PIRATES!

The calendar had me a little worried at first. I bought it thinking it would be something fun we could all do together but soon had my doubts. I was afraid I would have to put the whole thing away until next year because of all the arguing it caused. See, we take turns opening the box and then apparently whatever is in the box becomes "mine". "My tree." "My monkeys." And what Noah still doesn't understand is that Benjamin is really just in parrot-stage at this point so whatever Noah says, Benjamin repeats. Do you want to guess how long we fought over who the tree belonged to??? Luckily, that only lasted a few days. They are really doing well with it now and do not even complain when it is not their day to open a box. The boys finally found the pirates in their Advent calendar. I decided since they don't know their numbers that I wouldn't bother making them pick the boxes in order, they could just choose whichever one they wanted. And even though they only talked about opening the pirates, they always chose the tiniest boxes on the calendar. I didn't bother to point out that the pirates couldn't possibly fit in those boxes. But Benjamin finally chose one pirate and Noah was paying close enough attention that he took the matching box the next day. Now breakfast is filled with "Ar, matey's!", "SWORD FIGHT's!", and "Oh! You got me's!"The fun never stops! And as an added bonus, here is Noah with the Pirates of the Caribbean song. (His daddy loves the way he has made up words for the part he doesn't know.)

[As a little background - a long time ago Noah came up with a game that involves him standing behind the drapes in the front window. We are to introduce him (using the exact words he tells us and not changing even a pronunciation), then he runs out and performs something after which we clap and clap and he bows. It's actually a pretty fun game. The throat clearing before his performances is new, though.]