week ending dec 30, 2007:

Week ending Dec 30, 2007: The kids are enjoying all their loot. They got so much stuff that much of it has only been used once or twice although they play only with new toys. This week I noticed the gender discrepancy in the toys. Alex got mostly toys that let him build things and send things flying, and Chloe got mostly dolls and toys that require her to invent an imaginary world. Those are exactly the kinds of toys that they asked for, but I worry that Chloe is getting short changed and that she will feel disadvantaged (as I did) when she gets into the “real world” and has to start building things. In college I was much less confident about picking up tools and trying to fix things than my male peers and I always figured it was because of lack of experience on my part. If, as a child, my friends and teachers and family had presented building and fixing things as something equally expected of girls and boys, I think I would have been better prepared. Or maybe I wouldn’t have been interested. Who knows?

Since this is the last KTW of the year I felt obligated for a “year in review” kind of entry, but I’m really not into it. I always review their year shortly before their birthday and doing it again would just feel redundant. What I have been thinking about is that with the passing of Great PopPop, an era in my life has ended. The story I’m about to tell isn’t about the kids at all, but some people have pointed out to me that this journal provides a historical record for the kids to look back on later, so I was thinking about history. When I was growing up, my grandfather and 5 of his sisters all lived on the same street. His parents owned a big piece of land and the land was parceled out in ½ half acre lots to many of the siblings who each built homes on the lots, and the street was named Half Acre Drive. When we’d visit for Xmas, we’d visit with my grandmother and grandfather, and then we’d walk from house to house and visit with each of my Great Aunts who lived on the street and then we’d see even more extended family “up home” which was what everyone called the big house where they grew up. At one time the big house faced the highway, but as the area became more commercial and property taxes went up, the family sold the lot that faced the highway and physically moved the big house further down Half Acre Drive, away from the highway. The walls in the big house were never quite straight and I always liked trying to imagine the house being moved and the walls bending. Anyway, none of the original Half Acre Drive folks live there anymore, and PopPop was the last of those 6 siblings to pass away. I always thought it was pretty unusual for family members to live on the same street like that until I met Casey and learned that a few members of his father’s family have built homes on their family land. Anyway, that doesn’t seem to be a tradition that our generation will be inheriting except as a memory.

I wish everyone a happy and safe New Year with lots of happy memories of this and other years past!

new (to us) car

Today Casey bought a 1995 BMW 325 convertible. He's been wanting a convertible ever since he bought his first new car in 1995 (I talked him out of the convertible then because I said we couldn't afford it) and since we recently came into some money we decided that it was now-or-never for the convertible. He really likes the way it handles, it has lots of bells and whistles and is in really good shape for it's age. It was 45-50F here today and we both drove it with the top down already. We decided on the 325 because it has a back seat and the kids can ride in it. Now all we have to do is figure out how to install 2 car seats back there (the kids climbed in the car, but haven't gotten a ride yet). Casey pointed out that it is easier to work on the car seats back there with the top down ;)

