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2007-12-22 - 11.58pm previous entry next entry
Christmas-related boy stuff :)
Yay, I finally have a moment to update with the photos of my attempts to get a Christmas card photo of the boys this year! And it's still only 25 minutes BEFORE midnight - go me! Hehe!
There are lots of pics though - be warned!
It was a total nightmare trying to get a nice photo of the boys to send out to family and friends with our Christmas cards. I like to do that every year because I can NOT resist showing off my sweeties! :) I'm still so bummed that the cards went out (well, 21 of 50 - oh dear! Some will have to arrive rather late when I post them AFTER Christmas *sigh*) without photos of the boys for all to see! But I comforted myself with the fact that about 7 weeks after Christmas I will have a baby (WHAT?!?!? Oh my gosh, I am about to have a baby!!!!!), and will therefore have the opportunity to make sure ALL my boys are in a photo on the birth announcement :) That will make up for it! But then, it means I'm going to be a complete freak about getting the perfect photo. Which, not good really. Especially with hormones a-flying. But oh well! Hopefully we'll somehow get a good picture for the birth announcement!
Anyway, I DID try! I took photos of them on 2 different days. I tried all sorts to distract them and stuff, but they played about and climbed on each other and never looked at me and so on! Hey ho. Here is my photographic record of the process! ;)
Tried setting the boys up together on the floor, completely failing to move the mess on the sofas behind them first (d'oh!) and also used the flash close up (another d'oh!). They looked at me at the same time, but yeah they were basically mucking around together, see?...
I then tried sitting them on the sofa together, but Matthew climbed on Arthur and they had the SWEETEST cuddle! I took a photo of that, of course! :)
Then I tried sitting Matthew on Arthur's lap, but he was kind of fidgetty (poor Arthur!)...
Day One's attempts ended there, as the mild squirming turned into full-on rough-and-tumble, so I gave up!
Day Two!
I went crazy taking photos that day because I knew it was the last opportunity and I was determined to get one! I had 3 "musts" for a useable photo:
1) They must both be looking at me at the same time.
2) They must be smiling or looking cute!
3) The photo must not be blurry or have horrible, unfixable light.
I sat them on the sofa side by side and went to work. But first Arthur picked his nose at the moment I snapped the photo (sigh)...
And then I HAD the perfect shot, but Arthur randomly leapt at the camera at the last second (which is very "Arthur" actually)....
Then I thought, okay, how about the floor? It's tidy-ish, and they might sit sweetly together and smile at me if they're not "sat" in position on the sofa! I got them to climb down onto the floor and they sat soooo nicely and waited. By the time I had turned my back and walked 4 paces, turned again and put the camera to my eye, this was the shot I got:
So back to the sofa we went! Unfortunately, Matthew was all up for games once he'd sat on Arthur's neck like that (!!), so he instantly did this:
He does a sort of fast sit-up-and-down thing on his brother, essentially bouncing on him as hard as he can with his bottom! Arthur is always delighted with this kind of play and finds it so funny that Matthew is being "Wiggly Boy" on him!
Soooo, starting to lose my hope/cool, and with neither boy paying the least bit of attention to my pleas for them to stop for a moment and sit up, or just relax and look at Mummy for JUST A MOMENT! - I grabbed the remote and put the Thomas DVD on. I hoped that this would put a sudden stop to the rough-and-tumble, and THEN I might get a millisecond after the distraction, to get a photo! Matthew was instantly distracted, but only to pause in his pummelling of his brother.
He went straight back to it the moment he looked away from the TV, so then I called Neil to help me! Neil set them up on the sofa for a cuddle:
Which I snapped and it was cute, but I said to Neil that they had to BOTH be looking forward, so that people would see both their faces. So Neil put them side by side and did a little dance (out of shot, sorry, haha!) to keep them looking forward:
By this time I was kind of getting stressy (ALWAYS a sign to stop and get cheerful again, for the kids' sake if nothing else!) and told Neil that - Rule #1 - they had to be looking at ME, not him! I wanted them looking at the camera! So he turned them to face me, and said, "Look at Mummy, boys!" And I'll be darned - they DID! And absolutely perfectly, keeping still and everything! But completely without expression! Which I have never seen in either of them, it's just tooo frustrating that they both chose to look at me with NO expression whatsoever! Thus breaking Rule #2 (looking cute or smiling). *sigh*
So Neil sat them side-by-side on the sofa with a BOOK to look at. He said it would distract them, and then he'd do something behind me (so they were looking in my direction) and they'd look up and smile! But Matthew clapped and laughed, thus breaking Rule #3 - the photo must not be blurry!
