Favorite Presents

Both of the girls got modest piles of presents this year. Santa brought Mary a rocking chair, a new blankie, and her very own nutcracker. Emma received a sleeping beauty doll, a sleeping beauty horse that walks by itself, and a Barbie B smart computer. Mary is spending a lot of time reading books on her rocking chair with "New Ann" (her blankies are always named Ann). Emma is obsessed with a chess game we got her. OBSESSED. We have been playing it every minute of the day since yesterday morning. I am quite tired of the whole thing, as I have played no less than 10 games of chess since yesterday at 2 when we opened up the No Stress Chess game. And, incidentally, she read her first unassisted, unknown word when I put the board down. She said, "Rook! Mama, this says Rook." I asked her how she new that and she explained the whole process of knowing the word BOOK and replacing the "R" with the "B" and THERE YOU HAVE IT. Then she wanted to know what it meant and why it was printed on the board. We've been doing chess playing marathons ever since.