Charles and Uncle B. slipped into the extraction zone as it was crawling with little people. Charles hooted that he had spotted Corwin zipping along sidewalk. Half pints teamed outside of the House of Feral.
Corwin, overjoyed to see the approaching Camer-a-van SS, flipped the borrowed scooter and crashed to a halt. He promptly raced to the extraction vehicle and loaded up. Uncle B. wove his way across the lawn to inform Feral Robbyn of Corwin’s departure.
The dynamic trio arrived safely in Mahomet around 4:50 p.m. to find that Aunt Sarah had left work early. While Uncle B. ran some errands, Auntie S. began whipping up some delectable rations, which included breadsticks, a prized staple of growing boys.
Corwin continued his fabled Quantum Redshift lessons. His accomplishments did not go unnoticed, as Charles, faithful brother to the end, cheered and clapped for the completion of every race.
In exchange for a needed bath, Corwin settled in beside The Godfather for a little lesson on the true meaning of XBox—Halo. Corwin, not much for being hunted by bad guys, opted to experiment with weapons, explore the beautiful landscapes, and test drive the awesome vehicles. Godfather was deeply touched to share another “coming of age” moment with his godson (previously, Godfather fed Corwin his first beef-like substance). Corwin displayed innate skill and keen insight into the operation of Halo. Despite the powerful allure Halo, Corwin took a break to speak with Dr. H (his mum) when she called at about 7:30.
While Corwin was learning about the basics of life, Auntie S. and Charles settled down to watch the Hunchback of Notre Dame. There were lots of airplane noises, squeaks, squeals, and laughter coming from that area of the house. One can only assume the Disney version was not as dark as the black and white version.
…
Uncle B. jolted awake when a loud “thunk” echoed through the darkness. Following the small cries, he discovered Charles lying face down on the floor at the foot of the bed. After being picked up, dusted off, and restored to his bed, Charles resumed his raspy, thrashing sleep.
The second “thunk” awoke Auntie S. and Uncle B. This time, Charles landed on the side of the bed and was a bit more alarmed by the incident. Auntie S., her maternal instincts temporarily blinding her, decided to let the man cub sleep in her room (with Uncle B.). The sweltering heat, endless thrashing, and wheezing pipes of the radiator child soon became too much for Auntie S., and the unpleasant job of returning the man cub to his room was caste upon Uncle B.
Charles is a rather shy boy who doesn’t take well to being with people other than Mom and Dad (and sometimes not even Dad). This is a bit stressful for the grand parents when we are visiting because Charles doesn’t like to hang out with them either. For Grandma Charles eventually warms up to her enough to be held about the time that it’s time to return. Gramps experienced the same issue while we were in Texas. However, Gramps instictively knew how to get Charles to sit on his lap (or perhaps he reads his weblog) — Gramps fired up Microsoft Pinball on his computer and Charles was willing to tolerate him as long as he could watch Gramps playing pinball. Corwin as drawn in as well so we had the three of them bonding around the warm glow of the phosphors.
At dinner the other night Corwin was being a bit unruly when suddenly he announced that he had hypnotized himself. He said that we could ask him to be anything and he would be that. So I asked him to be a well behaved boy who sat on his chair and ate his dinner. Corwin actually did a fairly good imitation of one for a while. But eventually the strain was too much and Corwin hypnotized himself again. I again requested the well behaved boy but Corwin said that I couldn’t ask for the same thing again. I countered with him acting like a well behaved girl who sat still and ate her dinner. Corwin was appalled. “I can’t be a girl!” he exclaimed in horror. I pointed out that he had been a chicken earlier and people generally mean a hen when they say “chicken” so that it couldn’t be that bad. Corwin said that he had been a boy chicken, we just hadn’t noticed and that regardless, he was not going to be any kind of girl thing even under hypnosis. Apparently species boundaries are easily traversed but gender boundaries, those are absolute.
When we dropped off the boys with BlaineMcNutt, Mom wanted to wait until they were asleep to leave. Of course, since we had an early flight we eventually had to settle for until they were ready for bed. Charles spent some of the time playing with cars (astonishing, eh?). For the first time, however, Charles wanted me to participate. I’m not sure that this is a good thing. Charles got the big semi and I had a little dune buggy like thing, which Charles expected me to run along side his semi in big circles. Occasionally as a change of pace we would run the cars headlong in to each other with much giggling.
