzlers which pepped her up a bit. She danced in the aisle for the rest of the intermission, but shortly after the second half started she wilted again. Thirsty? chew on the ice cubes. Tired? No, we're not leaving early.

By the time we got home she was so tired she yelled in response to Levi's question, "It was horrible!" But, given a few days to think about it, she says she did enjoy herself. Her favorite part was the "Sprite and licorice, and seeing the new view, since I've never been there before."

Good thing I didn't spring to see Ballet West. She got to enjoy sprite and licorice for half the price. She probably would have enjoyed a movie at the dollar theater even more.

Next mom/daughter date will be earlier in the evening, I think.

***

Now Clara is reenacting the entire book of Fancy Nancy where she gives her mother an ooh-la-la spa day. We are soaking our feet in cold water.

Fancy.