Toddler Trade-off
Exactly 14 days ago, T ran head first into the terrible twos. Seriously. The change in his disposition was so sudden and dramatic that I could enter the exact date into his baby book. His first MAJOR tantrum happened in my doctor's building (just a follow-up appointment). Oo pushed the elevator call button before T could. After screaming, he threw himself to the floor. Where did he land? Halfway in the elevator (which had just arrived) and half out of the elevator. Not yet allowed to lift him, I held the doors open with my body while I used my foot to roll him the rest of the way into the elevator. He screamed all the way up.
Just as suddenly as his big tantrums started, his language skills have taken a big leap forward. He's had a great vocabulary for a while, but he rarely chose to use it. Preferring a caveman-like style of communication, he usually grunted and pointed to tell us what he wanted. But all of a sudden he's narrating everything and using longer phrases: "Cookies in bowl," "Shoes and socks on... go outside," "Play with blocks, please." We're all enjoying hearing what he has to say!
Garbled
Even though T's language skills have improved, his pronunciations are not always clear. At lunch the other day, he looked at me excitedly and said, "Moon schnoob noot!"
Me: What did you say?
T: Moon schnoob noot.
Me: I'm sorry, I don't understand. Oo, do you know what he's trying to tell us?
Oo: Nope.
T: (losing patience) Oo, I SAID, 'Moon schnoob noot!!'
"I said" was a new phrase for him, and it was said with such serious frustration that I had to fight off my giggles.
Puddle Jumping
The kids have new raincoats and matching froggy rain boots (Oo also has a Hello Kitty umbrella that Santa gave her this year), and Oo has been begging and begging to try out the new rain stuff. But after the slew of ear infections this fall and winter, I've been hesitant to take them outside to play in the rain -- our rainy days this spring have all been quite chilly and windy.
Well, I finally caved. On a recent rainy morning, I suited the kids up in their rain gear -- AND their winter hats -- and we headed out to play. The kids were so excited you would've thought it was Christmas. After squealing, stomping in puddles, catching raindrops with their tongues, and twirling the Hello Kitty umbrella again and again, they fought me tooth-and-nail when it was time to go in for lunch. The battle, however, was immediately over once I announced they could have hot chocolate with their lunches.
The Band
Oo often spends an afternoon each week practicing for "the big performance." Her performance may be anything from a dance show to a puppet show to a musical variety show (complete with costume changes). Her "rehearsals" are long and intense, with the goal of being ready to put on the show for Daddy after dinner that night. Once dinner is done, but before the dishes can be cleared, Oo assigns seats to Adrian and I (usually in the back row... her stuffed animals get preferred seating), and the show begins.
Her latest creation was a rock concert (which, come to think of it, she never did perform for us). She decided the dining room was her dressing room, the living room was the stage, and the kitchen was where the band rehearsed and came up with all their ideas. I asked her if her band had a name, and she replied, "The 3000 Band. And do you know why we are The 3000 Band? Because you have to pay 3000 money to listen."
Dream big, little Oo. Keep dreaming big!
Picky
As with all kids, my kids can be picky eaters. Oo has long had a "no skin" food rule, which translates into no skin on her apples, pears and plums, as well as no crust on bread. She has just taken the no-skin rule to a new level. Now "no skin" also applies to hot dogs, and -- as if she didn't already eat very slowly -- she frees her peas and corn from their tiny skins before eating them.
The list of foods T won't touch has always been more lengthy than Oo's list. At our favorite ice cream shop, he added a new item to his list. I ordered two kid scoops of Oo's favorite flavor -- Blue Cosmo (it tastes like cotton candy). T's never had this flavor, and neither kid has ever had sprinkles on their ice cream before (what kind of mother am I??). When I gave them the cups of bright blue ice cream topped with rainbow sprinkles, their eyes lit up and they squealed with delight. T loved the new flavor of ice cream, but the sprinkles... After each bite of ice cream melted in his mouth and was swallowed, T would say, "Bleah!" And then he'd stick his tongue out to wipe the sprinkles off one by one. I felt bad that his treat was marred by my choice to add sprinkles, so I scraped off all the sprinkles and ate them myself. The sacrifices a mother makes for her children!
No S'more Please
After several rainy days in a row, the kids and I got pretty squirrely. To break the monotony, we made S'mores bars together -- like Rice Krispie Treats, but using Golden Grahams and stirring in chocolate chips and extra marshmallows. Oo helped by cutting the butter into little pieces and by doing much of the stirring. T helped... that is helped himself to a lot of marshmallows! After dinner that night, we were all excited to taste our new creation. T, however, took one lick, said "Bleah," and handed the s'more to Adrian. Oo took several bites of hers before pulling it apart to eat just the chocolate chips. She then declared that she no longer likes marshmallows. Adrian and I "had to" spend the next several days eating the rest of the s'mores by ourselves. Poor us!
Stop Copying Me!
Keeping true to the title of my blog page, T does everything that Oo does. No longer entertained by this, Oo yells at T, "Stop copying me!" at least a dozen times a day. At the library, I stumbled across (as if by divine intervention) the perfect children's book to help keep the peace in our house. It's called "Copy Crocs," and was written by David Bedford. In the story, Crocodile is annoyed when his friends do everything that he does, so he keeps running to get away from them. In the end he realizes that it is more fun to have his friends with him than to be alone. The book has worked wonders for us. Now when T imitates Oo, she usually shrugs her shoulders and says, "T's being a copy croc again."
It's in the Genes
Many people comment about how much T looks like Adrian. But last October my cousin took a picture of T that, to those of you who knew me as a little kid, looks a lot like me. I forgot I had the picture until I was tidying up my email inbox yesterday.
"Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away..."
I have to mention we LOVED the warm sunny weather we were having. On Saturday, I took our niece to an afternoon showing of "Monsters vs. Aliens." I'll admit, it was a little silly to sit in a dark theater on a sunny day, but it doesn't matter because we had fun! Back at home, Adrian and the kids took full advantage of the great weather. Below is a picture he sent to my cell phone while I was at the movie. It's classic Oo!
Well, I gotta sign off for now. T's climbing on me yelling, "Gummy bear!"
Oh man! Craig and I are over here giggling our butts off at the mental image of you rolling T into the elevator! :D
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