On the last day, our flight back was at 5 pm, leaving us plenty of time to exhaust the children by trekking around historic Boston. Still, by the end it was an open question of who exactly had tired out whom.
We started at the Boston Common
which had a baseball field and some monuments. Most importantly, of course, it had an entrance to the subway, something that had been on Charles’ “must do” list since Mom mentioned its existence to him. After viewing the historic graveyard next to the Commons (Corwin noticed that some of the crypts were set in the outside walls of the graveyard and asked “why are we walking on those people’s graves?”) we headed down in to the subway, historic in itself as America’s first subway.
Charles found it all very exciting. Mom and I thought it was neat to see Charles looking out from the subway car at the Charles River but Charles himself didn’t think much of it.
At the end of the run we walked around a bit of Harvard Square, but there wasn’t much interesting in the way of historic sights, so we went to a toystore (where Corwin, again, had to use the staff bathroom). Corwin got a light magic wand with sound effects and Charles got a little carrying case with a couple of trucks and some road signs. Both boys carried their toys around for the rest of the day.
We went back to the Commons on the subway (after which Charles wondered why we couldn’t just do that until it was time to get on the airplane). We then headed out on the Freedom Trail to see history. We ended up hiking from the Commons all the way to the harbor, with just a brief stop for some ice cream. While we were there Charles managed to make a mess where he was eating and Alice wiped her sleeve in it the instant Charles cleared a path for her.
In the same building was very nice map of Boston with little lights embedded in it. As you pressed a button next to a label, the corresponding light would turn on so you could see where everything was. The boyen loved it, but despite the wide expanse of buttons
they still managed to fight over the same buttons.
Shortly after moving on from there, Charles collapsed, claiming he was “tie-warred”. Even walking off without him wouldn’t get Charles off the ground. I finally told him “if you walk to the next place, we’ll head back to get on the airplane afterwards”. Charles perked right up and walked with us down to the harbor. He even had the energy to chase Alice around a circular plaza there and didn’t complain the entire way back.
On the return we stopped by the Boston Gardens and watched the swans for a bit.
Corwin was good too, only complaining once, even though it was quite the hike for him as well. Corwin was even able to remember three different things about Plimouth Plantation when Mom quizzed him on the hike back.
Finally we made it back to the van with all of our loot and children and headed out to return the van to the rental car company, which was a bit exciting because my GPS mapper didn’t take some construction in to account and we ended up having some difficulty getting back on track. We made it and got on the shuttle bus to the airport in time. Charles was so excited about it that he sat in the back despite another family having already grabbed the seats there.
In the airport, Charles just charged straight ahead for the next gate, completely oblivious to anyone else. He was saved from running in to people several times only by quick action on their part. At least a couple of times I called out to him, which made him stop and turn around, thereby avoiding a collision. But he’d just look at me, upset because I had impeded his progress while the other person moved past him so that when he turned forward again, Charles could see that Dad had just been seeing things.
Beyond this, Charles melted down at any indication that we weren’t heading for the airplane at top speed or not boarding the instant we could. I hear of stories of other parents, who have to chivy and browbeat their children in to picking up the pace to get to a bus, train or airplane on time, but I can’t imagine what that would be like.
I’ve already mentioned Corwin’s penchant for wanting a Band-Aid rather than Mommy smoochies to ease the ache of a wound. Charles has the same attitude toward pain relief, demanding a Band-aid for any injury.
Recently Charles went to the next level in preferring the products of modern technology to hand crafted gifts of love from his parents. Charles wanted an arrow on a piece of paper for some project of his. What he asked for was an arrow printed on a piece of paper. I said I’d rather draw it (an arrow being barely but still within my artistic talents and it seemed like it would take a lot of ink to print) but Charles was emphatic about wanting it printed. Sadly, he had to settle for an inferior hand drawn version, although I did use a ruler to improve the quality to something Charles would accept.
After our visit to our nation’s past, I insisted that we go over to see Plymouth Rock, because
Very exciting, wasn’t it?
Then it was time to eat, but once again we had no idea where to go. I was fixated on seafood because we were in, you know, a fishing city. Luckily Mom had brutally taken a flyer from some poor passerby (who, oddly, had had a whole stack of the fliers for some reason) and it listed a seafood restaurant not overly far away. Fate having decided for us, we headed out.
We managed to find the place with just a bit of back tracking. The food was quite good, except for the crab cakes which were mediocre. The boys enjoyed looking at the live lobsters and crabs. They had some seriously big lobsters which impressed the boyen (Corwin in particular).
