quick clicks

preschoolers today articles

preschoolers today q&a

children today articles

children today q&a

message boards

research baby names

prepare a birth plan

content channels

ip channel rss feeds

read birth stories

read parenting stories

recommended books

e-newsletters

safety recalls

ip diaries

ip store

mom of the month

dad of the month

editor's letter

letters to the editor

Micki's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 11/28/00 -------------------- 11/9/00 11/2/00 10/22/00 10/18/00 10/9/00 9/27/00 9/5/00 8/29/00 7/4/00 6/28/00 5/31/00 5/24/00 5/3/00 4/27/00 4/12/00 3/29/00 3/23/00 3/15/00 3/8/00 3/1/00 2/23/00 2/16/00 2/11/00 2/2/00 1/26/00 1/19/00 1/12/00 1/6/00 12/29/99 12/21/99 11/24/99 11/16/99 11/10/99 11/3/99 -------------------- Micki's Introduction

Introduction

No matter how much work it is leading up to the big day, there is something about watching the kids play with their new toys that make it all worth while. This year that translates into a quick story about how my husband and I were up until 2 a.m. trying to figure out why Matthews new robot (his gift from Santa) didn't work. As luck would have it (bad luck that is), its failure to run turned out to be due to two dead batteries in a row! Now, just how often does THAT happen?

Christmas morning started off strange. Matthew had apparently had a bad dream and somehow meshed my mom into the story of Beauty and the Beasts Enchanted Christmas -- insisting that my mom was 'stuck on the wall and yelling at him.' For those who haven't seen this movie about a bazillion times, Forte is the enchanted pipe organ and HE is stuck on the wall and yells at Fife, a cute little piccolo. Matthew refused to go downstairs until we called my mom and talked to her. Yeesh.

Once we got downstairs he completely overlooked the new bike and went straight for his little brothers Winnie the Pooh activity center. When my husband started controlling the robot, Matthew quickly surrendered the activity center and latched on to it.

I have to say that what he received, he was thrilled with. He had told Santa twice that all he wanted was candy canes for Christmas, so that's what he had in his stocking. Santa brought him the bike (which he eventually tried) and the robot. His dad and I gave him a talking Scooby Doo (which is really neat!) and some Toy Story 2 stuff. Thankfully he's not into Pokemon.

Later that day it was off to visit my family and get even more presents -- his favorite was the dress up hats my sister got for him (an engineer and a fireman). Of course, everything got played with. We had celebrated with my husbands' family on Christmas Eve, so Matthew was definitely NOT hurting for toys.

My friend who breeds collies (our Scout is one of hers) gave the boys a copy of "The Christmas Collie" but I fear I'm going to have to read that one with some Kleenex.

All in all it was a good year, mostly free of tantrums and overtired children (Matthew slept a good chuck of the three-hour drive to my family's celebration). I did feel sorry for him in one aspect. When he opened a present, he was quite happy to have just THAT one and wanted to open it and play with it and we just kept saying "But you have all these others to open." Next year I think we'll try and cut down on the amount of gifts just so he will have time to play with the stuff he gets.

A most joyous of new years to you all!