Solstice Sunday

We went to the neighborhood park Sunday morning, where Alice and Zac made a leaf man out of the leaves blown off the tennis courts.

Then we did some family sliding.

Simon's interest in walking wavers a lot, but this weekend he seemed interested in being a biped.

Solstice Santa

There is not much to say about our family Christmas, other than it was a lot of fun to have happiness and joy wrapped up in boxes waiting under a tree, and to have two happy and joyous kids to unwrap those boxes.

Here are some excerpts from the morning:

After getting dressed quite quickly, Alice broke off the last chain, and we headed out to the living room.

This was the first year I had so much fun picking presents, because Alice is developing actual interests in things, so we can pick toys that reflect those interests.  Before this, we would often pick toys that she would probably like, and that we knew we would like playing with her, but that weren't really specific to her personality or interests.  For example, the airplane we got her is one that you build and take apart using a power drill, reflecting her strong desire to be allowed to use tools.  The sharks, snake, and solar system are all things she's gotten interested in through a lesson at school or books.

Simon wasn't so good at opening presents and once a significant amount of clutter had built up, he couldn't really focus on one thing.  When we were cleaning up, we even found one of his presents unopened. I remember this happening with Alice when she was younger: she would open one present and want to play with it and we'd have to coax her into opening the others.  She's a lot different now!

Alice loves juice.  But she only gets juice at parties or when she has hand, foot and mouth disease (which she remembers fondly because she got to drink juice and watch videos all day).  So Santa brought her two juice boxes in her stocking.  She ate one with breakfast (which per our tradition where canister cinnamon rolls).  She didn't even eat much of the roll--mostly just the icing off the top.

I wanted to find her a stuffed deer so that she could run over it, like in the story, but I couldn't find a normal deer.  I also couldn't find Rudolph.  But I found this green one with a pink nose, and Alice calls it Rudolph (although she does wonder why the nose is pink and not red).  Whenever I ask her if Rudolph is going to get run over and fed to the tigers, she says, "No, Rudolph flies up in the sky."  I guess that's why this biplane hit him.

Eve of Anticipation

It was hard to tell who was more excited about Christmas, us or Alice.  For me, Christmas Eve has always held a special place in my heart, because that's when we went to my maternal grandparents' for Christmas (good family, food and gifts) and then to the Christmas Eve service at church, which was always very beautiful.  Plus, most of the fun was anticipating the next morning.  For some reason, the actual Christmas morning was never quite as much fun as the promise of Christmas morning.  Because I have decades of Christmas experience, I know this about myself now, that the best time for me is the night before, so I really savored this evening.

After Alice had her pajamas on and was all ready for bed, she helped us set out cookies for Santa (that's why there are eight cookies--she's very generous).

A tradition I remember from when I was a kid was that we'd always put a carrot out on the sidewalk for Rudolph, and then go check it in the morning.  We also put tape over the doors and fireplace to see where Santa entered, but that seemed like too much effort for us, given that we'd need to be going in and out a couple of times before bed.  But Alice was happy to chuck a carrot in the driveway for Rudolph.

Then, one of her bedtime stories was "The Night Before Christmas" which is a necessary read on this night.

While Zac read to her, I went back out and made a carrot nub, before I forgot. Why a deer wouldn't eat the stem of a carrot, I don't know, but growing up, Rudolph always left the nub, so I figure he's just a picky eater.

We also made sure Santa ate the cookies and milk and left some crumbs.

Then, we spent a couple of hours wrapping gifts.  There was something just a little weird about doing our Christmas early, knowing that we were not in solidarity with thousands of other parents hurriedly wrapping gifts all on the same night.  I felt like we were disturbing the natural order.

Around midnight we finally finished, and after Zac had gone to get ready for bed, I spent some time just looking at the tree with the gifts underneath, enjoying the anticipation. 

