Christmas Part II

Happy Valentine's Day! Well, this is just getting silly. I should never, ever promise Part II of something, because it almost guarantees that I'll immediately be swamped with work and never get around to it. I spent most of January writing a book about Argentina, which turned out to be pretty all-consuming. I started out knowing embarrassingly little about Argentina, mostly what could be gleaned from a few 1990s Madonna songs. As it turns out, just thirty years ago their military government was literally massacring thousands of citizens. Now they're not only a democracy, but a world leader in emissions standards, women in government, and the legalization of gay marriage. This fascinating story, coming soon to a junior high library near you!

So, Christmas at my parents' house ... let's see what I can remember. The first thing that springs to mind is the car trip there. I feel like this was the first time we traveled with BOYS in the backseat (as opposed to boy and a baby). It was an entertaining trip. In the past few months, Darby has developed a stubborn and argumentative streak. He's two, so he doesn't know much yet, but he will declare certain facts with absolute certainty and never give in. Someday far in the future, I predict that a certain family friend is going to get drunk and loudly tell Darby's significant other, "Let me tell you about Darby. He always has to be right!" (As this person warned me about ten years ago about Chris--and it still makes me laugh.) Anyway, conversations in the car went like this:

Casey: Merry Christmas!
Darby: No. Happy Halloween!
Casey: It's not Halloween, Darby! It's Christmas!
Darby: No, it's not Christmas! It's Halloween!
And, so on, for a LONG TIME. Because Darby won't give in, and Casey won't let it drop.

Here's another gem:
Casey: There are cats in the back! (The cats were traveling with us in the back of my hatchback.)
Darby: No, muffins in the back! (There have never been any muffins in my car.)
Casey: No, cats in the back!
Darby: No, muffins in the back!
I think that debate got us all the way through Chicago.

I don't have a lot of great photos from this trip. I ran out of battery power halfway through. And for some reason, photos at my parents' house don't seem to come out that well. Something about the lighting? Luckily, I do have some photos of Chris and boys wearing funny fuzzy hats.

They wore those hats for pretty much the whole week. Very festive.

One of the highlights of the week was that we got to take the kids to the Indianapolis Children's Museum finally. This was cool for two reasons: one, it is the world's largest children's museum, and it is awesome. Two, it is the museum I remember from my childhood. I actually volunteered there on Saturdays for a few years, so I knew it pretty well.

It's changed a lot. Almost nothing was exactly the way I remembered. One of the coolest changes was that they replaced the Imax theater with a huge Dinosphere exhibit. They have acquired a number of actual skeletons and displayed them in such a way that you feel like you're walking through a prehistoric world. Using the former Imax screen, they had the ability to do some cool atmospheric effects. Every so often, the exhibit would darken and a thunder storm would sweep through. In another section, kids could play with real fossils, dig at a pretend excavation site, and even talk to real working paleontologists.

Here's a view of part of the exhibit from up above:

Here's Darby "consulting" with a paleontologist.

The kids got to see their first planetarium show, which Chris was so excited to show them. Luckily, they had a 20-minute version for little kids that featured Elmo.

When I was a kid, this was the world's largest water clock. Now it's billed as the largest water clock in North America. This is still pretty cool, but apparently someone somewhere has something even more impressive. At any rate, I was always fascinated by it. Let's see ... it's about 11:59 in this picture.

This is a blown-glass sculpture that was installed a few years ago up the middle. If I remember right, it's about four stories high.

Blown glass was also in the ceiling in the lower level. I thought it was cool looking, so I took a picture. There were some sculptures on the floor that the kids could play with and reconfigure.

One of the first exhibits we saw was the model trains, and it was hard to tear the boys away. That was a challenge all day--they never understood that the next thing would be just as cool as the current thing.

At one point, Chris and I were waffling over where to go next, but Casey felt strongly--he wanted to go to the Egypt exhibit. A few years ago, they actually had King Tut. Too bad we missed that. Here's Casey trying on some sort of Egyptian garb.

We ran out of time and missed some exhibits, including science, which was disappointing. I'm sure we'll be back, though.

The rest of the our trip isn't recorded pictorially, but we really enjoyed visiting with my family. We saw my parents and Krista on Christmas and my brother's family later in the week. We also had wonderful visits with some of my relatives in Ft. Wayne.

And that, folks, was Christmas Part II. Now we can all get on with our lives.

Christmas Part I

We really wanted to spend Christmas morning with the kids at our new house this year, and we really wanted to spend Christmas Day with my family in Indiana, so we decided to pull a fast one on the kids and celebrate two Christmases this year. We pretended Dec. 23 was Christmas at our house so that we could hop on the car on Christmas Eve and be in another state in time to do it all over again.

Part of the reason for this scheme was that we knew Santa was planning on bringing the kids a train table, and it's hard to transport such a thing (along with boys and cats) in a modestly sized Pontiac Vibe. So I subtly skipped a couple days on the advent calendar, and we went through all the usual Christmas Eve rituals on Dec. 22: stockings, cookies for Santa, wide-eyed youngsters who can't seem to fall asleep, quiet secret assembly of toys.

Santa needed quite a bit of extra help putting this whole table and train set together, but when it was all done, we were pretty impressed. It came with a mountain tunnel, suspension bridge, roundtable, and crane, and it has sound effects as you push the trains around the track! And, something that I love, storage drawers to keep all the little pieces.