Christmas 2007

Christmas 2007: Christmas for us this year was a 3 day marathon. Sunday night we had dinner and gift exchange with my friends from high school and their families. Monday (Xmas eve) morning we had brunch and gift exchange with Casey’s Dad (the kids call him Big Daddy) and Bubbe, and then we had Xmas eve dinner with about 20 people from Casey’s Mom’s side of the family. On Christmas morning the kids opened presents from Santa, then Grammy Carole and Granddad brought more gifts, then Uncle Dan and Natalie came over with more gifts, then Grammy Barb brought more gifts, then we had sit-down dinner for 19 at our house and opened even more gifts! Notable activities at Xmas Eve brunch were when Daddy taught Alex how aim his Nerf Stomp-Rockets at people and Alex got this evil grin and proceeded to gleefully shoot everyone in the room while Chloe sat quietly in her party dress and played her new board game with Bubbe. I got a great picture of Alex running gleefully away as Big Daddy pretends to try to get the Nerf rockets away from him. Notable activity at Xmas eve dinner was that I left the party to go visit with my brother and sister-in-law in the hospital because SIL’s water had broken at 2:30am. I arrived at the hospital at 6pm and the baby was delivered by C-Section at 6:23. Talk about fortuitous timing! He is named Aidan and Mom and baby are now home and doing great. Here are some pictures http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/BabyAidan, and a link to their blog http://thesmithfamily-danielle.blogspot.com/ We didn’t get the kids in bed until after 9p on Xmas eve (over an hour late) and they got up just after 7am (pretty close to normal). It took them over an hour to open the presents from Santa. They’d stop in the middle to play with one toy or another and since it was just the 4 of us, there was no pressure to hurry up and get it done. The only present Alex asked Santa for was a remote control helicopter, and the only present Chloe asked Santa for was ballet shoes. Luckily Santa came through with both of those and a whole bunch more. Chloe wore her ballet shoes with her new tights and leotard for the rest of the day and didn’t even put on a party dress for dinner (wearing party dresses is one of her favorite things in life!). Alex played a bunch with the R/C helicopter and I got a great picture of Granddad feigning alarm and Alex giggling as the helicopter is “coming to get Granddad”. By the end of the evening the kids were so wound up neither of them could get to sleep. Alex doesn’t usually fall asleep right away and we’ve taken to letting him play in his bed with the light on for a few minutes before lights-out time, so while Alex was winding down, I lay with Chloe and rubbed her back to help her calm down. Then I turned Alex’s light out and a few minutes later he complained about not being able to get to sleep, so I went and knelt next to his bed and lay my head next to him and he wrapped his arm around me and talked quietly. Even though I was very tired and I usually prefer than that they go to bed the first time I leave them upstairs (which they do successfully a remarkable percentage of the time), this time alone with Alex and Chloe ended up being my was favorite part of the day because between and getting dinner ready and put away, and cleaning up the endless waves of packaging that kept coming into the house so we’d have room to have dinner for 19, I found I hadn’t made much time to really enjoy the kids. They really enjoyed their Christmas and are still saying that they wish we could have Christmas every day. Here are some more pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/Christmas2007

week ending Dec 23, 2007:

Tasting cookies they made themselves


























Week ending December 23, 2007: This week I’d like to start off with a heartfelt apology to my parents for all the times when I was a kid and I said “He’s on my side!”, “He’s touching me!”, “He’s looking at me!” (in reference to my little brother, of course). I hesitate to even bring it up since many people have real problems during this holiday season and we are so generously blessed, but man the kids squabbling is annoying! It used to be that their fights were about problems that were solvable like they both wanted the green Happy-Meal toy and I’d find some alternative that would satisfy them, but the fights lately aren’t about anything and have no end (save for the rare extreme when I put them in separate rooms). They aren’t bad fights and no one is in danger or even doing anything that is really wrong except fraying my already jangled nerves as we scramble to get ready for Christmas. Maybe I should have just written about all the joy we’ve had this week making cookies, going to the Christmas party at school, going to the Bounce Zone and making Christmas trees out of an ice cream cone decorated with green icing with various colorful candies stuck on, going to Lights on the Bay (3rd annual visit!), etc. But, I’ve been so busy this week that I only notice the kids when they are doing something joyful or fighting, so that our week feels like it has been one long grouch-fest punctuated by moments of joy. I was listening to the kids’ latest argument-turned-screaming-match and I had a sudden clear image of my brother and me riding in the back of my parents’ station wagon. In the back seat we each had our own space conveniently and visibly divided by the seam of the seat. It was decided that if one of us intentionally crossed over the line in the other’s territory, the other had the God-given right to whack the intruding appendage as hard as we could, and thus we developed a back-seat version of the arcade game Whack-A-Mole. We’d each gradually ease a finger toward and then over the line until the other noticed and then we’d try to pull away before WHACK! the other came crashing down with a fist. Of course if one of us actually got whacked we’d wail and I remember my Dad in the driver’s seat getting so frustrated that while keeping his eyes on the road he swung his arm about the back seat trying to cuff one of us. It was with this memory that I realized that Casey and I have about 14 years of this bickening-for-no-reason to look forward to. I guess it is something I’ll adapt to in time. When the kids were first born I was pretty unhappy about being thrown up on and cleaning up poo, but now those kinds of things are par for the course. I guess I’m looking forward to a little holiday magic. Here’s wishing you peace and good will this Christmas, I know I could use some!

week ending dec 16, 2007:

Week ending December 16, 2007: This was a week of ups and downs.

