heavy readings

Liam loves books. He loves big, enormous, weighty tomes. The bigger the better. If he can barely pick it up then great!

Award for most pretentious author pose: National Geographic retrospective

I've asked a few friends to contribute obsolete items from their libraries, and went to Half Price Books today to see what they had. I picked up a trilogy of awesome old Jaques Cousteau picture books and a history of National Geographic's first 100 years. The prize, however, goes to a gift from the manager in their book buying department. He overheard me asking an employee where their sale section was with the heaviest books (and my explanation as to why) and as I was leaving he hurried over with perhaps the biggest textbook I have ever seen. I seriously don't know how people were supposed to use this thing casually. It begs for a podium to hold it up. On the surface it is just another Oracle text, but to Liam it is so much more.

delectable cookbooks

We noticed his fascination when he kept bringing me the same board book over and over. Excellent, another Charlie Harper! I thought...but he was choosing it because it's the biggest board book we have.  Then he branched into pulling all of the cookbooks from the bookshelves in the dining room. A ten pound tome on French cooking? Sure! This enthusiasm was not exactly healthy for Charlie's prized cookbook library though.

Enter: Liam's bookshelf. I had to move the piano bench in front of the fireplace to keep them from pulling the screen out and climbing inside, and it makes a dandy platform for some heavy reading. Liam's endeavor of the afternoon: figuring out how to remove the books in a stack and carry them all around at once. Perhaps he has a future in the circus.

Dec 26

On December 25th, we had a present opening frenzy, but no power for most of the day. Thankfully our house had been transformed into an entertainment bonanza palace and with the help of a few lanterns we played the day away.

To give you a bit of flavor, this is our floor this morning after the paper was picked up and things were "straightened up" a little bit. Any time you tried to give a toy a home, one boy or the other would run over and demand it from you.

 

Dec 24

On the twenty-fourth day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, a golden bell, one shimmering snowflake, one glowing candle, one bluebird of happiness, a slow tortoise, a run run run as fast as you can gingerbread man, Batman, one green Christmas tree, a beautiful B, a Charlie Brown ornament, one fluffy white Christmas tree, and a shining star.

I also got wonderful friends, a tasty dinner, children (my own and others) shrieking with glee as they opened presents, a glass of eggnog, and a few hours playing Star Wars with Charlie. Delightful! 

Dec 23

 On the twenty-third day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, a golden bell, one shimmering snowflake, one glowing candle, one bluebird of happiness, a slow tortoise, a run run run as fast as you can gingerbread man, Batman, one green Christmas tree, a beautiful B, a Charlie Brown ornament, and a fluffy white Christmas tree.

Dec 21 and 22

On the twenty-first day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, a golden bell, one shimmering snowflake, one glowing candle, one bluebird of happiness, a slow tortoise, a run run run as fast as you can gingerbread man, Batman, one green Christmas tree, and a beautiful B.

 On the twenty-second day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, a golden bell, one shimmering snowflake, one glowing candle, one bluebird of happiness, a slow tortoise, a run run run as fast as you can gingerbread man, Batman, one green Christmas tree, a beautiful B, and a Charlie Brown ornament. 

For their present, we got the boys a membership at a kid's gym. They'll have one class a week, and then one day with a free play period. I took them there today to see how things went and Dash loved wallowing in the ball pit. Liam rolled huge balls around the floor and they both ran about like maniacs.  I think this is going to work out well. 

Dec 20

On the twentieth day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, a golden bell, one shimmering snowflake, one glowing candle, one bluebird of happiness, a slow tortoise, a run run run as fast as you can gingerbread man, Batman, and a green Christmas tree. 

The lights progress apace. Today's visitor was the drywall guy. I had the singular pleasure of listening to his holiday negotiations. He took a break for lunch, and after came back with his brother and nephew, who were in the neighborhood doing another job and offered to help him finish up the rest of ours more quickly. His brother has much land and many horses (and also two! sets of twins). Our drywall guy has a teenage daughter who is horse crazy. I bore witness to the conversation that will lead to a girl actually asking for a pony and getting one . They are going to put a huge red bow on it and the whole nine yards. I was almost giddy with excitement. 

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Dash today thought that the ravioli he was eating for lunch would make an effective hair product. He was right.

Dec 19

On the nineteent day of christmas my true love gave to me: one bushy Santa Claus, one brown acorn, a green wreath, a chipper squirrel, a chilly snowman, a mischievous cat, a minty candy cane, one pale pink ornament, one russet bird, a bunch of juicy grapes,  a swimmy goldfish, one lovely blue ornament, a golden bell, one shimmering snowflake, one glowing candle, one bluebird of happiness, a slow tortoise, a run run run as fast as you can gingerbread man, and Batman.