Making Progress... sort of

During our last book-gathering trip* to the library (*we also go for story time and to play), we checked out a book called "Tissue Please" by Lisa Kopelke. In the book, Frog sniffs and snorts and wipes his nose on his arm until his parents teach him to use a tissue. Once Frog blows his nose in a tissue, he loves how his nose feels better, and from then on he always uses a tissue for his nose issues.

My hope in getting this book was, as you can imagine, to encourage Oo to start using tissues. Well, we've made some progress.

Now, at least once a day, Oo asks, "Can I have a tissue, please? For my boogie. (Which is big, gross and perched on top of her finger.) I am NOT going to eat it! I'm going to put it in a tissue!" And as she says this, she is beaming with pure pride and accomplishment.

MESS!

We've long referred to T as "Mr. Messy" or "Messy Boy." In typical toddler fashion, he enjoys pulling things off of shelves and out of cupboards. After he does this, Oo often announces, "He is a messy baby, after all!"

T's verbal skills are entering a new phase, and he now says at least two new words a day. What is turning out to be a favorite new word is... of course... "mess." And now after he has yanked books off the shelves, sent A's cd's down crashing onto the floor, or pulled our tupperware out of the cupboard... now, he proudly declares, "Mess!"

Land of Chalk Drawings

Today was Cleveland's annual Chalk Festival. It was our first year to go, and it was much bigger than we expected. There were several featured artists, making large chalk drawings, each one spectacular in either its realism or use of color. For a small fee, you could purchase a box of pastels to add your own chalk drawing to the mix. The sidewalks were covered with hundreds of drawings, and we found it necessary to walk in the grass to admire them without smudging them.
While taking pictures of our favorite drawings, we ran into neighborhood friends, and then we saw more neighborhood friends. This gave Oo two girls to play with, which made the festival suddenly more fun and interesting for her.
After we all enjoyed a leisurely chat and some lunch on the lawn, it was time to mosey about and look at the other drawings, but not before Oo had a chance to add a chalk drawing of her own. Her friends shared their chalk with her, and Oo experimented with layers upon layers of color. It was a departure from her usual smiley faces she chalks onto our driveway at home. Perhaps she saw something today that inspired her.

Fridge Magnets

Warning: Big-time bragging here!

For the past month or so, T has been obsessed with the alphabet magnets on the fridge. He loves pulling them off one by one and throwing them on the floor. He's usually a man of few words, but he started to ask, "Wha zis?" for every letter he held. He'd get so excited when we'd tell him , "That's an M" or "That's a Z -- zoom zoom, zig zag, zip!" All of a sudden he was telling us the letter names and soon reciting his ABC's. His obsession with letters now extends beyond fridge magnets. He loves alphabet puzzle pieces, flash cards, and naming letters whenever and wherever he sees them.

Because he enjoys letters so much, I thought I'd try to teach him his numbers. Earlier this week, I started in the obvious place... I looked him in the eye and said, "One." Smiling wide my 20-month-old looked back at me and said, "Two, fee, or, fi, ix, sev, eight, ni, ten!" No lie!! I have no idea where he learned to count to ten. Maybe by paying close attention to Oo or to Sesame Street. I honestly don't know, but A and I are thrilled!

School!

Oo had her first day of "school" today. She's enrolled in a class called "Imagination Lane," which meets one day a week for two hours. The first day was actually last week, but Oo had the flu and couldn't go. I don't know who was more bummed, her or me?

I dropped T off at Aunt Pandy's, so I could sit in class with Oo on her first day. Then Oo and I made the 25-minute drive to class. (Why enroll in a class so far away? Long story.) The long drive gave us time to go over the teacher's rules: raise your hand and wait to be called on, keep your hands and feet to yourself, and listen to others. You should have seen Oo's face light up when she saw her teacher -- Miss Kelly -- for the first time!

I was so proud of Oo in class. She followed all the rules as best she could, and only a couple times did her excitement get the best of her.

The theme today was leaves. They listened to stories about leaves, did a scavenger hunt for paper leaves (and then counted the leaves and named their colors), glued leaf pictures into a booklet, and made leaves with Play-doh and leaf cookie cutters.

