Hug Twice

My children are the only grandchildren on both sides, so to say that Christmas with our extended family is a little overwhelming on the “present receiving” end is an understatement. The kids get so completely overstimulated and overwhelmed by the sheer number of new things, that I have taken to not even giving them the gifts from us until after the Christmas hubbub has died down.

So over the past few weeks I have been pulling out CJ’s presents one by one and giving them to him. Alexa, being the less picky type due to age, had gotten mostly useful things and already had all her gifts by then. First he got a 50 states puzzle. And then a memory game. And then tonight, Candyland.

Well, he is seriously good at this game. The puzzle he was great at, but he could do that by himself. And the memory game he got bored with and wanted to flip everything over at once. Candyland is a cooperative game, and that is amazing and great yet tiring and draining all at the same time. he loves it. And he is really good at it, too. I know it is a game of luck but he seemed to win an awful lot. But he wants to play it, and play it, and play…

At least he is good natured about it when he gets sent back to the almost beginning. Someone else isn’t…

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Recently I have started putting Alexa’s hair up in a ponytail on top of her head.  She has long bangs, and will not keep a barrette or headband in her hair at all, but I can sometimes get away with a ponytail.  I just can’t bear to cut any of her hair.

Well, CJ has recently started empathetically declaring Alexa and I as “girls” and he and Matt as “boys”.  That is one of the things they are working on at school - using his/her and he/she correctly, so I haven’t thought much of it.  Until today, when CJ wanted me to put his hair up in a ponytail on top of his head.  Yes, he has shaggy hair and I can do this pretty easily.  I complied, taking the scrunchie out of my own hair to do so, and he then declared me a “boy” and he was a “girl”.  This amused him greatly.

I know that’s not really his only criteria for telling boys vs girls apart, for quite frequently both Alexa and I have nothing in our hair and he still calls us girls.  But for today, girl was defined by a top-of-head ponytail.  If only life was that simple.

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We have a baby monitor in Alexa’s room with the transmitter downstairs in the office/playroom.  Because I am forgetful, it is basically always on.  At various times, Matt will wander in there and say weird things into it when he knows I am in the office working.  However, he usually puts his mouth way too close to it so I have no idea what insane things he is muttering.  Unlucky me. 

Last night, Matt was getting Alexa dressed in her room (with the monitor on) while CJ and I were playing in the playroom.  CJ heard Matt talking through the monitor, and we walked over and said “Hi Daddy!”.  When Matthew didn’t answer, he said it again, only louder.  Then, when still no response from Matt, CJ looked and said “Daddy not talking.”  And stormed off.

And all I could do was laugh.

CJ did get over it.  Although I forgot to tell Matt about it so, um… hey Matt, say hi to your son once in a while! 

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And now she has 8.  Teeth.  Four teeth in one night.

It was a loooooong night.

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Alexa is finally primarily bipedal, and she has become a menace on two feet.  I open the refrigerator, she darts in, grabs whatever is handy, and toddles off.  This evening it was a juicebox of orange juice.  Because Matt is still on a mealplan, he only gets 6 ounces of OJ a week.  Even though my frugal self hates it, I buy the mini-packs of single serving OJ because a bigger container would go bad before he drinks it all.  Once in a while, CJ sees them in the fridge, wants one, tries it, remembers he hates juice, and sticks it back in the fridge without drinking it.

And of course, the open one with the straw in it is what Alexa grabbed.

And proceeded to spray onto her hand, and then carefully wipe onto the floor.  We cleaned up after her, but I still expect to see a hoard of ants in the morning.

Why didn’t we just take it away from her?  Well… it was funny.  What can I say.

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