Despite all this, dinner was not an unmixed pleasure. Charles got whiny and threw a fit when I emptied out a bag of oyster crackers for him. Apparently they tasted terrible out of the bag, so I had to stuff them all back in the plastic bag so Charles could eat the now tasty crackers. Then the boys decided they had to go potty but since the place was oriented towards primarily takeout, there wasn’t a public bathroom. The staff was kind enough to let us in the back to use the employee bathroom. When we found it I decided to go in with both boys to keep an eye on things (since it was the work area the idea of one of the boys wandering about unsupervised was clearly a Bad Thing). This turned out to be the right choice. Charles dropped his pants and let go almost instantly after the door was closed. Corwin decided not to wait and fired from a couple of feet away. While I was busying try to convince Charles to watch what he was doing instead of scoping out the (interesting to him) decor, Corwin managed to aim a bit too far down and hit his pants. Of course, Corwin couldn’t actually stop so it was a desperate second or so. At least he got only the floor, toilet and himself instead of say the walls. Just to add insult to injury, as I started to grab some paper towels and begin cleaning, Corwin walked right through the puddle to get out of the way.
But we got through dinner and headed back to the hotel. Charles at this point became obsessed with having chocolate ice cream. We didn’t spot any place to pick some up on the way back, leaving us with the last restort of buying some from the hotel. We ended up eating it out of the water glasses.
Sunday we got up and headed off to LeAnn’s (and Scott’s) house to visit there for a while. It being daytime, I didn’t think the blinkies would keep the kids entertained. Instead I brought decks of Magic: The Gathering cards, the game Corwin has taken an interest in. The kids found this wonderfully exciting and we basically spent the entire time playing that game, Scott and I serving as referees although I did manage to get in one game. Ashlyn in particular was wildly enthusiastic about playing, especially when she beat Corwin the first two games (Corwin was a very good sport about it, despite Ashlyn literally bouncing around the room in her victory dance). Corwin managed to bring the final score to 2-3 games, so he wasn’t totally crushed. He was even nice enough that after he beat Ashlyn with one of my tuned decks and she responded by asking “let me play with that deck!”, he let her use the deck (and, amusing, winning anyway). I myself was nice enough to not go around hanging people by their thumbs for bending my cards.
Next on our trip agenda was a trip over to the Plimouth Plantation, a recreation of the original Plymouth colony circa 1627. This was primarily for Corwin, whose class is studying the colony. The main village is “populated” by re-enactors who “work” in the village as the original colonists did. The construction is all historically accurate and presumably takes enough maintenance to keep a good part of the staff busy.
Corwin was supposed to ask the staff questions, as they are trained to be able to provide lots of historical details, but Corwin would barely talk to any of them. He mainly interacted with the chickens, becoming very concerned that they might escape.
Corwin tries to make friends
However, Corwin did get tagged by one of the staff in to helping fix a fence. This consisted of digging a bit for a plank of the fence (which Corwin simply didn’t weigh enough to do) and then putting a nail in to hold the plank in place. Because they used iron nails, Corwin had to first drill a pilot hole. Even then, it was difficult to not bend the nail. Corwin did quite well, only bending the nail a bit (easily corrected by the staffer) and keeping at the task with some diligence.
Corwin works under close supervision
Charles spent his time there finding little bits of fabric and chunks of wood and creating constructs with them.
Charles struggles to create despite the limited set of working materials
Charles did complain of hunger early on and had a near melt down when I tried to pick out a snack for him at the gift shop, where he didn’t like anything I was willing to buy for him (lack of disaster-sized after-snack mess was my primary concern). Eventually I found some gummy lobsters which he liked “very much”.
Alice lazed the time away in her stroller, except when the terrain was very rough. Then she’d whine and cry because Mom took her out in order to move the stroller.
During a second pass through the backup gift shop, I ended up buying a small model ship for Charles, complete with masts and riggings. I figured it wouldn’t make it back to the hotel but as I write this it’s still intact. It’s survived not only Charles and Alice but the entire trip back spent mostly in Charles’ rolling bag.
For Corwin, we bought a stuffed rat, putatively life sized for the kind of rat that lived on the Mayflower. Corwin was pretty impressed with just how big a rat can get. Still, he was quite taken with the rat, wanting to play with it (although that mostly consisted of rubbing it on himself in the back seat while calling out “help! help! it’s eating me!”). Corwin took it in to class to donate and didn’t really describe the reaction, except that Keith tried to kill it and Andrea gave it a hug.
After all that, we headed out to the Mayflower II, a duplicate of the original Mayflower that sailed from the same port in the UK to Boston and is now a floating museum.
Corwin liked the ship, Alice was indifferent (although the ready availability of danger made her happy) and Charles didn’t much care for it at all. He was willing to look at a few things but mostly he moped or gazed wistfully out to sea, as if he could see freedom beckoning (freedom meaning “playing in the hotel room”).
Alice was a bit of fun while heading out to the ship. The dock was planking over the harbor and Alice did not like the fact that she could see open water in the gaps between the planks. She refused to step over such gaps and had to be carried.
