July 2007

07/31/07

Just in case you were wondering, Tommy did not actually manage to shrink himself last night.  He was only slightly disappointed.  I think he might have been a bit relieved when it didn't happen.

"I'm still bigger than you Charlie!"

"You may be bigger, but can you suck on your own toe?  I didn't think so."

07/30/07

Tommy:  Mommy, I want to shrink really small!

Me:  Oh?  How will you do that?

Tommy:  This is what you do.  First I take a really hot shower.  Then you use lots of wind to dry me off.  That's how you shrink!

  That's what you have to do!

Me:  I don't think that works in our world, only in story world.

Tommy:  It works.  It really, really does.

Me:  Well, maybe you can try tonight in your bath.

Tommy:  I want to!  I really, really want to!

Me:  Ok.  But remember that it might not work in our world.

Tommy:  Mommy, when I shrink you can carry me around in this little basket, but don't put me on the floor or somebody might step on me.  That would he horrible.

Me:  If you manage to shrink yourself, I'll be really careful and take good care of you.

Tommy:  If I shrink then you can be the GIANT!

Me:  Charlie can be the giant.

Tommy:  Oh no.  He might put me in his mouth.  I wouldn't want that.

Me:  You're right.  You would get all drool-y.

Tommy:  I can't wait for my bath!

07/29/07

In the beginning, there was much pulling and tangling and destroying of hair.  And lo, it had been six months since a hair cut...

And then there was much rejoicing...

07/28/07

Ooo!  What's this Daddy is feeding me?  Rice cereal?  I'll try anything once.  I certainly like it when Mommy uses this spoon to put little sips of water in my mouth.

I am not amused.  That was not water.  I shall push it out of my mouth. 

Well, maybe I'll try just one more bite.  I detect an overtone of lait de la maman in there.  What do you mean I have to eat this stuff every day?!  I'd rather continues to haphazardly suck on bananas, juicy peaches, grapes (carefully held onto by mommy) and Otter Pops.  Second children benefit from relaxed new-food introduction protocols.

07/26/07

Tommy's teacher met me at the door with a question on Tuesday.  "What sorts of things does Tommy like to do?"  It turns out he's acting bored in pre-school.  If whatever they're doing doesn't interest him - and a lot of things seem to fall into that category - he wanders off by himself looking for something else to do.  Fancy that.  A child of David's is bored in school.  I'm not surprised.  I kind of stammered something about dinosaurs and deep sea creatures before being pushed out of the way by the other parents picking up their children. 

I've had a bit of time to think about it, and I'm going to give her a follow up answer next week.  He really likes to act out stories, so maybe that would be more useful as a type-of-activity interest instead of a subject-matter interest.  He's also really obsessed with cutting shapes out of paper with scissors these days.  I'm not sure if I'll mention that one.  He's not a big fan of arts and crafts, and I think the ones they're doing at school are really simplified, so he's not even doing his own cutting.  That may be part of the problem.  Plus, he really thought he'd be learning all about letters in pre-school and I'm certain they're not doing that sort of thing in this summer program.  Maybe they'll start that in the fall, but then again maybe the three year old class won't be ready for that sort of thing.  She also said he brings her books to read to him and likes the blocks and legos, but doesn't really play with the other kids when they're inside.  He does fine outside on the playground.  She then kind of started to say something about the other kids being "really clique-y" but stopped herself and changed the subject.  I'm not sure what that means.  Tommy's super friendly and outgoing, so I wonder if he's being ignored a bit by kids who have been in this program together since they were babies or something.

07/25/07

I actually finished the book Monday night, but never got a chance to write yesterday.  Charlie napped for two hours while Tommy was at pre-school yesterday, so I should have had time, but I decided to sit on the couch reading a magazine for an hour instead.  Then I had to do a bit of cleaning up.  So here's the promised 5-month update on Charlie.

