I’m on a trip to California this week. I left Sunday afternoon. As I was doing the final packing to get in the car, Mom was packing up Charles and Corwin. Charles was happy, because he likes to ride in the car. Corwin was not as thrilled. His primary question was “Why can’t Daddy just take the van?” so that Corwin could stay home. I did what I could to get Corwin to miss me — he had bought me a new computer game for my birthday so I told him that I wouldn’t be able to play it for him to watch until I got back. Unfortunately, Corwin saw it as Dad being arbitrary instead of pining away for my return.
At the airport, Mom, Charles and Corwin waited downstair while I checked in and then we went up the escalator to the security checkpoint. Corwin was unhappy about going all the way up, but we told him that he had to come along regardles. I did get a hug from Corwin after only a small amount of wheedling by Mom. As soon as I was through the checkpoint Corwin was off to the gift shop. Ah well. But after a few days of no Dad to help get him through the hard spots of Harry Potter, perhaps he’ll think differently.
Charles has been learning how to “cook” these last couple days. Mom says that yesterday he took a couple of mostly empty bottles of water and a bowl and made “soup”. First he poured in one bottle, then the other, now and then dipping his finger in then putting it in his mouth and saying “ummmmm”. Of course, he ended up spilling the water all over the floor, but since Mom cleaned it up it was very cute. Charles made some more soup today, but this time we took it away before it could be served.
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Corwin is starting to do much better at reading. Mom has been making him read a book to Mom at night before Mom reads one to him. I’m trying to encourage him by pointing out that he could play his games without having to wait for Dad to help if he could read the menus. Corwin doesn’t find this very encouraging. What he seems to like better are numbers. He frequently asks me addition questions (such as “what is 90 plus 90?”), much more so than he asks about words or letters. He does try to read acronymns, which are still a difficult concept for him. I’m trying to decide whether it’s a good idea to work on teaching him how to use the remote control. He knows how to pause and play but not change channels. This means that a parent has to come in when Mom has left it on the Home and Gardening channel but on the other hand he can’t go cruising over to inappropriate channels. Not teaching is just a stop gap measure but every extra week is a bonus.
Charles has begun helping Mom and Dad type on their computers. For some reason Charles has decided that he needs to help but his hands don’t work — only mommy or daddy hands are functional. Therefore he grabs a hand and moves it back and forth into the keyboard. Charles finds this compelling, although sometimes he works on the mouse instead, particularly for the pointer type pointers embedded in the keyboard. Perhaps Charles thinks Mom and Dad enjoy typing and when we’re not because we’ve probably forgotten how to do that, he helps us remember.
Charles doesn’t seem to understand how to control things using computer input devices, but he clearly understands that a computer can be controlled from them. When he wants Dad to play some game so he can watch or play himself, he puts Dad’s hand on the mouse and then points at the icons on the screen (the icons in general, he doesn’t yet associate specific icons with specific games).
Apparently Corwin has decided on a new career. He and his friend Lucas are going to be scientists. Corwin will be a dinosaur scientist and Lucas will be a potion scientist. Corwin will learn all about dinosaurs and then Lucas will make a potion to go back in time so that Corwin can learn how the dinosaurs all died. But they’ll be ghosts because if they’re not and get too close to the asteroid they’ll die like the dinosaurs. But if they wait too long two naked people will show up.
This morning was swimming lessons for both of the boys. That’s the activity for which the best part for Corwin is not drowning. I watched over Corwin while Mom got into the water with Charles. Charles likes it until near the end when he gets cold. Corwin’s favorite part this week was chewing on the rope in the pool separating Corwin’s class from Charle’s class. He told us he wanted that for lunch until we offered to actually get it for him. Then he wanted McDonalds. Corwin then asked if Charles had drowned during swimming. Mom pointed out that Charles was sitting next to Corwin, breathing, making that unlikely. Corwin just responded “Oh!”.