Alice is stymied by a yawning gap
Corwin explored everywhere on the ship, although he wasn’t too fond of below decks. It really is astonishing to see just how small a boat it was, not much bigger than a fancy yacht that had to carry over 100 people along with enough supplies for all of them for two months. The beds for the officers looked like they’d barely fit Corwin and must have been truly horrid in any sort of hot, humid weather. I don’t think Corwin really grasped just how unpleasant it was. I think some more camping might help him out with that…
Corwin and fishing gear
What both boys enjoyed most, however, was a side exhibit demonstrating the purpose of pulleys and block and tackles. The boys spent a long time there and had to be dragged away to let some other boys try it out. Now and then I would have to intervene to keep the boyen from fighting over access to the pulleys. If only I could get them to do that much work when they’re at home!
Boys working pulleys
Charles and I slept late, so Mom, Alice and Corwin had already had breakfast by the time the two of us were ready to face the day. Charles told me that he couldn’t get up until it was “day”, which meant having the curtains open and sunlight shining on him. I guess I was lucky that our room faced east or he’d have slept till noon.
After breakfast we began work on getting the spawn looking acceptable for a formal ceremony.
The best we could do
LeAnn (and Scott)’s renewal ceremony was nice and we got to meet a lot of graduate school friends of Mom and their children, most of them roughly in the same age range as ours. We chatted with them a bit after the ceremony until people started clearing out. At this point we noticed that Charles had gone missing. We searched all over the church for him but couldn’t find him. After a bit of panic I located him out by the rented mini-van, desperately trying to get inside. Apparently as soon as the ceremony was over, Charles decided it was time to go to the reception because there was going to be cake there. However, he was persuaded to come back in the church for a bit.
Afterwards we headed over to LeAnn’s house to visit for a while. Corwin and Charles didn’t really interact with the other children, preferring to build things with the wood blocks there. Of course, Charles built his right in the main pathway through the room which lead to some trauma for him.
I almost had an OK time but it turns out that one of the people there had a nicer camera than I did. But, haha, I got my revenge! I had a nicer flash and I let her borrow it. She fell in love with it and I think there’ll be some financial pain in their future.
Around the time it was getting dark, the kids started to wear down (Alice in particular). I handed out blinkies to the kids and we departed. We got some advice on locating a family friendly restaurant but after an hour of fruitless effort we settled on a Brazilian buffet that looked like it and its clientele could withstand our children. It turned out to have good food and low prices so it was a nice ending to stressful foraging.
After that, with the kids passing out in their seats, we headed back to the hotel. However, the hotel room air served as some sort of amphetamine because by the time we had the kids ready for bed they were wound up and active. It was impressive (at a later point in time, Charles would state as his favorite part of the trip “playing in the hotel room”).
We had a bit of a scare later that night, when Alice started wheezing very badly, sounding like she was suffocating. She seemed to recover somewhat if held up right, so Mom got to sleep sitting up with her for a good part of the night. We worried that it was an allergic reaction and her throat was constricting but she’d been high energy girl for several hours afterwards, ruling that out. We’ve since decided that it was just a very stuffy headed cold, which she still has. Despite what it seems like at night, during the day Alice was her normal bundle of energy with breathing that seemed normal, just a very runny nose and some tearing from her eyes.
The trip out to Boston wasn’t all that difficult. I spent the entire morning and part of the afternoon getting things ready to go but the trip itself wasn’t too bad. Charles told me that we were going to a hotel because that’s where they have “soft pillows” for everyone.
The thing I remember most about the traveling is Charles getting wild eyed or breaking down in tears at the thought of us not getting on the airplane. He would recognize the boarding call and if we didn’t head out right away he’d become very stressed. Charles maintained this transportation theme through out the entire adventure. He was very excited about riding the shuttle bus from the airport to the car rental place. During the ride, he inquired as to when he would be able to ride a train, Mom having made the mistake of mentioning this as a possibility. Charles also brought along his Thomas the Tank Engine rolling bag, which Alice quite liked as well. Charles was a good boy about actually carrying the bag around as we traveled.
At the airport, Alice spent her time climbing on the furniture. She’d try to talk across the little tables between the seats but the two sides were joined by crease which Alice wouldn’t step over by herself. Alice spent her time on the airplane trying to climb over the seats from one parent to another. Mom had arranged the tickets to be two by two in adjacent rows. I sat with Corwin every leg because Charles insisted on sitting with Mom (he also insisted that Alice sit with Mom, although he didn’t bring it up while we were actually on the airplane).
Corwin mostly just read his book.
The kids crashed out soon after we got to the hotel, although the first thing Corwin did when we arrived was to turn on the TV. As we got the kids ready for bed we noticed that Charles had spent the entire travel day with sand-filled shoes. Actually, Corwin noticed this because after Charles took off his shoes and climbed in to bed, his socks retained enough sand to get it all over under the sheets. But in not too long we had three sleeping angels.
