capes and friends

I was talking to Ro about superheroes recently. He doesn't know much about them as we've kept him pretty isolated from that sort of thing but he's really attracted to the little bits he's seen. Because of various playground encounters, we've been having a change of heart because his lack of knowledge is really interfering with his interaction with other children. We repeatedly meet kids who want Ro to play ninja turtles, power rangers, star wars, etc. Ro has no idea what they're talking about and can't figure out how to play with them beyond running and making shooting sounds, which does constitute a lot of it but there's important dialog as well.

Anyhow, two days after our initial superhero discussion Ro was holding an index card on top of a tiny plastic bicycle and making it fly around. I asked him what he was doing and he told me it was Super Bike. The next day, he had a blanket around his neck and was leaping off the couch yelling "Super Roey!" So, after one exposure, he clearly took away that capes are an important clothing item for superheroes.

Daddy asked Ro who his best friend was today and Ro said it was me but referred to me by my first name rather than by Mommy. I was pretty surprised - but pleasantly so.

walking frenzy

Sim is really into trying so hard to walk now. She's made a game out of it by walking from the couch to us and back again. She's so gleeful and obviously having so much fun doing it that Ro wants to play too. So, he does it too but he can't figure out what's so fun about it because the thrill of walking is long gone for him. He does enjoy having Sim walk to him though. It goes pretty well most of the time but sometimes she loses her balance and falls on him or they knock heads or something -- and then she's crying. She really hates getting hurt. One time Ro told her that he was going to be a doctor when he grew up so he would kiss her and she would be all better. It was really sweet and funny. Typically, he says he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up so I was a little surprised.

The fear of falling is what's really holding Sim back right now - otherwise she'd be all over the place. As it is, she's gripping me around the knees or holding on to my pants all the time and I have to inch around like a snail. I've found it a bit frustrating. It's hard enough to get any sort of cleaning or housework done without someone actually holding you back. Of course, when the house is really a wreck I just remind myself of the "hygiene hypothesis" and try to feel like I'm actually benefitting my children's health in some way. right?

birthday girl

This weekend we celebrated Simone's first birthday and Father's day. It was nice and relaxing. I always worry about such things being stressful but Sim's party went well. Ro did much better than I thought. I expected him to freak out about his lack of presents. However, he enjoyed helping Sim open all her presents although he was disappointed at the lack of construction vehicles in her haul. He just asked when it would be his turn to open presents and we'd tell him next month on his birthday.

As is typical with babies, Sim was more interested in the paper and ribbons. She was a bit taken aback when everyone sang Happy Birthday to her but she didn't break down crying like Ro did on his first birthday and his second birthday, but then Ro's only recently come to tolerate some singing. Sim really enjoyed her cake. I made a chocolate butterfly cake with this great frosting out of whipped cream and chocolate chips. It was sooooooo delicious.

Father's Day was nice too. I got Daddy some nice tea things and made him smoke salmon alfredo with capers. yummy. It was such a nice relaxing weekend, which we really needed.

Sun coming up?

Ro is really hung up on where the sun is right now. Is it coming up or is it going down? He isn't terrible about going to bed but he never wants to go especially as we're approaching summer equinox and the evenings are so light that he can't fall asleep too well. He's always asking Is the sun coming up? Especially toward evening, I think he just wants reassurance that there's still plenty of playtime left.

Since having kids, I've gotten really interested in the process and development of problem solving skills. I really enjoy seeing how they find solutions to a problem. For example, Ro stepped into a puddle because he loves to make footprints. Then, realized that the pavement was damp and so his footprints wouldn't show up. He then spotted dry ground about 20 feet away, so he hobbled over there on his heels in order to preserve the water on his feet, so he could make satisfactory footprints on dry ground. That one really killed me.

The three robbers

Ro's been reinacting The Three Robbers by Tomi Ungerer quite a bit lately. At one point in the story, the robbers threaten the coach passengers with a blunderbuss. When Ro says the line, he says the robbers threaten the passengers with a bubble blower. It always makes me giggle.

Lest you think I'm raising my son for a life of crime, the robbers change their ways and end up taking in orphans and raising them in a castle that they bought with their treasure. Ro carries around some junk jewelry in a box as his treasure chest. I like it that he's just as into the robbing part as he is into caring for the orphan children.

first steps

Sim took her first steps Wednesday. I was really surprised because she doesn't seem quite stable enough for walking yet. She was looking at a toy and so let go of the chair. She stood for a bit and then turned and took four steps to reach me like she'd been doing it forever. Since then, she's stuck to cruising or hand holding and hasn't attempted to solo walk at all.

While I was getting her ready for bed last night, I was asking her to make various animal noises. She's definitely got oinking, barking, and meowing down pat. Instead of meowing though, she crawled over to a pile of books and rummaged around until she found Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see? Then, she waved it at me to come read to her. We always do animal noises with that book and she LOVES it. But this was the first time, I've seen her do something based solely off conversation with no visual cues. So cool!

Sim is a week away from turning one. I haven't really decided if we're going to do anything for her birthday or not. I feel like we have to so Ro will see she's treated the same as him. Also, It's hard to figure out what to buy for a one year old, since they don't really have developed tastes yet. Sim would truly enjoy several boxes of kleenex and a few boxes of Q-tips to play with but no one wants to get her that -- and I don't really want to pick up after her. She's got plenty of clothes for the summer. She doesn't like dolls or stuffed animals much. I'm not sure what her interests are yet -- beyond whatever Roen is playing with and general exploring.

ghosts

Ro has a number of fixations - one of them being ghosts. I'm not sure where he gets it from because to my knowledge, the only ghost-related exposure that Ro has ever had is to a Thomas the Tank engine episode where Percy gets covered with flour and then tries to spook Thomas after Thomas scoffs at his ghost train stories. It's not too scary or anything and Ro doesn't seem scared but anytime we go anywhere darkish. Ro immediately starts babbling about ghosts. Yesterday, he was telling Daddy there were ghosts outside and later he was telling me the ghosts were in his room. I act surprised and tell him that ghosts usually stay away from our house because they're so scared of me. He told me the ghosts are scared of him too. I told him I wasn't suprised since he says "Boo!" so well.

Every time he starts up about ghosts. Daddy and I always look at each other and say "I see dead people" even though neither of us ever saw that particular movie. We just think it's a weird topic of conversation. Ro doesn't act nervous or anything though and there's plenty of things that do scare the crap out of him so ... I'm pretty sure he's just picked it up from somewhere but I don't know what. School?

paper selves and batteries

Ro's nursery school ended this past week, so he brought back some of his artwork that had been hanging up in the classroom. One piece is a body tracing of himself that he then painted as a "self-portrait". He's been pointing it out to me at school for weeks. So, he's happy to have it home. He's been dragging this rumpled life-size paper doll around all day and feeding it dinner, addressing it by name (his name, so we have two Ro's now), tucking it into bed, reading it stories, and giving it cars to play with. It's so cute.

Simone said Thank you (tank ya) yesterday when I handed her a snack. She was copying her brother. He was just as impressed as I was and said that, "Simone can talk. She's all fixed". Then, while he was listening to her jabber this morning, he announced she would talk better if we'd give her some new batteries. (snicker)

When he said that, it made me think of his My Little Blue Robot book, which is a book that lets you build a robot and learn shapes and body parts. However, it just made Ro want to know where his power supply was. He was hoping he had one on his back like the robot.