Naptime

We have a couple sleeping bags that recently made their way out of the closet in Joseph's room exciting his curiosity. Eric pulled this one out of its stuff sack for Joseph to check out and Joseph immediately named it the "take a nap bag." He loves this sleeping bag and snuggles into it every naptime. He usually tries to persuade me to cinch the face opening so tight that he can't see, but I'm a little nervous about letting his sleep like that for two hours . . .

The naptime ritual is further embellished in that he recently decided he needs some animal friends to nap with him. We have an entire doll cradle full of stuffed animals that the kids heretofore never touched, so I'm glad for the sudden interest. Every naptime I ask Joseph who he wants to sleep with and he always replies, "Ostrich. Pony. Panda Bear." If he isn't tired, which is the case more and more often as he gets older, he still has to have a "rest time" and I hear him on his bed with these three animals making up stories, quoting from stories he's read, and just generally having a good time. Joseph is a kid who needs his down time even when he isn't sleepy.

I love going into Joseph's room after nap when he has slept, though. As soon as I hear talking I open his door and he immediately starts chattering away about his dream (I assume). A couple of days ago I got this:

"Mommy I was just talking to Jesus. I was telling him about a bulldozer. Because I don't have a bulldozer but I need a bulldozer. It should be a red bulldozer."

Got that, Jesus?

Broken Camera

I haven't been blogging because our camera has started producing pictures like this:
That's supposed to be a white candle. Ditto on the walls. We already asked someone for a new camera for Christmas, so don't all run out and buy us one! Until then, I do have a few from the archives that never made it to the blog . . .

Now that Margaret is walking I've put her to work around the house. It's so nice to be able to put my feet up after dinner and let someone else clean up.

Just kidding. Maybe someday. We were just talking last night, though, about gifts we should give the kids. I had a few ideas for Margaret but I was really coming up empty on Joseph. Eric said, "Well, what does he do all day?" He plays with books. Really. Part of the reason, I know, is that he can't get to toys that easily on his own. But even when he's in his wheelchair or mobile stander he pretty much follows me around and wants to do whatever I'm doing. Same with Margaret. I just cleaned out the two bottom cupboards of my kitchen and removed all the cleaning supplies (which were already non-toxic, by the way) and breakable objects and filled them with all my pots, pans, bowls and tupperware. She'll sit and play for quite awhile. Her favorite toy this week has been a can of tomato paste. Yesterday I was cleaning a closet and gave her five cans of tomato paste and a box. She was happy for 45 minutes. I've said it once, I'll say it again. Kids don't need toys.