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For those of you who have expressed a desire to leave comments on this blog, you are now able to do so. It pains me -- control freak that I am -- to give others room on my blog for their thoughts. But considering that I probably know everyone who is following this, I'm pretty sure I have nothing to worry about. Be kind!

"Say cheese, little butt"

Last Christmas we gave Oo a super durable kids digital camera (to keep her from begging to use mine). So, she's had the camera for almost a year now and has completed several photographic studies. The first was a series I call "Toys on the Floor," then there was "T's Eyeballs and Nose," and most recently a series A refers to as "Still Life With Stuffed Animals." It's fun to watch her take pictures, to see what images she wants to capture "on film."

However... while downloading the latest batch of pictures from her camera, I see that she has a new favorite subject to photograph -- rear ends. Yep. On her camera I found numerous pics of T's big-diaper butt, A's backside and my fanny -- all clothed, of course! Delightful, I assure you.

My mind raced back to an instance a couple weeks ago. The kids and I were parading upstairs for some reason or another, when Oo got close to T's backside with her camera, and said, "Say cheese, little butt." Click, flash! I got a pretty good chuckle out of it.

Now if only she'd given me the same warning...

Below is the "Little Butt" picture. I've also included some of her other photos. Not all of those below are from the aforementioned photo studies, and none of them feature my tush! But these are some of my favorites, as well as a great view of her world, from her eyes. Enjoy!

Digging Through Dirty Diapers

T's going through a phase right now where he finds hiding places for his things. I open up his PJ drawer, and a bunch of blocks are inside. I take a cookbook off the shelf and there are puzzle pieces behind it. I do laundry, and Fisher Price animals are swimming in the clothes hampers. My daily routine now includes fishing toys out from behind the fridge and under the couches. And as with Oo's phase, I'm sure there are game pieces that -- try as hard as I might -- I will never ever find.

I remember when Oo went through this phase. Seriously, this has to be my LEAST favorite phase during the toddler years.

Now I know that it sounds silly to dislike this phase so intensely. But keep in mind that several times a day I must also dig through the kitchen garbage can and the diaper "pail." Blech! Doing this grosses me out to the point that I have begun to tape the lids shut on the garbage can and diaper pail. It's a little annoying to tape, un-tape and re-tape them all day long, but, believe me, it sure beats the alternative!

Lots of Little Things

The kids have given me a lot of things -- little things -- to write about in the past two weeks. WARNING: If you are not genetically invested in my children, you're going to think I'm nuts for committing such trivial little things to paper... uh, so to speak.

First an update on Oo:

Oo can now get moving on a swing and swing pretty high all on her own. It's something we've been working on since early summer. It didn't take her this long to learn how to pump. It just took her this long to admit that she no longer needs me to push her.


Oo is trying to spell more words phonetically. She is currently focusing her efforts on color names. Without any coaching, she spelled RED, GEEN ("Whoops, I forgot the R.") and BLO.

Oo has started a rock collection. Her collection -- about a 1/2 cup of rocks -- consists primarily of any (and all) pebbles she finds in the dirt under her swings and slide. On Wednesday she kept busy for 45 minutes rinsing each pebble and scrubbing it with an old toothbrush.

Oo did some painting on Thursday. I suggested she paint some Halloween stuff -- pumpkins, bats, ghosts -- but she didn't like that idea. Instead, she painted:
- a stoplight, complete with a purple light (which means "fall down" according to Oo)
- a flower with grass, sun and blue sky
- a self-portrait
But her most elaborate painting of the day focused on her favorite painting subject -- fruit. Every painting "session" of hers involves at least one picture of fruit. I don't know why.


Now an update on T:

It was raining last week as the kids and I were walking out to the car to run errands. Oo loves to jump in puddles, so as we headed to the garage, I watched her with eagle eyes. "Don't step there. Walk around it. No, stay out of the grass!" She kept her shoes totally dry. Victory! And then I turned around to see T sitting in a big puddle, blissfully swirling his fingers around in the water. And back into the house we went for a complete change of clothes.

T has a new trick. He climbs up the step stool to the bathroom sink, turns the water on, and "washes" his face. Then he climbs down and rubs his face with a towel. Sweet! Maybe in 12 years he won't be so stinky as a teenager!

T and Oo both LOVE our next-door neighbors' dog -- a jack russell named Mickey. Last week T was sticking his fingers through the backyard fence so that Mickey would lick them. Our neighbor said to T, "Can you say Mickey? Say Mickey. Mick-eee." T's response was "Mouse."

T likes to balance toys on his head. Big legos, fridge magnets, stacking cups. He's pretty good at it. And the look of pride on his face is always a wry smile.

