February wrap-up

I am so tired. I never have energy to write on top of all my other duties. Two kids is so hard. I feel pretty insane most of the time. Pluse, someone in the household has been sick every week this month. I think Ro currently has the flu but I'm not sure. He's the sickest he's ever been and acting ok sometimes and really freaky other times. So, these are some Ro notes I've jotted down but hadn't had time to write about. I need to write more about Sim. I promised myself that I would start drawing pictures again when she got her first tooth, which is when I started Ro's picture journal, but I haven't. I suck. I have so much other stuff going on right now.

Among other vehicles, Ro's really into garbage trucks. Our last trip to the supermarket, he hung on to the side of the cart and jumped down to fetch whatever groceries I wanted. He then ran back to put them into the "garbage truck". Then, he'd make all the appropriate hydraulic sound effects of the garbage being compressed. It really killed me. It was a very fun trip and he was quite helpful.

Because we've had a spate of pediatrician visits lately, Ro's been playing doctor a bit. I have a lot of plastic syringes kicking around, so he always wants to give me shots. Instead of the usual spots like the bottom or the upper arm, he prefers to give them right in the jugular and on each of my finger nails. Can you imagine really getting shots in any of those places? It would be too horrid. He also likes whacking on me with a toy hammer like a doctor hits your knee reflex. sigh.

This winter we taught Ro how to make snow angels. He's translated this into indoor play and now makes down blanket angels on our bed. It works quite well in a freshly fluffed down comforter. While watching him, I realized he has a lot of style in his method. We showed him how to do it by the standard method, which is just standing and falling over backward. Ro makes them by leaping forward and excuting a mid air spin and landing on his back. It's a pretty cool manouver indoors or out.

I took Ro and Sim to a juggling demo at the library. They both loved it. When we got home, I sat down to nurse Sim and Ro came running over to me with a huge armful of small toys like blocks, balls, lincoln logs, and such. He said, "Mommy, you juggle." I told him I didn't know how but Daddy would juggle for him when he got home. Then, he says, "Roey juggle!" and suddenly hurled all the toys up in the air. I was horrified and bent over to shield Sim from getting pelted. I should've seen that one coming.

Ouch!

Ro cut himself for the first time this weekend by pinching his finger while running with scissors. I was trying to stop him but he slid under the dining room table. At first he was very calm about it and just watched his finger bleed but then he decided he didn't like it at all and started freaking out. We put a bandaid on it and he was fine. However, an hour or two later, his bandaid came off in the bath and he started to bleed again. He flaked out again and demanded it be "fixed" with a new bandaid. This morning he woke up bandaidless and went and got one himself out of the kitchen drawer. Then, he peered into our room and waved the bandaid at us and shouted until Daddy got up to put it on him. I think Daddy finally managed to convince him it was fixed and no longer required a bandaid. However, Ro's stuffed Tigger was hurt twice today and so required two bandaids. Ro couldn't remember the word bandaid and keeps asking me for new skin.

Happy Birthday ! You old Kiss Bag

Ro got up this morning requesting his Kiss Bag. A bleary Daddy spent quite awhile trying to figure out what the heck he was trying to say. Originally, he assumed he was attempting a new word but then realized he really was saying Kiss Bag and he was referring to his heart shaped pouch of valentines from school. (Ever since Ro saw Elmo blowing kisses with hearts popping on a Sesame Street game, he's referred to hearts as kisses. I've tried converting him to using heart or valentine and he knows those are other words for the shape but he still prefers to call them kisses.) He and the other kids didn't really seem to grasp their first valentine exchange experience. However, he is really enjoying playing with them at home. I need to make more of a point of checking out books about holidays before they happen so he'll have a vague clue about what's going on. Is it just me or does Kiss Bag sound vaguely insulting. I guess because it reminds me of wind bag.

In other news, Sim is eight months old today. She was diagnosed with VSD (ventricular septal defect - i.e. a hole in her heart) when she was about a month old. Yesterday, a cardiology check determined that it had closed up on it's own. Hooray! We are very pleased.

It's so late and I am sooo tired. I haven't had time to write lately because of being sick or exhausted or having house guests. I should be asleep now. Unfortunately, Sim is currently screaming her head off and has been for over an hour -- so there's no point in even trying until she shuts up. It's after midnight now, which means it's now my husbands birthday too. Happy 30th. :)

We also discovered that Roen can spell "cake". I asked Daddy if he wanted to get some C-A-K-E somewhere and Ro went crazy shouting Yay! Cake! Birthday cake! Yay!

ice cream clothes and rug boats

Ro got up Monday morning and immediately dumped all the clean laundry out of the basket to build an ice cream cone. He lays the basket on its side to be the cone and then makes mounds of laundry and pillows to be the ice cream. Then, he wallows in it shamelessly.

Tuesday morning, he bounded into our room and hopped onto an area rug, which became a boat that he wanted us all to sit in it with him and catch fish with him, Giraffe and Curious George. It's so fun and cute.

Ro freaked me out by writing out about a third of the alphabet letters this weekend and then appearing to read several things that I don't think he simply guessed at. He started reading shortly before 2 1/2 but then totally lost interest and wouldn't play any reading/letter games again until recently. Now, he appears to be able to read longer words - like he pointed at the word "friends" and "house" and said the right word. I can't figure out how he'd know that unless he could read a bit. I thought he'd mostly forgot how other than a few words like his name, stop, cat, and yo-yo. He's quite the little puzzle.

The man who cried tooth

Simone has her first tooth. It's barely peeping through the gum but you can feel it. For the last month or so, we've been blaming fussy days on teething but then no tooth would appear. It got to be quite silly. Daddy would come home from work. I'd complain about how fussy Sim had been all day and then he'd check her mouth and announce that she had her first tooth. Then, I'd check her mouth and find nothing but smooth, shiny gums which led me to stare at Daddy like he was a nut case. Daddy always sounds so positive and sure of himself that I'd believe him. The second time he did it (and I failed to find any sign of a tooth whatsoever), he started claiming Sim had retractable teeth. Finally, this weekend, he announced yet again that Sim had a tooth. As I had stared closely at her smooth gums a few hours earlier, I rolled my eyes at him as I felt her gum -- but indeed she had a tooth. The merest needle-like point could be felt but not seen. Whee! Not that lack of teeth has been slowing her down any. She's well into people food now. Her current faves are fresh grapes/blueberries blended together (very tasty!) and mulligatawny with kalijera rice.