6.23.2012

On the tee vee

Disney jr reached deep into their bucket o' shitty straight to DVD movies for our Saturday night flick - Brother Bear 2. My Husband added his opinion on the situation -

"I don't know. Even if you're a human turned into a bear I think it would be weird to have sex with bears."

6.22.2012

well hello there

this week was a big week for us. like, huge. gage not only went to a place called wee play knowing full well the excursion was to get him to meet and play with new kids, but he had his first play date. i had a hard time not bursting into tears of joy when we got in the car after both outings and gage beamed with pride saying, "mom, i have friends!"

we have always let gage be gage. he has always been very quiet and reserved and has never been interested in meeting other kids or really putting himself out there. about a year ago the husband and i started injecting little bits about getting out there and making friends to him, but we did it carefully so the seed was planted, but not over watered. every time we passed a school his daddy and i would tell him how much we loved school and how much we enjoyed making friends there. at first the answer was simply, "no", but a month ago he sighed heavily when i asked him about it and said, "fine, but you're going to have to buy me a lunch box."

about 3 months ago gage started to stay by kids when they would enter his space (about 6 feet around him). at old navy he would let another kid come and play in the little light thing they had. the first time i saw him do this i was floored, and stood silently watching him trying not to disrupt the new balance of the universe. last month he finally expressed interest in seeing what other kids do, perhaps to figure what they are all about. last week he was finally there and told me, "mom, i am ready to make some friends."

sweet validation.

i told him i would set up a play date with some other mommies and their kids and he said, "okay, but i am not going to meet the moms or know their names." okay. we met up with a group of ladies i found on meet-up and it was a very successful moment for him. he still doesn't completely know how to get in there and play with kids, especially the more aggressive ones, but he accepts that they are children and that he wants to be one, too. he made a little friend named frankie and they ran around together. what surprised me most was that he also went and played on his own after frankie left. usually gage wouldn't make it about 5 feet away from me, but this week he went on slides and climbed all over things all on his own. i was so proud. so, so, proud.

chunk is still a bit too young to care about interaction, and doesn't really care about other kids. she is becoming increasingly independent lately and actually prefers to play on her own a lot of the day. there is a mat by our sliding glass door and she loves to sit on it with random toys and have her own imagination time. she has so many scenarios that play out in her little brain that i have a hard time keeping up. at 21 months old she acts so much older and speaks so much that i often forget she is still so young.

current most used favorites by chunk include, "i don't like it" "i like it (insert object her)" "i don't know" "where'd it go?" "i see it (insert object here" "car-e (what she calls herself when she says her name, but usually she simply says 'i') go park" "here go, mama" "i bringing moo moo (her lovie cow)" "mama give kitty cat (that's when she decides i should be able to make our neighbors cat magically appear on our driveway. brilliant.)

she talks so much. gage will say something and she will repeat it verbatim, and then she will put it in rotation. that's how we got "i bringing _" - gage said, "i'm bringing minnie mouse" and chunk exclaimed, "i'm bringing moo moo!" and there it was. gage loves counting everything and chunk will imitate him and point to things going, "one, one, one, one". she got mad that he dad was working from home the other day, slammed on the closed door and screamed, "i don't like it closed!!!!" i don't know if i am impressed by her language development or terrified, but i am a lot happy she enjoys the act of speaking and learning so much.

chunk is still obsessed with mouse, but she is allowing a bit of branching out in the tv rotation. she is getting better at throwing tantrums, but she is also starting to understand they don't always work. she loves dancing and playing outside with the water table and is almost always up for an adventure. we have been going to the local concert series every friday night here and she loves running around through the crowds and dancing along to the various bands. she is still a total mama's girl, but expects her dad to be on call 24/7 if she so desires anything from him. she has a very strong personality and i am excited to see how it grows with her.

the husband bought me a new mazda 5 this last weekend during the worst father's day weekend ever. yes, we got a new car, but he also got an e.r. trip on father's day and none of us were able to enjoy the beautiful weekend outside. and now it's like 80 bajillion degrees outside because the universe is taunting us for starting to get a bit comfortable here in nova. but we are getting comfortable, so the universe is going to have to back off for a bit. we have goals for ourselves and for our kids and we are going to make them. because that's how we have decided to roll. if gage can do it, so can we.