Oh, the tales there are to tell of this epic journey…but another day.
Charles in O’Hare Airport, upset because we are not heading for the next plane fast enough
We’ve made it through two days of trip without losing any significant items, sanity or children. We’re heading home tomorrow.
Yesterday we went to friends of Mom’s from graduate school for their renewing of vows with reception afterwards. By the end of that the kids were gettting cranky so we headed out to get some food and go to sleep. An hour later we finally managed to get to a restaurant, having spent most of that time being frustrated by the road system here. But eventually we defeated the transportation network and managed to eat.
Recently when I picked Alice up from daycare, the instructor was singing a song to the children while some background music played and the kids played various simple instruments, like maracas. Alice was there, shaking away on her music maker. Alice seems to really like music. She dances to it much more than the boys did. She particularly likes the Laurie Berkner videos. That always gets Alice up and dancing. At one point one of the songs says “put your nose on your toes” and Alice will frequently try exactly that with usually funny-to-parents results.
We made it to Boston without leaving a child behind. The kids were good, although not perfect.
Alice threw a screaming fit on the first plane, right before we took off but once Dad took over from mean old Mom, Alice calmed down and went to sleep.
Charles had an anxiety attack in the airport becaues the plane started boarding and we didn’t immediately rush up to get on. He kept warning us that we might miss the plane!
Corwin had to help carry the luggage, which he grumbled about, but in the end he hauled an extra piece of luggage around for a bit.
By the time we got to the hotel, the kids were exhausted. So tired, in fact, we managed to get them all in the same bed so that Mom and I could get some sleep without the kick-kick of little feet.
While Mom’s been gone I’ve had a couple of girls over to keep an eye on the kids in the evening while I pretend to work. Mara’s older sister Amalia was over Wednesday night. Kirsten, Ali’s older sister, was over on Thursday evening (we’re just missing out on Anwen to make the collection complete). Kirsten missed out on Corwin, who went over to Andreas’ house for dinner.
The kids were reasonable good for the girls, although driving back from soccer practice with Amalia was interesting. Charles was completely wired, giggle and screaming hysterically at anything. He had spent part of his time interacting with Amalia and her friend Lauren at soccer practice which seems have wound Charles up to warp speed. Charles started off by tackling them, which he actually did a reasonable job at as these are thin girls and Charles is a slab ‘o boy. They started tickling at each other which evolved in to Charles trying to pull their shirts off. I didn’t intervene as I figured they started it, they can deal with it. I had my hands full just dealing with Alice who had quite the dirt feast that day.
I did discover that Alice’s fascination with the water bottles at soccer practice is about exploring, not about water. At this practice, I hiked all the way over to the water fountain and filled her sippy cup with water. She took a couple swigs and that was the end of her interest in water. I was impressed with Alice’s dedication though. When I’d take away whatever water bottle she’d grabbed, she wouldn’t cry or fuss, she’d just head on over to the next one. Industrious and persistent, what more could you want?
While Alice is different in many ways from the boys, such as wanting to carry around a doll instead of a car, some things are the same. One I’ve been noticing lately is the tongue washing reflex. This is when, as you wash her face, she sticks out her tongue to try to get it washed as well. All three children did this startign around age 1½. The boys faded off doing it around 3 or 4, so presumably Alice will as well.
Now that Mom is back from her trip, we’re leaving again for a long weekend in Boston. Our flight takes off at 3 PM today. Corwin will be skipping school but the little monkeys will be going in for a half day because that’s less hassle than having them about while I’m trying get ready to go. Mom, being the organized and clever scheduler that she is, not only has lecture until 12:30 but signed up for a 2½ hour meeting in the morning. The kids all woke up at 6 so they’ll be properly tired and cranky on the plane. It’s going to be a good time…
Charles has been rather difficult the last day or two. A couple of nights ago he threw a screaming fit at the bottom of the stairs for reason that remain unclear. As best we can tell, he was upset that no one would carry him all the way up the stairs and in to bed. I’m not sure how long he was there, crying and screaming, but I’d guess twenty minutes or so. Eventually he gave in and hauled himself up to bed for a story.
Yesterday was a big rush to pick up Charles and Alice and then head out to soccer practice. I told Charles multiple times to leave his shoes on when we got home, because we’d be leaving again in a few minutes. Of course, he took off his shoes immediately after we got home while I was distracted with departure preparations. Then he threw a fit because I wanted to load him up without putting his shoes back on. While we were at soccer practice he didn’t want to hang out near the practice, instead climbing a nearby hill and playing in the dirt of a construction site. After practice Charles was off on the hill with Jack’s sister and her friend Lauren when Charles whacked Corwin right in the mouth with a dirt clod, giving Corwin a bit of a bloody lip and a mouth full of dirt. When I got there Charles was sitting on the ground pulling up grass and chanting as fast as he could “I sorry!” over and over.