During the evening I was reminded of Corwin in Texas. Corwin had a good time with Uncle Evil while we were in Texas. However, he did seem to be somewhat conflicted. I would frequently hear the following sequence
“Stop tickling me, Uncle Evil!”
“Let me go!”
“Nyah, nyah, you can’t catch me!”
Repeat as necessary. I expect that Blaine is experiencing the same as the evening we dropped off the boys Corwin was already on the “nyah! nyah!” phase of the cycle.
Although Charles was a little fretful when Aunt Sarah first took him to bed, looking at pictures of cars calmed him greatly. Of course, Uncle BlaineMcNutt turned off the hall light and ended that plan, so Charles had to settle for sitting with Aunt Sarah in the dark. Within 5 minutes he seemed to decide he could make it with just Corwin to snuggle with. There were only small sniffles when she left. Once asleep the children survived Sunday night without incident, although Corwin was nearly strangled by a well-meaning cuddling Charles.
Charles woke up at 6:14 a.m., the exact time that Uncle Blaine was turning off the clock so that the alarm would not go off at 6:15 a.m. Charles was slightly disoriented, but with a sippie full of milk and some fresh shorts, all was well. He hung out chatting with Aunt Sarah until Cowrin was aroused and at the breakfast table.
Corwin started awake at 7:08 a.m., during a second attempt to waken him by Uncle Blaine. He was momentarily disoriented and then headed to the bathroom, came back, dressed himself, and went to breakfast. He explained to Aunt Sarah that his clothes were the big ones and Charles’ were the little ones. He also helpfully informed Aunt Sarah that it was ok that she dressed Charles since his diaper was clean, but that she should change it as soon as she thought he may have used it. She was quite surprised, thinking surely one diaper would last the week.
For breakfast, Corwin had about two bites of a bagel (he has a loose tooth), a sip of water, and two sips of a yogurt drink. He then went and watched T.V. and pined over the cabinet that holds the XBox.
Charles ate a whole banana (cut into small person bites) and two servings of Lucky Charms without milk. He meticulously picked out and ate all of the marshmallows first. He launched into a jumbled diatribe/defense when confronted with questions regarding the marshmallows and pointed out the sliding glass door a lot.
After discovering that both children were without shoes, Uncle Blaine shod the children, brushed their teeth and hair, and loaded them into the car. The ride was quiet, as the hum of the road lulled all three of us to sleep. Corwin, the first to be dropped off, had previously requested that he not attend school today, but went along despite his obvious desire to stay home all day and play XBox. He bailed out at school and was reminded by dear Uncle Blaine that he would need his backpack. No tears, no clear acknowledgement that I existed once he took the backpack.
Uncle Blaine was quite hurt that Charles did not cry he was dropped off at day care, but he did look concerned, which was some consolation. The “watchers” at the daycare were thrilled to get extra diapers and obviously impressed that Charles had arrived.
Corwin announced at dinner tonight that he has two loose teeth. It seems a bit early to me, but Corwin claims that a few other children in his class have already lost teeth. I expect that we’ll come home to gap-grinned boy. Mom is suprised that Corwin claims that it hurts when he wiggles the tooth but does it anyway. I know that when I was in a similar situation I wiggled my loose tooth incessantly. I expect nothing less from my spawn.
Mom and Dad have to go on a business trip next week. We can’t take Corwin with us because he’s got school (he already missed a week earlier this school year). We thought about taking Charles but we would be gone all day and probably at least one or two evenings as well for business dinners which wouldn’t be much fun for him. He did ok last time only because Corwin was able to be with him during the day so it’s probably best to keep him with his big brother.
While we’re gone the boys will be staying with Corwin’s godparent BlaineMcNutt and his wife Sarah. I’ve added Blaine as an author to the weblog so that he can provide Mom and Dad with a vicarious experience while we are away. Blaine is a professional writer so you should expect much higher quality and output on the weblog during this interegnum. Remember, Blaine, Mom will be disappointed if there aren’t multiple good entries every day.