After that they started really enjoying reading their book together, and they looked so sweet and I just gave up trying to get a good Christmas card photo and just took a couple of photos of them reading, for me :) And then put the camera away!
So there we have it. It's sooooooo hard to take nice photos of them these days! They never keep still, or they just climb all over each other and giggle, or play rough-and-tumble continually! It must be an age thing, for these particular boys! I feel like I don't get enough photos of them these days, and I am sad about that!
Staying on the subject of Christmas-related things, Neil and I have been having loonnnng discussions lately about what to teach our kids about Christmas. We want a BIG emphasis on Jesus. But we weren't sure what to do about Father Christmas. Do the two even go together?! We couldn't figure it out. I had no experience of anything but Father Christmas, as my upbringing was very anti-Christian. I learned about the real reason for Christmas at school. But Christmas was OH SO MAGICAL, probably the most magical and special part of my childhood, I think. I want to pass that on, and I wondered HOW to do so without Father Christmas! Or without such a big emphasis on him.
In the end, we finally (just the other day) decided to teach about both. We will make a big emphasis on Jesus, and unpack that a lot with the boys. And also "do" Father Christmas with the presents and stuff. We figured we'd go with the imagination aspect, since we do soooo many other imaginary games and things with Arthur now, and he absolutely loves that kind of thing. I figured he would probably enjoy the idea of Father Christmas and maybe find it a lot of fun to imagine. Maybe not so hugely this year, but probably more so at subsequent Christmases (Christmasses?).
Soooo the other day two books arrived (bought at eBay, courtesy of my parents' Christmas money for the boys) to help us on our quest :) One was the Nativity story for toddlers with lovely illustrations - a chunky board book. We read that with them and enjoyed it. And the other was another book about the birth of Jesus, but it's a jigsaw book with a 5-piece jigsaw of the illustration on each page. Arthur loved that one! I elaborated when reading the story because there wasn't much about God in it!
Anyway, then, nice and confusingly (!), about 10 minutes later I talked to Arthur about Father Christmas! ;) We did Father Christmas last year but Arthur probably doesn't remember, because we really haven't made mention of him since then, not even in the run up to Christmas thus far - we have been undecided on what we'd teach the boys about Christmas. Now that we've decided, it was fun to talk to him about it! It felt WEIRD to lie to him, but somehow so much fun, for both of us, at the same time.
Arthur was more excited than I expected about Father Christmas coming with presents while he's asleep on Christmas Eve! He kept asking WHEN that would be, and I told him 3 more sleeps. He was SO excited! Then we wrote a letter to Father Christmas to ask him for the things Arthur would like for Christmas. Arthur didn't hesitate to say he wanted new cars and chocolate, and he said that was all! So I encouraged him to think if there was anything else, and also to think if there was anything Matthew might like, because Matthew was too little to write his own letter to Father Christmas - not that Arthur wrote his of course! He dictated and I wrote :) Here is his letter - we wrote it in red sparkly pen on green paper :)
Dear Father Christmas,
For Christmas, I would like:
New cars and chocolate.
I would like books, new ones. I would like Postman Pat books. I like Mrs. Goggins books.
I want Jesus books. That's all.
A new car magazine too.
Matthew would like new cars. He likes toys. He likes books as well.
Love Arthur
I don't know where the Postman Pat books idea came from! He doesn't mention Postman Pat much, although he DOES like it. He is getting a TON of books actually, but none of them are Postman Pat! He IS getting chocolate, well, chocolate-covered raisins, and also a snack pack of mini chocolate digestive biscuits :) He is always asking for those, but we never have them. We had them MONTHS ago a couple of times, and he has never forgotten them. This boy is a BIG chocolate fan! ;) They will both get yoghurt- and chocolate-covered raisins as stocking fillers, and also the snack pack of bitesize chocolate biscuits. Matthew will LOVE those as well!
They are both getting Matchbox-style toy cars - 8 each, individually wrapped as stocking fillers. I hadn't thought of a new car magazine, hmm.... He is still snipping away at the pictures in the car magazine we got him for his birthday, and has plenty left to cut out, so I hadn't thought of it.