This morning Charles didn’t get up until 9 and then claimed he was too tired to do anything (unfortunately Alice and I were also tired and fell back asleep until 9 after Corwin left). It was only with much brow beating and physical intervention that I managed to get him and Alice to daycare by 10:15.
The only thing that saves him is that sometimes, when I ask him to do something for me, he just looks up and saws “Awe wight”.
Last Sunday Corwin did his first stint as acolyte. The church decided to include younger children in the acolyte program. Corwin got to be involved in the second week of the new, younger crowd. They had acolyte training after church a couple weeks ago, and all the kids got to try out lighting and snuffing the candles. Corwin and his friend Jack enjoyed lighting the candles (perhaps a bit too much).
I’m happy (and relieved) to say that Corwin did an excellent job. Not only did he have to light and snuff the candles, he also had to assist in communion. During the prelude, Corwin got the candles lit with only a minor bumble of bowing towards the congregation instead of towards the altar. Candles got lit and nothing else caught fire. As the acolyte, we sat in the front row instead of our normal spot in the rear left. Corwin endured the service with far less fidgeting that usual. He even stood in the appropriate places and kind of tried to sing some of the hymns.
During communion he followed the pastor with a tray for the empty wine cups. He and the pastor were working on the other side of the church, so I could keep a close eye on him, but there were no crashes or screams, so it looks like everything went just fine.
During the last verse of the last hymn, Corwin went up to snuff out the candles. He made a very nice bow towards the altar, and got the candles snuffed just as the hymn ended. So all and all a successful acolyting.
Alice was out wandering about while I kept half an eye on her. She was carrying around her doll. After a bit she spotted the two small folding chairs we have. She immediately sat the doll in one and then sat in the other, watching the world go by with her companion. For about 5 seconds. Then it was a series of seat exchanges and mini-excursions until Alice got tired of the whole business, handed me the doll and headed off to Mom’s excavation area to eat some dirt.
Mom left early this morning on a two day business trip to California. She’ll be back late Thursday night, just in time to pack for our long weekend trip. I think there was something I was supposed to do for the kids, but heck — let ‘em sleep in.
Last Tuesday (a week ago) we went to an open house at Corwin’s school, to see his classroom and meet his teacher. The visit went fine, although I ended up spending almost all of my time either catering to Charles’ whims or preventing Alice from scattering the classroom supplies about the classroom. Corwin nearly broke down in tears because Charles got to have popcorn and water while Corwin didn’t. Charles used the clever tactic of asking for these items instead of presuming that would be provided automatically. There was also the fact that Corwin got upset about this as we were heading home, a place in which both popcorn and water are available at a 5 minute drive from the school which somewhat lessened the sympathy level from the parental units.
Charles has learned most of the days of the week now. He frequently asks what day it is, meaning what day of the week. He has a general idea of what days things occur on (e.g., Monday is back to school day).
Charles, while he acts like he can’t count to ten, can read numbers to at least ten. When were were out shopping over the weekend, one of the playlands had a hopscotch drawing and I asked Charles what numbers were on it. He easily read them all, up through 10. It’s just a matter of tricking him in to being clever.
I haven’t been able to work in my office with Alice for a month or two now. Alice loves keyboards so if I leave a keyboard with in reach of her, all sorts of non-desirable things happen to my computer. I can’t work on paper because Alice has acquired a strong love of paper and drawing / painting. If I try to do it myself, Alice will grab my writing implements and add her own special enhancements to my notes.
Alice likes to draw even when I don’t start it. I’ll frequently set her out on the kitchen table with a big piece of paper and either paint, pencils or markers. This can keep her entertained for quite a while if I’m lucky.
Of course, there are downsides. Alice finds most markers tasty and frequently ends up with interesting facial markings. The other day she managed to make some marks on her front (luckily she wasn’t wearing a shirt). Alice then tried to wipe them off with marker in hand. Then she tried to wipe off those new marks, marker still in hand. Sadly, my parenting instincts prevented me from gathering valuable psychological data by observing the process to the end.
Alice is now using the following words in a somewhat correct manner:
She was especially pleased with learning “eye”, as one might expect. Alice also uses the word “dahgum” although we’re not clear on what it means, exactly. The closest guess is “that” or possibly “what?” as she almost always points at some in particular when she says it. There’s just no pattern to what she points at.
Mom finally got new shoes for Alice yesterday. Alice’s new shoes were 1½ sizes bigger than her previous ones.
Alice hasn’t rooted through the garbage for quite a while. Hopefully she’s past that phase. And her interest in toilets has dropped off as well. Still, we’ll always have this kidlog to reminder her.
Today was another soccer game for Corwin. The weather was beautiful, cool but not cold with lots of sunshine.
