31 December 2006: Beginning the New Year With a Blessing
At 9:18am this morning, Baby Q. was born. The New Year begins with our family becoming a family of five. E. is adjusting better–no one would guess how hard becoming a big brother was for him last time around. And A. has become a big sister for the very first time. She looks a little scared, but she will be fine in the long run.
26 December 2006: Vocabulary Lessons
In honor of the holiday season, A. revealed to us that she has learned to say “cookie” very, very clearly. This way grownups don’t accidently feed her something healthy instead.
25 December 2006: Overheard
We could only hear E.’s side of the conversation. It was Christmas morning, and E. was on the phone with his grandfather in Sacramento. I’m not sure what Grandfather thought about this response, but we clearly heard E. say, “Who is Santa Clause??”
20 December 2006: Twins
E. has been trying to figure out the concept of twins ever since he discovered that his dad and uncle are twins. So far, “twins” seems to mean being the same age at the same time, and he still doesn’t get that the babies are supposed to have been in the same mommy’s tummy at the same time. So when a friend of ours brought over an invitation to her son’s third birthday party, E. grew a slow smile on his face. I knew some misrealization was dawning. He exclaimed, “Now J. and M. are twins!”
J. is the little boy who will turn two next week. M. is E.’s cousin who turned three back in September.
Oh well.
16 December 2006: Si and Sean Connery
Si has always looked to Sean Connery when thinking of royalty. I don’t know if it’s how debonair the man can be {on screen, at least}, or just the appeal of the accent, but this is something I’ve noticed about Si for a long time. However, I never expected it to have such great impact on our home. Lately, Si has been reading The Kidderminster Kingdom Tales to our kids {sorry, no link; they are out of print}. And you will never guess who Si chooses to imitate when doing the voice for King Leonard. That’s right! Sean Connery. Now, King Leonard is representative of God in these books. Perhaps our children will expect God to have a Scottish accent?
15 December 2006: Their Taste in Music
About a week ago, A. sang along with the radio for the first time. Of course, it happened to be when I was listening to some really unsophisticated Top-40 station. {This reminds me of when E. was about her age and fell in love with the remake of Paved Paradise and would sing “Oooooooh, bop bop bop” over and over.} Well, A. likes this song that is being played right now. I don’t even know the official name of it, but I know the most oft repeated line is “You’re not the one for me.” Just like Paved Paradise, there are lots of “whoa whoa whoa” and “no no no” lines, and these are the ones she likes best, singing them at the top of her lungs.
And now E. has a favorite Christmas song, if it can rightly be called a Christmas son. We own a slowly dying CD player that plays only one CD at a time, so if I don’t have the time to play DJ, we just listen to the local Christmas station. Well, one of the favorites on this station is Dolly Parton’s rendition of “Baby it’s Cold Outside.” Out of all the beautiful hymns they play, E. decides he likes “Baby it’s Cold Outside.” Of course. Oh, but he’s cute when he sings it. He lowers his voice as deep as he can and sings {adding in his own words}:
Baby, it’s cold outside…
Baby, you need a jacket outside…
9 December 2006: Self-expression
It was raining outside when we put A. to bed. It hasn’t rained in months, and she certainly didn’t seem to remember what rain was, moreover what it sounded like outside her bedroom window. A. is typically the type of child a parent can kiss goodnight, give a big hug, and then leave to fall asleep on her own. But tonight, as we closed the door, she screamed at the top of her lungs. Knowing this was out of the ordinary, Si and I took turns visiting her to try and deduce the cause of the outbursts. Each time, we could calm her down, only to have her cry out again after we were gone.
The last time I entered her room, she was huddled under her covers, crying real tears all over her sheets. I asked her what was wrong, and she babbled something that sounded like she wanted to say she was sorry. I grabbed her up, thinking that she somehow was under the wrong impression and believed herself to be in trouble. But then she pointed at the window, and this time I understood her better. “It is so scawy {scary}.”
The rain was making some unusual noises, and she was scared out of her wits. I talked with her about rain {“wain??”}, and assured her she was safe, and told her I would leave her door open so that she would have a bit of light. I was also hoping the sounds of the house might drown out whatever was scaring her.
Not only was this one of the first times that she has seemed truly frightened, it was the first time she was able to express herself so clearly. A. seems to have taken some big steps tonight.
9 December 2006: The Little Mommy
Tonight was so precious to me, and I never would have anticipated that it would be because I was never much for playing with dolls compared to other little girls I knew. My daughter has mainly played with her brother’s trucks and cars and balls, and I’ve never considered that masculine. She is very girly in the way she does it, but she is having fun with “boy” toys. Even when she “plays” with dolls, it is for a short time and she mainly drags them around. I think dolls have mostly been too young for her. She wasn’t mature enough for pretend play until tonight.
We were at my parents, and she toddled into their play area and grabbed a doll and a bottle. She held the doll in a new way, the way a real mommy would cradle a baby in her arms. She climbed up on the couch, hugged the doll, placed her on her lap, and commanded the doll in baby talk to drink her milk. She spent a good deal of time toddling around with the doll, acting as a mommy would. And I thought it was adorable.
Just in time for her transition to Big Sister, she gains a bit of maternal instinct. And I am breathing a sigh of relief.
9 December 2006: Not a Color
It’s been a constant battle around here. Si told E. that white is not a color, all based upon the fact that standard paper is white and so white crayons don’t show up. I, on the other hand, was taught that the idea of color is based on the refraction and reflection of light, and that if any color is not a color, it would be black, which is technically the absence of color.
But then we could analyze these things linguistically. For instance, if I ask someone what color my sock is, they would answer white if it was white and black if it was black, and so according to common language usage, both white and black are colors.
I, for one, believe that white is definitely a color.
E. now loves to tell me it is not. I tell him {and Si} that I am going to buy some black paper just so they can see the white crayons “work.” Then I will ask them what color that line is and they will say, “white.” And maybe that will silence them.
Is this our first homeschooling war??
6 December 2006: And She Slept
I just love the feeling of a baby sleeping on my shoulder. A. has not been much for public sleeping because of her social nature, so at about six months of age, she quit it entirely. Tuesday night, A. ate some uncooked food in our kitchen and became ill. She was cooking with Mommy, and apparently Mommy wasn’t watching as well as she thought. It was just a teensy tiny bit, but I remember thinking that I hoped she didn’t get sick. And she did get sick, but thankfully food poisoning doesn’t typically last longer than 24-36 hours. So she was miserable, but I was in heaven a couple times. The sickness overwhelmed her enough that I got to hold her sleeping self Tuesday night, and again during lunch on Wednesday. And even when she was awake, she desired almost constant holding and cuddling. I am about to say goodbye to the stage where this precious girl is my youngest. Even though I hated to see her suffer, I was glad that circumstance forced her to slow down enough that I got to give her a lot of last-minute loving.
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