Mango Season: One-year-old Christmas

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

One-year-old Christmas

I failed Charlie this Christmas. His grandparents did great. Both Grandmas got him board books, since our collection has essentially dissolved after being mouthed by three previous toddlers. So I wrapped up the books individually, knowing Charlie would love them, and thinking that for the rest, he'd be content with boxes and wrapping paper anyway, so I didn't need to get anything else. I was wrong. By the fourth book he unwrapped, he was throwing the gift on the ground, and tearfully reaching for Colin's bouncy ball. This is my failure and I admit it. Would it have killed me to buy the kid a $1.99 bouncy ball or a container of bubbles or something? He got a fridge latch from Santa. And the candy he got, he didn't know how to unwrap himself, and so I'm sorry to say it may have been chocolate tinted with that aluminum "garnish" around it. He was a disappointed boy . . . until the unwrapping was over, when he DID love the boxes and wrapping paper, and he has especially loved his books.

1 comment:

pieofthemonth said...: this heartbreaking story reminded me of one year when my sister thought she'd filled her kid's easter baskets with all of the most amazing candies... reese's eggs, dove chocolates, cadbury's mini eggs, huge chocolate rabbits... only to discover her 4 year old son weeping in the corner with his basket. she asked what was wrong and he said (in honest agony) "there's nothing good in here! it's all CHOCOLATE!"
poor kid. is it too much to ask for a bag of jelly beans or a marshmallow peep now and then?

ps. loving the blog, although everytime i see it in my bookmark list I think "Mango Season... DUCK season... mango season... DUCK season... duck season... MANGO season... BOOOM"; January 5, 2010 at 1:11 PM

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Janie Jo

"This is the best birthday of my life!" -- "I correct people. That's what I do." -- "I'm just going upstairs to practice my flag-twirling." -- "I'm not the type that faints." -- Emily: "Are we getting close?" Jane: "Ummm. . . we're closer than we were when we were way back there." -- "Sometimes I'm not weird." -- "Guys!!! Stop being violent. It's annoying." -- "Sam, stop talking about digesting. I'm trying to sleep." -- "Wanna know why I am wearing two socks? It's my new style." -- "My molars are moving." -- "I can put my toe in my armpit and hold on to my knee."

Sam

Mom. What's a amenopee? Like ABCDEFGHIJKL amenopee? -- Please bless all the people who already died, and all the people who are alive, and all the people who are not even alive yet. -- I didn't mean to peek. I was just checking to see if the reindeer ate their food, when the WHOLE COUCH caught my eye. (Christmas morning) -- Mommy, may I sell something? -- "I just sold Daniel all my lego guys for a dollar!" -- (Right after Colin sings at full blast in Sam's ear) "Mom, will you PLEASE by me those one things for my birthday? Yeah, ear plugs." -- "Mom, how many hours has it been since the world began?" -- "Jane hasn't amateured yet, has she?" -- "I'm bored." (at 9:30 p.m. as he's falling asleep)

Colin

"Is I'm done yet?" he shouts three seconds after he sits in time-out. -- "Mom, where are the ears of our car?" -- See you later, Crocodile! -- "Mom, can I have some more of that skin milk?" -- "My tooth itches." -- Hey Mom, did you know that at night, birds turn into bats?" -- "That guy calls me 'Tolin.' He has a slip." -- "You better stop eating, Mom, or you're going to be really, REALLY pregnant." -- "Hey! Does anyone want to see my humongous toe?!" -- "Hey, Sam. Did you know that a burp is a fart in your mouth?"

Charlie

"I need my piracy." -- "We are the warriors doing the Haka!" (shouted like a true warrior) -- "Give me up, horsey, give me up!" -- "Hocus hocus!" -- "Hokey Hokey" -- (Yelling as he bursts through the front door) "Mom, where ya?!!! Where ya, Mom?" -- "Mommy, I feel the feeling." -- "Da. Humbug." (to his nursery teacher who wanted him to put the toy down) -- "Can I watch Nokey Nokey the sheep?" (Hokey Pokey the cow), (as he's giving me a hug) "Nice to meet you." -- "Daddy is in the world." (Daddy is the best in the world.) "Twinkle, twinkle . . . tomato!" (cracks himself up every time). "My leg is broken." (He drops to the floor wherever we happen to be so I can pick him up.) -- "I can't see my face, Mom. I just can't do it." -- "Don't destroy me please, Mommy. And don't kill Colin." -- "Are the wishionaries gone so I can play the mitarr?" -- "Grandma hunged up." -- "Can I have a drink of syrup?" -- "Can you put my helmet on my three-head....oh, sorry, I mean my four-head." -- "Mom, what's for dinner? Pasta? Despairagus?

Books I Love

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Kite Runner
The Help
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe
The Book Thief by Martin Zusak
The Book of Mormon
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Harry Potter VII
Harry Potter VII
Ella Minnow Pea
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
Beatrice and Vergil by Yann Martel
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens