Ever hear your kid say a word and you have no clue where it came from? No, not one of those words, just an every day label that you don't remember saying a lot? For us, that word is snowman. Or rather, as Mason says "'No-Man!!"

He points to snowmen in books, snowmen Christmas decorations, and when things (such as light up penguins) become covered in snow, they too are suddenly "No-Man!!"

Joe the Greyhound loves Snowman too. He has a favorite stuffed animal, a big stuffed snowman that honks that he gets every Christmas season. He carries it around obsessively and is very proud of it. Usually when Mason finds a Joe toy, he declares "Joe!" and goes and whips it at him gives it to him.

But not this time. Mason declared "No-Man!!" and carried it around for quite some time

THEN, he discovered that his new No-Man friend had a baby brother. You see, our Daisy Doodles hated big toys and was very partial to smaller toys. So when we found a miniature to Joe's beloved snowman, we immediately bought it for her and just didn't have the heart to leave it in storage this Christmas.

Mason quickly whipped the big snowman at Joe, scooped up the little one, and declared "My No-Man!!" and carried him around all night.

I guess both my boys are 'no-man lovers!

(Christmas 2004)

last year - Downfalls / Little Dictator