Christmas morning Casey came out and said "Wow!" An hour later, Darby finally woke up and said almost exactly the same thing "Wow! New trains!" It was totally worth the hand injuries Chris incurred during the assembly (I think--I guess you'd have to confirm with him).

Stockings for everyone ... that's a four-pack of Sprecher's Cream Soda sitting under Chris's stocking. He must have been good this year.

As entranced as they both were by the trains, Casey and Darby both had their eyes on this giant package in the back from Aunt Susan and Taylor. I had wrapped it, but they tore the paper off that one right away.

An air-hockey table! Those lucky ducks. I remember having something similar when we were kids. Chris and I will get some use out of this after they go to bed. I wonder if I am as good at this as I remember ...

As you  might recall, Casey asked Santa for a "toy car" this year. Darby, of course, decided he also wanted a toy car. Santa came through with a Batmobile for Casey and a Lighting McQueen Monster Truck for Darby.

This Curious George Hide and Seek Zoo Game is so much fun. In the middle of the game, the Man in the Yellow Hat announces over the walkie talkie, "The animals have escaped!" All the other players have to don an animal mask and run and hide, and the person whose turn it is has two minutes to go find them. It's a level of zaniness that I was previously unaccustomed to in board games.

Darby has been wanting his own snow shovel ever since winter started. We've been letting him use one of our adult-sized shovels, but he can hardly push it around. This one is just his size, and I am not kidding when I tell you that he saw it and said, "I LOVE this present, Mommy!" Aww. He uses the word "love" pretty liberally about things lately, but it was still really sweet.

Grandma and Papa sent some really cool gifts this year. One is a tent which I'm sure we'll pitch in the living room as soon as we clean up the Christmas clutter. One of the things Casey likes to pretend is that we're all camping, and now we have a tent! Someday when they're a bit older Krista and I are going to take these boys on a real camping trip. I think I've probably been planning that since before they were born.

You can see Darby with his new art supplies there too. On Christmas Eve I asked him what he wanted for Christmas, and he actually replied to that, "Markers," and then he actually got the Color Wonders marker set. He started coloring right away, and after that it was hard to get him to come over and finish opening presents.

A pirate-themed puzzle for Casey ... he later told Grandma and Papa a pretty long-winded story about the dragon that's swimming near the pirate ship. I can't recall the details, but it was probably the most words they've ever heard him say.

And here's Darby showing off a few of his stocking stuffers: sunglasses and a slinky.

 Those were some happy little boys on (pretend) Christmas morning! It was almost a little cruel to pack them in the car the next day to carry them away from all their new stuff. But more fun was to follow ... (to be continued)

Merry Christmas!

Casey in Concert ... For Real This Time!

Just got back from Casey's preschool Christmas concert. Most adorable thing I have ever seen! I was enjoying it so much, Casey's part was over too quick. It was the concert for the whole school, pre-k through eighth grade, so there was a full gym of parents. But Casey didn't look intimidated. He seemed pretty happy up there, and when the applause started after each song, he just lit up. I might be biased, but he was definitely the best kid up there.

Here's Casey looking all fine ...

And here he is up on stage ... We were sitting toward the back of the gym, so it was a true test of my little camera's zoom power. I'm surprised any of these came out at all.

I took a few videos too. This probably goes without saying, but make sure you watch until the end. Casey cracked me up at the end of this song.

I took this one before I figured out how to zoom in on the video setting. But you can hear them, at least.

'Tis the Season ...

... for shoveling snow, sitting on Santa's lap, and--apparently--dressing up like a snowman.

I've taken lots of pictures since Thanksgiving but haven't been sharing them because I hadn't picked which ones would go on our Christmas card yet. But I got those ordered this week (for FREE because of my little blog post a few weeks ago--yay), so now I can share:

Casey's been asking me about snow since about September. Finally, we got something measurable last weekend. Casey was very happy; Darby was less sure how he felt about the situation.

The same day, Santa visited our local fire station. Casey was very sweet talking to Santa. He asked for a toy car, which I'm pretty sure the elves can handle. Darby was less thrilled about the experience, but at least he didn't burst into tears like some other toddlers there.

We still haven't built a snowman because what we have has been too powdery, but the snowman kit that my mom made me years ago is out and ready. Casey had fun one day dressing up and posing for pictures.

Ok, I admit, I tried on the hat too that day.

Darby the Pirate

This pirate thing seems to be contagious. It's been Casey's obsession for awhile, but Darby was really getting into character a couple days ago. It's a little frightening to see my sweet little 2-year-old so transformed.

In case you missed that, I believe it was "Arrr, walk plank." Or possibly "I walk plank," which makes less narrative sense but is still completely believable coming out of Darby's mouth.

P.S. I don't know why it appears sideways. I rotate it when I edit the video and save it that way, but for some reason it still looks wrong on the web site.

What the Boys Are Up To

I can't believe Casey built this house completely by himself. I saw it and immediately asked Chris, "Did you help him build this?" Chris was equally confused. Well, if neither one of us had a hand in it, and probably Darby and the cats weren't involved ... Casey's a lot better with the Lincoln Logs than anyone knew. It's got a door, window, two levels of roof, and a fence! Very impressive.

Darby has also surprised me this week. I had my back turned to him while he was painting and I was unloading the dishwasher, and when I checked on him, this is what I found. Not much paint on the paper, but four or five distinct colors streaked through his hair. I'm not sure if he does this intentionally, or if he just happens to run his hands through his hair a lot while he's contemplating his next brushstroke.

Bath time!