Before we left the building, I had her pose for this picture. She looked a little sad, so I asked her what she thought about her school. She said it was boring and that she didn't learn anything. I was proud that she was able to articulate her disappointment, and I can understand why she felt the way she did. Ah well, at least she IS learning how to behave in a classroom. And that is a lesson she's going to use for years to come.

5...6...Pick Up Sticks

On Sunday we had a massive wind storm, with gusts up to 78mph throughout a 6-hour period. We saw lots of twigs and leaves fall, but the true strength of the storm didn't phase us until a large branch fell down in our front yard. I saw it as it happened, and I let out such a yelp, that Oo's curiosity was suddenly peaked and she desperately wanted to go out to feel the wind in her hair. (No, silly, we did not take her out there.)

Remembering the large tree that fell on our next-door neighbor's house, barely missing ours, we did not want the kids to sleep in their front bedrooms while the high wind warning continued until midnight. So A moved their mattresses into our back bedroom so they could camp out there for the night.

The novelty of mattresses on the floor made it hard for them to settle down and fall to sleep. To get them to nod off, I had to play the role of "bedtime referee." I positioned myself between their make-shift beds and called out the fouls as they happened: "Shhh, no talking. Shhh, no singing. Stay on your bed. You're not allowed on his bed. T, lie down and go nite-nite. Stop fidgeting and just close your eyes. Lie down. Shhh, lie down. Shhh. LIE DOWN!

Eventually they pooped themselves out and I was able to retreat downstairs to watch TV. We checked on them periodically and all seemed well. When we tip-toed into our room shortly after 11:00, we could not find T! He wasn't on his mattress, or next to it. He hadn't climbed into Oo's bed either. After a frantic search in the dark, we found him. He had rolled off his mattress (apparently w/o waking up) and rolled about 4 feet away, laying perpendicularly between our bed and dresser. It was a picture-worthy moment, but after playing referee, I did not want to risk waking them with a camera flash.

The next day (and the 2 days after that), we picked up sticks and twigs in our yard. Oo thought that was fun, and she was a big help. Of course, she did take the occasional break to climb on and through the big branch, pretending she was a jungle explorer.

T couldn't have cared less about the mess in the yard. He was just thrilled to be running around outside while Mommy and Oo were somewhat distracted. Escape artist that he is, he made many attempts to cut through other yards or to run off down the sidewalk. You can imagine why it took us 3 days to pick up all the sticks!

Why Blog?

I had better explain the purpose of this blog, so that anyone who accidentally stumbles upon it is not confused or repulsed. There will be no wit nor wisdom here -- at least, not by design. There isn't much thought behind this blog... I'm usually mentally occupied with the challenges the kids throw at me all day (and too pooped to think at night).

This blog serves primarily as a means to keep informed those who are genetically invested or genuinely interested in the little lives of Oo and T. This blog replaces the quarterly "Oo Updates" that, as some of you may know, have not been emailed out since before T was born.

Being with Oo and T, or any child for that matter, on a 24/7 basis is beyond fascinating. The depth with which you get to know that little person and the observations you are able to make of their intelligence and character development, is completely engrossing... again, that is if you are with them 24/7 or are genetically invested in them.

So if you are curious about Miss Oo and Little T, then please follow along as I record their fun and follies. If you couldn't care less (Hey Nicole, I got it right that time!) about these silly little monkeys, then this is not the blog for you.

A New Era... I mean "Tide"

It was a momentous day today; I did the laundry -- NO, that wasn't the momentous part, PUH-leeease, I do 12 loads of laundry per week. Today I did the laundry and I washed the kids' clothes in the SAME loads as our clothes! That's right, the little pants were mixed with our big pants (much bigger, by the way, than they used to be), little stinky socks mixed with big stinky socks.

I quit using Dreft on Oo and T's clothes earlier this year (also a momentous day), but I continued to wash their clothes separate from ours, as if I was still carefully, lovingly washing newborn onesies and spit rags.

I'm a little sad about this move to mixed laundry -- it signals a new era (not Era, however, we're a Tide family). But all change is good. And perhaps I can knock my laundry down to 10 loads a week. Yea... water conservation!