Chloe’s tummy: Lab Corp lost Chloe’s poo. So we were supposed to get another sample, but she had her appointment with the gastroenterologist before we got that done and the doctor said she doesn’t see a need for the test since Chloe’s biopsy last year showed no evidence of H Pylori. Our doctor had been out of town, and it was another doctor who had ordered the test. How annoying. Anyway, our doctor was unconcerned with Chloe’s “break-through symptoms” (her term for Chloe’s pain and vomiting despite the medicine) and suggested trying to take Chloe off Prevacid. I didn’t understand why that was a good idea since Chloe seemed to be under-medicated, not over-medicated and Chloe’s physiology isn’t likely to have changed to eliminate the cause of her reflux. The doctor either wasn’t able or wasn’t willing to try to explain it to me. In the end she agreed that Chloe could stay on Prevacid for 6 more months and then we should do a follow up. I think our follow up will be with a different doctor. I’ve always stuck with doctors who go the extra mile to explain things to me because in the end I’m the person making day-to-day decisions about healthcare.

The twins haven’t been getting along very well for a couple weeks and this week they all of a sudden starting playing nicely again, maybe due to feeling better (getting over colds and such) and getting more exercise. So I decided to help them get more exercise even though we are house bound because it has rained what seems like every single day for FOREVER. We set up an obstacle course in the house and had the kids jump from carpet square to carpet square, run around the dining room table, climb under a chair, and climb over the arm of the sofa, etc. They had a blast and ran the course at least 8 times. At one point Chloe said “this turned out to be a fun night after all!”

Alex needed a new hat and gloves and he picked camouflage. I guess this is the beginning of the kids making choices that aren’t the ones I would make. I really hate camouflage, but he got a pair of hand-me-down camouflage pants from his cousin Blade and he LOVES them. Both kids love the hand-me-downs from friends and family. I let them pick out their own sheets with their favorite characters and then they received hand-me-down sheets with Bug’s Life characters and Batman. They don’t like the Bug’s Life movie (too scary) and they’ve never seen Batman, but the hand-me-downs are their favorites because other kids chose those sheets, so they must be great!

Chloe made me feel good this week. I bought a new sweater for her while I was shopping alone, and Chloe loves it. She pets the sweater and comments on how soft it is, and she’s said over and over that she loves the color (lavender is her new favorite color), and she’s thanked me and told me again and again that she loves the sweater. She even slept in it one night. It is so nice for me to get some recognition for a small part of the work I do for the kids since so much of what I do goes unnoticed or is down-right resented (giving them medicine, brushing their teeth, etc).

The “downs” of the ups and downs was that Chloe threw up 5 times last night, evenly spaced in time so that I’d just get her cleaned up and back to sleep and I’d drift off for a while, then we’d do it all over again. She threw up one more time during the day, but has started to get better. We had tickets today to see a local production of the Nutcracker ballet, our first. I decided that sitting and watching the ballet at the Chesapeake Arts Center wasn’t any harder on Chloe than watching videos in our living room, so we went despite the throwing up. We made it through without incident and Chloe had a cookie at intermission that was the first food she kept down all day. Alex also went and he got really bored. By the middle of the 1st act he was complaining that he wanted to go home. By the middle of the 2nd act said “I’ve been waiting, and waiting, and waiting!” So I started to tickle and mock-punch him which amused him until it was over. Fortunately the music was over a very loud sound system, and there was no one sitting directly next to us, so I don’t think we disturbed anyone. Afterwards I asked Chloe if she liked it and she had a HUGE grin and said she loved it. The parking lot was full of twirling little girls. I asked Alex if he liked it and he said “yeah, but it was too long”.

One of Alex’s funny lines from this week was “yum, I love peas!” (he actually was not kidding, he really likes vegetables). Here are the pictures from a birthday party that the kids attended on Friday (Abby is a friend from pre-school): http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/AbbySBday

week ending dec 9, 2007

Week ending December 9, 2007: In my last entry (below) I forgot to write about the funniest part of decorating the Christmas tree. After we were almost done Alex stood back and looked at the tree and said “I think Santa will see this tree and he will say (imitating a deep man’s voice) ‘This is a fine nice tree!’”. Casey and I both had a good chuckle over that one.