Pirate Party

The art museum was having a pirate-themed family fun night on Friday evening, but when I told Alice about it the night before, she almost started crying because she was so scared of pirates (despite ample pirate books that are not the least bit scary.)  She eventually calmed down after many assurances that only friendly pirates would be at the art museum.  I like this mixture of fantasy and logic.  I remember this technique working long ago with her beanstalk nightmare, where instead of saying it wasn't real (because that wouldn't make sense to her) I assured her that there were no bean seeds in her room, no crack in the floor, no moon.  Here too, explaining that the pirates weren't real wouldn't make sense, because she would indeed see real people dressed like pirates.  But friendly pirates, that she could understand.  

So I picked up Alice from school and took her to a restaurant for supper before going to the museum.  She's a disaster in restaurants because she is too distracted to eat, and the food doesn't appeal to her enough.  But Guasaca has amazing Venezuelan food, it was fast and cheap, and it was early enough that the restaurant shouldn't be too crowded.  All of my calculations were correct.  Alice ate the rice and chicken and cheese (she didn't like the plantains though). I put her on the side with the booth so she wouldn't be in danger of escaping or knocking over her chair.  It wasn't pretty, but we survived, and the restaurant was nearly empty so we weren't disturbing anyone.

Then it was off to the museum, where we met up with Izzy and Grayson.  Izzy is very physical, like Alice, but she is not the least bit shy.  It was really neat to see how Alice, who would never dance in front of an audience on her own, was effectively drug out on to the dance floor by Izzy, where they wildly careened around, but managed not to damage anything or anyone.

The other super fun thing was Alice and Grayson getting spun in a chair by Grayson's dad.  Never mind that we're at the art museum--to these kids every place is a playground.  

I should note that this chair was facing the area where Santa was.  Alice kept watching Santa, very carefully, and then after a while declared, "Mommy, I don't want to sit on Santa."  I don't think she understands this part of the tradition, of sitting on his lap and asking for presents, which is just fine with me.  However, she did say that this was the real Santa that was going to come to her house tonight.

Finally, Alice and Grayson went into the craft area and made these weird necklace things.  While crafting, I told Grayson's mom that this was like Christmas eve for us, because Santa was coming to our house tomorrow. She looked at me like I was crazy.  Even when I explained the whole Ohio thing, and what I think is a very logical solution, she still said, "Wow, that's early."  I confess I do have some doubts about our plan sometimes, about being so out of sync with the rest of the world. In my mind, tonight was a very special night, but to everybody else, it was just a Friday night about a week before Christmas.  

Team Awesome

We had our friend group over for our traditional Christmas potluck and white elephant exchange.  Alice had a fever and was super shy at first (hiding behind pillows on the couch) but as always, she soon warmed up and was the life of the party.

Family Portrait

Saying that it is hard to get a decent family portrait is an understatement.  We had to do our Christmas photo today, because we were running out of time.  I could post dozens of bad ones, but here are two decent ones.  Although, if you look at Alice's body language (her fists) you'll notice she is a bit stressed out.  For her, it is really difficult to sit still, smile, and look at the camera.

Cary Christmas Parade

Downtown Cary has a Christmas Parade every year at 2pm, but this is our first year to go because the weather was nice and Alice could afford to skip a nap.  The best thing is that it's just about a mile from our house so we can walk there and not worry about parking.  The other thing that made it really fun is that some of the moms from daycare have started an e-mail list where we'll let each other know where we will be that weekend, in case anyone is looking for something to do with the kids.  Through this, we found out two other kids from Alice's school would be at the parade.  By texting once we were there, we all found each other and the kids (Alice, Grayson, and Charlie) got to watch the parade together.  It's so fun with the kids now that they can actually interact with each other.  For most of the parade, they just focused on grabbing the candy that was thrown from the floats.  They all ate a little bit, but mostly handed it over to their parents.  I thought Alice would be really into the marching bands and dancers, but maybe it was all too overwhelming for her to process.

Alice, Grayson, Charlie (Alice always says, "Charlie loves Spiderman")

Simon also really enjoyed the parade, especially the flags.

The parade was somewhat interminable, so although the kids watched for a long time, they eventually went on the sidewalk behind the parade and started chasing each other.

The parade did finally end, about two hours after it started, with a firetruck and Santa.  I asked Alice if that was Santa or a man wearing a costume, and she chose the latter.