After we wrote the letter, I put it in an envelope and addressed it to Father Christmas, North Pole. Arthur wanted to know if it was near where we live. I said we live in England and that's not near the North Pole. He knows a little about England (as being different from other countries) because of chats about my parents living in France. Then I let him lick the envelope flap and he sealed it. He wanted to post it right away! Which I hadn't anticipated! But he didn't mean to walk to the postbox round the corner. He took it to the front door and wanted to post it through the letter box from the inside to the outside. So I helped him post it through, and when we heard it slap onto the concrete outside Arthur clasped his hands under his chin with glee, and said that Father Christmas was going to get his letter!
So I had an idea :) I wondered (aloud) if maybe Father Christmas might come to get the letter in some way, so he could read it. It was time for Big Boy Quiet Time upstairs, so I said that Father Christmas would not come while Arthur was there watching for him, just like on Christmas Eve. We would check to see if he had come to get the letter after Big Boy Quiet Time was finished. So up he went. After he was in his room with the door shut, I collected the letter and left a generous sprinkling of multi-coloured glitter on the doorstep/floor outside the front door!
He did really well upstairs and stayed for a good while, but before too long there was lots of rhythmic thumping and Neil went up to see what was going on. He brought Arthur downstairs, saying that Arthur told him he was TOO excited about Father Christmas and he had to jump on his bed to "get some energy" (he always says this for "burning off energy" - always calls it "getting" energy instead, hehe!). So we went to the front door and I let Arthur open it. He did this HUGE gasp and said, "It's GONE! Father Christmas has got my letter!" and then he bent over to look closer at the floor outside and did another HUGE gasp. I said, "What! What is it?!" and he said, "It's glitter! He's REALLY BEEN here to get my letter!" Ohhhh it was all so heart-rendingly cute and his enthusiasm and excitement was soooo complete and adorable that I had a hard time not crying for some reason.
He came jumping into the house as we shut the door, just unable to contain himself, squealing and clutching his hands together. At that moment, Neil appeared with Matthew on the stairs, as Matthew had woken from his nap. Arthur ran up to him and said, "Mashew! Father Christmas has been to get my letter, and NOW he knows what I want for Christmas!" It was so sweet - he soooo wanted to share it with Matthew, but Matthew had no idea what he was talking about and was just busy being rather dopey and sleepy! So Arthur talked to me about it some more, highly excited! He kept saying, "I'm SO happy!" and "I'm SO excited!!!" and so on.
A bit later on he was looking thoughtful for a moment, and then suddenly gasped and said, "Father Christmas has read my letter, so he knows what I want - and he knows I want new cars!!!" I said yes, he does! So Arthur beamed, and then said, "I think he must be at Tesco getting my new cars RIGHT NOW!" hehehehe! I laughed so much, but tried not to, you know?! I said that maybe Father Christmas had a whole FACTORY where he makes toy cars for all the boys and girls who want them for Christmas. Maybe he would get Arthur's cars there? Arthur gasped in awe at the idea, and said breathlessly, "YES!" And then after a pause, "... or Tesco."
Funny boy :)
Okay it's late and that's all I wanted to get into writing for today! Thank you so much for the messages after my last entry! I feel better about the sleep arrangements changing, thanks for the encouragement and advice! Jemma, your kids are so sweet! I hope mine share as nicely as yours do! :)
I'll be back soon to FINALLY upload those photos of Arthur's birthday and write about it a little (video clips too, Andrea, don't worry!). Although, hmmm, maybe not before Christmas now, since Christmas is practically here.... I will have a million photos after Christmas though, so I really need to get the birthday stuff done first! I'll try but I'm not sure when. Tomorrow is Sunday. Arthur and I are icing the Christmas cake! I'm so excited that I've made my own Christmas cake from scratch this year, and it's nearly finished! And I love that Arthur has done each stage of it with me. I want it to be a tradition every Christmas that I bake Christmas cakes and other seasonal stuff with my children, like I did with my brother and my mum. I love doing stuff like that!
Our church does not have a morning service tomorrow. There's a short service in the evening instead - well, early evening, 5.30 to 6.30pm. I'm excited about it! The kids at church (including the group that Arthur will join after Christmas, the 3-5 age group) are doing a nativity play, and the service will be candle-lit and we'll sing Christmas carols (I hope! I LOVE singing Christmas carols!), and there will be mince pies and mulled wine afterwards :) I'm hoping the boys can have a packed lunch of sorts as it will be their tea time while we're there, and then we can just do bath and bed as soon as we get home. I hope they enjoy the service!
