Yertle The Turtle on Christmas Morning.

Lily likes to rip paper.  You'd think, therefore, that she must love opening Christmas presents because they're wrapped in the stuff.  This should be win-win for her.  Right?  Tons of presents, tons to rip open. . . but Lily doesn't like ripping the paper off the package.  She just likes to rip paper.  It's an important distinction (for her).  Even if we start the process, ripping off a little edge of the paper and allowing her to go to town. . . she'll rip off a little more then lose interest and wander away.

I am sooooo busted.

I even wondered if it was just the idea that we spend so much of our day telling Lily to be careful with books and pages, and not to rip, and taking books away when she's not gentle enough that perhaps she was conflicted.  

"I know I'm not supposed to rip. . . why are they fucking with me?"

But we found, on Christmas morning, that once the wrapping paper is removed from the packages, she's back in paper ripping mode.  Whatever it is that intrigues her about the process. . . perhaps it's that she can hold both ends, whereas it's harder when it's a box. . . I don't know. . . it kicks back into gear once it's just paper and not "wrapping" paper.

"Go to town," I said.  And she did.

So, on Christmas morning, after Lily had long since grown bored and antsy from the process of "opening her presents", we gave her paper and let her rip until she was content.  Emma facilitated the process.  Lily had two major entertainments on Christmas morning (neither related to opening her presents).

1)  Ripping paper

2)  Removing paper from the garbage bag.

Lily would rip, then Emma would retrieve and throw away, then Lily would remove paper from the garbage bag to rip again, and so on, until the paper was shredded and Emma would whine, "Again?"


After recovering from a tougher day at my parents house (on Christmas Day a little later, with all the grandkids and Aunt Dawn and my folks and my in-laws. . . maybe just too much activity?), we took Lily to Leslie's parents house for post-Christmas Christmas Day.  Applying the paper ripping principles we learned on Christmas morning, we let Lily loose on the wrapping paper.  With that to occupy her attention, she entertained herself for quite a while and stayed relatively happy. 

Garbage Angel

The floor was filled with ripped paper, and any time Lily found herself empty handed, someone was shoving another piece inside it until the big pieces were little, and the little pieces were confetti, and Emma laid on the floor and made garbage angels in the detritus.  While Lily sat atop an overturned wicker basket and it reminded me of Dr. Suess's Yertle the Turtle.

"I'm Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me!

For I am the ruler of all that I see!"

Oh Marvelous Me!

If you're willing to deal with the mess (as my in-laws so graciously were), it's a nice way to occupy your disinterested kiddo on Christmas morning and keep her out of trouble while you open the rest of your presents.

Though it was almost its own blog post, the above is short enough that I'll sidebar it here.  


Lily had a great Christmas.  There were several things she latched onto straight out of the gate.  That almost never happens.  Even when we "know" Lily is interested in something, there's no guarantee that will translate into her liking it when it's opened.  This Christmas she received a bunch of different things that she immediately took a liking to:  A play piggy bank, wooden eggs with "emotions" painted on them and a story book to accompany, "Jingle" (which was actually a birthday present, but it all sorta runs together when you have a December birthday), and a grocery cart with various boxes and plastic foods inside to name a few.