I almost forgot about this while posting earlier. While Uncle Craig and his family were getting ready to leave Mimi and Gramp’s house on Sunday, Uncle Evil spotted a tarantula walking behind the car. It was only a medium sized one but Corwin still thought that it was pretty cool. Charles came over to see as well and we had to restrain him so he didn’t step on the spider. He’s not much of an arachnophobe apparently (interestingly Corwin, who is far more outgoing with people, frequently has a near phobia about insects). We watched the spider for a bit and then Uncle Evil caught it in a jar and put it in the side lot next to the house. Maybe we’ll visit it again next time we’re down.
I forgot to mention how Corwin made me proud while we were in Texas. Uncle Evil was torturing Corwin with tickling when Corwin discovered how to really annoy Uncle Evil — call him “Dad”. Uncle Evil was actually taken aback when Corwin tried that and Corwin, my boy, noticed this and pressed the attack! “What are you doing Daddy?” — “Daddy, what’s for supper?” Sometimes all your effort is rewarded in a single moment.
Yesterday Mom and I went out to a movie for Mom’s birthday (I like to get her out on the town at least once a year — no sense in being stingy about that!). We had C. come over to babysit (C. is Jacob’s cousin, horribly disfigured, so we like to help out). I told Corwin that, as he has an allowance now, he could pay C. extra to not give him smoochies. Corwin decided that hiding was a superiour alternative despite my advice.
Our house was being shown when it was time to leave so we dropped Corwin and Charles off at C.’s house. Jacob was off on an adventure but C.’s aunt and her two younger cousins were there. Mom and I headed off for a nice and uneventful evening, little dreaming of the horror that awaited those we left behind …
Charles’ hair had gotten quite long because Mom was unable to cut it. Charles’ response to the presence of scissors was to grab them in an attempt to get his fingers chopped off. Mom decided the stay with the long hair and fingertips instead of neither. However, C.’s aunt generously provided some hair cutting for Charles who was fine with it as long as C.’s aunt didn’t make any moves on his sippy cup (I presume that his car was already firmly clenched in hand).
After dinner the gang (C., Corwin, Charles) headed back to our house to relax until it was time for bed. Charles wasn’t feeling too well, though, as he barfed all over himself and the kitchen floor. C. said “I have never seen a child throw up so much! It was horrible!”.
Charles was feeling fine in the morning and he hasn’t thrown up that I’ve seen for several months (which is a long time for a toddler as you parents out there are keenly aware). His nose has even stopped running. I suspect that C. and Corwin were playing “spin the baby” and things just got out of hand. I ended up forking out some extra cash to cover the incident but next time we’re going to video tape. I just need to wait for some X10 spam to show up in my mailbox (shouldn’t be more than an hour or two).
Charles has now firmly grasped the concept of the Compact Disc. I was on a phone meeting this morning in the office and I heard Charles wandering about behind me. I didn’t think much of it but the next thing I hear is Beetle Buggin’ firing up. Apparently Charles was able to move the mouse to the correct icon and double click. There was a bit of a computer error (not the fault of Charles!) and after a reboot Charles decided that he didn’t want to play Beetle Buggin’ anymore, an opinion he expressed by slamming the keyboard with his hand and yelling “no!”.
Instead Charles wanted play Midtown Madness. He went over to the computer, popped out the old CD and put it away and then looked through the CD case for the Midtown Madness CD. I had slipped it in while he wasn’t looking so his search was fruitless but as soon as the splash screen came up he was happy. A chip off the old silicon, that’s my boy!
Charles is slowly gaining some language skills. Over the last week he has started repeating words that he hears although he doesn’t use them later as far as I can tell. He has learned at least two new words, “up” and “milk”. He says “up” to emphasize that it is time to pick him up. “Milk” is used (of course!) to emphasize an empty sippy cup. Mom also thinks that Charles refers to his big brother as “guy-eee”. I admit that there’s some evidence for that but he hasn’t done it since we got back from Texas. It’s also possible that he refers to me as “dah-eee” although that’s not completely clear either. It’s a bit interesting that, as much as he likes Mom, he still has no word for her.
We made it back from Texas although Charles required physical contact with Mom the entire trip. Charles refused to sit in his seat (this was his first trip by airplane where he got his own seat). Other than that the trip went reasonably well. When we got home, Mom went out to pick some asparagus. Charles mewled the whole time that she was out. While Mom was getting dinner ready, Charles insisted on being picked up. I said to him, “Charles, can Daddy pick you up?” Charles turned his head away and responded with a plaintive “noooooo”. Just a little bit later, however, Charles allowed me to change his poopy diaper. So Dad still has a little bit of utility.
