Endlessly entertained

Simeon enjoyed Christmas this year.  He did not understand about presents, he did not understand about unwrapping, which meant that he didn’t do much unwrapping.  His sisters did not understand why he didn’t understand, but they did know that it meant that they got to unwrap most of his gifts for him.

Nevertheless, Simeon did enjoy Christmas.  There’s nothing a little boy is going to like better than a holiday that brings trees into the house, puts lights on them (some of which happen to be within reach of his little hands), and then puts ornaments on, too.  Then suddenly, people start handing said little boy toys that he’s never seen before.  And others will sing the 12 days of Christmas book that he loves so much.  They’ll be forced to sing it over and over and over.  He will not ask the ones who don’t sing it to read it to him again.  This book is all about the singing.  It’s not worth it without it.

Sim really enjoyed the gifts he got.  One in particular, from an aunt and uncle, he really enjoyed.  It’s a jack-in-the-box sock monkey.  Don’t ask me, I just know that if I ever have to buy a gift for a boy of 1-3 years, I’ll know what to get.  I’ll show you why:

Once Sim found out that the monkey pops out, each time Michael played the song, Sim waved his arms until…

POP!  Goes the monkey.  Then the laughter.

Then the stuffing of the monkey back in.

Then the arm waving.  The anticipation is palpable!

Then the POP!

The stuffing…

and the grin for the POP!  

This went on for a long, long time.  What I can’t portray for you in these pictures (and it’s really too bad) is the laughter that accompanied the pop each time.  It was really, really cute.  Baby laughter should be bottleable (is that a word?  I don’t think so, but you know what I mean), it’s so wonderful what it can do for even the worst mood!

Simeon refused to have anything to do with anything that interfered with the sock monkey jack-in-the-box.  One of his sisters opened for him the t-shirt Michael is posing with in the photo below.  The t-shirt was fine, but Michael wanted to hold it up next to Simeon for me to take a picture!  The nerve!  Can’t you see how that would hamper his jack-in-the-boxing?  One cannot multitask with something so important going on. 

 

The sock monkey jack-in-the-box still gets a lot of play.  Hannah is annoyed, though, because Sim has figured out how to pop the monkey out without going through the whole song.  This bothers her.  It does not bother Sim.  He’s in it for the pop, he doesn’t care about listening to the whole song.