Aunt Cindy strikes

So - it was great to receive a package from Aunt Cindy - she sent me these really ugly and terribly comfortable lined Crocs - I love 'em! Yes I may look like a darned fool, but my feet are comfortable and warm.

She also sent a treasure of books and videos for the kids. I love the Harold and the Purple Crayon video. The kids also love the Dinosaur video.

Aunt Cindy has actually read some of the books that were on my wish list at amazon.com - plus picked a few up for me. Even though she is several hundred miles away in Denver, I can feel her warmth and care even in this 10 degree weather. We wish she lived near us! She was a lot of fun at Christmas time - the kids absolutely love her - and she tolerated the GFCF cookies we made! Yup - Steve made butter free and wheat free sugar cookies this past Christmastime, gingerbread men, and turban cookies (the peanut butter ones with the Hershey kisses). And almost all were eaten!

As for the Hershey kisses - Steve bought a mold off the internet and made his own dairy free chocolate kisses for Zach. This is a father who can be so-o-o cool at times!

So today, at MyGym, there were 25 kids and is was nuts. Zach basically did not want to leave my arms. He did OK at circle time, although I basically did hand-over-hand to get him to do all the exercises they requested. But he seemed to enjoy that. Let's hope we didn't pick up any major illnesses while there.

Then off to a playdate at a friends house who have kids the same age. D. was able to engage Zach with some Thomas colorforms to put on the window. He played with these a good chunck of the time. I really loved playing on their train table with the two boys. K. who is Zach's age grabbed a few trains and yelled "mine" which was great for Zach to see. The two boys played at the table together (parallel play) for a half hour. I loved that Zach could see what a NT kid is like. D. and J. said we should get together regularly when I noticed how good this was for Z. Gosh, I have great friends.

So, the plan is to get the kids away from napping, and into an earlier bedtime so that I can have afternoon playdates for them. Any ideas on how to accomplish this?