• As with Tommy around 5 months, Charlie's nighttime sleeping has deteriorated.  I'm tired.  That's all I'll say about that.
• Charlie's big thing right now is blowing spit bubbles and raspberries.  It's an essential practice step for language development, so we're not complaining about the flying drool.  It's pretty cute anyway.  Tommy tries to raspberry back to him, and it can get rather out of hand at times.
• He's gotten really grabby lately, so the days of sitting with him in one arm with a cup of hot tea in the other hand are over.  He's not too obsessed with my hair yet, but still manages to grab big handfuls of it with his drool-covered hands at least once an hour.  I guess it's about time for me to cut my hair short like I did when Tommy was this age.
• He loves to hold onto his feet when lying on his back.  He still resolutely rolls over to his back whenever he's placed on his tummy, so we've started carrying him around tummy-down to get him used to the perspective.  David agrees that he probably hasn't yet rolled from back to tummy on his own simply because he doesn't want to, not because of lack of ability.
• He's getting pretty good at sitting on his own.  It takes a few minutes for him to topple over.  I'm guessing that he'll be stable enough for restaurant high chairs and a big stroller in a few weeks.
• He's figured out to expect some things because of routines we've finally managed to establish.  For bedtime, he takes his bath around 6:45 (or earlier if he just can't handle being awake any longer). Tommy usually gets in with him.  While David gives Tommy his bath, I put Charlie into his pajamas and nurse him to sleep.  I say the words to Pajama Time while I'm putting on his pajamas.  That's when he gets really excited.  I can see the little wheels in his head turning when I start.  "Milk!  Sleep!  Coming soon!"  He also gets really excited when David gets home from work.  Charlie always sits in his bouncy seat on the table while we're eating dinner and he definitely expects and wants Daddy to be there too.
• He loves bouncing games and flying baby games.  He likes a lot more toys now and is figuring out that he'd rather be entertained than just watch us.  He's still very good natured and calm, so it's actually pretty easy to figure out when something is bothering him.  I think I hold him a lot more than I did Tommy at this age because he just doesn't want to play on the floor as much as he wants to sit quietly with me.  I don't mind though.  He'll be mobile soon enough.  It's kind of a soggy way to sit though.

07/23/07

Charlie was 5 months old yesterday!  I'll write down some little memorable things about him at this age when I've finished the new Harry Potter book.  Trying to get a chance to read is hard with Tommy and Charlie clamoring for attention.  Sheeesh!  You'd think they could manage to be self-sufficient for a few days while their Mommy sat around reading and eating bonbons.

Since I managed to put them in matching shirts today, I thought I'd take another picture of them together.

Here is me NOT reading.  I guess they're worth it.   

07/20/07

Yesterday was a miserable day.  It's been horribly hot and humid here.  It's usually hot in the summer, but not usually too humid for our evaporative cooler to work effectively.  We've decided to convert to air conditioning for next summer.  We have to have the stucco re-done and windows replaced, so we might as well do every thing at once.  We make our last payment on my Toyota in December and intend to take out a loan with the same monthly payment amount in January or February for home upgrades.  We should do the big home upgrades sooner rather than later so we can enjoy them.  Now that we're done having kids we can envision staying in this house for another 6-9 years.  When Charlie moves into a regular bed, we might have the boys share a room, but we'll have to see what their personalities and needs are like at 2 and 5 years old.  I'm pretty sure this house will feel too small when we have two pre-teen boys galumphing around.  There are enough years left before we're ready to move someplace bigger that we'll want air conditioning and windows that don't have ice on the inside of them in winter

You can't tell from these pictures, but Charlie was just beside himself yesterday.  He couldn't breathe well because of his cold.  His gums seemed to be really bothering him (note the massive amounts of drool on his shirt).  He couldn't stay asleep for more than 30 minutes at a time, which is a lot less nap time for him than usual.  He was pretty happy in between the crying bouts though!

I was so busy with Charlie, and it was so steamy and hot and miserable in the house, that Tommy spent most of the afternoon watching TV with no clothes on.  I'm not sure when he took them off, but it was dinnertime before I managed to focus enough to get him dressed again. 

Here is Charlie in the final stretch of not-sleeping misery for the day.  At least he slept well for most of the night and seems to be in a pretty good mood this morning.

07/19/07

What a week!  We fully intend to do absolutely nothing but watch movies, read books and play games today.  Except David.  He has to go to work.  Poor David.

