Our new maid

Simon likes to crawl around the house with the feather duster.  (It's right before bedtime in this video, so he's a bit fussy.)

Soul searching

Sera: I'm gonna get your jammies on, then daddy's gonna brush your teeth... he has the toothbrushing power...from somewhere deep in his soul.
Alice:  Where's his soul?  Under the floor or in the closet?
S: I think it's in the closet.
A: No, not in the closet, mommy!
S: Ok, maybe it's under the floor then?
A: No, not under the floor.  It's in the closet.

Mother's Day

This video pretty much sums it up:

But to backtrack a little bit, the day started out rough and never got easier.  Both kids woke up in the night, but at least they then slept in to a little past eight, about an hour later than normal.  It was one of those mornings where Alice was super intense and high-maintenance.  It seemed like between every bite of my breakfast I was getting up to tend to one of her needs.

We finally made it out of the house around 10:45 for our excursion for the day.  We planned to go to the Prairie Ridge Ecostation where they have a nature play space that we had never been to yet.  However, when we arrived the gates were closed: it didn't open till noon.  Instead, we went to the nearby Schenck Forrest and had a snack at a picnic table.  At some point Alice fell off the picnic table and hurt her crotch, but we didn't think much of it.

We went on to the the Ecostation around noon, and found a delightful play area.  Alice really likes to carry around tools and play with water, so she had a great time. We stayed until about 2:30, then went home.  Once at home, Zac worked on the Lemon Meringue pie I had requested, and I took care of the kids, who napped, but not at the same time.  The pie wasn't finished until about 5:30 pm, just in time to start supper.  The above video was made after supper.  We eventually got the kids to bed, the clothes in the dryer, the dishes in the dishwasher, and ourselves to bed.

So, I don't have any profound thoughts on this mother's day.  Just that I admire anyone who is in the thick of it like this and thinks to herself, "You know what I need?  Another one of these creatures!"  Props to my own mom for forging ahead and having three kids, because otherwise I wouldn't exist.  But I think Zac and I are content with two.

Alice's daycare teacher, Ms. Carson, used to do yoga with the kids and said Alice was really good and loved it.  So while Zac was working on a pie, I had her stay in the living room and do a yoga exercise video with me.  She didn't actually do much yoga, but she did manage to get in the way.

Simon in the kitchen

Now that Simon can climb the steps to the kitchen, he is getting into lots of trouble.

Guacamole

We had tacos for supper and Alice doesn't really know how to eat them. She broke hers all apart then ate the cheese and a little of the meat.  Then she started demanding guacamole.  The conversation went something like this:

Alice: I want guacamole.
Parent:  We don't have any.
A: But I want some.
P: I know, but we don't have any.
A: I want guacamole for my chips. (Her taco shell.)
P: I want guacamole too, but we don't have any.
A: I want guacamole, please.
(And on and on and on.  Finally Alice changes tactics.)
A:  You can make some guacamole.  You only need three things.
P: Really?  What do we need to make guacamole?
A: Dogwood, sour paste, and mud.  Green mud.

Simon Arcaro and the Tunnel of Doom

We thought Simon would enjoy climbing through the tunnel...

Simon goes up the steps

As reported yesterday, Simon has finally figured out how to get up the steps into the kitchen.

Here is the video of him going up the first step:

About four minutes later he finally made it up the second step:

It is kind of bizarre to be reminded of how hard it was to learn the simplest of things.  On the other hand, he was a total blob ten months ago, so it's kind of amazing that he can do so much already.  Now he just needs to learn how to sit.  (According to Babycenter.com, we should talk to the child's doctor if he doesn't sit by seven months old.  I think most babies sit before they crawl, but Alice also crawled for a while before learning to sit.)

Up the steps!

This is just to record that Simon made it up the steps from the living room into the kitchen for the first time this evening.  He was pretty happy and proud of himself when he did it.  He is now a free-range baby!

He has been climbing up the steps with just his arms for several weeks now, but he was never able to get his legs up.  The daycare teachers have been saying he's been extra active there lately (they say he is now more active than Alice was, but we find that hard to believe).  Anyway, maybe he's getting the hang of locomotion better.

Tower

Zac and I often complain that the kids interfere with our playing with their toys.  Whenever we try to build a great railroad track or nifty tower, one of them will tear it apart or knock it down.  So Zac was amazed when he was actually able to build this tower with Alice in close proximity and Simon on the loose.

Alice kept herself occupied putting her toy trains in the cups.  Simon was playing at the table.

Chasing Thomas

Simon loves to chase the little Thomas train around the living room.  Simon is getting faster at crawling and Thomas's battery is dying, so it's not really an even match anymore.  In the second part of the film, Alice is sitting on my lap (you'll know when this happens because the camera gets shaky).  Then, she takes the camera (phone) and tries to film Simon.  It does not go well.

Bucket head

Sera: Alice, it's time to put your toys away and set the table.
Alice: Ok, but not this bucket because my head is in it.

Playdate

My friend from my old school, Kathy, came over with her nearly two year old son.  We've only had one other kid over for a playdate, also a boy, and this one seemed to follow the same pattern. The kids are interested in each other for a few minutes, then ignore each other.  The boy happily plays with the trains for an hour, while Alice quickly gets restless and wanders off.  In this photo, she is playing with one of Simon's baby toys instead.

Maracas

There was a little festival in downtown Cary to connect the community to the public safety officers.  There were bounce houses and a big slide, and several other activities for families.  Alice was tired and clingy though, so she didn't do anything.  We let Simon crawl around on the grass a bit.  But the best part was when we were getting ready to leave and Alice scored some maracas.  Simon enjoyed shaking them.