On our walk home, we stopped by the pond so Alice could go "fishing."

When Zac and I bought this house kids were a very abstract thought. However, this has really been a great location with the kids, because we have so many parks and activities nearby.

Artistic Expression

One the one hand, wow, look, she's finally starting to try to color in the lines.  

One the other hand, what a depressing picture!  Alice explained that the leg on the ground is red because it is bloody.

Grinch

Here is Alice watching a youtube video of the Grinch song.  She saw the full video last Christmas, but doesn't remember it.  After watching the song, she asked me all night long why the Grinch was a bad guy and why he wants to steal Christmas.

Obstacle course

Alice had some energy to burn this evening, since it was rainy and she had been stuck inside at school all day.  I suggested that Zac make an obstacle course in the living room for Alice.  She went through it a gazillion times.  Here's a video of a couple loops.

Eventually she just went back to playing "normally."

Fan

We've had this little purple fan laying around the house for months, ever since Zac picked it up from the dollar bin at Target on a whim (ok, maybe because it was purple and the fan blades light up when they spin).  It was one of Alice's precious items that she had to sleep with in her bed for a long time, but eventually it made its way to the kitchen and was one of the items used to distract Simon when he didn't agree to having food shoveled into his mouth.

But this morning, Alice had a brilliant idea.  She could use the fan to blow on her hot oatmeal in the morning!

Creations

Alice is getting more creative with her construction projects lately.

Tree Climber

Alice has been really interested in climbing trees lately, and whenever we are outdoors, she's always looking for a good tree to climb.

Chains

Because we are in Ohio every Christmas, and we want to have our own family Christmas celebration, we started a tradition last year of having our family Christmas on the Saturday before the official Christmas.  Alice doesn't pay too much attention to the calendar and doesn't have the concept of Santa delivering toys to all the boys and girls on the same night, so we didn't have to explain the date shift at all.

In fact, once we had the tree up, and started reading Christmas books from the library, she assumed it would snow and Santa would come the next day.  To help her wait the couple of weeks until Christmas, we made chains like I had when I was a kid, where you break one link off each night so you can see it getting closer and closer to Christmas. Because she wanted to make two chains, we made one for Santa and one for Ohio.

You'll notice she's acting a bit shy.  She has a good sense for when anything is a ritual or performance, and she gets all weird.

Girls' day out

Simon was still sick, so Zac stayed home with him while Alice and I went to get her hair cut and hang out at the mall. Four years ago I never dreamed I'd write a sentence like that, but here I am.

Alice gets her hair cut at JJ's Kids Cuts.  It's far away from where we live, but when she was younger and squirmier, it was a life saver.  They have cool cars and airplanes the kids sit in to get their hair cut, and there's a video screen in front of each chair and you get to pick which VHS tape to watch.  Here's Alice getting her first haircut (and me tearing up because it was a "moment") when she was 22 months old (and Simon was -3 months old).

That time, it took all of our efforts to keep her occupied so she wouldn't stand up and try to climb out of the chair.  She's had four or five haircuts since then, and now it is a piece of cake.  She just sits there and turns into a video zombie while the lady cuts her hair. She is even capable of following instructions like holding her head still or putting her chin down.  I love these moments where I realize things are getting easier.

Normally after her haircut, we go to a nearby park. But the weather was downright dreary, so I took her to the mall instead.  The mall is a sensory overload for Alice.  So many people, pictures, stores...it is just too much for her.  She didn't want to go in any of the stores because she is terrified of mannequins in the storefronts.  She was also afraid to look at Santa (we are not interested in having her sit on Santa's lap unless she wants to, so this was a non-issue).  

However, she was not afraid to blast off into space.  Actually, I never put coins in these things--she seems to have fun just getting in and out and sitting in them for a few moments.  The one time I did put a coin in the dragon outside of Harris Teeter (because it only cost a penny) she was scared and wanted off.

The one store she was willing to go into was the toy store.  She had a lot of fun playing with the stuffed dinosaurs and shark, although the poor stuffed turtle did not fare very well.