Uncle Bruce had been planning to have us go to see The Magic of Flight which is an IMAX movie. It turns out, of course, that the theatre isn’t open on Easter Sunday. Mom and Uncle Craig had pestered him about that incessantly until he actually checked and discovered this minor flaw in his plan. Instead we went back to the creek for another afternoon of water activity. Corwin and Charles had a good time again, although Corwin got more banged up this time. He did manage to (momentarily) catch a small fish with his hands.
Mimi was amazed at Charles’ ability to grip a toy airplane the entire time we were at the creek. Charles didn’t play in the water as much this time, he preferred to throw rocks and grass into the water. Dad spent some time recyling rocks for Charles because he didn’t throw them very far so Dad could just dredge them back up for another round.
We had a late supper and then it was time for bed, as we have to get up early to make our flight out tomorrow.
I had promised Corwin two things while we were in Texas:
The former was accomplished but the latter was proving difficult logistically. Instead I offered to take him to Chuck E. Cheese. He had been bugging me about it because he sees the commercials on TV but there aren’t any in the local area. Corwin didn’t take long to decide that sushi was nice but Chuck E. Cheese was really nice.
So off we went, the grandparents, all of the uncles and cousins and even Mom. We got a family package there which came with a bunch of tokens. Corwin and the cousins spent most of the time playing games and running back to the table for more tokens. Our security wasn’t sufficient though, as a little kid that no one knew dropped by to pick up a couple of tokens. There were enough tokens that the kids were getting saturated by the time that the container was emptied.
Charles had a good time as well, although he mainly just watched the other kids play games. Most of them were too advanced for Charles to play. It was easy to get the poopers to sleep afterwards as they had done without naps for a busy day. That made it a successful day.
Today was the big creek day. Uncle Evil and Uncle Craig came along with the cousins. The trip down to the creek was a bit of an adventure in itself. There is a spillway that went most of the way but the last bit required going over some large rocks and then along a very narrow trail over a mini-gorge. The creek was reasonably full but it was only over Corwin’s head in a couple of very limited places so he could basically wander about freely without concern. The creek bed is also full of fossils of various shallow water creatures such as snails, sea urchins, clams, etc. Corwin was very excited to find real fossils for himself.
The brothers built a small dam across the creek which raised the water level a bit. The primary goal was to create a sluice way with a very strong current which was done successfully. The current was strong enough that standing in it was actually difficult.
Mom had initially been reluctant to take Charles down but he ended up having a great time in the water. Mom and I had to keep a close eye on him but he had a lot of fun. Charles didn’t like Dad holding on to him. He preferred to dispense with support and head off in to the deep water by himself. Dad had to just hang out nearby ready to grab him. It was very relaxing.
Dad needed to go to downtown Austin today to visit his brothers and other associates. Mom was at work so Dad was going to take both boys with him. Corwin, however, decided that he’d rather stay at the house. Charles and Dad spent most of the day cruising around Austing and got back in the evening. Charles had a good time because we did a lot of driving.
Corwin’s cousins came over in the afternoon and the group went off to see the dinosaur tracks again. Corwin lead the expedition and this time he didn’t fall in at all. We did promise him that we would take him down to a creek where he could get in the water.
Mimi even took Corwin by a Walmart to convince him that those existed even in Texas.
In the afternoon we went out to see some dinosaur tracks. We had to hike about ½ a mile along a creekbed to find them. Both boys enjoyed the hike out. Charles in particular was having a good time. He made this cute little “hrrrmph”! everytime he had to go over a large rock or stick. Dad had to frequently boost him over obstacles which made him go “wheee!”. But Charles walked almost all the way himself.
As we started, Mimi got a stick to ward off rattlesnakes. Charles saw this and picked up a thick stalk of grass and started probing the trail ahead with it just like Mimi. He dropped it a couple of times but picked it back up. The third time or so he picked up a small stick instead. He enjoyed poking that in the creek as we made our way up.
Just as Mimi was despairing of her memory, we came upon the tracks. It was a series of seven tracks in a line leading under the small cliff at the edge of the creek. Although the individual tracks weren’t all that clear the set of them was. Each print was about 15” across with a heel and three long toes. Corwin was not all that impressed but we did manage to get a couple of pictures of him near one of the prints. After that, he declared that it was time to head back to the car.