Alex is getting to be quite confident in his speaking. In September when Sunday School started back up our pastor started calling all the kids in church up to the front of church for a mini-sermon about 15 minutes into the services before the pastor released the kids to Sunday School. At first Alex wouldn’t go up to the front with the other kids, I guess he didn’t like being in front of the rest of the congregation. Today, however Alex ran right up with the rest of the kids. Pastor Dave noticed that Alex was wearing his “fire fighter boots” and asked Alex if he was going to be a fire fighter when he grows up. Alex said “No, I’m going to be an astronaut”. Pastor Dave said “you’re going to be an astronaut?” and he said it loud enough so the congregation could hear. Alex said “yes, I’m going to fly to Mars”. Pastor Dave said “you’re going to fly to Mars?”. Alex said “Yes. But first I have to learn how to fly the space shuttle.” I thought Grammy Barb and I were going fall out of our seats laughing. Pastor Dave said “I hope your dream comes true, I’d like to see you fly to Mars”. Alex told Pastor Dave he could come along. The sermon today was about how we might be better off if we were wild-eyed dreamers who saw the possibilities in life with child-like simplicity. Of course Alex doesn’t think that becoming an astronaut is a dream, he honestly believes that he will fly the space shuttle to Mars, but that’s what makes it so beautiful.

Chloe’s funny question of the week is “Mom, do snails have birthdays?” I told her they do, but they don’t have hands so they can’t make birthday cakes to celebrate. It turns out that earlier in the week one of the kids had asked if everyone has bones and I’d answered that all people have bones, but snails don’t have bones, so they got Chloe wondering, if they don’t have bones, do snails have birthdays?

Also this week, we made snicker doodle cookies. Alex didn’t want to touch the dough, so he wouldn’t roll them around in the cinnamon sugar mix, but he did count the cookies as we put them on the cookie sheet. Each time a new cookie was placed on the sheet he’d start over from 1 and count each cookie all the way up to a dozen. The kids have known for a long time the order of the numbers one to ten, but they had trouble “tracking” or making sure to assign only one number to each object without skipping objects, so this was a milestone. Throughout the week Alex counted several other things correctly and even counted the 12 Christmas cards that I’ve hung which I find especially impressive because they are up high so Alex couldn’t touch each card as he counted.

The kids went to 3 parties this week, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, one party was hosted by a family who had 3 daughters and each daughter invited 5 kids. I don’t recall ever having been in a house with that many kids at one time in my life! It was fun though because all the preschool kids sat at one table and decorated gingerbread houses and Alex kept saying “my house is the yummiest!” and then another boy said “my house is the yummiest too!” and Alex said “oh yeah, yours is too”. And then all 6 preschoolers decided that they ALL had the yummiest house and we all had to agree.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas:


On Sunday we went to our first party of the holiday season, the annual Gingerbread House Making Party at the house of some friends from college. There were 4 other little kids there so Alex and Chloe had a nice day of playing and Casey and I got to catch up with some grown up friends.



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On Tuesday we put up the Christmas tree and this year let the kids help with all the decorations instead of relegating them to the non-fragile ones. Of course they could only reach the lower half of the tree, so I decorated the upper half. They thought the tree was beautiful and were very enthusiastic about the ornaments especially ones with their names on them, or ones they’d made last year. The next morning the kids wanted the lights on the tree turned on as soon as they came downstairs and then we realized that it was snowing!

The rest of the day felt like playing hooky, even though we didn’t have anything scheduled, we just played hooky from daily life. The kids sat in front of the glass door for a while and just watched it snowing, and then Chloe wanted to make something Christmas-ee for breakfast and asked what we usually eat on Christmas. I told her about the egg casserole and the sticky buns. She didn’t like the idea of the eggs, but the rolls sounded good. The rolls we make on Christmas have yeast and take a long time to rise, but I remembered a recipe I made a long time ago that uses Bisquick. The kids stood on chairs next to the kitchen counter and helped me dump the ingredients into the bowl and then helped me roll out the dough and sprinkle on the cinnamon and sugar mixture and roll it up like a jelly roll. Alex said “I wuv making these rows (rolls)!”. While the rolls were baking the kids decided to move the kid sized plastic table into the den so they could look out the glass door at the snow while they ate their breakfast. When I made the icing for the rolls the kids insisted on putting food color in the icing.















After breakfast we bundled up and went out to play in the snow. They jumped on the trampoline with the snow for a while and then realized that the snow was just the right consistency for making snow balls and we had a pretty good snow ball fight with lots of giggling.