Tommy started getting sick last Friday.  We kept him home all weekend, but he was still feeling sick Monday.  That's when the rest of us started getting sick too.  It was just a cold, but summer colds are no fun.  The carpet cleaners came Monday.  Of course, it's always a lot of work to move everything out of the carpeted areas.  It's not really the sort of thing I felt like doing while sick.  Charlie fell into a fitful sleep about 10 minutes before the carpet cleaners arrived.  As expected, he didn't sleep through the carpet cleaning.

On Tuesday we absolutely had to go to the grocery store, but discovered after we finished shopping that all their phone lines were down so we couldn't check out.  We waited about 20 minutes, but the two sick boys were miserable (as was I) so we gave up and went home without food.  Tommy cried when we left his groceries behind.  Then my Mom called Tuesday afternoon.  She was flying home from Florida and her flight from Tampa to Albuquerque was delayed long enough that she missed the last flight to Seattle.  I don't know what sort of cosmic acrobatics she had to do to make that happen.  She convinced Southwest to put her on the last flight out Wednesday so she could spend Tuesday night and most of Wednesday with us for free.

07/16/07

Tommy's sick.

Charlie's sick.

David and I are sick

Carpet cleaners arrive at eleven.

No time to write.

07/13/07

This is what I see when I go into Charlie's room after he wakes up from a nap.  Pretty sweet, isn't he?

Tommy's pretty sweet too of course, when he sits still enough for me to take his picture.  That scab on his nose is a rug burn.  He was pretending to be a roly-poly at Claudia's house on Wednesday.  I think he was just doing it because it perplexed and annoyed Claudia.  He circled the room with his face pushed into the carpet so many times he gave himself this rug burn AND a nose-bleed.  Poor Claudia was horrified.  Tommy told her, "My nose just bleeds sometimes.  It's OK."  Boys!

Usually, when I try to take Tommy's picture I get something like this - the silly face picture.

Or like these - the running as fast as you can so the camera can't catch you pictures.  (No, I don't make him wear clothes around the house in the summer.)

07/11/07

Mommy:  I love you my Tommy.

Tommy:  And you love Charlie too.

Mommy:  Yes.  I love my Tommy and I love my Charlie.

Tommy:  We are your TWO boys.

Mommy:  Yes.  But you're very different aren't you?  You are my best Tommy and Charlie is my best Charlie.

Tommy:  You are my best girl.

Mommy:  Thank you.

Tommy:  You're welcome. 

07/09/07

Two translations of Tommy language:

1.  Gargoyles - Swimming Goggles - "I didn't swim away from the teacher at swim class today, so Daddy's going to buy me some gargoyles!"

2.  New Yankee Workshop - Any sort of work bench with tools on it - "We built a birdhouse in Daddy's New Yankee Workshop."

A Nibblelicious Neck

Eating watermelon outside

Small Pooh Bear had a bath tonight.  He fell out of Charlie's car seat carrier in the Trader Joe's parking lot.  Since he's usually found in Charlie's mouth, I thought it would be a good idea to wash the parking lot cooties off.  We'll see how he looks after he's dry. 

07/07/07

This is Charlie's favorite toy.  It's great for chewing.

Or maybe this is Charlie's favorite toy.  He can't chew on it, but it does silly and entertaining things.

07/05/07

Tommy got to see his fire works.  He took a nap in the afternoon, so he was able to stay up until 10 pm.  I have finally stumbled upon a sure-fire way to get him to nap in the if he's sleepy.  Actually, it was all his idea.  On Tuesday, he was looking through our bookshelves and found my copy of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  He asked me to read it to him.  I think he liked the alien on the cover.  I figured he's wander off after a couple of paragraphs.  He sat still through the entire first chapter.  When I looked up a few pages into the second chapter he was asleep.  Score!  Of course Charlie was just waking up from a two hour nap when Tommy fell asleep, so I didn't get a break.  We thought it would be a good idea for him to nap yesterday, so I thought I'd try the same trick.  We tucked ourselves into bed and I started reading chapter three.  He was asleep within two pages. 

