My little mommy, JoeMama, always likes to know well in advance what sorts of things her grandchildren have in mind for Christmas gifts. She asked me to have everyone fill out a Christmas list.I went into MS Word and created a page for each kid and taped it to the cabinet doors for them to write on. I encouraged them not to try to fill it out all at once, but to think about things and write them as they think of them.
Of course, Martha's is completely filled out already. I made her remove a few of the items because they were ridiculous.
Rick said, "Hey, I have an idea. Maybe just having them on the list all this time will be enough. She'll see the things on the list and then a few weeks later decide that she's bored with those things and doesn't want them anymore. Saves us the trouble of actually buying them."
I thought that was a novel approach, and one that isn't too far from being accurate.
Erica is having a difficult time; she has not been able to write a single thing on the list. She has never been able to consider actually wanting something. She took the list down and took it with her to her room.
I took her to buy a winter coat a couple of evenings ago, because she didn't have one. She was completely overwhelmed by the choices, so I helped her narrow it down, and she finally chose one -- a black Columbia parka. She wore it home (it wasn't cold that evening) and kept it on in the house all evening until bedtime.
Alice has only one thing on hers so far -- a toy doggie. She doesn't think in those terms, either, but not because she's never gotten anything. She's just always so happy with everything she has. It never occurs to her to want something else. After she wrote the toy doggie on the list, she then was worried that her toy kitty Frisco would be jealous.
The first thing on Isaac's list? A "BatMan Viyikl." And then, "Leggos." Can you say "six-year-old boy?"
No comments:
Post a Comment