Susanna’s Blog

I know it’s really early, but I’ve begun my Christmas shopping because I hate crowds and hope to avoid shopping after Thanksgiving.

The girls love the Scholastic Videos! I love them too because they are in short segments, so we can watch just 10 minutes at a time (or more), as opposed to a full-length movie that is so long.  We have Harold and the Purple Crayon and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom already.

Books!  A couple favorites that we’ve only gotten from the library, and would love to own are Corduroy and Where the Wild Things Are.

Puzzles.  Juliana is really into puzzles now (and it keeps her still, which I love!)

Games.  We only have a few, including Hi-ho Cheery-O, Memory, Dominos, and Sorry.  Juliana and Emma love these games and I’m sure they would like other games like these.

Juliana has said several times that she wants a pogo-stick.  Do they still exist?

Paper and Crayons.  We go through these like water.  I make them use all the space on the paper, both sides even…but they color so much!  They like glue sticks too, usually one glue stick only lasts a day or two, but ends with a couple nice collages.  Coloring books and big coloring pages (Emma really loved the ones she got for her birthday) are great!

Educational things for Juliana.  She loves letters and numbers and is learning to write words, so things that encourage reading and writing are great!  She has an educational activity dry-erase book (birthday gift) that has been used so much, we’re on our fourth marker and the pages are stained gray!

Emma is still into cars and trucks, and is driving one around the living room now.

Cooking things.  I think Juliana would be the happiest girl alive if I let her cook everyday, so a simple cake mix or kids cookbook would be fun.

Please don’t feel obligated to get stuff on this list, but usually people ask what they want…so here is some help for those who want it.  I have a big favor to ask everyone, PLEASE take my sanity into consideration when choosing gifts.  The girls are noisy enough, so toys that make noise really bug me and I’ll probably take the batteries out.  There are exceptions of course, like the piano and mp3 player where the volume can be turned low.  We have every Disney princess barbie-like doll already and I’m really tired of seeing them naked, so no barbie style dolls.