Dr. No No No No No

T had his follow-up eye exam today. His first eye exam came when he was several months old and I noticed a couple ever-present white specks in his pupil. The pediatric ophthalmologist identified the white specks as a pupillary membrane, which most likely will not effect his vision in any way. During that exam, however, the doctor also noticed that T was quite far-sighted in just his right eye. Many infants grow out of far-sightedness, so today's exam was to see if the vision in his right eye had become more evenly balanced with his left.

It was explained to me that if such an imbalance were allowed to continue, he could, over time, develop a lazy eye. And that if the doctor found the vision in T's eyes to still be drastically imbalanced today, T would have to wear an eye patch over his good eye to train the weaker eye to be stronger. My stomach sank when I heard this -- and yet, it did make coming up with a Halloween costume for T suddenly very easy. Arrr, me hearty!

It was important that the doctor be able to make a good assessment of T's vision. Despite the fact that T has been a MAJOR crab-apple these past few days, that he's cutting two teeth that have bugging him for over a month now, that he has recently begun to explore the joys and power that come with protesting (i.e. his new favorite word is "no")... somehow, despite all this, I needed to get T to cooperate for the exam.

The first person to examine him was a wonderful lady. She charmed the socks off of him, and he responded by telling her what letters he saw up on the wall. Then came those dilating eye drops. Whoo boy, that set him off! From that moment on he was thoroughly ticked off and wanting to go home.

The second person to examine him was a young doctor "in training" with zero personality. He had neither the experience nor the creativity to get T to cooperate. And the doc's blasé demeanor evaporated what little remaining interest T may have had in being there. The doc soon gave up and decided to wait for the specialist to do the exam.

The third person was the pediatric specialist. As he approached us, T shot out a very long and mean glare from under his furrowed brow. When the doctor was not daunted by T's ferocious stare, more drastic measures were needed. T's whole little body hopped into action -- legs kicking, arms swinging, hands pushing, butt wiggling, eyes squinted, face purple. T also screamed, "No no no no no!" just to make sure we didn't misunderstand him.

I felt so bad for my little guy, but we needed the doctor to get a good look inside T's eyes. So, with T in my lap, I held down his legs and arms, the doc-in-training held T's head steady, and the specialist pried T's eyelids open to look inside. The specialist only had, at most, a four-second window to peek into each pupil. My stomach sank again. How were we going to get an accurate examination when T's so miserable?

Fortunately we were dealing with a specialist. In just those few seconds, he was able to see that T's far-sightedness on the right has improved dramatically. T doesn't need an eye patch, and we won't need to have T's eyes examined for two more years. By then, T will understand things better and not be so confused and scared.

Now T is back to his new "normal" level of crabbiness (what, with nearing the age of 2 and cutting teeth, and all). And my stomach is back where it belongs. Still... I think T will sleep fast and deep tonight, and I think I'll have more than a few drinks once the kids are in bed!

Boob Tube

"Reversable change! Mom! Mom! It's the one about reversable change!" That's what Oo said to me during the opening scene of her new favorite show.

I have long been a fan of PBS programming -- even before I had kids. New this fall season is "Sid the Science Kid," a pre-schooler show that serves as an introduction to science. Other kid shows (even those on PBS) usually teach science in the most basic ways (e.g. plants grow, rocks are not alive, winter is cold and summer is hot). But in the month that Sid has been airing, Oo has expanded her vocabulary with words (and what they mean) such as: transformation, observation, scientific experiment, decomposition, compare and contrast.

She understands the difference betwen reversable change (water to ice then back to water) and irreversable change (apples to applesauce cannot go back to apples). She's suggesting experiments we can do together (such as a decay experiment where we closely watched a banana, a strawberry and a blueberry decay over the course of a few weeks). She's questioning more (e.g. Why does this [paddle wheel on her wind-up] bath toy make a breeze when it's not in the water, but when it is in the water, it doesn't?") And she's inquiring about how magnifying glasses, binoculars, and eye glasses work -- what they do that's the same and how are they different.

Last year, PBS introduced "Word World" and "Super Why" -- two highly entertaining shows that have given her a strong introduction to phonics and spelling. She can now tell you the first letter in just about any word. And she tries to figure out the spelling of her friends' names. (She spells Phoebe as "F-E-B." It's obviously not correct, but she does it completely on her own, without any prompting or hints from me.)

I know and believe that too much TV is bad for kids, that it compromises their physical activity and imaginary play. But when it comes to "Sid," Word World" and "Super Why," I can guarantee you that you'll find us sitting on our butts, in front of the tube, completely absorbed... and learning.

P.S. Here's a photo of 8-month-old Oo watching Elmo's World, the only 20 mins. of TV time that she was allowed per day.