Separate the Tweet from the Chaff

To my Luddite friends—Bob G., I cast my eyes in your direction—who find social media cumbersome, oppressive, unhealthy, and pervasive, I understand where you’re coming from. But to call it worthless would be a mistake. As a counterargument, I offer a dozen delicious ginger bread cookies, which I won from a Twitter trivia contest today.

Festive Occasions

It’s lazy of me to lump together the pictures of the kids with their Christmas presents and the one of Beni’s birthday cupcakes, but together they help illustrate my point. Growing up, Beni found it difficult to share her birthday with the Christmas holiday: she got the occasional—but dreaded—combo gift, couldn’t schedule parties on her actual birthday, and, worst of all, was often forgotten about by many of her friends who were busy celebrating the day with their families.

Those mixed feelings haven’t completely faded away, but I’ve noticed—and Beni herself has conceded—that the hard feelings have softened over time. In fact, the birthday girl now sees the positives of having to share: that her mom and sister will always have the day off so that they can be present to open presents, and that she too will likely never have to be at work on her special day. And in that spirit of goodwill, I offer some of the pictures from earlier in the day.

With G in the fire truck/ball pit

Olivia with her many American Girl accessories

The Slinky was very popular in the 1940s (and in 2011)

Red-Letter Day

With our living room readied for tomorrow—presents under the tree, a fire “lit” on our TV, and cookies and milk out on the table—there was one detail left for Olivia before she retired for the evening: her note for Santa. Here’s what she penned:

Residential Oath of Office

Olivia—wearing her homemade Lady Liberty crown—wrote, presided over, and administered our first attempt at a family oath this evening. My favorite line: “…, and forever we will be together in our hearts.”

No truer words have ever been sworn on.

No Narration Without Re-Presentation

Poster board? Check.

Multiple photos of presentation subject on said poster board? Check.

Timeline of said subject’s life on said poster board? Check.

Pointer for pointing out said timeline of said subject on said poster board? Check.

Snazzy suit coat and tie? Checkmate.

Drop It Like It's Tot

As we North Americans get ready to officially transition to winter, we—a tiny subset of that continental population—made a big change of our own in our home: Reed is moving on from crib to toddler bed. The switching of sleeping platform was simple enough—I took down the one side of his crib and replaced it with parts from the toddler-bed conversion kit. Our son’s newfound freedom has proven to be a bigger challenge. Most nights, he’s made multiple trips between his bed and the bookcase and toy box. His mattress, in turn, is overflowing with books and toys, as if he were auditioning for A&E’s Hoarders. This, as you can imagine, makes sleeping—and the process by which we get our youngest to sleep at night—quite difficult.

Whine and Dino

Gripe, and ye shall receive. (Especially if your parents are still tired from another restless night of sleep.) The kids were complaining that we’d made their dinosaurs extinct—i.e., put them out of reach—and so they started a campaign to bring them back. They celebrated the fruits of their protests with a parade through our living room.

Put Two and Two Together

A perfectly good excuse to post some cute pics of our favorite two-year-old boys: the QT (cutie—get it?) above is now Q2. Cousin Quintin turns two today. And although we couldn’t be with him on his big day, our two-year-old marked the occasion by getting a new spiffy haircut.

Seeing is Believing

Above is the face of a child who received a personalized video message from St. Nick. Here is her response, which she prefaced by stating, “Your [sic] the apple of my eye Santa! Love, Olivia K.”

A Sprinkle in Time

What are the holidays without traditions? One of our favorites is when the kids make and decorate holiday cookies with A.J. and Maddi at their house. An essential part of this tradition is that the parents consume a vast majority of the cookies created by the kids.

Sole Man

Reed’s doing his best to get a leg up on the competition.

Around the World

My parents got the kids an interactive globe as an early Christmas present. Reed enjoys taking the quizzes and hopes for wrong answers—he likes the exaggerated way the globe says “too bad.”

Here are Olivia and Grandpa Tsune studying the many places he’s traversed.