Do you like my hat?

 A while back, one of the books that Sera and I would often read to Alice was P.D. Eastman's Go, Dog. Go!  We haven't read it in a long time and she probably doesn't remember much, but she does remember the game we started because of it.  She will frequently stick something she is playing with on her head and ask "Do you like my hat?"  I usually follow the script and say "I do not."  I don't think she remembers the source material though, so she may be a little puzzled at this response.


One of the pages in question. [SPOILER ALERT] The pink dog asks several times but the yellow dog only likes the crazy "party hat" she tries on at the end.





Here she is holding two plastic golf clubs.  She started by asking "do you like my hat?" but then changed her mind and asked if I liked her pigtails.

Simon's new ride

As an early birthday present, Zac got me a new stroller to push Simon around in on our walks and excursions.

It came yesterday, and I took it out for its maiden voyage today.  It was so nice--much better than the beast we got off Craigslist for when I pushed Alice around the neighborhood.  I wish we'd gotten this one the first time around.

Building blocks

Simon and Alice, right before bed (so Simon is rather fussy).



Now that Simon is out and about a bit more, we're trying to teach Alice ways to interact with him appropriately.  Usually she either snatches toys away from him, or tries to imitate him to get our attention.

You can't tell what she's doing on the video, but after Alice comes and tries to watch herself on the screen (but obviously can't because she's on the other side then) she stands in front of the camera and then does the downward-dog yoga move putting her hands and head on the viewing side of the camera to try and see herself in it.  I thought it was a rather creative approach to the problem.

Overheard

Zac: You want to eat a lizard?
Alice: Only when I'm a dinosaur.

In between

On the days that I don't pick up Simon, after I've backed the car into the driveway, sometimes I just sit there in the silence for a few minutes.  It's the one part of the day when I am done dealing with my 95 teenage students and I'm not yet dealing with housework, supper and my own two kids.  I enjoy this brief moment of respite, in between, looking out the window, not wanting to move.

Get out of there, Fifi!

Alice and Simon, towards the end of supper time.

Alice shouts down to Simon, "Get out of there, Fifi!"  This is from a library book called My Crocodile Does Not Bite where a sweet boy named Ernest takes his well-trained crocodile to school for the pet show.  Cindy Lou is jealous of all the attention he gets, and in a fatal attempt to show off her poodle's fetching skills, she inadvertently throws a tennis ball into the crocodile's mouth.  Fifi, the poodle, runs in the mouth after the ball (the only command she has obeyed all day) and when Cindy Lou goes in after it, they both get swallowed whole.  (Get it?  The crocodile doesn't bite--he swallows his food whole.)  The best part is the end of the book where the principal still awards first prize to Ernest in spite of, or perhaps because, his pet crocodile ate the petulant Cindy Lou.

I guess Alice saw a parallel between Simon climbing under the chair to retrieve his bo and Cindy Lou climbing into the crocodile's mouth to retrieve her poodle.

Puzzle

After supper, Alice and Simon played with a puzzle.  Alice is getting better at figuring out how to put it together.  This puzzle works well because I presort the pieces into four-piece chunks and then she can do it by herself.  It's interesting to see how hard it is for her to do what is so obvious to us--she still does it mostly by trial and error.  It's a good reminder of how much her brain is still trying to figure out.

Focus

Zac figured out a good way to get Simon to face forward during a feeding.

An empty paper towel roll and plastic container kept Alice busy for a while.

Personality

Now that Simon is able to move around on his own a little bit, we can finally see some more of his personality emerging based on what he is interested in going after.  The first thing I noticed is that he likes long objects such as table and chair legs, plastic putters, and lamp poles.  I had to move the lamp that was next to the rocking chair in his room because instead of nursing, he would try to grab it.  One time I put him on the floor in his room, and he high-tailed it over to the lamp's new location, got both hands around it, and promptly pulled it over.  We block the lamp pole in the living room because he went for it too, but it is much heavier and would do a lot of damage if he managed to pull it over.  Today he also showed an interest in laundry baskets, with all their little holes.  He also likes the two little plastic balls that came with the putters.  Other interests include anything new, anything that's not officially a child's toy, and anything small that he finds on the floor, such as a feather or lady bug.

