Toys in Review: Best Toy Award goes to...

The awesome $3.75 spaghetti ball...

No assembly, instant joy. You can pretend it's hair. You can pretend to sneeze it at someone (preferrably someone you know). You can pull it, drag it, toss it, cuddle it. It knows no limits.

Shephards and Angels and Chaos and More..

Happy Holidays!

Hark the Herald Angels Siiiing....

Here's a bit of holiday cheer, V&J-style, early in the morning.

There are a few things one should perhaps note:
1) The #1 reason one should have twins is that when one child takes a break from singing to eat a mouthful of cereal, the other can, of course, finish the verse
2) The kids seem to have inherited mommy's side of the singing genes, rather than uncle George's, which is to say, well... none of us are likely to have a singing career.
3) Happy Holidays to all!!!!!

Love

Driving to a holiday party. Christmas carols are playing, and everyone is feeling jolly.

V: "I LOVE Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. And pugs."
Me: "I know, Vasco, you also love the Einsteins, right?"
V: "Yes, I LOVE Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, pugs, and the Einsteins.
Me: "And mommy and daddy?"

Silence from the back seat. A few minutes later,
V: "Mommy, I LOVE Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and pugs. And also..horses."
Me: "And how about parents, Vasco? Do you love your parents?"
V:"Hey, you tried to trick me, mommy!"

Yes. Yes, I did. But, evidently, you are already way way too smart...

Tis' the Season to...bribe.

After several days (weeks?) of endlessly explaining to Vasco and Justine that everyday they need to get dressed, go to school, bring their favored toy du jour with them in the car before we leave ("No Justine we can't go back home to get your toy!"), come home from school (despite the fact that they didn't want to go to school in the first place!), etc., last night we decided to try another method not too often found in those books written by the "experts": bribery. No more attempts at reasoning, we completely caved and started offering a trip to their favorite pizza place for lunch on Sunday if they behaved. This seemed to work well this morning as Vasco gladly shared his favorite "Bee" spoon with Justine when hers could not be found. There was no complaining when they had to get dressed or when they were told no more TV. Inevitably, things started breaking down as lunch time neared. Needless to say, empty threats of NOT going to the pizza place were not working as we were driving there, so we offered more (we should have been politicians): a trip to the bookstore (No more taxes and higher refunds for all!). Once again order was restored! Lunch went relatively well until we started to leave, and Mom and Dad quietly decided that a trip to the bookstore was a little too much for very tired 3-year-olds....3-year-olds with a good memory of promises to the bookstore. Hmm...maybe this bribery thing does have a downside...

Happy Holidays!

...will work for pizza...and books... and...