The trip back was a bit more strenuous. By this time Charles had of course gone stomping through the water and was upset because his shoe was wet. Imagine! Dad had to remove his shoes and socks and so Corwin wanted to take his off as well. Dad agreed and Corwin immediately took his shoes off. Dad then yelled at him to take his socks off as well. Why Corwin was eager to do this wasn’t clear as he didn’t go in the water until near the end of the hike. Corwin walked all the way back himself, in bare feet, over rock and sticks without complaint. Even Charles walked about half of the distance. Corwin managed to slip and fall on the river bed (which was smooth rock covered with a thin layer of mud – very slippery) and gash his leg (just a little bleeding, nothing serious). But he walked it off and made it back to the car on his own power.
As mentioned, Mimi decided that even though it was her birthday we should celebrate Corwin’s. We had little cupcakes and Corwin opened two presents that Mimi had for him. One was a jigsaw puzzle which Corwin assumed was of Harry Potter. As we worked on it Corwin finally realized that it was actually a jigsaw picture of Corwin. Corwin was quite surprised when that finally dawned on him. Mimi was beside herself with —-
Uncle Evil, Corwin’s evil and mentally … challenged uncle — Uncle Evil has taken over the keyboard… After soundly defeating Dad in close quarters space gun combat and grappling this weblog is now MINE MINE MINE MINE!!!! But I’m bored already so I’m off to find other victims and my now slave Sub-unit-Dad will complete this at my command
Uncle Evil has a bit of a stutter problem, strangely mostly involving the ‘!’ character. But back to the story — Mimi was quite amused with herself over Corwin’s belated discovery of the image in the puzzle. The only downside I could see was that Corwin had been wearing a dark blue turtle neck when the picture was taken so the pieces below his neck had very little texture to aid in placing the pieces. But Gramps and I managed to complete the task (Corwin having wandered away shortly after his picture became clear).
We sent Mom off to work this morning and had a lazy morning. Eventually we got on the road. Mimi decided that Corwin should have his birthday a bit early because he was in town. So we went to Toys “R” Us for Corwin to pick out a present. I managed to steer him away from a paintball set and instead we got the electronic version, which was labeled 8+ but I was weak by that point.
Charles was doing ok because there was a Brio setup near the entrance which he latched on to immediately. Once Corwin had his toy Mimi though that Charles should have something as well. I managed to get Charles to come away from the trains by asking him a couple of times if he wanted to go see the cars. He was conflicted but the cars won out. Over we went and Charles was happy as he saw the wall of Hot Wheels™ and Matchbox™ cars. He settled on a 5 pack which included a blimp. Charles had to endure some stress because I insisted that we check out before we let Charles open the set of cars. Charles didn’t really understand why he couldn’t just rip the cardboad off ythe instant he wrapped his chubby little hands around it. As soon as we were in the car we shredded that packaging and got those cars out. Charles managed to actually get all five cars into his hands at the same time. That didn’t last too long because his hands just aren’t that big. He finally settled on playing with only three at a time because he’s a boy who knows his limits.
We’re heading out to Texas for a week or so. We will be visiting the paternal grandparents, Mimi and Gramps. All three of my brothers live in the area along with three of Charles and Corwin’s cousins. Charles have never visited Texas before and my mother has only seen him once during a family gathering in North Carolina last year. None of us have been there for over three years so it’s probably about time to make another trip.
Corwin’s primary questions about the trip were
Mom managed to convince him that there was in fact electricity there but he was very dubious about the Walmarts.
Grandma is down for a visit. Because she knows her grandsons so well she brought them a new computer game, Jump Start Toddler. This games allows Charles to interact with the computer without having to click. He just has to move the mouse around to “touch” things on the screen. He apparently hadn’t played it much while Mom and I were out and he was with Grandma, but once Dad was home Charles was hot to play (hmmmm).
Anyway, Charles really enjoyed the game. He started giggling and laughing as he played which gave way to outright screams of joy. He wasn’t the most skillful user of the mouse but he could get it where he wanted after a try or two. We left him in there to play for a bit. After a while I went in to check on him. Charles played for another minute or so and then reached up and turned off the monitor. Then he got up and walked Dad back into the main room to hang out with Mom, Dad and Grandma. Corwin wasn’t feeling well and had crashed out before Dad got home. It’s now way past Charles bed time but he’s still running at full tilt. It’s a darn good thing he’s such a cute baby.
