Still No.

Matthew:  Can I have some candy?
Me:  No.
Matthew.  But . . . can I have some candy because . . . I'm really hot.
Me:  No.
Cameron:  Well then, can I have some candy because I'm not really hot?

Nuns and Nunchucks

When Cameron opened his Christmas gift from his Grandma and Grandpa (David's parents), he found this book.  Under the book was a game for the Wii.  "What's this?" Cameron asked, showing the stack to David.  David grabbed the book with the game underneath, quickly flipping the book over to look at the back -- which happened to be the back of the Wii game.

"Ohhhh," said David, confused.  "This is a game for the Wii.  About going to church."

Both Cameron and David looked relieved when I separated the two gifts and explained that "The Mass for Children" was actually a book and the Wii game was about the circus.

You gotta wonder why there isn't a "Mass for Children" Wii game though.  It could be a bunch of mini games to teach kids about how to behave at church.  "Press B!  Press B, Cameron!" I'd yell from the couch.  "Sign of Peace!"  Or they could make it compatible with the Wii Fit balance board and have games like, "How Long Can You Kneel?" and "Walk Up for Eucharist Without Stepping on the Heels of the Person in Front of You." 

I can just imagine the shouts of excitement.  "Mommy!  I made it to Expert level on "Opening the Missalette to the Correct Page!" 

You're welcome, Mo Willems.

If my family's Christmas spending is any indication, Mo Willems is a very wealthy man.  Not only did Matthew get his very own Knuffle Bunny, we also pretty much doubled our Mo Willems' book collection.  My new favorite is "Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed," while Matthew is partial to "Leonardo the Terrible Monster."

And I'm pretty sure that LEGO was already doing okay financially, but we paid our dues there as well.

No, not really.

On Christmas Eve, Cameron was reciting the gifts that the Wise Men brought to baby Jesus.  "One was gold.  And myrrh.  And the other was frank . . . frankin . . . frankincense."

On a whim, I joked, "Do you know what Grandpa Frank's full name is?"

"What?" asked Cameron.

"Frankincense," I replied.

Cameron was not fooled but David turned to me, his eyes wide with surprise.  "Really?" he said, "I didn't know that!"

Santa at Seven

When I put Cameron to bed on Christmas Eve, I told him that our rule is that we don't get up until 7am on Christmas.  This was the rule when I was growing up and at the time I thought it was terribly unfair.  7am!!!  How in the world were we supposed to wait until SEVEN to see if Santa came?!?!  One year, when my sister Stephanie and I shared a room, we woke up well before 7am.  We stood on one side of our bedroom and watched the minutes tick by on the clock.  Each time one minute passed, we took one step towards the door until -- FINALLY! -- the clock read seven and we burst out of the bedroom to wake our lazy parents.

Now that I'm a grown-up, the 7am rule seems quite logical to me. Cameron, it turns out, felt differently about it.  I showed him the clock in his room.  "If you wake up," I told him, "look at this clock before you come wake me up.  You can only wake me up if the first number say 7."

At 2:38am, I woke to see Cameron standing next to me with a huge smile on his face.  "It's seven, Mommy!"

"No, Cameron.  It is 2 in the morning.  Go back to bed."

At 4:30am, he was back and I again sent him back to bed.  At 5:15am, when he insisted that his clock said it was 7am, I told him not to come out of his room until I came and got him.

When, at 7am exactly, I went to get him, he showed me his clock.  "See?" he said.  "I told you!  Every time I woke up, the clock said it was 7!"  It's one of those fancy clocks that also has a thermostat on it and, as it turns out, the temperature was 70 degrees.

Despite my exhaustion, it was a lovely Christmas.  Santa came through for each of the boys, somehow intuiting exactly which Lego set Cameron hoped to receive.  This was his face when he tore of the wrapping paper and saw Lego Space Police Freeze Ray Frenzy.

And Matthew, of course, received his beloved Knuffle Bunny.

I hope that all of you are enjoying your holidays as well!  I'm off to build a Lego set!

All About Mii

We recently received a very generous and unexpected gift -- a Wii Fit.  The boys especially are thrilled, despite our rule that the Wii is only played (by the boys -- shhh!) on the weekends.  When you start playing the Wii, you create a Mii -- a character that has your name and looks like you.  During a game -- be it biking or hula hooping -- you see the other Mii characters on the sidelines or competing with you.  This has provided endless entertainment for the boys.

- Unbeknownst to me, Cameron created a Mii that looks like his best friend from school -- I'll call him Calvin.  Now, when the boys are playing the Wii, I often hear them shout, "There's Calvin!" or "Whoa, Calvin just passed me.  He's a really fast runner!"

- Bolstered by his success, Cameron went on to create another Mii -- a girl with pigtails.  "Who is that?" I asked.  "Oh," he replied, "that's Grandma Linda.  When she was a girl."

- The other day, the boys asked me to do a biking challenge.  As I was pedaling along, steering with my Wii remote, I passed Matthew's Mii.  The real Matthew turned to me accusingly and said, "Hey!  Why didn't you wave at me, Mama?"

- In games with lots of characters, the Wii provides random Mii's and the cast is pretty diverse.  In games with fewer characters, the Mii roles are filled exclusively by the Mii's your family has created.  One day, Cameron was doing a Kung Fu class.  The extra characters were me, David, Calvin and Grandma Linda girl.  Part way through the class, Cameron stopped and turned to me with a look of disgust on his face.  "Hey!" he shouted.  "Why are all the people in this class WHITE?!?"  As a result, I am working on creating Mii's of our African American friends!

Guys and Dolls

My boys have always had baby dolls.  I never really thought much of it until a couple of weeks ago.  Matthew and I were watching Cameron at TaeKwanDo and Matthew was holding Payo, one of his dolls.  Another mom leaned over and said, "That's so cute.  I was going to get my little boy a doll but my husband was like, 'No way is my son playing with dolls!'"  I thought that that type of sentiment had gone out of style in, oh, say, the 70's, so I was a bit surprised. 

Later, I was telling a friend about this encounter and she said, "You bought dolls for your boys?  Why?"

Why?  Why not?  Kids like to play with baby dolls, right?

Soon I was asking every mom of boys I know and finding out that, unbeknownst to me, I am a bit of a renegade for giving my boys dolls.  The common response seems to be, "Well, if he was interested in dolls maybe I'd get him one, but he's never expressed an interest."

But, see, Matthew hadn't really expressed an interest in dolls or anything else at his first Christmas and he still got this:

And the next Christmas he didn't ask for a doll, either, but it turns out that he loves Payo.

This year is going to be a little different though, as Matthew has clearly expressed his desire for Santa to bring a Knuffle Bunny.  But I think Payo and K.B. are gonna be pretty tight.  Because whether or not he ever expressed an interest, Matthew is a boy who loves his babies.