Corwin did better about moving around on the field and being in to the game. His team did very well, winning 7-1 with the other team scoring their goal just near the end of the game (I’m glad they managed to score — it’s really much worse to lose that badly without any score at all). The team was playing well, lots of passing and good plays. The goal scoring was well distributed, I think Mara was the only one who scored two goals.
We’ll be missing next week’s game on account of yet another family adventure.
Corwin has been spending a lot of time with two boys (Andreas and Matisse) who recently moved in to the neighborhood. Over the last couple of weeks, he’s gone over to visit them at their house about 6 or 7 times. They hang out at the bus stop together in the morning as well.
Today, Andreas came home with Corwin. I had a special treat for Corwin waiting. The other boys play Magic and I had loaned Corwin one of my decks to play as well. This had been a source of concern for me, as the deck was full of out of print, impossible to replace cards. To minimize the risk window, I had mail ordered some preconstructed decks which had just arrived. I let Corwin pick one out to be his so that I could get my deck back While I was doing this, Andreas was telling me that I shouldn’t because
Andreas got the second one right, as I found out later when his mom showed up to collect her boys. We’ll see about the first one but I can’t say I’d be surprised.
I had to take the brood to the last soccer practice because Mom was out on the town. I took my camera, in case I had a moment to use it but I only managed to get a couple of shots in. Instead, I set it up on a tripod and let Charles take some shots. He took 227 pictures before I cut him off. Sadly, not one of them was worth keeping. While Charles had some problems with focus, his real issue was with framing.Of course, he has no idea how to work the zoom (I preset it for him) but even so, most of the pictures had just heads and a bit of the upper body with lots of sky. The ones he took while spinning the camera on the tripod didn’t turn out well, either. The few that were in focus and framed were of things like the cell tower and the grassy hill next to the practice field. But it kept him busy and happy for most of practice (and most of the rest of the time was taken up by a trek to the potty). My biggest problem was that, since Charles was using the camera, Alice thought it must be the coolest thing ever, particuarly the big shiny end of the lens.
The last time I picked up Charles at his daycare, I forgot to have him take off his name tag until we were out the door. I stopped him and told him to take off the tag and put it in his cubby. He took it off but was unwilling to penetrate the plane of the door. I thought that was odd until I noticed that one of the staff was getting ready to vacuum the room. Charles is scared of vacuum cleaners. I had to return the tag but I asked Charles about it as we left.
Charles: They got a new vacuum cleaner.
Dad: Did they? Are you scared of the vacuum cleaner?
Charles: Yes, I very scared.
Dad: Why?
Charles: It has a light.
Dad: But you like lights. You’re always asking me for a light.
Charles: That one behind glass.
Dad: But the lights I give you are behind glass too.
Charles: I don’t like that light.
I find this interesting in view of Charles’ deathly fear of the light in the pool. The swim club pool that Charles normally swims in has two lights at either end behind some wire mesh and glass. Charles refused to go anywhere near the light because it was so scary, even though he never saw it turned on.
Charles is having fun with numbers these days. He acts as if he has forgotten how to count, but if you ask him directly he knows his numbers up to 6.
If asked to count, he responds with various numbers, like “nineteen sixteen eight” (nineteen seems to be a particular favorite, but it varies).
If you hold up four fingers he’ll tell you “four” and if you add one he answers “five”.
Charles is also doing something Corwin used to do when young, which is make up long nonsense numbers such “eleven hundred nineteen sixty three eighty”. That was Charles’ answer when we asked Corwin “what is 8 × 8?”. At least Charles has the vocabulary for math down.
Charles got me up in the morning so he could ride his bike. Alice was feeling cranky so I sent him out to do a short circut near the house. He was gone for a while until I got concerned and went out to look for him. It turns out that at one point along the sidewalk, branches from a tree hang low enough to get in Charles’ way. Charles’ response to this was to sit on his bike, in un-moving misery, until I came out to rescue him.
As I was hauling a sleeping Charles to bed, he woke up just enough to tell me, with great concern, “we are almost out of bunny!”.
Complaining to Charles about chewing his shirt has had an effect on him. When I refused to do something he wanted, he threatened to eat my shirt.
Shortly after this picture was taken, Alice managed to get POset’s claw snagged in the skin on her upper forearm, requiring an emergency extraction by Dad.
I’ve started doing “tickle attack missile” with Alice, where I put out a finger at a distance, making a droning noise while moving the finger at her then tickle her if it touches her. The missile gets “shot down” if she touches it before it gets to her. She isn’t very good at it but it seems that it’s because she likes getting tickled. I was doing it the other day and, rather than block, she pulled up her shirt so that I could better tickle her tummy, something she found hilarious. It’s quite the contrast with the boys, where were always vigourous in their missile defense.
