Christmas, Part 2 (with a soupcon of Hannukah, rather late)

About a week ago, I noticed a bunch of Hannukah paintings drying at daycare. I was all excited, and kept waiting for Iain to bring one home. Bupkus. Finally, this Wednesday, I asked about it. "Oh, that was Donna's class. We didn't do those," said Meghan. But she offered to ensure that Iain would do one on Christmas Eve. Excellent.

I guess they didn't have the other sheets (which were just photocopies on white paper of a menorah. They had the kids finger-paint them with blue paint.). Instead, Donna and Meghan helped Iain make the masterpiece above. It's construction paper, with cutouts of his fingers for candles, plus glitter paint plus glued-on glitter. Thatsa lotta glitter, peeps.

It's wonderful. And I'm particularly happy that when they realized I was interested they made sure he did it, then made it much, much better than the original activity. Love those ladies.

And while we're on the subject of what a good job they do, try this on for size: this morning I made waffles. I had to measure 6 tablespoons of oil into the batter, and Charles helped count it out. Iain sat on his lap. We counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...and Iain said "six." Clear as a bell. HOLY COW.

In other news, let's get the gift train rolling. From his Auntie Miriam, Iain received this:

It's part of a set. There's a spoon and a "buh-doh-r." That would be a bulldozer to you. And there's a plate, with slots for each utensil and rubberized bits to help the plate stay in place on the table. You use the pushing utensil to push food into the spoon or onto the fork. It's adorable and genius and Iain played with it right away:

In fact, last night he wasn't that interested in actually eating because he was so excited to pretend to eat with his "back ho!" and the bulldozer, and his "pork!" Tonight, he used them and ate, which was much better. Throughout, he likes to hold up the utensil of the moment and say, "Back ho!" which Charles finds delightfully silly.

To the right in the photo above, you will see another present. This one came from Iain's cousin Audrey. She's in upstate NY right now, but she remembered her boy cousin and his obsession with construction vehicles. Check it out:

Outstanding! And that black button, when pressed, lifts up the scooper. So it's a bulldozer that actually works. Also, it's wooden and from PLAN toys, which we love. Turns out that they now have an entire line of construction trucks for each age group. Uh...we're in trouble if Iain finds that little catalog.

More to come...stay tuned.