Christmas Morning

Max woke at 6:30 am and shouted, "I HAVE A GOOD FEELING !!!!!" Alex was quick to follow with the waking and the extreme excitement. Max could see the new Polar Express train set that was running near the tree downstairs...

"ALEX, I SEE A TRAIN! SANTA WAS HERE!!!! I SEE THE POLAR EXPRESS!!! AND THERE'S A BELL!"
"OH. MY. GOSH!!!!!!!!," she squealed.

They both ran downstairs and were blown away by all of the packages. They kept showing each other all of their presents. They were so happy I couldn't take my eyes off of them - partly because it was such a beautiful sight and partly because I was worried they might actually explode.

Dan and I grabbed some coffee and we proceeded to watch them tear through all of the wrapping paper. Mid-pile Max said, "THIS IS THE BEST CHRISTMAS - EVER!" Alex was in definite agreement.

It truly was a Christmas filled with pure, unadulterated joy.

And this is the only way I can describe it:

They just adored everything. Everything. Especially the chapstick. They were beyond thrilled to be getting flavored chapsticks... sure, they liked the Wii... but, Oh My God... "DR. PEPPER FLAVORED CHAPSTICK!!!"

Complete elation. Exactly how a Christmas morning should be.

The UPS truck

Max heard the doorbell ring this morning and he got all excited and ran to the door. He could see the UPS truck out the window and the packages that the delivery man had left and he just started screaming, "THE UPS TRUCK! THE UPS TRUCK IS HERE!... AND HE LEFT PACKAGES!!!" He has loved the UPS truck ever since his train table and train set arrived years ago via the big, brown truck.

UPS truck = very good things.

He opened the door and said, "Hello! Thank you for the packages." The guy said Hi back... and Merry Christmas. "MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU TOO!" He was so extremely happy... he was actually jumping up and down!

Then he read who the packages were for - he saw my name and he just completely lost it. "AWE. COME. ON. WHY DON'T I EVER GET ANY PACKAGES?!?" He dropped the packages inside, ran into the living room crying, and fell onto the couch in a heap... beyond disappointed. He just couldn't take one more package with my name on it.

I hadn't really realized how badly I've been torturing him with all of my online Santa-purchases. I kind of feel bad.

But I'm guessing he'll feel very differently on Christmas morning.

Mr. Handsome

Max had a holiday concert last night. He was so excited to put his "costume" on. When he was dressed he looked in the mirror and said, "WOW! I really look good in this!"

His confidence definitely carried over into his performance. He was super into it - just singing his heart out and really getting into all of the movements that were choreographed to go with the words. I was really impressed with how well everyone was doing... and then came the rainbow song. They had to make a rainbow with their arms at least fifty times. Even I got tired just watching them. Halfway through you could see a lot of eyes glazing over... some of them started to yawn... but they kept singing and doing the rainbow move. They were committed. Max was done though.

During the next song he started playing with his shirt... as in - Hey, look, I can put my hand in my shirt - between these two buttons - I can touch my skin - I can take it out - and then put it back in!!! The entire song. I couldn't help whispering, "For the love of God... Please, pay attention, Max." Mostly, I was just glad he wasn't discovering something in his pants. And then there was another song. For that one he played with his cuffs - he would hide his hands and then clap the stiff cuffs together - he was completely amused by that. Dan was laughing hysterically... getting it all on film. FINALLY - Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer was up and he started to sing and groove again - and then, thankfully, it was over. Merry Christmas.

Face-Plant on the Sidewalk

She was so excited to go swimming... she was running and running and then - BAM!

This Stamp On My Hand...

Ask Max how his day at school was and you'll get, "GOOD!"... and then you're pretty clueless beyond that. Even when you try to ask certain questions that should elicit more than a one word answer it's either "I DON'T REMEMBER" or just plain nothin'. In fact, in the odd moments that he does decide to share anything about his day, his little blurbs or short stories come out so completely absent of any context and fragmented beyond belief that I end up wondering whether he was actually at school.

But the other day Max came home with a stamp on the back of his hand and before I could say anything he was telling me all about it... in GREAT DETAIL: "Mom, this stamp is from the cafeteria and it means that I don't have any lunch marks left so you need to buy me some more. You can either go in and buy them... do you remember where the cafeteria is or do I need to show you again?... or you can buy them online. But if you buy them online they charge a processing fee - just so you know. Can I buy snacks with my lunch marks? Because some kids get snacks, but they said that I have to ask you if it's okay first. They have these small chocolate cookies and also those kind of marshmallow-rice crispy bars. Did you know that the fourth graders eat after we do? They start lining up about 10 minutes after we do and then when we start lining up for recess they come in and eat after us. I saw my book-buddy today lining up. He's in fourth grade. But we do the book-buddy reading in the library... on Wednesdays. Wednesday is our library day. We check books out and do buddy reading. I still can't find and Phineas and Ferb books though..." and on and on like that. It was awesome!

So basically, I'm thinking that the act of stamping him is slightly akin to programming him and I was wondering if I could ask the teachers to just start stamping him periodically throughout the day... or would that be too weird?

The best part was that he was telling me about the lunch marks RIGHT AWAY ... and NOT the next morning as we're screeching into the congested parking lot with 2 minutes to go before the last bell. I think I could use this outcome to implement forehead stamping on the day before a field trip ... I NEED A SACK LUNCH TOMORROW! Seriously, it would probably eradicate 90% of the parental migraines.