Here’s an profitable idea for someone who has been short changed in the ethics department. Although this kid log is of course the best written one on the Web with the most interesting children, there are a large number of other kid logs which are well written. One could read a number of these and create a composite child, write a book about that child and then publish it. It would probably be a very interesting book because it would be the best writing about the cutest incident from hundreds of children. By the time one of the kidloggers caught up with you the checks would be cashed. Heck, publish it under a pseudonym and disappear when things get hot. Let me know how it works out by posting a comment here.
It was swimming day for the boys. To make it extra fun there was a family coming by to look at the house while were out so everything had to be in order before we left. We managed to make it out the door without locking the children in a closet which I consider a moral victory.
On the way there we stopped at a traffic light and Charles stared fixedly out at a van next to us. I leaned back and asked him “is that a cool car?”. I swear Charles turned to look at me with big eyes and said “yeah”. He looked at for a bit longer with that questioning look he has, but Dad had stopped being entertaining so Charles turned back to look at the car.
Charles had a good time swimming. I was tagged for water duty with him today so Mom dropped us off in front while she went to park. Charles was cried a bit as Mom drove off but he got over it. One of the swimming activities was life jackets which was a bit of a challenge to get on Charles (Mom admits that she’s never been successful at it). The life jackets were so that the kids could jump into the water and float on their own. Charles didn’t really do either — he was insistent on having physical contact with Dad at all times. I also tried to get Charles to swim on his back which he does not like at all. I took advantage of that because when he started getting really upset he would kick his feet just like he was swimming!
After swimming Charles and I went to dry off and get dressed. I thought it would work better if I got dressed first so that I didn’t soak Charles clothes as I was dressing him (most of the time while he’s being dressed he’s sitting on my lap). Charles didn’t like this and started crying and searching the lockers for the one with the clothes in it. I was reconsidering my plan when Charles located the right locker and made it clear that clothes could wait – he’d left his car in there! So all was well.
Charles has been working hard to be extra cute. When I dropped him off at daycare he was a bit down but not really unhappy because he’s got a major case of diaper rash. As has been the case lately I was unable to pry the car out of his hand so I just walked him over to his room. I mentioned to the teacher to keep an extra eye on Charles because of the rash. When I finished talking to her Charles held up his hand in grabby mode so I give him a finger to hold. He pulled me back to the door, gave me a very solemn look and then carefully handed me the car he had been clutching. It means a lot to me that Charles will trust me to look after his car while he’s out.
The fact of moving has finally caught up with Corwin. He got very upset a few days ago when he realized that moving houses would mean that he would be in a new school. He frequently seems indifferent about school but apparently he actually enjoys it quite a bit. My theory is that by the end of the summer he will have mostly forgotten. But still, it’s better now than 4 or 5 years from now. I have been trying to entice Corwin by mentioning the large room in the basement as a toy room where he can set up his train and car tracks. That’s had some effect although it’s still stressful for him. It does appear that there are more children Corwin’s age in the local neighborhood which should be nice. Jacob is really the only other child in our current neighborhood that Corwin plays with and that’s difficult because Jacob is 3 years ahead of Corwin in school and Jacob has other, more age appropriate friends so he doesn’t always have time for Corwin. We’re hoping that having a nice commons will help promote friendships although it may be that Corwin’s still too young for that. The one thing that’s really worrying Mom is that Corwin is just the same age that I was when my parents made their last move (until the brothers headed off for college)…
We think that Charles knows the work “milk” now. He’ll use it sometimes when he wants some or when we him what is in his sippy cup. But this morning when I touched his sippy cup and asked him “what’s in here?” he told me “shooooes!”.
In addition to this, Charles has apparently picked up another word as well. When I began to notice that Charles was getting a bit hygenically challenged, I told him “time for a new diaper!” Charles looked me, grabbed the bottom of his diaper and said “poo!” As I found out just moments later, he had very accurately assessed the situation.
