Birth Month Day 1

So Birth Month has begun! Happy February everyone! Don't forget to enter the Birth Month giveaway by the end of the day on February 11th!!!

The Munchkin got to open the first pocket last night - insisting on pulling over his step stool to reach it himself without any help. Since he is an "exceptional reader" (his words!) - I just wrote down on a slip of paper what his little Pocket Present was, and he pulled out the slip to read it. You can see that the pockets are not all that big, so most of the little gifties are done this way - or through cutting out little pictures of the object.

The Munchkin has really taken his "gifting" responsibilities seriously, and worked with me to make up a whole list of what Daddy will find in his pockets. He very carefully wrote them out on paper, cut them all out, and has them all carefully folded up in the right pockets. (although Mommy had to move them around a bit to make sure the weekday appropriate items showed up on a weekday, and the ones better saved for a weekend were in the right spots).

But the honor of being 1st went to the Munchkin - and he found a little car to add to his Thomas the Tank Engine Take Along play sets. It was very fitting timing - since the buildings, track, and all the engines and other machines had pretty much taken over the living room over the past few days.

And tonight is Mommy's night to pull. I wonder what the boys will have come up with????

Birth Month - Day 26

Mommy's running out of steam, and the stockpile of little goodies is getting smaller. It seems kind of strange to be adding little things to the Munchkin's toybox after he just got some great things for his birthday, but it also did not seem right to end the pocket routine before we got to the end of the month.

It will be interesting to see the Munchkin's reaction when the pockets come down - and then again next year when they go back up again.

Last night's giftie - giggling Troublesome Trucks for the train. I might regret these -they have a pushbutton and a battery and a speaker - and they really do giggle. I tried to find an audio clip online -but can't find it.

Tomorrow is Daddy's birthday - need to figure out his present still. Hmmmm - any ideas???

Birth Month - Day 20

Since we stayed late at Grammas last night for buckwheat pancakes and sausage, the Munchkin went straight up to bed (no I did not keep him up for the lunar eclipse) and did not open yesterday's pocket until this morning.

We had a new Thomas the Tank Engine book - Thomas' Milkshake Muddle. We sat down and read one of the stories this morning- but the Munchkin did not want me to read any more. See - there is this one character that he seems to be afraid of - or not like - and when he comes up in the videos or books he turns away and says "stop" - "stop the video" or "stop reading". It is very strange but we are not pressing the issue. Wonder if it is something that character did in a story that is causing this reaction? Time will tell.

Playing Catch-Up

We were out Saturday evening, so the Munchkin did not get to open yesterday's pocket until this morning - so we doubled up.

Boy - when I put this whole idea together I did not anticipate how hard it would be to come up with 28 little gifties without A) totally blowing the budget and B) totally spoiling the Munchkin. I don't want to do trains every day, and too much chocolate gets into other issues.

What's a Mom to do?

Today it was my hand-me-down bin that came to the rescue. The Munchkin just outgrew his carpenter jeans (too short - especially in this cold weather!) and I went scrounging to see if we had any on standby from our generous cousins and friends. No luck on the jeans, but I did come across a sweatshirt that the Munchkin had picked out at a store last September (Thomas, of course) and a vest that we had gotten somewhere. Since he has been trying to wear Daddy's fleece vest (and you can see how successful that is!!) - I thought he might be open to the idea of wearing his own. So for yesterday and today's pockets he got clothes.

Now to figure out what to do for the next 18 days?!?!?

Birth Month - Day 8

So Mommy is a sucker for giving the Munchkin trains. We started out with a few trains in September to help pass the time on a trip to South Carolina and back. At that time they all fit in a nice little canvas "train bag" that the Munchkin's cousin decorated for him.

The "train bag" is filled to overflowing now - and more engines and cars are waiting in the wings. They've taken us to haircuts and doctor's appointments, and make great little gifties for Birth Month.

Yesterday's train was Lady -Lady is "... a magical engine. When she works along the rails, she spreads gold dust along the rails. Lady has been known to help Thomas and his friends when there was no other engine to turn to..."

The Munchkin knew exactly who she was before I even had the collector's card pulled completely out of the pocket. The boy knows his engines!

My treat last night was a 3 hour scrapbooking session with friends. I finished 3 more pages in the Munchkin's book - well, except for some journaling. I gotta work on that!

Birth Month -Day 4

Oooh - I got such a great package in the mail today from an eBay auction - but since the Munchkin has gotta wait, so do all my readers!!! Don't worry - the contents will pop up over the next few days.

Mommy's got bronchitis - so my giftie on Day 4 was 2 prescriptions. What fun.

Daddy got to stay home with us today - to give me a hand with the Munchkin and to let me get out to the Dr. - his giftie was the ingredients to make escarole and bean soup tonight... and I brought him home his favorite sub for lunch.

The Munchkin decided he wanted to wait until after dinner to open the pocket - but since my high test cough suppressant will be kicking in around then, I will blog this now - while I am coherent.

(shhh - don't tell him but it's another
Take Along Thomas engine.
It's Mavis - he's been asking for her for a while,
and she is retired so hard to find)

Birth Month - Day 2

One of the first things I heard this morning was the Munchkin looking at the completed Birth Month calendar and saying "look at all the nuners (numbers) - great job Mom - you got all the nuners on the pockets"!

Day 1's pocket had a Take Along Thomas Engine for the Munchkin, a new toaster for Daddy and a new vacuum for Mommy (I know - not very exciting for Mom and Dad, but just wanted to show the Munchkin that not all the presents will be for him). Actually - all those things were not in the pocket -but I told the Munchkin they were supposed to be there - and we all actually got them on Jan 31st. But I think he is getting the idea.

Day 2's pocket held a note that said "a new book for the Munchkin" and he got Mark Teague's How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon - which we read this morning, but it did not seem to help with the medicine taking struggle.

We looked at the whole calendar, and Daddy was sure to show him the special birthday pockets with the names on them. "We gotsa lot of birthdays" he said!

Just need to make and add another pocket at the bottom for the 29th of February - I think it will attach with a button and be bigger - for that extra special bonus Birth Month day!!!