Oh what a (Thursday) night!

(no, our schedules aren't all in Excel..... I'm not THAT big of a nerd.)

Know what happens tonight?

Guess what happens tonight - St. Nick comes.  Yeah - all you suckers who thought that St. Nick came on Christmas Eve were SO WRONG.  And if you miss it - your kids will come home from school tomorrow crying wanting to know why St. Nick didn't visit their house.

Oh wait, no one else lives in Wisconsin?  Well, then you're safe.  No worries.  You must not rock it old school - where the visit from Saint Nicholas is actually separated from the visit from Santa.  If you're true followers, you skip Santa all-together - put your stockings out on St. Nick's day and then simply celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas.  Yeah - you read that right.

Fortunately for Allison and Jacob - they are Wisconsin-raised, non-Lutheran's - which means they get to stick their shoes out on St. Nick Day AND get a visit from his jollier relative on Christmas Eve.  Lucky them. 

Another post about Christmas presents

So I'm reading this article that some parents organization or something or another (much of the article clearing sinking in) finds Lego friends Beauty Shop to be the most offensive toy of the year because it is "reinforcing sexual stereotypes with its pink blocks, gendered minifigures, and explicitly girly themes." 

Ok, you got me.  I was totally sitting around last year saying "wow, Lego is such a cool toy... we would totally buy it for our girl if it only came in pink.  Too bad she'll have to live her life without building things.  It's just not girlie enough."

Perhaps I've taken issue with gender stereotyped toys before (it's totally possible, my views on things change frequently).  None-the-less - we are raising a girlie girl.  A pink and purple, lace and jewels, dress-up in feathers girl.  And there isn't anything we can do about it.  If we only ever bought gender neutral toys for her - we'd soon have a bin of toys "glammed up" with pink and purple marker, coated in stickers, or anything else to make it "pinker."  She once tried to color Astro pink!  She would wear Sunday dresses to school everyday if she were able!

So, if a Beauty Shop is what it takes to get our daughter to take an interest in the building and creating that is Lego - So. Be. It. 

And if anyone wants to raise their kids in a gender-neutral bubble of androgynous playthings... I say have at it.  But don't throw your buckets of cold water on my girlie girl's toys. 

I'd like to add - as well - that have they considered all the boys who might also play with Lego Friends?  The inherent assumption in their argument is that Lego Friends is only for girls and we can't have our girls getting too stereotypically "girlie".  Are we reinforcing stereotypes more by forcing our girls to put down the Beauty Shop in favor of Lego Firefighters - rather than admitting that Lego Friends may have appeal to more than just the girls? 

Does China border the North Pole?

I was both laughing out loud and horrified by the conversation Jacob and I had tonight.  He was writing his Christmas wish list.  Top billing is an iPad.  Santa is not bringing an iPad.  Santa and I - we talked. 

I've been trying to dissuade the kids on the iPad issue to minimize their potential disappointment on Christmas morning.  They are true believers.  My strongest argument to date has been that Santa doesn't make iPads.  Jacob has clearly given this some thought (or talked with a friend) and replied tonight with much conviction:

"Yes he does, the Chinese elves make them!"

OMG.

Jacob

Jacob would like to direct you to his blog for a very important announcement.  I will need to rename that blog now.

They all rolled over and one fell out

I read another blog post recently about how you never notice the last time a child does something the way that you notice the first time a child does something.  The last time they write their "b" backwards; or the last time they say 'mama' before switching over to the more mature "mom" (or the last time they say "mom" without the inflective-sigh "maaahm.")

There is one thing I am simultaneously so ready and so-unready for it to be the last of - kids in my bed.  Both kids have gone through their "sleep in mom and dad's bed" phases.  Sometimes those phases have even overlapped - and back then we had Astro too.

Allison would climb between us and thrash about all night long, as though we were the interlopers and if we could please just leave HER BED, all would be better.  Sometimes we did.  But over time she stayed more and more in her own bed, and now her visits are few and far between - and I think we all sleep the better for it.  She's also a calmer sleeper now, so that when she does find us in the middle of the night - it's not so bad, and it's infrequent enough that I almost enjoy it.

Jacob's transformation was more gradual - and longer.  As a toddler newly released from the confines of the crib, he would waddle down the hallway, climb up in bed, and sleep on top of me - tummy to tummy.  As he got a little older, he would snuggle in between my arm and my side.  He is a pretty sound sleeper and there was never much moving about.  In fact, I'd often wake in the morning and wonder how long he'd been there.  And it was very cute and I thought I'd be sooo sad when he was too old to snuggle in bed.

Well, here's what happened.... he grew.  And now, he's not a pint-sized four year old who climbs almost unnoticed into the bed - he's a nearly 60 pound PERSON who stands there staring at me next to the bed until I wake up and totally jump out of my skin.  Then he climbs in bed and rests his head on my arm and it falls asleep.  And there is the mathematical challenge of three full people trying to sleep in a bed made for two.

And there will be a day when I look back in sadness to realize that he's outgrown climbing in bed with us.  But I will certainly miss toddler Jacob and not school-aged Jacob in my bed.  Until then, I may be the bear that fell out. 

Fact Checking

After turning off the kids lights on Sunday night, I returned to watching TV with Brian (so exciting.... actually it's another post to consider the amount of TV that we actually DON'T watch anymore) and grabbed my phone.  Why?  I needed to fact-check my conversation with Jacob. (which was, not shockingly, entirely accurate)

It was a lengthy conversation, so I won't recount the whole thing line by line - but we'd told the kids about Great-Grandma's death and Jacob was asking if it was ok if he told his teacher and friends (yes, of course).  I asked if he was sad about it and he said yes, but he was also sad about Harry Houdini.  Huh?  Apparently Harry Houdini died from a punch in the stomach.  Jacob told me the whole story (which I didn't know). 

Then I said something like, "well, it's OK to be sad about Great-grandma and Harry Houdini."  And then Jacob added - "and John Bradley."  Well - who the heck is John Bradley??  So I got the whole story about John Bradley, the WW2 vet and soldier who fought in Iwa Jima, and was famous for raising the flag after the battle.  And then I learned all about where he lived and what he did and how he didn't take the credit but instead gave it to all the men who died fighting.

Uh - OK.  Apparently "they read a book."  The next chapter is (LOL) Joe McCarthy.  The book is Wisconsin Hometown Heroes (a.k.a - things you don't learn in Illinois - but who around here has ever heard of Casmir Pulaski, huh???). 

So, I guess this week we'll be sad for Great-grandma, Harry Houdini, John Bradley, and Joe McCarthy.  At least Great-grandma gets to keep interesting company.