Charles seems to use the phrase “every day” to mean “forever” or “always”. Mom recently gave him a ziploc bag to play with because he was whining about Corwin having one (from school). But Corwin’s had the nice little zipper thing while Charles’ had the standard “press and seal” which was beyond Charles’ ability. This caused Charles to break down in misery. I tried to help him and, when that failed, to convince him that being able to work the ziploc bag wasn’t a career ending failure. But Charles was unconsoled. He cried out in agony: “I not close the bag every day!”
Our other big activity on Saturday was Aunt Evelyn’s 80th birthday party. It was sort of a surprise party in that I’m sure Aunt Evelyn realized there was going to be an event but didn’t realize that relatives would be flying in from all over the country.
The children were reasonably well behaved, although Alice pretended to be shy for most of the early part of the event. Some other, much better prepared, parent brought a play mat
which the boys liked, especially Charles.
Corwin’s primary concern was “when are we going to have cake?”
We let Corwin have as much cake as he wanted because he was quite the eater at dinner. He had finished his seconds before I got my first plate of food and then went back for thirds, which he nearly finished. Even so, he managed to choke down two pieces of cake and a big scoop of ice cream. Charles had a piece and a half of cake plus ice cream. Charles likes to eat his cake in a very ordered manner:
It was a good time, except for certain people who were a bit too over the top in their photography.
Alice used the word “shoe” today, although in a prompted manner. She was holding a shoe when she said it, though. She spontaneously said “ball” while holding one out, so there’s some hope she knows that word. The current Alice vocabularly is:
Alice is shifting from the “vibra-stomp” to the “fling to the ground” style of protesting parental decisions. I guess she figures that since she’s had her first head trauma what has she got to lose?
Alice is now actively resisting wearing a diaper when it’s the only thing she has on. Alice would much prefer to run wild and free of the encumbrances of clothing. She managed to get her diaper off this afternoon so I had to chase a naked Alice around the upstairs until I cornered her on Charles’ bed. It required some serious restraining effort to get the diaper back on her and even after that, she just sat on the floor with a frustrated look, pulling at the diaper to try to get it off.
Corwin had his first soccer game of the season yesterday. It was against the team that practices on the adjacent field, against whom Corwin’s team had a scrimmage last Wednesday. Corwin’s team won that 4-0, with the other team not really pressuring the goal at all. The other team played much better yesterday but Corwin’s team still won 1-0. The other team did a much better job of pushing on the goal and almost scored several times. The level of overall play was noticeably better than last season, with some good passing on both sides. Mom thought Corwin looked a bit sluggish, though, not really chasing the ball as well as he should. Sounds like we need to get Corwin out for some extra endurance training.
Charles has been bugging us for a couple of days about getting a bike, “a bike my size” where ” I can reach the pedals”. He finally broke Mom down and she got out Corwin’s first bike and put the training wheels back on. Charles thought this was really cool and he immediately went out cruising on his first bike. He only fell over a few times, mostly trying to go up the curves. Charles had some difficulty with not pushing back on the pedals (which acts as a brake) but he rapidly got better at that. Later in the day Charles and I went for a loop around the block, which is a good distance for the first day. Charles did seem quite taken with the experience, yelling “I going so fast!” at one point.
[Charles is doing his morning washing]
Charles: What are those?
Dad: Those are hair beads for Alice.
Charles: Can you take them away?
Dad: Why?
Charles: I not like to see them.
Dad: These? What’s wrong with them?
Charles: I don’t like the orange one.
[Dad is sorting through the mail]
Dad: Corwin, there’s a postcard here for you.
Corwin: Who is it from?
Dad: It’s from the dentist. You have an appointment soon.
Corwin: I get to go to the dentist! Yay!
Charles: Do I go to dentist too?
Dad: I’m not sure. We’ll have to ask Mom.
Corwin: I like to go to the dentist.
Charles: I want to go tooooo!
Alice enjoys a tasty rock in her Texas cowgirl outfit
P.S. Mimi, these are for you.
Today I started the Charles’ shoe sand box. This is a plastic container in to which I put all of the sand I can extract from Charles’ shoes. My goal is to see how long it takes to fill the entire thing and then return it to Charles’ daycare so they can restore the sandbox to its original state. I’m not sure how thoroughly Mom will be filling it, so this experiment will just put a floor on the sand carrying capacity of Charles’ shoes, not an accurate measurement.
Alice likes to play the piano, particularly when Corwin is practicing his violin. You can see her here using her “crouching baby, flying hands” technique. After a bit of playing she will stop and turn the pages on the music, sometimes pointing out and commenting on a particularly interesting section she is about to play.
We try to get Charles to eat in a manner approximating human standard but it’s an uphill struggle. He uses utensils but also likes to use his finger. For instance, a standard technique is to use his fingers as a backstop for the food as he pushes his fork in to it. Or Charles will carefully pick up peas with his fingers then place them in his spoon so he can eat them. Clearly we’ve communicated the idea that one should use utensils on food but the overall purpose seems to have not arrived.
