A Mommy Story

I have tried to explain to Cordy the intricacies of celebrating Christmas, including presents, the Christmas tree, Santa, and giving gifts to others. But she’s two, and her comprehension of this upcoming holiday is still limited to, “Oooh! Itza big twee!”

This morning, Cordy was walking around the living room holding a gift we were given at a holiday party this weekend. It is a small tub of chocolates with a bow on top. Every few minutes, she would bring it up to me and say “pwesent!” She understands the word “present” now, although I think a present to her is anything with a bow on it. Still, it’s a start, right?

(I should also clarify that she wasn’t offering me the present – she simply wanted to show it to me. Every time I reached for it, she’d pull it close to her chest and run away.)

So I decided that maybe it was time for another Christmas lesson between Dora and Diego this morning. I sat down on the floor near our Christmas tree, and said to her, “Cordy, do you know where to put presents?”

She turned, gave me a puzzled look as if to say, “Go on…,” and came closer to me. “We put presents under the Christmas tree,” I explained, patting the ground under the tree to demonstrate.

Cordy walked towards the tree slowly, examining the area under it. “Yes, we put presents under the tree, and they stay there until Christmas day,” I told her, thinking that she understood.

However, Cordy then locked eyes with me, smiled and said with a laugh, “Nnooooooo! Dat’s silly!” Then she walked away, still carrying her present.

I tried to explain more, including the part of opening presents on Christmas day, but with another roll of her eyes and exclamation of, “Nnooooo! Dat’s silly!” I realized that she thought I was clearly making all of this up. After all, there are no presents under the tree currently to prove my story to her. (We haven’t had the time or money yet to start Christmas shopping.) So in her mind, I was trying to trick her to give up her present with some phony story about putting presents under a tree.

Maybe it will make more sense after this weekend, when there are other presents under the tree for her to see. Or maybe she’ll just think I’m putting them there to back up this fishy tale I told her.

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