Tis Better to Receive and Receive and Receive Some More

Now that we are back home and have unpacked the car, the sheer volume of presents our kids hauled in is absolutely ridiculous. There were Hess trucks and firetrucks and trains and of course the dragon castle. Owen's cousin got a police car, an electric guitar, and a matching Hess truck so there would be no fighting between the two boys over THOSE toys.

Of course there was fighting over the Hess trucks because they are 3 years old. They did work together with the trucks a few times, much to the chagrin of the adults. This is what we heard for stretches of 5 to 10 minutes about 5 or 6 times a day:

Fantastic. When they finished playing with the Hess trucks, they would grab the police car and fire truck and save the day (or cause a disaster) with all the flashing lights and blaring sirens. Usually outside the girl baby's door while she was sleeping.

They had a blast playing with each other and it was a lot of fun to watch. They didn't seem to fight over toys as much as they did at the beach. Probably because there were toys as far as the eye could see. Both loved the dragon castle and I don't blame them. Daddy had a lot of fun with it too. With all the features, the highlight is a rotating dragon head with an up and down motion that allows the dragon to eat the warrior knocking on the castle gate. WITH thunder, lightning, and spooky sounds. I spent a LOT of time coaxing three year olds over to it and using the switches on the back to scare the crap out of the boys by threatening to eat them via plastic dragon.

Owen, could you give me a hand to eat...er, with this gate.

After the dragon would almost take a finger and the near-victim had dived to safety and refuse to come any closer, Daddy would laugh and laugh. It should be illegal to have this much fun. Good times.

The interesting part will come in the next day or so when we try to convey that it's time to give after all the fun receiving. I have no idea how a 3 year old is going to handle our request that he pick out some of his old toys to donate or if he will even grasp the concept. Probably the same way he has responded to all of our requests he doesn't like lately, "NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!" But we want our kid to be an upstanding citizen that donates his time, talent, and money to worthy causes so it needs to be done. Plus, I'd like to wake up in the middle of the night and go to the bathroom without stepping on a Toys 'R Us store.

CK