Christmas Day 12

Thank you to Grandpa R. for the little Christmas owl puppets!

They were a real hit. I took some wonderful video but something didn't work with the camera and the resulting film lasted only two seconds. In the video, one would have seen Mary instantly cradling her owl and saying, "You the baby! I the mommy!" And then John suggested it would be really fun to throw the owls to the ceiling--such a boy! All morning the children played with their owls, building them a house, putting them down for nap, and waking them up for snack.

Later the children and I baked our first Kings' Cake, which is traditionally served on Epiphany (tomorrow). I found it so interesting to research Kings' Cakes, which also go by other names such as Epiphany Cake and New Orleans King Cake. Each country with a Catholic history seems to have its own version of the cake or bread, and the common theme seems to be citrus zest and candied fruits, creating a flavor that nobody in my family enjoys. I decided to follow one suggestion I read to make a "spicy" cake to represent the Oriental origins of the three wise men: I made a gingerbread spice cake! No sense being traditional if we're not going to eat the product.

I decorated the cake using some of the colors I was seeing in photos online (such as these).

I'm on my second day of a new experiment with Quiet Time after lunch. John napped till 3-1/2, so when he naturally dropped his nap I could easily transition him into Quiet Time In His Room because he was old enough to understand needing to stay in his room. But Mary seemed to have dropped her nap before age two! She wakes around six o'clock and, on any day she takes a nap (of 60-90 minutes), she is awake till at least nine o'clock at night. It's a misery! Over the months I have done much experimenting making sure she doesn't nap, which makes bedtime much easier, but makes the duration of my day quite difficult. I tried teaching Mary to play in her room alone, but I simply think that's a serious challenge at a young 25 months old. She easily climbs out of a crib, over a gate, and opens door knobs. And left alone, she gets into serious mischief.

My new experiment is to send John to his room for quiet time after lunch and send Mary to the den for her quiet time, while I do my work, chores, laundry, and computer time in the adjoining kitchen. For two days, this has worked very nicely! I put a CD of low-key music for Mary to listen to. Sometimes she lays on the couch quietly listening and other times she plays quietly by herself. Today she managed an hour in the den playing by herself, coming to check on me briefly only three times! And I had to chuckle because she spent most of the entire time playing her new owl from Grandpa. She wrapped a ribbon elaborately around her torso and the tiny owl, then came to show me that it was her "baby sling." Precious girl!

Bonus Moments From Today

John: "I call you Sock Mommy because you are really good at putting on my socks."

John (referring to his Food Journal, in which we paste pictures of new foods he has tried eating): "I know! You could make a Food Journal for yourself and Daddy could write down everything you eat in a day. It could be a really big Food Journal because you eat a whole lot of food every day!"