The Christmas Story

This week we had a family lesson about Christmas and I had a little stroke of brilliance.



A couple of popsicle sticks, 2 lbs of rice and some amateur drawings that took 10 min.

Brilliant.  She knows everyone's name (though explaining Joseph is kind of a trick.  Not Jesus' dad but also, in a way, Jesus' dad--we just stuck with dad for this year and next year we'll tackle the whole Son of God issue).  We played with them lots of times but now the playing had degraded to this.

I'm still calling it a success.  10 min of cleaning in exchange for 40 min of quiet play by herself.  Totally worth it.

Nothing in the World

There is nothing in the world as desirable as something that isn't yours (and as long as you're invading your little brother's space you may as well invite every one of your babies along.  You can see Koala and Baby Dora are also enjoying time on the play mat as well).

This would also explain why we've been through an extra gallon of milk a week since Noah arrived--if the baby's having milk, Claire had better be having milk too.

The secret to friendship

For adults the secret to friendship is a complex equation where every person weighs the variables differently. Fortunately for 2 and 3 year olds the equation is not nearly so complex. Take less than 1$ worth of vinegar and baking soda in various kinds of containers. Add food coloring and place somewhere where you don't care if things get messy. Instant. Friendship.