Note the discarded bottles
While Alice seems to know a few words (“cat”, “milk”) she really only uses one on a regular basis: “no”. She likes it so much that she’ll not infrequently use it even when that’s not what she wants. I definitely remember the boys being in that phase, where the instictive response to any question from a parent is “no”, even if it’s “would you like more milk in your sippy cup?”.
Alice exists basically as an excuse for Mom to shop for girly clothes. Of course, it will be a cruel crushing of Mom’s vicarious shopping once Alice is old enough to mock Mom’s fashion choices. Should we set up a pool on how old that will be?
I need to buy Corwin the dorkiest pair of pants on the planet. That way, when he runs out of clean clothes, he’ll be forced to do one of the following:
Now some might ask, “What do you know about dorky pants?”. Well, dude, I am a male engineer. End of discussion.
Mom: Let’s go to the pond.
Charles: No!
Mom: But I want to go to the pond.
Charles: I want to play with the hose!
Mom: What if we go to the pond and then play with the hose.
Charles: That is a great idea! We can go to the pond and then come back and play with the hose.
Dad: Whaaat?
Charles: [in great earnest] We going to the pond and then we play with the hose.
Mom: [to Charles] Charles, do you want to put on swim trunks?
Charles: No. I stay on the sand. Because the pond has sand. That’s what ponds have.
Mom: But you’ll have to change in to swim trunks to play with the hose.
Charles: OK. Let’s do that.
It’s really hard to capture the gravity of how Charles says these things. Think of a military commander announcing to his troops the news of an enemy attack. Now give him a four year old’s voice.
Just having a slow Labor Day here. We went to the park fora while and I was so laid back I didn’t even take my camera. We tried to get the kids to go to the pool one last time this year but Corwin and Charles didn’t want to go.
Mom sent Alice and Charles up for naps a while ago. This resulted in Charles coming downstairs while Corwin and I were talking in the kitchen and saying “You need be quiet! I trying to sleep up here!”. Corwin and I went off to my office but Charles followed us and said “I can still hear you. Can you be more quiet?”.
Mom has come to the realization that her petite flower of girlhood has no taste. I’ve already mentioned Alice’s indifference to the age of the milk in her sippy cup which Mom has been noticing recently. Yesterday, while we were hiking, Mom got to watch Alice eat dirt. Alice would wipe her fingers along the bottom of a concrete walkway, coated with dust, and then lick them clean. Mom tried stopping her but that just made it more fun for Alice, who responded by making “connoisseur” faces as she sampled the walkway’s wares.
Charles has taken to chewing on his shirts in a big way. Mom threw one shirt out today because Charles had literally chewed holes in it. We’ve considered putting chili sauce on his collars, which would either stop him from chewing or get him used to spicy foods, either of which would be good.
I took away his shirt last night to which he responded by claiming to be “so cold!”. I put a blanket on him but he still complained of being cold. He almost started chewing the blanket but apparently that doesn’t taste right.
Here’s a picture of him enjoying a triple set of fire roasted marshmallows, in which you can see the little half circle at the top of his shirt where he had been chewing. At least he thinks marshmallows taste better than shirt.
Mom made us all go out to a local state park for a hike and to check it out for a future family camping adventure (pictures). What I discovered is that I can keep the boyen moving along during the hike without much whining as long as I have a loaded camera I can threaten to shoot them with.
Dad: Charles, do you think children should play soccer, or is it evil?
Charles: Hmmmm. Soccer is … good!
Dad: Soccer is good?
Charles: Yes. Soccer is yummy socks.
Mom: What?
Dad: Charles says “soccer is yummy socks”.
Mom: Charles, that makes no sense.
Charles: It makes zero sense! [giggles]
Charles has been very resistant to doing his morning stuff lately. The other day I tried to get him to wash and dress but he refused. Meanwhile Alice decided that she had to play outside so I left Charles on the couch, no TV (the horror!) while I went outside with Alice. After a bit, Charles apparently decided that laying on a couch doing nothing was even worse than his morning routine and the next thing I know, Charles is wandering around naked on the front porch with a passle of clean clothes in one hand. I tried to explain that wasn’t the best way to announce that he was ready to get dressed but Charles just thought it was funny, since he likes being naky.
At daycare, Alice has to wear a hat when she’s outside, for protection from the sun. We figured it was just pro forma, because there was no way they were going to keep a hat on Alice. As it turns out, however, they have some pretty powerful mind control lasers there because not only does Alice wear her hat there, but she now likes to wear it at home as well. She can even put it on by herself.
[The family is driving home after soccer practice]
Mom: What did you do at lunch recess?
Corwin: We played kickball.
Dad: Who played?
Corwin: Third graders vs. fourth graders.
Mom: Did any girls play?
Corwin: There were a couple with the fourth graders.
Mom: What about on your team?
Corwin: I don’t know! It was lunchtime!