Yesterday was Tuesday so Corwin went over to visit Jacob after school. While he was there he had two PB&J sandwiches. A realtor was showing the house that evening so it was a dining out night so we took both families out for pizza. Mom was still at work so I had Corwin talk to her to see if she wanted to go. Corwin had little enthusiasm for this and told me (with Mom on the phone) that he didn’t want her to go along. Due to my suave diplomatic skills I was able to resolve the issue by sending Corwin in Jacob’s car while I picked up Mom with Charles. There was a bit of a crisis because Charles whined most of the way to the office to pick up Mom, which I attributed to not going with Corwin but turned out to be because there was a car on the floor in front of his seat. Once Charles had the car, all was well.
Corwin had 3 bowls of salad, which involves a lot of salad dressing, and quite a bit of pizza. While we were eating Jacob’s mom remarked on Corwin’s eating habits because, having fixed him the two sandiwches, thought that his appetite would have been spoiled. Later that evening, when it was time for bed, Corwin refused because “I haven’t had supper yet!”
Charles is becoming much more skilled at driving. On Saturday he almost drove me crazy with his need for constant car and even game changes. He was better on Sunday when he settled on primarily Beetle Buggin’™. Charles played the Speed and Jump sections which consist of a windy race track and a jump respectively. He was able to complete both most of the time on his own. Some of the other sections required more steering than Charles could handle but even with some 90° turns in Speed Charles was able to get the car through multiple laps and finish. It’s the kind of thing that really makes a father proud (until you have to pull him away screaming from the computer because Mom’s coming back soon and you don’t want her to know that Charles spent the entire day racing virtual cars — good thing she never reads this weblog! I know I can trust the rest of you…)
Charles took a bit of a tumble down the stairs this evening. He only fell a few stairs and only let out one plaintive mewl before recovering. Corwin came running over asking about what had happened to little brother.
Dad: Charles fell down the stairs
Corwin: How many?
Dad: Just a few steps
Corwin: How many?
Dad: Five steps
Corwin: OK
Corwin then heads down the stairs, carefully counting out the five steps. Many things are not real to Corwin unless he has a number. Meanwhile Charles, who by this time has forgotten his fall, sees Corwin bouncing down the stairs and decides that if Big Brother is going something it must be cool. Unfortunately this meant that I had to put a stop to Corwin’s exploration of the number system as it applied to stairs that little brother had fallen. Such as the burdens of having siblings.
We out for swimming and errands today. Corwin did fairly well swimming, managing even a somersault underwater and swimming without his floaties. We came back home for a while and then Mom went out to cut some of the vegetative clutter she so delights in creating. This stressed out Charles because evil Dad wouldn’t let him go out in just a shirt and diaper just because it was 40° F out. After some crying and stomping I managed to convince Charles to get dressed, mainly by using the magic word “shoes”. That he understands.
After Charles was dressed he was ready to go, which of course means turning off the TV. This, needless to say, was not popular with Corwin. Corwin turned the TV back on so Charles went and turned it off again (because Charles can’t leave with the TV on!). When Corwin went over to turn it on again, Charles tried to tackle him. I hustled Charles out to the kitchen before he saw Corwin turn the TV back on so it was OK.
I then tried to get Charles to go out the back door because Mom was in the back. Charles would have none of that. So I went over to the front door. No good either. We had to go out the door to the garage. Charles of course opened the garage door and then went over to the van. He didn’t want to hang out with Mom, he wanted to go for a ride! Charles was a bit put out when I dragged him around to see Mom instead. Mom sent us back in to get her some gloves because she was cutting thorny vegetative clutter. Charles was ok with that but he insisted that we go out through the garage again and around the house on the off chance that this time we’d end up in the car. No such luck for Charles but he bore the misfortune well.
But Fate was smiling on Charles, or he was just too cute for Mom to resist. She decided that since she needed some mulch anyway that she would take Charles out with her to her favorite gardening supply place. Chares was mostly happy with this but he became very stressed when Mom stopped to do useless, non-driving things like find her keys to the van. At long last, however, Charles desires were fufilled — he was off for a ride in the van.
Corwin has now decided that allowance is inadequate. He wants $6 every week, apparently so that he can have a $5 and a $1. Mom had to explain to him the harsh facet of reality that one can’t always get more money just by asking. Corwin grudgingly said that maybe if he did some chores he could get more money as he sat there on his bed, obsessively counting his money. Corwin was so engrossed the Mom was able to make a smoochie on him without a reaction on his part. Eventually Corwin counted up all all his change as totalling 144¢ which caused him to go bouncing around the upstairs saying “ OH … MY … GOODNESS ”.