He probably fell asleep so quickly because we'd already had a busy day.  David stayed home with Charlie, giving Tommy and me some out-and-about time together.  I decided to take Tommy to the movie Ratatouille, but didn't think to buy tickets in advance.  Trying to catch a kids' movie on the Fourth of July isn't a really good idea.  We stood in line for a while, but I was finally able to convince Tommy that we should do something else since the movie was sure to be sold out by the time we got to the front of the line.  He was so disappointed.  I ended up really overcompensating with shopping for two hours.  We went to the book store and the toy store and to lunch.

After Tommy's nap we went to our friend Brendan's house for a BBQ.  Charlie did pretty well for his first evening outing.  He hit a hungry/tired wall at around 6 pm, but I was able to get him to fall asleep in his car seat carrier.  He wasn't his usual smiley, playful self when he woke up, but he wasn't screaming either, so I guess that's good.  Tommy, of course, charmed everyone and had a great time giving me mini-heart attacks doing daredevil stunts on the hammock and playing near the grill.  At some point women were giving him money for hugs.  I'm not sure what that was about.  We went home around 8 since Charlie was about ready to lose it.

While I worked on putting Charlie to bed, David and Tommy went out in search of fire works.  David said that Tommy was more excited about riding around in the truck after dark than the actual fire works.  I'm glad they got a chance to see some though.  We've never tried before because Tommy's always had such an early bedtime.  He was a mass of exhausted tears when we tried to get him into bed, but doesn't seem to be too out of it today.      

07/04/07

Happy Fourth of July!  Tommy's really wanting to see fireworks, so we're trying to figure out a way to keep him awake long enough to see some tonight.  I volunteer David to arrange it.

I just overheard Tommy talking to his "tape baby" (a ball of scotch tape).  He said, "I'd love to have a pet.  Maybe a pet cockroach.  We found one in my bathtub one day.  Daddy wouldn't let me keep it.  We had to put it outside.  But we didn't hurt it.  Daddy said we couldn't keep it and I cried and cried.  He's allergic to cockroaches just like cats.  Maybe I can have a cockroach pet when I'm a Daddy."

We've been giving Charlie his bath in the big tub for a few weeks now.  He really didn't like it when David tried, so I've been doing it.  Since Charlie actually has tired-baby cues and goes to sleep easily when he does get tired, it's been hard for us to figure out a bedtime routine.  Once he starts looking sleepy, there really isn't enough time to do a big routine, especially one involving a bath.  Plus, he gets sleepy at different times every night, so it's hard to start his bath 20 minutes before we think he'll get sleepy. 

He took a short nap during dinner last night so I knew he'd be happy at Tommy's bath time.  David had to work late, so I put Charlie in the bouncy seat in the bathroom and put Tommy in the bath.  Tommy decided that a great game would be to throw his washcloth, SPLAT, against the wall of the bath. Charlie thought that was hilarious.  They entertained each other with that game for most of Tommy's bath.  David got home in the middle of it, so we decided to refill the bathtub for Charlie.  Tommy likes to be in the tub with Charlie, and I'm pretty sure Charlie likes it too.

07/02/07

Tommy told Charlie he loved him for the first time yesterday.  I was in the kitchen and the boys were alone in the living room.  I overheard Tommy saying, "Charlie-Warlie!  You can hold my finger if you want.  No, no, no, don't chew on it.  I love you Charlie.  My Charlie."

Tommy got a new car seat yesterday.  Charlie is at the upper height limit for his infant seat, so we need to hand down Tommy's Britax seat to Charlie soon.  Tommy is 40 lbs and 40 inches, so he's within the height/weight requirements for a toddler booster seat.  (Yes, I know he's technically supposed to be four years old.)  We picked a nice safe booster with a back and side-impact protection, but it is much less bulky than his car seat and uses the car's seat belt instead of a 5-point harness.  He absolutely loves it.  I'll take a picture next time we go out.

In other news, both boys were NOT SLEEPY last night.  They weren't settled until quite late.  Then Tommy got up super early this morning.  He's so tired he looks like he has two black eyes from the dark circles under his eyes.

I took a ton of pictures while Tommy played outside in his new Diego sprinkler.  Charlie was in the bouncy seat watching Tommy play.  Here are a few of the best...

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