Post-Christmas Post

I am a day late. This is because Bean and my girlfriend are both off school, and have been since before Christmas, and since I have a rule about not being online when they're home, it means I haven't been online much at all since I got home on Friday. Couple that with a very busy three and a half days trying to catch up with all the people I haven't seen lately (friends, my parents, etc.), do all the household chores (cleaning the kitchen and bathroom, washing floors, laundry, trying to organise the books, CDs, and DVDs, dishes, cooking, etc.), get the dog walked, the dry cleaning delivered and picked up, antibiotics obtained for the cat, and helping to wrangle Bean, it has been a little crazy.

I have a longish post I want to write about procrastination and willpower, but it won't be today. Right now my girlfriend has taken Bean to Michaels and Bulk Barn, since the two of them haven't actually left the house in over a week (due first to illness and then to weather). They should be back in less than an hour, which means I have to type fast, and that longer post needs a lot of brainpower to put together.

Instead, have a Christmas recap!

I was up first, my girlfriend close behind me. I took a quick shower, which had the effect of getting me clean and waking Bean, who stumbled out of his room not five minutes later. Luckily my girlfriend was right there with the video camera to capture his reaction on film, but alas I am not able to post that here. You'll just have to take my word for it that it was very cute. ;)

There were a LOT of presents. I'm quite sure Bean will never be able to play with them all in his whole lifetime. He was very excited, though, which was so much fun.

Not pictured in this entry is the big hit of the day, which was a stroller for his doll, Malik Mollum (named by Bean himself, and woe betide you if you try to shorten the name to just 'Malik!'). Bean, true to himself, introduced us to Extreme Strollering. Within five minutes the stroller had gone round in increasingly fast circles around the open area in the dining room, been knocked over three times and been rammed into various walls and pieces of furniture. My girlfriend caught part of it on video as well, but missed the bit where he picked it up and swung it around his head.

There were much calmer parts to the morning, too. Bean was happy to get us to open the presents that were from him (he went with each of us to pick out presents for the other separately, so they would be a surprise), and while he hasn't quite completely worked out how gift-giving works, he seemed pleased that we were pleased. :)

Because my girlfriend is the most organised person EVER, we had a box for the wrapping paper set up immediately, along with a box for the smaller toys so they wouldn't get lost or misplaced. Bean did quite well in helping to keep things tidy and put the wrapping paper in the recycling box before unwrapping the next present.

Note the pink hair extension. It was a big hit, and he wore it all day long.

The toys included Barbie and a Barbie Volkswagen Beetle (pink, of course), some Monster High action figures (his latest discovery, thanks to CJ from "Raising My Rainbow"), as well as a metric buttload of train tracks. He's been building elaborate train tracks, but his vision outgrew the number of tracks he had. Now, with any luck, he'll be able to build to his heart's content.

After about an hour and a half, he got overwhelmed and started to wail. So we took a short break for some milk and for my girlfriend to make crockpot hot chocolate. It has got to be the richest hot chocolate I have ever had the delight of consuming. I could feel my pancreas giving up as I sipped. ;) 

Of course there were books, both English and French (Pinkalicious and Robert Munsch featured, as well as Llama Llama, a household favourite) and some fun clothes. Sparkly jeans and a striped hoodie, Monster High socks and sparkly peach leggings and a silver tutu. He wore his Christmas clothes right off after getting out of his PJs.

The immediate hit was the LeapPad 2. He's been obsessed with computers and games for as long as I can remember, and it's just not always possible to have him on our laps to play a game. I've been leaving the computer alone when I'm at home with the family, for one thing, and some of the games on our computers (if not most of them) really aren't age appropriate. Even if they're not scary or violent, they're just too advanced conceptually for him. This way he gets his own "puter" with games aimed at helping him learn. His earlier LeapFrog game (aka the "Puppy Game") was how he learned his letters to begin with.

As soon as we'd set it up he was going at it with the little stylus that came with it, happy as a clam.

My girlfriend's father arrived around 10:00 to join in the festivities. Bean and I know him as "Pake" which means "grandfather" in Frisian. He brought another turkey (because why have one turkey when you can have two?) and ham and more dessert than we knew what to do with.

He got to spend some quality time with Bean, and overall we all had a great time together while I was there.

The grown-ups also got quite spoiled at Christmas. Well, I did. Bean got me a sparkly green iPhone case, special gloves that work with smart phones, nail polish, and a dog-themed charm bracelet, among other things. My girlfriend, whom I frustrated to no end because I kept unknowingly buying things she'd already bought me for Christmas, got me coffee and the boxed set of Albert Campion DVDs, special strengthening nail polish, flavoured coffee syrups and a vacuum cleaner for the car, and a host of other exciting things that escape me right now because I'm not at home and my memory is absolute shit. Her father bought me a nifty thing that I can put on my windshield in winter to keep the snow and ice at bay, as well as a calendar and even moar coffee (all the k-cups!) and a k-cup carousel, which I've already set up here.

