Christmas gifts...

This may seem early, but Christmas and Tjabe's birthday are only a couple of months away, and I am assuming we will start getting questions on gift ideas for the little ones. So to assist our loved ones, especially those who shop early, here are some thoughts.
- We have PLENTY of toys, stuffed animals, and blankets for both Tjabe and baby. We don't even have enough room in Tjabe's room for all the toys he already has... we have been very blessed.
- We have more than enough baby girl clothes through age 6 months. We have some clothes for a girl that are 6-9 months and 9-12 months.
- Tjabe is currently on the border between wearing size 3T and 4T clothing, depending on what it is.
- Some gift ideas, if you would like to get a gift for Tjabe or the baby, are the following:

• Books. Sam has started a wish list for books for our kids on Amazon.com. Click here to get there. The nice thing about this is that we obviously don't have books listed that we already own, so you don't have to worry about getting the kids multiples of the same thing. And Sam would say, "You can never have too many books."
  
• Trains. Sam and I decided to get Tjabe one main gift for Christmas and his birthday combined. His favorite thing to do right now (whenever we go to a friend's house that has one) is play with their train set, or read about Thomas the Tank Engine, or really anything to do with Thomas. So we bought him a wooden train set, with some cars, signs, tracks, bridges, etc. to open on Christmas. I think he will be really excited. This is a generic set, however, because the quality was the same as a brand-name wooden Thomas set but the cost was about one-quarter of a new Thomas set. However, the Thomas cars do fit on this set, and he would be overjoyed to receive some Thomas cars. If you do decide to get some cars, however, be sure to get the right ones so they fit - apparently there are several different types of Thomas and Friends train cars and they are all different sizes. Make sure you get the all-wooden cars with the magnetic connectors. Some of the engines are battery-powered and some aren't , but either one should fit on these tracks as long as they're all-wood and magnetic. Tjabe's favorite engines are Thomas, Percy, and James, but really he knows and loves them all and likes the freight cars too. I know you can buy them at Target and online. I haven't seen them anywhere else but also haven't looked for them... Feel free to email me or post on this blog if you do get him a certain engine so we know not to get him the same one.
  
• Money. We would like to eventually open an educational savings account or 529 college savings plan for each of the kids, so any monies they receive will go towards reaching the minimums for opening one of those, unless you would specifically like it for something else. Of course, they won't have any idea about this gift, but they'll appreciate it when they're older, right? I'm starting to sound like my dad...
  

I hope I haven't been too presumptous with this post. The main thing is that Tjabe and the baby really don't need anything, but if you want to get them something, these are some ideas for you. I always like to have some ideas when I'm shopping for others and hope this is helpful. And of course, if you already have other things for them, even if they're things we didn't mention, please know that we are very appreciative and grateful. By no means do I want to keep people from giving our children special things that they really want them to have. Instead, I just want to provide some guidance, for those who want some and maybe don't know where to start. Our friends and families have been more than generous to us and our kids, and we are so thankful for all of them.