I’ve discovered an upside to Charles sudden fascination with playing in the garage. Yesterday when I brought him in, his bare feet were black with dirt. I figure that I let him go out a few times and day and wash his feet afterwards, we’ll have the floor of the garage spic and span in no time!
We agreed to buy a new house next week. Corwin had been with us to see it a couple of times but I thought Iwould plant the seed so that he had time to get used the idea of living in a new house.
Dad: Corwin, you know that house we looked at near the pond?
Corwin: Yeah
Dad: Mommy and Daddy have decided to buy that house. We’ll have to move there.
Corwin: Do we have to move today?
Dad: No…
Corwin: OK. I need to play with my Legos™
Charles has taken to playing in some strange places. Several times over the last couple of weeks Charles has insisted on playing up in the master bathroom. This is OK when Dad has to do his morning toiletries and Charles is already awake, but he’s dragged me up there in the middle of the afternoon to just hang out. What he does most of the time is run his car along various surfaces, particularly the tub. He also likes the challenge of maneuvering between doors on the cabinetry.
Other times Charles has decided to hang out in the garage. He just goes out and looks around for a bit or just stands and absorbs the ambience. It may be because we’re keeping the cars out of the garage for the moment and it’s a big empty space now instead of being jam packed with cars.
The most fun adventure of this nature was shopping at Sam’s Club with Charles. They have huge expanses of concrete floors here and Charles decided that it would be most excellent fun if he chased the shopping cart with his little Hot Wheels™ car. So poor Mom is pushing the cart while behind her her two year old son is crawling on the ground making car noises and zipping his truck in hot pursuit. Mom had to keep going because if Charles caught her he would get whiny and push at the cart. It was clearly necessary for the cart to break trail. How could Mom not understand that?
Jacob arrived just as I was preparing to send Corwin out for the bus so we just passed him straight through house from the porch door to the front door. Immedaitely after they left Charles came over to help me shut the door. He went back to play for a few minutes but then he decided that he wanted to go outside. He went to the front door and we went out but he quickly realized that it was the wrong door. So we went back inside and over to the door into the garage. That was the right door because Charles go to press the button to make the garage door go up. He likes that. (Mom tells me that when she got Charles home today he spent some time making the door go up and down). Charles went out onto the driveway and just stood there, wandering a bit and soaking in the crisp morning air wearing just a tie die shirt and a diaper. I had thought that he would quickly become chilled and want to go back inside but not our Charles, nuclear furnace boy. The bus was a bit late today so Charles and I were out for a while before Jacorobwin left. Charles did say “bus” when it showed up. Although it didn’t seem to me that Charles was paying attention he wanted in right after big brother had left. I’m glad that Charles didn’t insist on getting on the bus himself.
We were so tired last night that we didn’t have a chance to give Corwin a bath so I decided to have a go at it this morning despite Corwin’s penchant for dilatory activity. What I discovered is that a morning bath effectively takes no time. Of course Corwin plays around in the tub until 7:45 that’s the case even if he doesn’t have a bath. At least this way he’s already naked and incentivized to get dressed. It’s also much harder for him to fall back to sleep once he’s actually in the bath tub. I can’t say it worked out well but it was no worse than normal.
Although sometimes Charles is reluctant to go to daycare in the morning, other times he is actively enthusiastic. Today was one of those days. We had kind of a slow morning because Dad had to finish up some stuff around the house. Then Charles had a bath and I got him dressed. As I was dressing him I told him that it was time to visit his little friends. He kind of giggled and helped me get him dressed. He even said “shooooes!” as I put those on. As soon as he was fully dressed he took off down the stairs. As soon as he was on the ground floor Charles went into the media room, turned off the TV and then started turning off the lights. As soon as the lights were all off Charles checked on Alita to make sure it was turned off and ready to go as well. Then he headed off for the garage door and off we went to the car. When we arrived I couldn’t get the car out of his hand so I let him go in with it. Charles didn’t want to be carried or even hold hands — he was independent ready–to–go boy this morning.
Charles is very slowly picking up more vocabulary. He’s finally learning the words I thought he would start with. Last week he started using the word “truck”. I also been working with him on the word “bus”. He sometimes uses “truck” for a bus but he’s reasonably accurate with his terminology.