Then we made a mini-snow-girl (we decided it was a snow baby) with dried basil for hair.
Afterward we got the sleds out and they pulled each other around the yard and then went inside for hot chocolate and lunch.









By 3pm we had enough snow to cover the grass so we headed to the neighbor’s hill for some sledding. The kids rode the sleds by themselves and pulled the sleds up the hill by themselves, so all I had to do was stand at the top of the hill and hold the sleds still while they climbed in. The next day was a school day and after school the kids sang a song that they had learned. I’d never heard of it, but as we were driving home, we heard the song on the radio, it is called “Come on, ring those bells”. The picture below is a video of Chloe singing. Click the arrow to play.

The Biggest Loser

The Biggest Loser: I lose everything. My Mom used to say “you’d lose your head if it wasn’t attached” and I think she was right. I’ve lost everything from socks to diamond rings and everything in between. There is an upside to being an experienced “loser” and that upside is that I have a lot of experience tracking stuff down and getting back. One time we lost Chloe’s shoe in the parking lot at Home Depot and drove back there later in the day and actually found it. One time I was in a restaurant and threw everything in my pocket into the trash can not realizing that my wedding was one of the things in my pocket. We actually finished our meals and left the restaurant before I realized the ring was gone. With my expert loser procedure in place I thought back to what possibly could have happened to the ring, determined that it must have been thrown in the trash, contacted the restaurant and asked them to save the trash from that specific trash can, they volunteered to look through the trash for me (I guess it is unseemly to have customers picking through the trash), they found the ring and I went back to get it. Casey is so used to me losing stuff and getting it back that he didn’t even yell at me for doing something so stupid. This is why I was baffled when we couldn’t track down Chloe’s bunny. I knew that we’d emptied their school bags as soon as we walked in the door and that was when I discovered Bunny was missing. The two places we went that day were school and Burlington Coat Factory, so went back to those two places 3 times in as many weeks and searched and asked around about Bunny. Even after 3 weeks Chloe was asking when we were going to get her “Real Bunny” back and I kept saying we’ll keep looking. When the kids can’t find a particular toy I always tell them that if you want to find something in the house, start cleaning up and it will show up. Turns out I should have taken my own advice because I was cleaning when I discovered the missing Bunny. What I didn’t realize was that Bunny had been stuffed into Chloe’s hat, and the hat had been put away in the proper hat place, also as soon as we walked into the door on the fateful day Bunny went missing. Anyway, Chloe was overjoyed to be reunited and Bunny has hardly left her side since. When Bunny first went missing I did tell Alex and Chloe that it was not a good idea to take Puppy and Bunny to school anymore. We’ll see tomorrow if Chloe finds it more important to keep track of Bunny by leaving her home, or to have Bunny by her side even at school.

week ending dec 2, 2007

Week ending December 2, 2007: This week Chloe has spent a lot of time practicing writing her letters. She already knew how to write “Chloe” and “Alex”, but this week she had another word she wanted to write, so she practiced her “N’s” and her “P’s”. No “N’s” and “P’” in “Mommy” and “Daddy”, you notice. Yup. The next most important word in Chloe’s world is “princess”. She tried writing “princess” and got frustrated that the letters didn’t look quite write so she decided on her own to write a page full of “P’s”. I asked if she wanted to learn the some more of the letters and she said “maybe tomorrow”. Sure enough, the next day she sat down and wrote a page full of “N’s”. It is really amazing how kids get the urge to learn something and are willing to put the work into it.

Also this week we started reading a book of Shel Silverstein poems that I had read when I was a little girl. The poems are much stranger than I remembered, but the kids really liked them. There is a poem called “Hungry Mungry” in which a boy named Mungry eats all the food in the house, then eats his parents, his house, his city, the US Army, the world, the sun, the universe, and then there is nothing left so eats himself starting at his toes and then there is nothing left except teeth. Chloe said “what do you think the sun tastes like?” I admitted I didn’t have a guess and asked what she thought and she said she thought it would probably burn your mouth.