I get really irritated by the gender-oriented marketing of toys, because I think kids really pick up on the subtle hints, and it may dissuade them from pursuing their actual interests.  Zac and I will try to counter this as much as we can, but it is still frustrating to think of the ways society will still exert its pressure.  I've got a daughter who loves dinosaurs and a son who loves butterflies, so I have a vested interest in this issue.

Then, for a treat, we ate pizza in the food court, which was great fun for Alice. She doesn't do well with restaurant food, but pizza is a winner no matter what.

Then we took a train ride (in the caboose of course) and finished up in the play area.  Alice always seems happiest when doing physical play.

Back at home, Alice was clearly still processing all the headless and faceless mannequins because she put a hat on a stick and said, "Look, it's a person with no head or body."

I said, "So it's a hat?"

She looked at it again. "Yeah. It's a hat. "

Perspective

Alice has an uncanny ability to see and yet not see.  She's terrible at finding things she's looking for, but she sees things that we don't even notice.  For example, at breakfast one day, she said, "Are those Cs made of eggs?"  It took me a few moments to realize she had been studying the new tissue box on the table.

She'll often see recognizable things such as letters or numbers in unusual places, like when she pointed out that the toilet paper looks like a number nine. 

Sometimes she'll just interpret things differently. While on the couch recovering from a meltdown, she suddenly sat up and said, "Look, that picture is interesting. I don't like that picture. That woman looks like a mountain. That woman is stuck in the ground." We've had the English Beauty on the wall her whole life but this was the first time she said anything about it.

As Zac has mentioned earlier, whenever we are out driving around, Alice will often ask, "What's that?" and we'll have no idea what she's asking about.  It usually ends up becoming a mixture of the games of "I Spy" and "Twenty Questions" as we ask, "Is it a person? Is it green? Is the gas station sign?"  One time a month or two ago she kept persisting and we could not figure out what she was asking about, as we were on a country road and there appeared to be nothing around but trees.  She said the thing was orange, but we didn't see anything orange.  Eventually, after much questioning, she revealed that "It looks like a flat candy corn."  It finally dawned on me that she was asking about something inside the van.  Zac had recently acquired a pumpkin carver, but it was lying horizontally in a little compartment, and all she could see was the end.  But her description nailed it.

Running errands

Thursday night Simon was sick and snuggly with a fever, and since I'd had to leave work early to pick him up from daycare, I hadn't been able to go to the library to pick up the Christmas books I'd requested for Alice.  Also, since Zac had worked late, he hadn't had a chance to go to the store to buy the snack for Alice's class (it was our turn Friday).  This was a clear call for running some errands. Over supper, Zac and I discussed the plan and decided I would take Alice and run to the library and the store while Zac cuddled with Simon. When Alice finally finished supper around 6:30, we headed out.

The library is only about a mile from our house, so I drove a circuitous route through the neighborhood so Alice could look at Christmas lights.  Everything is new for her again this year, but it is even more fun for us because she can articulate her wonder. Last year she would just name what she saw, but this year she adds her opinion.  For example, when I slowed down outside this house, she said, "Wow!  Look at those purple lights!  Those are my favorite!"

We eventually got to the library, and I just had to pick up our books from the hold shelf and check them out.  Since both of the self check out stations were occupied, I checked them out at the counter, and somehow lost track of Alice.  I quickly started searching the library, vaguely recalling which direction she went.  She soon popped out of the adult stacks holding a book, and proudly proclaiming, "Look mommy!  I found a chapter book!"

She has been obsessed with chapter books for a few weeks now, ever since the concept was introduced to her.  Every night, she gets three books before bed. I forget how we settled on that number, but she has made the connection to her age, and keeps saying, "When I'm four, I will get to read four books before bed!"  I told her that actually, as she got older, the books would get longer and we would actually read fewer books.  Then, I said, some books, called chapter books, are so long that you only read one chapter at night.

Well, you can imagine her delight when some of the next set of library books had chapters!  Zac taught her about book marks, and I must say, we were also delighted to only have to read one chapter of these longer books, in addition to two other books.

I convinced her that she was not yet ready for James Patterson, and she remembered where she had gotten the book, so we put it back on the shelf and headed for the grocery store to pick up some snacks for daycare.