Then it's Monday, and that's Christmas Eve! Wow, that came up fast! I have wrapped all the Christmas presents but a doll for the boys (they are getting two - Granny wrapped one already), and their lights-and-sounds play kitchen. I'm going to wrap that on Christmas Eve, because I want to put it together first and then wrap it standing, and leave it where it is for the boys to discover in the morning. It's too HUGE to wrap and somehow hide in the meantime, if I wrap it too early! It's in a nice big cardboard box right now, so they have no idea what's in there :)
This year I have cut out the letters 'A' and 'M' a million times over from a pile of blank address labels in the drawer, and coloured them all with Arthur's felt tip pens, all different bright colours. I stuck the 'A' stickers onto Arthur's presents, and the 'M' stickers onto Matthew's. That way, Arthur can easily identify whose present is whose on Christmas morning, and give Matthew's his presents too. He knows his letters really well now, most of them. But I'll get to actually writing their names on packages next year. I figured the letters would be the easiest way for him to do it in the excitement of it all!
I made the boys their own stockings in the run up to last Christmas. I have run out of the lovely fabric I used for those, and I am wondering what to make Nathan's from for next Christmas! Next Christmas Neil and I have decided to STRICTLY follow FlyLady's Cruise Through The Holidays plan, which I started in earnest this year, but never stuck to it well enough. I have done pretty well! I started everything in October, but then got side-tracked after Arthur's birthday, thinking there was a while to go. Christmas comes up FAST! If I hadn't done it to some degree though, I would be way behind now, so I'm proud of what I have managed to do with my FlyLady Holiday Control Journal! It's all organised in there so I can keep myself on track with it. And all my receipts are in an envelope in there too, which is a FIRST for me! I have lists galore, and planned the Christmas Day meals in October. Everything is shopped for, except we need a last minute shopping trip for loo roll, the chicken (we're too small for turkey this year!) we'll be roasting for Christmas lunch, and the edible stocking fillers for the boys.
I'm looking forward to Christmas! We are going to church in the morning - ours joins with another local church at their building (lovely old Anglican church building) for a short service in the morning, and I'm looking forward to that! Then Christmas lunch, yum! And before all that, watching our little boys open their presents! After lunch will come Matthew's nap, and Arthur will undoubtedly play happily with his new things, and then we'll play with the boys till Family Meal time, when we'll have the kind of tea my family always have on Christmas Day - cold chicken, bread and butter, various salads, cheese, pickles galore, and Christmas cake! Yum! The boys (including Neil) are not fans of traditional Christmas pudding :( The boys are maybe just too little, although I have high hopes for Matthew! Arthur is just weirdly hugely sensitive to any flavour other than, well, chocolate and marmite. And cheese. But not cheese SAUCE. Although, HUGE BREAKTHROUGH this week! He is eating MY spaghetti bolognese! He still prefers it mixed with a jar of babyfood spaghetti (blargh! He's THREE!), but I've been reducing the stuff from the jar bit by bit and he mostly gets my cooking now for that meal :) He LIKES the meat! And this week I put celery in the bolognese sauce and he LOVED it! He wanted everyone's celery from their plates! Well I never. So that's a breakthrough. But otherwise he STILL isn't eating the evening meal. He eats a slice of dry bread (won't have butter) as he's allowed bread with the meal (one slice) but that's it. I can't fathom why he still doing this after almost a year of us saying he has to eat what we're eating or not eat anything at all! I figured he'd get hungry and change, but he hasn't. He DOES get hungry, but he's stubborn. He actually THREW UP something of mine that he tried a few weeks ago, at the table! He's so super sensitive to flavours that he doesn't trust. Neil is very similar, but he is at least the type of person who will try anything. He does get gag responses to unexpected flavours really easily though, so I guess that's where Arthur gets it from. Matthew doesn't seem to be that way (thank goodness!) so I hope he'll learn to love traditional Christmas yummies!
Anyway. *I* LOVE Christmas pudding! My family always make their own, but it seemed a bit pointless for me to make it just for myself! So I bought a couple of teeny tiny individual portion sized Christmas puds from the supermarket. Then I get to have some. No brandy sauce though, poo! Custard will do :) I will make the boys a mixed fruit sponge pudding, which they all love. Gotta have mixed fruit in SOMETHING on Christmas Day!
Okay I am waaaay too rambly tonight and MUST put a stop to it so I can go to bed. Ooh but eat a mince pie first! And lay out the boys' clothes for tomorrow, and mine. And then sleeeep. I will be back soon!
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