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When Cashel woke me up this morning I thought, there is no way it’s even close to 7, it’s too dark.  But sure enough, I looked at the clock and it was 7:13.  What a drippy day.

We left Riesling all snuggled up in bed and went to the kitchen.  Cashel also went to his little kitchen and dumped all visible items onto the floor. I was glad that he didn’t open all the doors and just empty everything.

As I began smoothies, Cashel decided that he wanted a frozen banana.  I confirmed that he really wanted to spend his dollar on a frozen banana and not something else later in the day.

(You might be wondering why bananas are on the list of things that must be purchased since they aren’t candy or cake or something. My reasoning is that things like bananas and orange juice do have great nutritional benefits, but they also have lots of sugar (53 grams for the banana).  So one serving a day is all they get for free.  I implemented this rule after realizing that Cashel would eat bananas all day and nothing else and that they would both drink OJ all day and no milk.  I have repeatedly let both kids know that if they don’t like this rule they can propose to change or eliminate it and we will all come to a different agreed upon decision.)

So anyway–Cashel tried to explain to me that he wanted to buy two things and that he had $2.  He quickly found a fake gold coin and a red poker chip and brought them to me as payment.  I told him I would give him a pretend banana for his pretend money.

He played with the cars and trains while he ate his frozen banana, arranging them into neat little rows and lines.

Then he undressed Barbie and left her laying naked next to her clothes.  Riesling did the same thing for a long time.  It’s so easy to get those tiny dolly clothes off, but to get them back on….oh the frustration of it all.

Riesling appeared at about 9.  She drank her smoothie and she and Cashel were soon down to just pajama bottoms in our freezing 65 degree house.  I’m not quite sure why because they were playing sleep over.  Apparently to properly simulate the sleep over, everything had to be removed from Cashel’s room, including the rocking chair and large foot stool.  My only request was that they please leave a clear path down the hall.

The next time I peeked in on them, they were played with magnetic dress up dolls and a felt zoo.

I try really hard to have “together time” every day at 10:30 to give the kids my undivided attention.  I usually have something that I will have planned that they can do, but many times they have their own ideas of how they would like to spend the time.  Today Riesling was insistent on making a countdown chain for Christmas.  (I’m sure her Aunt Pasha would appreciate this!)  I asked Cashel if he wanted to make one and he said, “No.”  So I got down the calendar and helped Riesling count out the days until Christmas.  She concluded that there were nine and selected 9 strips of paper from the bunch that she had just cut.  She got the stapler and asked for help after she had much difficulty holding it and the paper at the same time.  I suggested that she put the stapler down and slide the ends of the strip of paper  underneath.  This worked out better.  After about 4 loops she forgot what the total number she needed was.  I got the calendar back down.  She recounted and subtracted by herself.  As soon as she was finished, she hung it on the Christmas tree.

Both of them played with airplanes, flying them around and around.  Then they decided on the Mommy, Baby cat game.  I have only ever seen Cashel be the cat.  She tied the bathrobe belt around his neck yesterday so we had a whole strangulation discussion.  We also identified the difference between choking and strangling and that you get an adult’s help as quick as lightening in both cases.  So today the rope was around his wrists as he crawled behind Riesling.

I read them More Snacks! A Thanksgiving Play by Joan Holub twice.

Then they took all the winter clothes out of the drawer and put them on and played monster.  They ended up parked on our bed amidst a sea of books, looking for “instructions on how to stop the monster”.

I was attempting to sew some gifts for Christmas and both kids were beyond excited about my sewing machine.  I let Riesling work the foot lever for me when ever I needed to put something under.  Then she took a piece of scrap fabric and asked to sew it into this complicated design.  I sat behind her on the chair and let her push the pedal while I helped her guide the fabric.  (I was amazed by how delayed her reaction was when I would tell her to stop pushing on the pedal with her foot.)  She really like the experience.  I got a small piece and let Cashel have a turn too.

After lunch Riesling decided that she wanted to spend her dollar on ice cream.  I asked her what we should do because if she ate ice cream in front of Cashel he would be very upset.  She offered to give him half and he was a happy boy.

Riesling had noticed the pumpkin that I had cooked and pureed last night, sitting in the fridge.  She asked if we could make pumpkin muffins.  I conjured up a recipe and they helped measure, pour and mix.

After snack they watched Riesling in last year’s Nutcracker.  Then dinner and bath time.

And finally reading time.  Cashel chose the I Spy Schooldays with the Rube Goldberg machine in it first.  Riesling chose Hispanic Holidays by Faith Winchester because she thought it might have Flamenco dancers in it.  We read about the Day of the Dead and Las Posadas, which coincidentally began today!  Cashel insisted on one more book, Trick-or-Treat Faces by Judith Moffatt.

After reading Cashel asked if we could rock.  He fell asleep in seconds.  Riesling was waiting in her room with yet another book.  She had a couple minutes left before her bedtime of 8:30 so I read her Animal Numbers by Bert Kitchen while she counted and identified digits.  Then I sang her a couple songs.  I laid with her while she chattered and asked about random stuff like “What’s an allergy?”  She yawned a couple times and I gave her a final squeeze and wished her happy dreams.

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