Christmas Festivities

I must confess that my picture-taking this Christmas holiday was pretty pathetic. I don't know why I wasn't into it this year, but I didn't take a single pic of Weiler activities and only used the camera for Christmas Eve and Christmas day at my parents' house. Still, here are a few choice shots:

Ho ho ho!

A red trio--cousins Rowan (almost 2), Anna (about 3 1/2), and Clara (almost 4).

For the annual Christmas Eve buffet, we always have Christmas crackers (a British tradition). Upon popping open a cracker (which sort of looks like a present), one finds a paper hat, a joke (which are often corny and/or British, so we don't always get them), and a toy.

Clara got a pirate eye patch inside her cracker. She thought it was pretty awesome and went around saying, "Aarr!"

Christmas morning, we opened presents. Here Michael is opening the book that my parents had published of all the children stories that each of my siblings and my parents wrote. It is a hilarious collection.

My favorite gift was new socks--thanks, Santa! (Notice the pair of beauties I'm wearing in the shot above.)

We really enjoyed spending time with siblings and parents. Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread, er, graham cracker houses

Last night for Family Home Evening, we invited some neighbors over to make my family's version of gingerbread houses: graham cracker houses. I always grew up in the house-making shadow of my older brothers, who were much more skilled than I was. Not much has changed.

Clara was tenaciously attacking the M&Ms with such fury that only five got on her house.

It was amazing that mine/Clara's managed to stay up--royal icing truly is a wonder.

Angie and her little boy, Colin--he was quite as skilled as Clara at eating candy.

Michael's angled roof put mine to shame. It was fun to relive childhood memories (even the shame part) . . . perhaps this will be a tradition we will continue.

P.S. In the preceding post, I was being facetious about the whole "coal in the stocking" thing--we didn't tell Clara that; I was trying to get a shot of her in her Christmas dress in front of the tree, but she wasn't having any of it. Sorry if I misled you!

Clara, you're only getting coal in your stocking this year.

Her reaction.

Savor, don't swallow

I told Michael this morning that I read books like I eat dessert--I gobble them down in one bite. I need to enjoy a good book like a rich dessert, savoring each word and enjoying the experience. Gobbling books whole might make me a fast reader, but I know I'm losing out in the end.

But I can't help it, people!

Putting my reading issues aside, I am in sore need of a good read. Any suggestions?

If you hear stories like this . . .

. . . your dad might be a dentist.


This is the jist of the story I overheard tonight:

MICHAEL: (as he brushes Clara's teeth) Do you want me to be a robot or a king?

CLARA: A king!

MICHAEL: Ah, princess Clara, thank you for keeping your mouth open and letting me brush your teeth. As one of my loyal subjects, you will gain all the kingdom if you still have all of your teeth and keep them pearly white when you are grown.

And if I have other daughters who also keep all of their teeth, then whichever daughter has kept her teeth and has no (dental) restorations will gain the kingdom.

If one or more daughters fulfills these requirements, then the crown will go to the daughter who had no restorations in her baby teeth as well.

CLARA: (Silence.)

Anthropomorphism (or is it personification?)

Anthropomorphism: an interpretation of what is not human or personal in terms of human or personal characteristics

Personification: attribution of personal qualities ; especially : representation of a thing or abstraction as a person or by the human form

I am still not completely clear on the difference between these two terms, but needless to say, we use one or the other frequently--perhaps daily--to help entice Clara to do things. Clara is very strong-willed and does not like doing things unless it is her idea. This makes many daily tasks, such as getting dressed, a challenge, not to mention trying to teach her new skills.

For example, I'm trying to teach Clara to get dressed and undressed. Not only does she have difficulty with coordination, but she also just doesn't want to do it sometimes (often), or she wants to take for-ev-er to complete the task. I'm learning patience. Anyway, if she doesn't want to put on her socks, I'll have one of her feet say, "Oh no! I'm so cold! I need a sock to keep me warm."

She is such a sucker for things like that and almost always complies. It's pretty hilarious.

The examples are so endless that I am having trouble of thinking of more specific situations. The funniest part of it, however, is that she then wants to talk to the inanimate object (through me, of course). Another situation (this particular example hasn't happened, but replace "fork" with any number of objects and you get the picture) might go like this:

ME: Okay, Clara, please put your fork and plate on the counter.

CLARA: No! (Giggling as she runs away--at this point I can either physically bring her back to the table, which I sometimes do and hand-over-hand make her do it, or I can make a game out of it, as follows).

ME: (speaking from the fork as it dances around) Help me! Help me! I need to get to the counter! I'm dirty and want to be all clean! (don't ask me what a fork sounds like)

CLARA: (addressing the fork) Hi fork! (She then looks to me expectantly, waiting to speak as the fork.)

ME: (fork) Help me! Please!

CLARA: Okay! (at which point she would take the fork and plate over to the counter)


Clara not only wants us to be inanimate objects, but she loves it when we are not ourselves. At least ten times a day, especially if we've done an accent just in passing conversation for fun, she'll ask us, "Are you Count?" or "Are you a doctor?" or "Are you a teacher?" or "Are you a doggie?" or "Are you a monkey?" or "Are you a baby?" (The other day Michael was talking as he leaned over to pick up something and his voice kind of groaned. Clara told him, "You're talking like Oscar!")

If I'm tired of playing the not-me game, I'll say, "No, I'm just Mommy." Sometimes she's okay with that; other times she'll say, "Can you be a monkey?" or whatever it is that she wants. She is much more willing to perform and obey for any one or any thing besides me! It is quite a phenomenon. At least to us.


Today, we were working on sorting beads by color. Clara doesn't have a lot of patience/focus for things like this. If I say, "Okay, here's a bead--where does it go?", she'll do it for maybe a few beads and then grow tired or distracted or frustrated. So, today I sorted one bead per color and put them on her night stand. I told her that we were going to make families for each color. Using voices for each bead, I had them find their family (being a baby voice worked best). She even rocked one of the beads that was "crying" because it couldn't find its family.

She finished all the beads. Anthropomorphism, or personification, or whichever it is, you are a tool in my Clara Tool Kit.

Ooblek, etc.

If your child has never played with ooblek, I have a new rainy day activity for you! Ooblek, also called goop, or other names, I'm sure, is just cornstarch and water mixed together (I put about 1/2 c. of cornstarch in a bowl and add water until it creates a gooey consistency, possibly 1/4 c. or so). The crazy thing about ooblek is that it can be both solid and liquid. For Clara, it is incredibly relaxing and somehow makes her tactile sensory processing needs happy. She can seriously play with it for, I don't know, about half an hour by herself. But it's fun for adults, too!

One happy girl.

A word to the wise, though: Ooblek is very messy to clean up. Fortunately you just need water, but somehow it gets everywhere.

Special delivery!

We decorated our tree (this will be its seventh Christmas with our family) Thanksgiving evening. Clara was so excited about all the decorations, and every day when the lights turn on with the timer in the morning and evening, she points it out to us. Her joy makes the Christmas season even more enjoyable. When Clara helped us hang ornaments, she put all the ornaments on the same branch. We told her that the other branches would feel lonely because they wanted ornaments, too. We showed her another branch to put an ornament on, at which point she proceeded to take off all the ornaments shown above and put them all on another branch. She cracks us up.