A good day for Rachel's presents

I was considering doing a series of post-christmas posts of how each of the presents from everyone was being loved and used here at home, as a kind of a cheap and lazy thank you note. But then I was afraid I might leave someone out, or attribute a present to the wrong person, and seem horribly materialistic at the same time. So i nixed the idea.
But then there are these gee darn cute pictures of Silas and I can't help but put them up.
My sister bought Silas and Orrin some woodworking tools and books for Christmas so I decided the cold gloominess of today was a great day to try them out. I've been meaning to get some little sewing cards for Silas to practice threading things through holes. But then this little hand drill came along and I decided, from now on Silas can make all his own toys. We used some 5 X 7 inch wood samples that I think I inadvertently stole from a shop here. We began with Orrin quizzing Silas on what type of wood each card was. Hickory, maple, walnut, and oak. Then we drew a circle, square, and triangle and Silas helped drill holes along the lines. His favorite part was blowing the sawdust away, but he did drill about 4 holes all the way through. He's busy threading a shoelace through them now. We have three more cards to make, we may try something more ambitious with the others, cars, or animals? And add paint?
The other project was making pot stickers for diner. First Silas's job was to separate the wrappers from each other. But he soon out paced us and when Emmet was no longer happy in the swing, we had to add to his duties. The small scoop Rachel gave me was the perfect size for filling the wrappers. I was a little concerned about him being strong enough to squeeze the handle, but using two hands he did just fine. It was raw meat, but that didn't seem to be a problem either. I told him to try not to touch it, and I don't think he did. Although we did give his hand a good scrub when we were done. Unfortunately, helping make them didn't make him eager to eat them. He loved eating the wrapper, but the pork and cabbage inside remained untouched. At least he had a few edamame for protein.