Christmas Ideas for the girls and fun with textbooks

We've already been asked for ideas about the girls' Christmas, so I figured I'd just put this up for everybody.

We'd really prefer not to get toys this year. Nadine's and Claudia's rooms are full and at Nadine's request we're going through her toys and getting rid of what she doesn't play with anymore. She gets overwhelmed easily and has been telling me she just wants a room that is "easy to keep nice", so we're going to do that for her. WE aren't even buying toys this year. The truth is the girls just don't play with them, and they have their "lovies" as far as dolls and stuffed animals...

We're getting her an easel and a little desk for Christmas since she's so interested in art, so anything to go with that would be a huge plus. Plans for her room have changed, and she's going to have a lavender Tinkerbell room, so if you'd like to get her something for her room that fits in with Tinkerbell that would be a good thing too. Nadine's been wanting the Sleeping Beauty movie that's being released on DVD soon, too.

Claudia is insanely into books lately, so any sort of book would be great. She asks to be read to (no kidding!) a half dozen times a day. She's not so much into traditional story books but the books that are more about learning. She has a book called the "B Book" about a little girl collecting things that begin with "B". They have other letters too and I've thought about collecting them for her. She's more the little brainiac than she lets on most of the time. She can count to 12 and loves counting-type books, too. She'll shock you in walmart by reading the numbers on the price tag, too. She'll play dumb more often than not, though. I don't know what we are going to do for her for Christmas. She may get some sort of educational kids video game console, but I haven't researched enough to know which one we're going to get..

Funny thing is, her and Nadine both look over my shoulder into my books while I'm studying. They like the "big-girl books" as Nadine calls them. They both go NUTS over my art appreciation texts. Nadine has some pretty strong opinions about paintings, especially about color combinations and whether the artist knew what he was doing putting those colors in there. We did have an interesting incident with my nutrition text. I turned the page and there is an anatomical drawing of a _complete_ male. ;) I didn't say anything and just sort of waited to see what the girls would say. I didn't want to just rush and turn the page because the drawing was by no means pornographic or inappropriate. Nadine asked "why did they leave THAT part on there?!?" and giggled, so I told her that Mommy is learning all about our bodies to be a nurse so sometimes I have to look at drawings of private parts of the body. She was satisfied by that but had to tell Dean that drawings of "daddy parts" were in my book. I guess the funniest part is that right beside the male was a fully nude anatomical drawing of a female and there were no "Boobie!!!" exclamations from Claudia. They were both too focused on daddy parts or maybe they've just seen mommy parts too much from interrupting my showers to really care about that anymore.

It's been a while

Yikes! It's been forever since I updated the blog. I've been playing with the girls and trying to give them a lot of time over the summer since they don't get as much when mom and dad are both in school full time. I wonder sometimes if its right to take time away from them when they are so young and still discovering the world. I hate the times I have to tell them, "Yeah, that's great! Mommy's got to keep studying though." *sigh* There really isn't a choice other than giving up on a career I really want...the schooling for CRNA takes long enough that it's already really late to be starting. The new baby has me feeling guilty about even thinking about that road; I've always believed that a young child needed mommy right there for the first few years. Now it feels like I'm gonna shortchange the new one. I know it's just one of those places where you lose something no matter what you choose.

We had to take Dean to meet the coworker he rides with to work in Brookhaven last night because the car had to go in the shop (bad CV boot...getting new axle and it's all under warranty, thank goodness. I didn't find out until this morning that Nadine didn't see him get in the truck with the guy so she thought we left him in the Wal-Mart parking lot alone in the middle of the night! LOL! We had been trying to find me another body pillow for me and found one in that Walmart, so in Nadine's mind we left him in the parking lot "even after he bought you a pillow, Mommy!" We explain to Nadine that he goes to work to make money for our family, so in her eyes no matter who purchases something, Daddy bought it because it was his money... ;)

Nadine's been in ballet for a few weeks now and is really loving it. Her teacher says that Nadine is the class leader and is always willing to try the new steps even if no one else will try them with her. That's a huge thing coming from Nadine as she's always been really shy and a perfectionist to the point of not wanting to try new things in front of other people. The teacher says she is really excited by the dance class and that sometimes that is the root of problems in dance class. She can be very "get out of my way and let me dance" sometimes. I'm just glad that she has something she obviously LOVES so much.

As for a Claudia update, on the way to Brookhaven we were messing with Claudia a little bit. A few months back we had told Claudia that steaks come from cows to see what she would say and now she sees a picture of cows in wallyworld and says "STEAK!" A few nights ago Claudia asked if she could have a cow for a pet, and when asked why her excited answer was "so we can eat it!" There's a one track mind going on there... So I pointed out that sometimes people eat ducks, and Claudia got really excited and wanted some duck. She asked what other animals people eat and this kept her entertained for most of the trip. Apparently the only thing she thought wasn't meant to be eaten were sheep. See, I told you that child is strange. Wonderful, a joy to be around, and the life of the party. Definitely strange. ;)