6.05.2012

The grind

Chunk - looks at me and throws her cookie crumbs all over the floor.

Me - "did you really have to do that?"

Her - "yep!" laughs and claps her hands.

6.01.2012

the honest comedian

gage has taken to telling jokes. he is revolutionizing the comedy industry by delivering honest observations about daily life. i love the hall monitor.

"mom i know a joke"

"alright buddy, lay it on me"

"why are the kitchen counters dirty?"

"why?"

"because they aren't clean"

"that's hilarious buddy, you're so funny"

"mom i know another joke"

"why does no one turn off stuff that runs on batteries?"

"why?"

"because it just charges itself why it's charging"

"that's awesome kiddo"

"mom i know another joke"

"of course buddy, what is it?"

"why could no one reach the cowboy hat?"

"why?"

"because they didn't want to stand up to get it"

gage has taken to narrating everything that happens outside of our home - "mom, the trucks backing up", "mom, the trees are now blowing" "mom, the neighbor is getting into their car". and my new favorite thing is that he follows behind me rearranging everything i put out of charli's reach so i have to stay on my toes double time because i don't realize that he has undone my work. he takes it upon himself to discipline charli resulting in the line, "gage, you are not the parent" to be used at least 3 times a day. he is so incredibly serious and wonderfully intelligent - i know he means well in everything he does, but sometimes i just want to beg him to be 4 and not 40. he does not play like other children and doesn't understand why they would want to pretend to be a pirate when they could wash the walls of the boat. he is so incredibly special and different from other children and i look forward to watching him grow into himself. i know with his mind and ability he could be and do anything. he is beyond impressive.

right now we are working on annunciation because he is struggling a bit with pronouncing words in a way that allows people outside of myself to understand him. i try to stay on him a bit to help him work on certain sounds - sQuirrel  instead of sWirl, comPUTer instead of cuter, and so on - he is responding really well and not shutting down which is nice. gage isn't to fond of being corrected. for some reason he has stopped wanting to draw actual pictures even though he was progressing forward really well. i assume it is the same part of his brain that stalled his speech until he knew he could speak well, he doesn't seem to want to do anything unless he feels he has perfected it prior to being analyzed. i don't even know what that says about him.

i don't think there is a letter he can't write, but he does occasionally get his lowercase b's and d's confused. i am trying to work with him on reading, but see above. one of these days i expect him to just climb up on my lap and read me a book because he taught himself when i wasn't looking. that's how he rolls. he is great at simple addition and can respond quickly to addition problems when he is presented with them. he is fascinated by how things work and the meanings behind new words that he hears. he craves knowledge and understanding and i love to be able to teach him.

lately we have been in the middle of an epic food battle. i have decided to take sweets away from him unless he tries a new food to get one. his diet is less than stellar and his stubbornness makes it impossible to get him to try anything new and branch out beyond peanut butter sandwiches. the first day he decided to test me to see if i really would allow charli to have a delicious new popsicle and not him, but learned quickly that i was serious and had an epic meltdown watching chunk prance happily about with her popsicle.  "moooooom, i want a popsicle!!!" "how do you get one?" "i have to try something new" "are you going to try something new?" "no" insert screaming and round about lawyer gage talk here. yesterday he saw the prospect of chunk eating a popsicle without him and tried yellow peppers (and loved them) to get one. last night after an epic battle over the necessity of protein in his diet, and the possibility of his sister being faster and strong if he doesn't learn to eat well, he finally broke down and tried (and loved) eggs. simple scrambled eggs. the kid won't eat meat and i would be fine with that, but he doesn't want the meat substitutes either. i will give him this, though - he does love his broccoli and mandarin oranges. veggies and fruits for days, chicken and beef for never. 

he acts a lot more 5 than 4, gets bored often, doesn't really like to follow through with much, and takes amazing care of his little sister. his favorite game, which his father and i affectionately call the ram dass game because it is the only one there is, is running away from someone chasing after him and jumping up on a couch or bed rending him "safe" and unable to be gotten. this is the only game he wants to play, ever. this game is exhausting for the pursuer, but hilarious to watch in action. charli will get in on the action with him when daddy hides from him and he uses her as his pawn to seek his dad out to eliminate the element of surprise for him so he can get to the couch more quickly. brilliant, brilliant child. he is hilarious and a lot of fun and i really couldn't ask for anything more. love the ge man.