Charles woke up a little early this morning, rousting Mom and Dad out of bed. After we were all up Charles and I went in to wake up big brother. Corwin was quite resistant to conciousness so I resorted to poking and tickling to try and get him to get up until Charles decided to protect his brother by grabbing Daddy’s arms to stop him from torturing Corwin. Fortunately, the threat of a 7 pm bedtime was successful in getting Corwin moving. Later Charles spent some time drawing on paper at the table, after which he held it up and said “aye daw!”, which I choose to interpret as “I draw!”. After I sent Corwin out into the cold to wait for the bus, Charles (who had been clutchy all morning) got upset and apparently wanted to go outside to be with Corwin. At that point I managed to convince him to get dressed before going out. By the time I had Charles packed up and ready to go, Corwin’s bus still hadn’t arrived, so I took him and Jacob to school. Of course, as I pulled out on the main road we saw the bus go by headed the other way. At least the boys weren’t officially late, since they made it to school before the bus did.
Charles had a good footwear morning. The sock pile was a little low so I went digging for pair and found some Harley-Davidson socks that Mimi and Gramps had given Corwin. They’re now just a little big for Charles. I put them on anyway because as soon as Charles saw them he started cooing. It was difficult getting them away from him long enough to put the socks on his feet. I also think that Charles used a new word today. I was getting him ready to go so I had to put him down while I located his shoes. Charles of course was very upset by this harsh treatment so I explained to him that “Daddy is looking for your shoes”. He perked right up and said “shoooooooe!”. Then he said it a few more times for fun, by which time I had located the footwear and was putting it on him. I managed to get them on the wrong way, which I noticed as Charles was walking out to the car. I explained this to Charles, who immediately looked at his feet suspicously and then wanted to go back in. But I put him in the car anyway and traumatized him by removing his shoes after he was strapped in. Charles got over it once I put his shoes back on the right way, so I don’t think that he’s scarred for life.
Corwin was very slow this morning getting ready. Several times I came in on him and he was just lying in bed, doing nothing. His excuse? “My brain isn’t helping me this morning”.
This last week was the start of swimming lessons for the boys. Mom had originally signed them up for Tuesday evenings, but apparently no one else’s Mom had so the classes were canceled. Corwin went on Wednesday evening. When we asked him afterwards what was the best part, he replied “not drowning”. Saturday morning Mom took Charles in for his swimming lesson. Charles has been swimming before but this is the first time he’s had lessons. He enjoyed it, although the water was a bit cold for him. Luckily Mom was able to switch Corwin over to a Saturday class as well so the boys can go at the same time.
Corwin is playing Midtown Madness while Dad keeps an eye on him as Mom does some vacuuming. Dad hasn’t enabled the “no-damage” cheat, so Corwin’s car not so gradually gets damage as he runs into things. Soon enough, it breaks and the tires fly off. Dad says “you broke the car, you’re done”. As it turns out, however, when the car breaks the game just pauses for a bit and then resets the car. Corwin knows this and simply waits for the new car and then takes off again Dad asks “Hey, where did you get that car?”. Corwin replies “off the Internet!”.
I got home a little late tonight and Charles was already upstairs with Mom. When I came up and he saw, he gave a little squeak and came barreling down the hallway at me in his little white union suit. Then he barreled right past me, heading for the other end of the hallway where the door to the laundry room is. Charles was in the mood for door tag. This is game he likes to play with Dad which consists of running down the hall from the parent bedroom to tha laundry room door, slapping the door and then running back. If Dad makes sound effects when the door is slapped, it’s extra giggles. Sometimes there is something extra in Mom and Dad’s room, either slapping the sweater chest or Charles flinging himself face first into a chair (Dad doesn’t do the chair thing although he’s willing to help out with more sound effects).
We played quite a lot of door tag, which Mom appreciated because it helped to run down Charles was not the least bit tired. Of course, he sounded like a miniature runaway stream engine, bumping, wheezing and hissing down the hall. Enough rounds of door tag take their tool, however, and by the end Charles had gone from energy boy to holding onto a wall to remain upright to wobbling wildly down the hall. It was bad enough that I felt that I had to stop him before he ran full tilt into a door frame.