Mother's Day at daycare

This morning was the mother's day celebration at daycare.  We mothers sat awkwardly in circle time with our children on our laps, while they did the morning calendar and then sang a little song calling each child to the center of the circle to jump up and down.  Alice, as with past parent visits to daycare, cowered in my lap and was the only child who did not get up and jump when it was her turn.  Also, during the special mother's day song, she sat in my lap as if she had never heard it before.  It was a terrible song though, and the only one singing audibly was the teacher, Ms. Saffa, and even she inserted an aside of "Whew!  That was a long sentence!" after one particularly arduous verse. 

After that, we all went to a low table and ate bagels and fruit and juice with our children.  Oscar, the kid next to me, had fun pouring the orange juice between his cup and his mom's cup, eventually expanding to include my cup.  Alice, on the other hand, did not play with her juice but did manage to spill it (luckily most of it went into the plate so it didn't make a huge mess but it did make the bagel rather soggy).  Oscar, despite continually transferring the juice between several cups, did not spill a drop.  

After that, the kids were ushered on to the playground and the moms were supposed to escape.  However, our children clung to us and dragged us out to the playground with them.  We continually tried to give them the slip, saying things such as, "Alice, look at Izzy going through the tunnel.  Doesn't that look fun?  Why don't you go play with her?"  None of the kids were falling for the trick though.  The kids whose mom's had already pried themselves away left behind a virtual wailing wall: kids lined up at the fence gait crying for their mommies.  In the end, Alice was only different in that she did not stay in one place crying, but spread her tears over the whole playground.  The irony, of course, is that this little event is meant to make us feel good as mothers, but really it just reminds us that we are abandoning our children every day when we go to our jobs.  Alas.

Gardening

Zac got a few plants to be in our garden for Alice to take care of and watch grow.  There are three plants: zucchini, cucumber, and rhubarb.  We don't have much hope for them, but if it gives Alice something to do, we consider it a win.

Simon also really loves being outside and exploring nature.

Jumping Jacks and Tunnels

One small step for Simon

Simon loves crawling around on the porch, and we've been out there a lot lately with the nice weather.  He manages to go up the step quite easily, but sometimes he falls on his face going back down it.  Let the record show that Zac is the one who put the hair bow on him.

Mud soup

Sera: Are you making mud soup?

Alice: Yeah.  It's for my dinosaurs.

The Grapes of Youth

As a parent, I feel a constant tension between wanting to encourage Alice's creativity, exploration, and experimentation, and needing to develop her awareness of what is socially acceptable.  An example of this constant dilemma was today when Alice decided to drop two pieces of her cheese stick into her water cup.  On the one hand, it's kind of cool that she thought to do that--to see what would happen.  On the other hand, it is obviously not socially acceptable to drop one's cheese into one's water glass.

Similarly, one does not put giant grapes in one's cheeks, but still, it was kind of cute and she looked really funny.

For the most part, Zac and I respond mildly, letting her complete the current experiment, while making it clear that she should not do it again. 

I think it's all part of her growing imagination.  Sometimes she'll scoot around on her belly and say, "I'm a lizard!"  This evening, she spent a long time with a bowl feeding her dinosaurs supper.  Most of her pretend play is quite harmless, but occasionally she'll imagine she's a dinosaur and try to bite my leg or something, at which point I have no qualms about squashing her creativity.

Spring hike

Our plan for Sunday morning was to go to Umstead for a hike.  When we arrived, the parking lot was kind of full and there was a group of people in the large picnic shelter right by the trail head.  We overheard one person say to another, "That something only an alcoholic would understand," from which we inferred that it was an AA meeting of some sort.  As we walked by on a sidewalk, two men from the group were walking towards us, headed to the parking lot.  When Alice saw them, she abruptly did a 180 and started walking very quickly back to the van.  When she turned around to see if I was coming too, she noticed the men were following behind her.  She burst into tears and sprinted into the woods beside the path.  Now, these two men were rather grizzled, with scraggly beards and biker bandannas on their heads, but I have never seen Alice react in terror the way she did to them.  I just hope causing a sweet two-year old girl to spontaneously burst into tears and run away in terror doesn't lead to a relapse.

Despite its inauspicious start, the rest of the hike was quite enjoyable.  It was one of those lovely mid-seventies, sunny, bug-free days that are almost unbearably pleasant.  We went down the trail a bit (to put some distance between us and the men who terrified Alice) and then went off the trail to find some nice logs for Alice to play on.  Staying true to form, as soon as I sat on a log, Alice sat down next to me and declared, "I want a snack."  So we had our mid-morning snack, then she played with sticks and leaves and wandered around a bit.  Zac showed her how new trees sometimes grow out of the fallen down, rotting logs, so Alice spent a good deal of time picking apart a rotten log and putting a stick in it to grow into a new tree.

After a while, we went further down the trail until we got to a little creek.  After another snack, Alice played happily at the water's edge, throwing sand and rocks into the stream.  But, eventually she realized she could take her socks and shoes off and wade in the water.  Zac showed her a crawdad, and later they found some tadpoles, which was super exciting because she had learned about those at school.  We also saw some frogs on the sandy beach.

The hike back up the hill and all the way back to the van was a bit rougher than the way down, mainly because Alice was worn out and needed carried most of the time.  But all in all, it was a gorgeous day to spend in the woods.

What we do best: snack.

Alice pulling apart a rotting fallen tree

Alice planting a "new tree" in the rotten one

Wading