When we arrived at Harris Teeter, Alice looked up at the full moon, which we had also admired from the library parking lot, and she said, "Look!  The moon has a galaxy around it!"  The cloudy sky had caused a bright glow surrounding the moon, which did indeed look like a foggy-bright Milky Way galaxy from her space books.

Normally at Harris Teeter I have her ride in one of the carts with a steering wheel for kids, but since the store was not very crowded, and we only needed a few things, I found a child-sized shopping cart for her to push.  The child could not have been more happy.  She also loves eating the meat and cheese samples (we may have done two laps for simply that purpose).  But she is very good and always puts the toothpick in the little trash can.  Once, at home, Simon had snapped the tines off of his plastic fork, and Alice took one of them and poked her fruit with it like a toothpick and said, "Mommy! I'm eating samples!"

Back in our driveway after our errands, as I was unbuckling her from her carseat, Alice asked, "But mommy, when are we going to run to the library?"  She is a bit like Amelia Bedelia in that she still takes some phrases literally.  My favorite is when I said I was going to go jump in the shower, and Alice's eyes got really big, and she said, "Mommy, I want to jump in the shower with you!"

She drives us nuts sometimes with her lollygagging and delaying and negotiating everything, but at the same time, she can make running a couple of errands a fun little expedition, even although we didn't get to do any running.

Out of the bath

Between bathing, pottying, hand-washing and toothbrushing, it seems like we spend an inordinate amount of time in our tiny bathroom with the kids.  Both Alice and Simon are almost always quite happy in the bath, although the transitions in and out can be a bit rocky sometimes.  Tonight, it was pretty smooth.  Simon always goes first, and Zac usually gives him a bath, drying him off afterwards on his lap, then taking him to the bedroom to be put into pajamas.

Alice is a bit harder to get out of the bath voluntarily, and we usually have to employ a timer of some sort. But recently I stumbled upon a technique that works pretty well and that she enjoys.  Once she's all washed and had a few minutes to play, I'll say something like, "Alice, I'm going to the kitchen to drink some water. When I get back I want to see a little girl out of the bath."  Somehow this works, and she'll be dripping on the rug or sitting on the stool when I come back.  Recently I changed it to, "When I get back, I want to see a green towel with legs."  She really likes this hiding spot, so she gets a sparkle in her eye when I say this. When I come back a moment later, I pretend that I can't find Alice, but that I really like the green towel's clean legs.

These are a few of my favorite words...

I'm pointing at pictures in a book during breakfast, while Simon says the words.  You can see how happy he is when he talks, especially about butterflies.  I also think this is the first time he says dinosaur.

Walking four weeks

We only had to wait ten months to see Alice become a biped, but since it's taking Simon 16 months, we are perhaps even more excited about his evolution.

Here he is nearly a month after taking his first steps:

You can see he is more steady and is able to change direction. He now falls down primarily in a controlled way, onto his knees, compared to his total body wipeouts in the beginning.

Surf scarf

This is why to keep kids entertained, you just need a bunch of random stuff laying around.  This kickboard, that we bought years ago when we took our refugee family to the beach, has provided Alice with lots of playtime.  Today it was her surfboard (this is why all Zac's jeans have holes in the knees). She is interested in surfing because in one of the shark books from the library, it shows a picture of the surfer who got her arm bitten of by a shark, and the surfboard with a big bite out of it.  I realized Alice didn't know what surfing was, so I showed her a some youtube videos.  The concept sat in her brain for a couple of days before it manifested in this.  

Similarly, one day I told her it looked like she had a hula skirt on, and it became clear she didn't know what that was.  So I showed her a youtube video of hula dancing, and a couple of days later she started the practice of sliding her undershirt down to her waist when undressing for the bath, and saying it is her hula dancing skirt.  Same thing with breakdancing.  I forget why it came up, but I showed her a video, and she processed it for a couple of days, and then decided, while getting her yogurt out of the fridge for her bedtime snack, that she wanted me to show her how to breakdance.  I find the couple-day delay interesting.  You think something hasn't had an impact on her, but then it will come out later.