I was singing an old song the other day, Big in Japan by Alphaville after looking up the Tokyo Tower. Corwin liked the song (if not my rendition) and after I did the lyrics for him he looks at me and says “where did you learn that song?”.
Charles seems to be doing well in his new room. He cried the first day I dropped him off, but yesterday and today he was just in stunned bunny mode, which is how he normally was in the toddler room (even on days when the teachers commented on what a happy boy he had been). Mom says that Charles has been happy boy every time she’s picked him up. Today, Charles was eager to go. He had been quite the double bumper grumper boy. After I managed to wrestle some clothes on him, he saw his shoes and perked up, poking them with his finger and saying “dat!”. So I shod him, at which point he went over to get his coat (which Mom had left in the car). When it wasn’t there, he dragged me through the house upstairs where his light jacket was hanging on the changing table. I didn’t let him wear that (although it probably would have been ok) and made him wait while I fetched his coat from the car. We put it on and I had to strap him in before I gathered up my stuff because he was so insistent on going.
Today in church Corwin went up with the other young children for the children’s sermon. The pastor was reading a decsription of a building and then had the children guess what building is was. It turned out to be the Eiffel Tower, but Corwin spoke up before any of the other children and said “Tokyo Tower!” (which turns out to be a good guess, as the Tokyo Tower was built as a miniature of the Eiffel Tower). The Tokyo Tower figures in many of the animated DVD’s that Corwin watches.
In addition to Corwin’s trauma on Monday, Charles will be undergoing a stressful experience as well. He’s two now and so he needs to move up at day care to the two year old room. That’s scheduled for Monday. Charles does not adjust to change very well (he spent the entire time at Grandma’s eyeing Grandma warily), so we expect this change to be a bit of a trauma for him. He’s been visiting the two’s room with a couple of the other children in the toddler room to help him adjust, but it will still be a rough patch for him.
Corwin told me this morning that he wants it to be warm again. He spent most of the fall asking when it was going to snow, and so of course once it actually starts snowing (it snowed again last night), he wants it to be warm.
Even more fun than explaining the time scale of seasonal temperature variations will be letting Corwin know that he has to go back to school in a couple of days. Yes, this is the last official day of Corwin’s first winter break. He gets the weekend off and he’s back off to the grind. I woke him up at 9 this morning. Shifting back to a 7 am wakeup should be … interesting.
Charles continues to show his prediliction for addiction. Mom has been trying to encourage Charles to watch the Teletubbies which we now have on DVD. Charles has become a devoted cult follower of their work. Mom will be writing about that soon. But this evening, after Corwin fled cold horror of the supper table for the warm electronic embrace of Harry Potter, Charles wandered off as well, into the media room. He watched a parade for a little bit, but then decided that that was not his preferred visual experience. He picked up and brough to Dad Mom’s fancy new audio-visual remote. Dad took it and used it to switch to Rugrats. But that wasn’t good enough. Charles then found the DVD remote and gave that to Dad, as the fancy remote hint wasn’t sufficient to clue Dad in. So Dad got the Teletubbies DVD case and showed it to Charles. Yes, clearly that was the Right Thing. Soon Charles was rapturously communing with his new gurus.
Corwin has discovered a way of defeating the Evil Ones (aka the parents). When Corwin is fed, the parent frequently make him sit down and consume food at the same time that they do. What’s worse, the parents often talk at him and worst of all they expect him to talk back! Corwin endured this horror for a while, but then he realized that a Rule was that talking while chewing food was impolite. Now, whenever the parents attempt conversational gambits, he loads up and then points at his chewing mouth to indicate that he is not allowed to reply. All is not lost for the parents, though — we figure that this is a good way to get him to eat more. We just have to keep a list of things he won’t talk about and bring them all up at dinner.