Cade (aka The Penguin) at Christmas

I am very behind in my blogging so I am going to try to catch up one child at a time. There is a lot to write about Cade so excuse the novel to follow. I am starting with Cade because he has been a complete joy this holiday season. He is loving - LOVING - everything about Christmas. The decorations, the cooking (he so wanted to help make a pumpkin pie, so we did), the family, Santa, and of course the presents. He has been so happy about everything. Here are some of the highlights.

He saw this poster at Half-Price Books and talked about it for days and days. We finally went back and he used his allowance to buy it. He loves it!! It is one of those 3-D posters. I had to go out that night to buy the stuff to put it on the wall. It now is proudly displayed at a low spot in the playroom.

This is Cade's snow globe. Really, it belongs to him. He used Christmas money last year to buy it right after Christmas last year. It was up only a short time last year. Cade clearly remembered it and could not wait until it was time for it to go up. He was so very happy about it. He did not like for us to turn it off during the night. He wanted it left on all of the time!

Cade has developed a penguin obsession lately. See his penguin pajamas. He absolutely loves them and wants to wear them 24/7. When I first gave them to him, he immediately put them on. They are warm and cozy and penguin so they make him very happy. The next morning was a school day so I told him that he had to change into his clothes. He did not want to change so he told me that it was pajama day at school - "really, Mommy". I finally got him to change by promising him that he could put them back on as soon as he got home from school - and yes, he did immediately put them back on as soon as he was home. Luckily for him, it really was pajama day at school a few days later. I wish he could wear pajamas everyday, it would be so much easier to get him out the door.

He saw this penguin towel and the penguin music player (you have to hook it up to a music source) and he fell in love with them. What did he ask Santa for? A penguin towel, an Icy- M (the penguin music player), and a digital camera. How many 5-year-old boys do you know that want a penguin towel for Christmas? He was so thrilled and happy to see what Santa had brought him.

His Icy-M is by far his favorite gift. He confiscated my ipod and I started the Christmas playlist for him. He carries that penguin around and dances to the music. He left the area for a minute so Mark turned it off. Cade was heartbroken but all was well again when Mark started it up. Lucky for Cade that Mark got a new ipod for Christmas so Cade will be able to have Mark's old MP3 player - as soon as I load it up with Cade music. We have already had to change the batteries once! He also completely drained my ipod battery.

Yes, he did walk around the house wearing his penguin towel. He loves it!! Who would have guessed?

Cade is learning about gift giving and gift receiving. At museum school, they had a book exchange. Cade ended up with a baby book. I don't blame him for being upset. When I picked him up, he was talking about how he did NOT like his book and he did NOT want to bring it home. First, I reframed the situation by pointing out what a great book it was and how special it would be to read to Nate. We talked about how Cade could probably read some of it to Nate and how much Nate was going to love it. Cade really did get excited about that. After we were in the car we had the "gift-receiving manners" lecture. We talked about how it could hurt a person's heart if they picked out a special gift and the person receiving the gift did not say thank you and talked about how they did not like the gift. We talked about how you need to say thank you for a gift even if you do not like it because you are thankful that the person wanted to give you a gift. Cade was very happy to show Nate the book later when we were home. When they had a puzzle exchange at school, he was not thrilled with his puzzle but he said thank you and later he told me that Nate would really like the puzzle. I was very proud of him.

The boys had a "Penguin Patch Gift Shop" at school where they could buy gifts. Cade was SO excited about this and he could not wait. He already knew what he was going to buy. The big day came and he left his wallet at home. I knew he would be so devastated so I went up to the school with his wallet even though I did not have the time that day. His class had already visited the shop so I took him down myself. His teacher told me how heartbroken he had been about leaving his money at home. He looked everywhere for it but could not find it! When the class went to the shop, his teacher had the kids with no money wait out in the hall. She looked up a few minutes later and Cade was in the shop. She asked him if he had found his money and he told her that he had and that is was invisible money. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his invisible wallet!!!! Needless to say, he was very happy to see me! He knew exactly what he wanted to get everyone. I pretended not to watch what he picked out for me. He was so happy to have the gifts and he could not wait to wrap them. Of course, he really liked the gift that he got for Dylan and he started playing with it later that day. He told me that he had decided to keep it because it was a store for him too. We talked about how sad Dylan would be if Cade got a present for everyone but him. Cade put the gift back. Later that week, Cade had the best time helping me wrap the gifts. He was very proud of the gifts that he got for his family. The pictures above and below are of Cade "helping" Daddy open the gift that he got for him. He could not wait for Mark to see it.

Cade was thrilled to get a Pokemon DS game from us.

Cade and Chase with the gift that Cade bought for Chase.

Here is the present that Cade bought for Dylan. It is a crow puppet but Cade is convinced that it is a ...... you guessed it, a penguin!

Here is my little penguin after his bath. He insisted on using this very blue towel even though I had not washed it yet. He had blue spots on him after he dried off!! My mother-in-law had talked to Cade earlier in the day about how she was going to put his name on his towel. He was putting on his pajamas and I was telling her how he had blue spots from the towel. She pulled out a blue towel with an "M" on it that had been Mark's in college. He had only used it once because he got blue fuzz all over him and then he felt like a smurf. Cade wanted to know why it had an "M" on it and I told him that it had an "M" for Mark. Cade could not understand why and he started to get very upset. I finally realized that he thought that his Grammy had put an "M" on his penguin towel instead of his name. He was so upset that his towel was messed up. All was right with the world after we explained that his penguin towel was free of any "M's".

My happy penguin boy!