When he sees something he really wants, he makes a high-pitched squealing noise as he scoots for it, which works as a good alarm for us to know that he's on the move and has something in his sights.  The poor kid is usually most interested in something he can't have though, so he is often disappointed as we whisk the desired object out of reach just before he gets to it.

Simon has a taste of Alice's train track in this file photo from 3/1/14

A little bit

During the winter, I often have a sore throat or hoarse voice from a cold or talking more than normal when teaching (I rarely "lecture" in the traditional sense, so on days when I do talk a lot my throat hurts and my voice gets raspy.).  Anyway, Alice likes for me to read her books before bed, but on the nights when my "voice hurts" Zac will read to her instead.  Alice is in the habit of asking me early in the evening if my voice is hurting.  I've found it helps her manage her expectations if she knows in advance, too.  Today she asked her usual question of "Your voice not hurting, mommy?  You can read me books tonight?"

I replied with a vague, "We'll see.  It is hurting a little bit."  Teaching Macbeth requires a lot more intervention on my part than normal, so these are rough times for my weak little voice. Plus, after supper I read her a comic book that had come in the Cheerios box, and my throat was hurting already.

After her bath, Alice came to find me at my desk where I was grading papers after putting Simon to bed.  She asked me to come read her books.  I said my voice was hurting and that I couldn't do it tonight.  Then she said, "Your voice is hurting a little bit, so you can read me books a little bit!"

Perhaps she'll be a lawyer instead of a vacuum cleaner?

Kids on the carpet

It is so fun to see Simon and Alice starting to interact a bit more.

 

On the prowl

Simon's main goal in life is to pull Alice's blonde ponytail.  Success!

High hopes

Context: Sera was noting Alice's spot-on impersonation of Simon's crawling as indicative of her astute observational skills.  Then she made the following comment, half-sincerely and half-mockingly of parents who think their children are geniuses based on really simple things.

Sera: Alice, I have such high hopes for you.  You're going to have a satisfying job that is well respected by society when you grow up.

Alice: Vacuum cleaner!

Sera: You're going to be a vacuum cleaner when you grow up?

Alice: Yeah.

Grand Asia Market

What to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon...that was the dilemma.  We solved it by taking the kids to Grand Asia Market, where they have lots of unusual things to look at.  Alice was primarily interested in the live fish tanks.

Dinosaur

Zac and Alice found this dinosaur partially buried in the dirt at the park.  They brought it home and Alice gave it a bath.  The find coincides nicely with her current bedtime show, Dinosaur Train.

Motivated to move

A video of Simon, just turned 8 months old, worming his way across the floor after the elusive pacifier.

And here's a video of Alice, at 5 1/2 months old, falling for the same trick:

Reptile Day

We took Alice and Simon to the science museum's annual reptile day.  Alice loved seeing all the creatures, and did not hesitate to pet them.

Alice participating in a sea turtle rescue simulation.

Simon really liked looking at all the butterflies in the butterfly room.

Perhaps Alice's favorite part was stamping. She spent about 10 minutes at this station.

Simon and Sera outside the museum cafe.  Whenever I see a picture like this, I still can't believe it's me, and he's mine, and this is my life.  I'm so lucky.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

We went downtown to go to the science museum for reptile day, but accidentally happened upon the St. Patrick's Day parade, which was a block away. It was gorgeous out, and we really enjoyed watching the parade. Here are two pictures of Alice watching the parade.

And here's Simon.  We did take him out of the stroller, but then we were both holding kids so it was hard to get any photos to document the event.  We need to hire a personal photographer to follow us everywhere.

Simon likes goose feet

)

Art

Sunday was beautiful, so we went to the art museum park.