My Alex story for this week starts at bedtime. Alex said “what if you turned into a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?”. I said “then I’d lay all over you and get you sticky with peanut butter and jelly” and I pretended to use my belly to smear him. Instead of laughing he started to cry. He balled “if you turned into a peanut butter and jelly sandwich I’d be really upset!” I said that I’d never really turn into a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and that I’d never be anything except his mommy. Then he cried “what about when you die and go to heaven?” Then I realized the problem was a discussion that Chloe had started earlier in the day. Out of the blue she asked if she’d die when I died. Then she asked if Daddy would die when I died. I asked Chloe what made her think about me dying and she said “PopPop died and went to heaven and now he isn’t here anymore”. Anyway, at bedtime I talked with Alex about how I expected to live a long time until he was old enough to have kids and grandkids, and I reminded him of all the people we know how who will love and take care of him. He eventually stopped crying and went to sleep.

week ending nov 25, 2007

Week ending Nov 25, 2007: This week we got an appointment to see Chloe’s gastroenterologist on Dec 10 and in the mean time we were supposed to be giving her Maalox 4 times a day. Well, the magnesium in the Maalox is a laxative and on just 3 doses a day, Chloe’s bowels were out of control. The doctor also said for us to take a stool sample to Labcorp and have it tested for Pylori bacteria which cause peptic ulcers. I’ll leave it to your imagination how we collected said sample without getting it contaminated with urine or toilet water, but I can tell you that waiting in line at Labcorp for an hour with a package of poo and two 4 year olds is not fun.

Alex’s humidifier gave up the ghost this week and we got a new one. Target has humidifiers shaped like various animals and even the cartoon character Sponge Bob, so Alex picked Sponge Bob. Chloe said she wanted a Sponge Bob one too, but her humidifier works just fine so she and Alex decided that they could take turns with Sponge Bob. The compromise wasn’t in any way my idea because switching humidifiers every night is more work than I’d like to do, but I’m proud that Alex was so unselfish with his new prize.

And of course this week was Thanksgiving. We went to Grammy Carole and Granddad’s house and had dinner with them and my brother’s family. The kids took turns turning the hand crank on Grammy’s apple peeler/corer/slicer to make the apple pie, they used fabric markers to decorate their own smocks each with their own photo ironed on, and they all worked together to decorate a gingerbread house. We had a wonderful meal and wonderful company and got to see Granddad’s photos from his trip to a dive resort in Bonaire. Click here for the thanksgvining pictures

week ending nov 18, 2007:

Week ending November 18, 2007: This week Alex was singing and dancing in the kitchen while there was no music playing and it got me to pondering about how adults are rarely filled with the kind of joy that kids find in everyday life. When was the last time you danced in your kitchen without musical accompaniment? This week the kids had their first visit of the year with Santa. Last year both kids wanted to talk to Santa, but Alex wouldn’t sit on Santa’s lap so he stood next to Santa for the picture. This year Chloe didn’t want to get within 6 feet of Santa and hid behind me for a while but eventually she conceded to sit next to Santa (but not on his lap) for a picture. I won’t post the picture until I send out the Christmas cards with the picture of the kids in their Christmas finery. While we were at Homestead Gardens doing our annual holiday photo shoot, a photographer named Scott Suchman from Chesapeake Life magazine asked if he could photograph the kids for use in the magazine. I said sure and Mr. Suchman promised to e-mail me if he was going to use any pictures of the kids. If you, like me, have never heard of the magazine, here’s a link: http://www.chesapeakelifemag.com/. Also this week I took the kids ice skating for the first time. Chloe asked lots of questions like if there was water under the ice or if there was a floor under it. When Alex came into the room, Chloe declared “Alex there is a floor under the ice not water, so we won’t drown!” They both enjoyed it, but Alex liked it more than Chloe. My friend Claudine came with us because I figured we needed a one-to-one adult-to-kid ratio to get the kids started and Casey has sworn off ice skating. Alex spent more time with Claudine than Chloe did, and Claudine is a better ice skating teacher than I am. They started out using the ice skating version of walkers and graduated to holding our hands or, in Alex’s case, skating by his self. It was really gratifying to see the kids face a challenge and come away from it with a feeling of accomplishment. This week Chloe’s been asking us to play the rhyming game. She is so fascinated with words that she loves to try to remember words that rhyme with words I come up with. I’m going to try to include a video from the ice rink. Click the triangle on the lower left of the picture to play the video.

week ending nov 11, 2007:

Week ending November 11, 2007: This week the kids have been much better behaved. In fact the only one in the family with bad behavior this week was me! I didn’t get enough sleep all week and one day I was really grouchy and in a quiet moment I apologized to Chloe and explained that it wasn’t her fault. She asked if a hug would make me feel better. I said “of course it will, but I’ll probably feel grouchy again later”. She said “then I’ll give you another hug later”. What a sweetie! This week Alex ate a pork chop. Because he was a late talker we had his speech evaluated when he was about 18 months old and they noticed that he wasn’t a strong chewer which indicated week muscles and was part of the reason he wasn’t talking. He was much later than Chloe accepting many foods and he has never eaten tough meats like pork chops until now. Also this week Alex saw a little girl in the grocery store and said out loud “that girl is beautiful!”. It is so sweet how kids their age say what they mean without putting on airs or trying “be cool”. I wonder how long that lasts. I already noticed that they both have started to talk about what “people” will think. Chloe got her shoes muddy one day on the way to the car and complained “Mom, I don’t want ‘people’ to see my shoes muddy”. Even Alex will say things like “people will see us playing and say ‘those kids are having fun’”. Chloe’s whopper questions this week: How does the water get in the clouds? Does the ocean get lower when the water goes to the clouds? Why does wood burn? (Had to look that one up, here’s the answer: http://science.howstuffworks.com/fire1.htm) And, why did that little peanut make Aunt Danielle so sick? The ‘peanut’ to which she refers is the peanut sized baby that was baby Aidan during Aunt Danielle’s first trimester. The picture this week is of Daddy and Alex in their favorite bonding ritual, shopping for boats on the computer (Chloe is asleep on Daddy’s lap because this was the day she got shots and had her swim lesson). Alex asks all sort of questions about the boats and is learning about different kinds of boats and together he and Daddy count the number of motors etc. Oh, and both of the kids are suddenly interested in letters and numbers. They notice letters and numbers on signs and packages and all around us and they love to talk about them. Chloe practices writing and drawing everyday without us asking her to. Her drawings are much more consistently recognizable and her repertoire of things she can draw is growing rapidly.
shower pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/AidanSShower

well visit 2007

4 year well-visit: The kids are growing like weeds. Here’s what I wrote last year: “. In the past year Alex has gone from 29lb 34.5in tall to 33lb 38 in tall, and Chloe has gone from 25lb 33.5in tall to 29lb 37 in tall.” This year Alex is 37.6 lb 40.5 in, and Chloe is 33.2 lb 39.5in. So Alex has grown 1.5 in and Chloe has grown 2.5 in. Seems like more than that when I put last year’s pants on them! Chloe’s height is in the 50th percentile and her weight is in the 25th percentile and they asked me if she is eating ok. Chloe eats like it is going out of style, she just bounces it all off, Tigger-style. I guess it is pretty unusual for a kid with such big parents to be on the smaller end of the curve, but Chloe has always been on the smaller end of the curve, so it is not like there is a change. We talked to the pediatrician about Chloe walking on her toes. We’ve talked with the pediatrician about this every year since she could walk and they’ve always said that she has full range of motion in her tendons, she just chooses to walk on her toes. Well this year they said her tendons have gotten short/tight and that she will need physical therapy. I am SO not looking forward to another activity that the kids don’t want to do. Then I talked to the doctor about Chloe’s acid reflux getting worse. He said she is on a pretty high dose of Prevacid already and we should go to the gastroenterologist before we decide what to do, and in the mean time give Chloe Malox at meals. There is a surgery that can correct the problem she has with the top of her stomach, but it would of course be a last resort. I have to wonder how close we are to that since Chloe threw up the other day (and showed no other signs of illness and ate fine for the rest of the day) and last night she told us she was swallowing yucky stuff that came up into her mouth. Her reflux was under control until 2-3 weeks ago, so I hope this is just a phase. Then we talked about Alex. The doctor said kids aren’t expected to say “L’s” properly until 1st grade, so no worries there. The doctor also spent a great deal of time explaining what to do this winter as each of the asthma symptoms inevitably gets worse this winter. This willingness to take time to talk through the kids issues is why we’ve stuck with this doctor. Chloe was having trouble being patient through the discussion and kept asking for her turn to talk to the doctor. Before the appointment I’d made a list of all the things I wanted to talk about, so Chloe decided she’d make a list of what she wanted to talk about. She asked me to write “shot” and then she did her best to copy it. I made the mistake of telling her a full day in advance that she was going to get a shot. She told me over and over that she didn’t want a shot. I read her the story from last year when I got the flu shot first and then the nurse asked “who wants to go next?” and Alex said “me!”. He got his shot and said “ouch!” and then he got his Band-Aid and then said “it doesn’t hurt anymore!” Alex decided he was going to brave again this year and go first. He said he wasn’t scared, he was brave. Chloe continued to say she was scared. When the nurse arrived with the shots we found out they would each have to get FIVE shots. Alex still said he would go first. The nurse started taking the caps off the shots and Alex said “Mom, those are needles!” Poor kid had no idea what a shot was! I still made him go first and he did great through the first 3, then he started crying pretty hard with the last two. This really set Chloe off and she was crying and screaming “no!” We pulled her pants down and pinned her down and I have never heard anyone scream like that except in slasher movies. Poor kid was really terrified. All day afterward whenever she’d think about it, she’d start crying again and say, “I didn’t want to get shots, they hurt too much!” I haven’t told them yet that they have to get Hepatitis shots before we go on our cruise, and I haven’t told Chloe about physical therapy. Since we’re having so much trouble with school and swimming, I might hold off a couple weeks.

