An un-handy skill
We often hear a thump-click, thump-click around the house as Louisette walks by with one of her dummies clenched tight between her toes for safekeeping. Today, in addition to continuing to show greater sitting-up steadiness (oh how I look forward to the day when he can pick up his own toys!), TJ picked up his dummy. . . with his toes. He was sitting up at the time, but the photo is somewhat safer with him lying down.
Water Table
This was a gift for both kids. I thought really carefully about Christmas, and used it to help wean Louisette of certain baby things (giving them to her younger cousin) that I want OUT OF MY HOUSE now TJ is getting too big to need them (eg we had three cot toys) – and to prepare for the long dark time when Louisette and TJ are both mobile enough to take each other’s toys, but not mature enough to restrain themselves. So our kids tended to get some joint gifts, and a lot of very carefully paired gifts (like two cars, two duplo sets) – plus of course some that are just for Louisette, and will be kept well out of TJ’s reach (or at least that’s the plan – she IS old enough to learn from negative experiences if she doesn’t pack up her own things).
First Christmas
Today’s was TJ’s first Christmas twice over – it is his first Christmas, since he’s less than a year old, and it’s his first Christmas of three family Christmases (my side, Chris’ side, and one just for the four of us). But this one was the big one. . . the one with all the cousins. And, as a result, the one with the most presents.
It was insane. I haven’t felt so dizzy with flying Christmas paper and uncountable numbers of thrilling gifts since I was a child. The three toddler girls lent an urgency to the whole thing, as the oldest ran through her own and started claiming more, at the same time as our Louisette became briefly possessive of gifts she’d wrapped to give to others. Like all the greatest Christmas mornings, it hung trembling between ecstasy and an all-out brawl.
And stayed on ecstasy. No injuries, no screaming matches, no tantrums. And TJ had a blast.
After a morning spent wrapping gifts with Louisette (a strategy that SEEMS to be working in keeping her generous rather than greedy – but presents must be given FAST or there’s trouble), we loaded up the car and put some of the gifts on the seat beside Louisette. When I heard a suspicious crinkling from the back, I turned to check she wasn’t unwrapping the gifts she’d just helped wrap. It wasn’t her – it was TJ. He’s spotted the shiny stuff from his chair and had reached out to try and grab them. All I could see was his little hand flailing at the loot. And so it begins.
We took a BUNCH of pictures of the cousins and of my whole family (we get the whole crowd together only once or twice a year, and this was the first time since TJ was born so it was extra special), then did the present thing. It should be noted that I’ve been buying far too many gifts for my kids for MONTHS. So many that I’ve been desperately peddling them to other relatives since October (“Hey Mum, wanna buy a water table? Please?? They’re gonna love it!”)
Long story short, we’re home now with the kind of dizzy satiation only multiple small children can bring to Christmas.
One down, two to go.
Oh yeah – and here’s TJ.
Felicity Banks 