A day in the life

Saturday morning:

• Sera wakes up around 7 am, pumps a bottle.
• Simon wakes up, Sera nurses him. Zac wakes up and shaves.
• Sera takes a shower while Simon plays on the living room floor and Zac makes pancakes.
• Sera gets Alice out of bed and dressed.
• Sera throws a load of laundry into the washing machine.  (Repeat throughout the day for a total of 4 loads of laundry.)
• We all eat pancakes.  Simon is fed jar food.
• Sera finishes up the grocery list.
• Zac and Alice go to the grocery store.
• Sera makes supper in the crockpot and bread machine.
• Sera nurses Simon and puts him down for a nap.
• Sera sorts through all the toys and weeds out the gagging/choking hazards for Simon, putting them in a box high in Alice's closet.
• Sera organizes and rearranges the closets (a chore left over from the big room switcheroo on Monday.)
• Simon wakes up; Alice and Zac return from the grocery store.
• Sera puts away the groceries while Zac and Alice make little English muffin pizzas for lunch. Alice gets to make hers herself because we have a "Curious George" book out from the library right now where he goes to a pizza party and makes his own pizza.
• We eat lunch.
• Sera folds some laundry.

Saturday afternoon:

• Zac vacuums the house while Sera takes Alice and Simon into the backyard and visits with the neighbor lady.
• Alice and Simon take a nap. Meanwhile Sera grades papers and Zac cleans up the yard and driveway from all the debris that came down in the ice storm early in the week.
• Zac unloads the dishwasher, cleans up the kitchen, loads the dishwasher.
• Sera folds more laundry.
• Simon wakes up, Sera nurses him then gives him some more jar food.
• Laura comes to go on a walk.  Alice wakes up.
• Sera, Laura, and Simon go on a walk, stopping at the library to return some of Laura's audiobooks.
• Zac and Alice have a snack then go to the neighborhood park.

Saturday evening:

• We all arrive back home at the same time.
• Sera nurses Simon again, while Zac makes some fried apples to go with supper.
• We eat supper with Laura, and the kids are both screaming and bonkers.
• We visit and play with the kids a little after supper.
• Zac gives Alice her bedtime snack while Sera puts Simon to bed.
• Sera visits with Laura while Zac puts Alice to bed.
• We both visit with Laura.  Laura goes home.
• Zac cleans the kitchen while Sera finishes folding the laundry.
• We go to bed.

Army crawl

Simon is getting closer and closer to crawling.

Wacky

Alice was supposed to dress wacky for school today, to celebrate Dr. Seuss.

Benches and Snacks

Last night Alice was overflowing with energy after a long two days stuck in the house.  She was driving us a little crazy so I took her on an after dinner walk to the neighborhood pond.  The walk was pleasant and Alice got to use her favorite flashlight so she had a good time as well.  After we had been at the pond a few minutes watching the geese Alice wanted to be picked up.  This kind of defeats the purpose of the excursion so I deflected the request and suggested she try and climb onto a bench that happened to be nearby. 

Now, when we all go out as a family on a day trip we will often find a nice place to rest and have snacks.  We sit on a bench or a rock and open the backpack and pass out little containers of crackers and dried fruit.

It is fun to see Alice figuring the world out; with a little bit of Daddy's humor she learned that not every bench means a snack.

Zac: Go try and get on that bench.

Alice: Do we have a snack?

Zac: No, I don't have a snack.

Alice: I want a snack.

Zac: I can catch a goose and we can eat it.  I'll give you the head.

Alice: No, I don't want the head.

Zac: You can have the wings.

Alice: No.

Zac: The feet! You can have the feet.  Mmmm feet.

Alice:...

Alice: The snack is at home.

Moving

We took advantage of us having a half-day off due to weather and moved all the rooms around.  It was hard to do because the kids were under foot, but I was going crazy so it needed to be done.  Simon was starting to be too aware of me, to the point that I was being held hostage in my bed. So now he is in Alice's former room, Alice is in the former office, and the office is now in our room. It's crowded but we'll all sleep better. For the room change, we kept as much the same for Alice as possible with one major exception: no pacifiers!  She went to sleep just fine, so we are free of the bo!

ALICE'S ROOM

The reading couch and Alice's crib. The end table stacked with library books is next to her crib so she can read books when she wakes up in the morning.

 SIMON'S ROOM

 THE OFFICE IN OUR BEDROOM

Alice at work

On Monday, my school let out early due to a coming ice-storm, and so did the kids' daycare.  The plan was for Zac to bring them to my school, where I would then take them home and he would go back to work.  Alice had fun coloring on the board while we waited for the carpool traffic to recede.

Mother-daughter

On the tire swing at Pullen Park

Sliding and swinging

Dilemma

I know I should use nap time to get things done. So I should put him in his crib and grade papers, but…