He and I surprised my girlfriend with a new Breville coffee maker, which I think she quite liked. There was also the Doctor Who scarf that I knitted for her, though I did not quite get it finished in time. It was lacking the tassels and the ends hadn't been woven in when I gifted it, which frustrated me a lot, but I think she liked it anyway. It's finished now, at least.

Alas, all good things come to an end, and around 13:30 I left to get back to work. I'd come in the night before specifically to be there for Christmas, but someone has to do my job, and that someone is me. Next year I might actually get time off for Christmas. You never know!

And that's the end of the Christmas post. Stay tuned for more in-depth stuff later.

Happy New Year, readers!

Pre-Christmas Post

Christmas this year is going to be yet another gift extravaganza for Bean. I am not entirely in agreement with the number of presents his mother likes to give him, as he's three and already has more toys than he knows what to do with, but it makes her really happy to give him all this stuff and I'm unwilling to take that away from her.

This year the focus has changed considerably with Bean's new taste for all things pink and purple and frilly and sparkly. He recently discovered Monster High (God help us all), and as I mentioned before in this blog he's become quite fond of Barbie.

The piece de resistance of this Christmas is the totally refurbished, custom-built Barbie house that his mother has spent days working on. It's huge. It's a good four and a half feet long, three feet high and a foot and a half deep. She already had the house (purchased over 20 years ago from the family who built it for their daughter), but it was tatty and faded and needed an overhaul. So she has been painting and wallpapering and tiling the house and spray-painting doll house furniture and buying little dollar store tap lights so that the house will be well-lit when he's playing with it. It looks phenomenal, to say the least, and I'm quite sure his head will explode when he sees it. The colour scheme will not only go well with Barbie, but is bright and funky enough that it will also work for all his new Monster High dolls (he's getting one for Christmas, but I have no doubt there will be many more in our future).

As for the rest, he's getting stuff we know he'll love. Play-doh, Playmobil sets, and lots and lots and LOTS of train tracks. Of late he's been building elaborate tracks that are truly a joy to look at, but the scope of his vision is too broad for the number of tracks he currently has. So his grandfather and I both bought him more straight tracks, curved tracks, connecting tracks, and I found a set that has a collapsing bridge so that he can stage a railway "akkident" if he wants. It's pretty cool. He's also getting a LaLaLoopsy doll, a doll stroller (for his favourite doll) and some doll clothes, as well as other assorted smaller items.

The big present I got him is a LeapPad. He's obsessed with computer games, and he can already name a bunch of different platforms on which they get played. ("No, Mama, it not on your 'puter, it on Kongwegate!") The trouble with this is that he constantly wants to play games, either on our computers or on our smartphones, and sometimes we simply don't want to, or don't have time to sit and supervise him. If he could sit still and do it, it wouldn't be so bad, but he consistently wants games that are adult-level and then insists on doing it himself ("No! Me know to do it!"), often pushing our hands away from the mouse or keyboard in spite of repeated admonitions not to do so. My solution has been to simply not allow him near my computer anymore (I have a laptop, and his shenanigans mean that he often risks damaging the computer, or at the very least hurting me when he tries to pull my hands away, because he tends to twist my fingers and/or wrist, and he's pretty strong for his age).

So getting him the LeapPad is the product of a bit of self-preservation as well as a good learning opportunity. LeapFrog has great products for children. He already has what he calls his "puppy game," which allowed him to learn his letters at a very early age, and which he adores. The pad itself has a number of features that you can find on any tablet, but it's geared toward kids his age, complete with games that are age-appropriate and with characters he'll recognise. It's my hope that he'll gravitate more toward that than toward the time-consuming and invasive pass-time that playing computer games with us has become. I know my girlfriend doesn't mind having him on her lap while she plays games, but I myself don't find that time particularly rewarding, for him or for me. I'd rather do something with him that doesn't involve a screen. Or, if it does, I'd rather watch a movie or TV show and talk to him about what's happening and what he thinks it means, rather than clicking away at a computer game.

I've also been spending far less time on the computer when I'm at home. I log in briefly in the evening to check email and see what's been going on, and sometimes I'll have it on during the day when no one else is home, but in those instances it's usually to listen to a podcast or watch a TV show while I knit. It's been interesting to see how I fare with limited access to social networking, and it's been instructive and enlightening to see that I have become more dependent than I would like on the gratification of instant feedback from Twitter in particular. So I'm determined to continue with this new habit of not being constantly online, and seeing where it takes me.

I will be posting again next Monday, hopefully with a Christmas recap and maybe with a longer post about my plans for the New Year. Possibly not all in the same post. ;)