week ending nov 4, 2007:

Week ending November 4, 2007: This week has been similar to the previous weeks in that Chloe is quizzing us on all sorts of subjects, and Alex is continuing to test his limits. Since they started school both kids are quick to cry over stuff that didn’t previously bother them and Alex has been showing other signs of being stressed out, so I decided to try to take it a little easier on them and to try to keep life around here even calmer than usual. Well, that didn’t work very well. On Monday their swim instructor tried to “teach” them to hold their breath by bobbing them under the water while they were screaming “no!”. They’ll have a different instructor from now on after my conversation with the manager of the swim school. Then on Thursday we lost Chloe’s “Bunny”. She’s slept with bunny every night since she was 6 months old, so it is a BIG deal to her. We’ve looked all over and I continue to have hope that we’ll find Bunny. Chloe is occasionally sad, but hasn’t lost any sleep over it. To take it easier on the kids I’ve tried to reduce my expectations in some areas. Sure they can put their shoes, and sure there is no reason why I should have to ask them 100 times to do it, but maybe I can be less confrontational if they get distracted before getting their shoes on. Or, if they don’t want to put their shoes on, maybe I can say “do you want to put your shoes on, or do you want me to do it for you?” Well, “give them an inch and they’ll take a mile” didn’t become a proverb for nothing. Alex’s behavior this week can be summed up in his behavior at breakfast. He wanted his breakfast on the light blue plate. The light blue plate was dirty. We went back and forth about this with him sitting at the table refusing to eat breakfast for a half hour until he finally conceded that he could eat off of a different color plate. Then he didn’t want to get dressed, didn’t want to go to Sunday School, didn’t want to wash his hands, etc. It would be easy to assume that he’s just being a rotten kid, but the other night he dissolved into tears in the middle of playing a cheerfully rowdy game and he curled up in my lap and sobbed with his arms wrapped tight around my neck. I really think he’s just stressed out. He’s usually so well behaved that these last few weeks have been like alarm bells going off. Chloe’s whopper questions this week include “Why is there water in toilets?” “What about outside toilets?” “Why do trees sleep in the winter?” “How do frogs keep warm in the winter?” And my favorite “How does blood swim around inside me if it doesn’t have hands?”

halloween 2007

Halloween 2007: The kids had a wonderful time on Halloween this year. Chloe dressed up as Princess Belle from Beauty and the Beast, and Alex dressed as Buzz Lightyear from Disney’s movie “Toy Story”, Casey wore “tattoo sleeves” and a bandanna on his head (the only bandannas I could find around here were bright pink, or rainbow with unicorns and Casey was a good sport and decided rainbows were manly enough), and I was a mummy (the kids are sick of me painting their faces, so I had to paint my own). The kids were both excited to go trick-or-treating and Chloe told me she wanted to go to 55 houses and I said “how about 15?” and she decided that was ok (I’m pretty sure she doesn’t know how much bigger 55 is than 15). When it was finally time, the kids ran up to the door of the first house and said trick-or-treat and got their candy and as we were walking to the door of the second house Alex said “I LOVE this!” and kissed my hand that he was holding. We made the kids hold our hands in the street (our neighborhood doesn't have sidewalks) and when they got to each driveway they ran all the way up to the door and knocked incessantly (I kept saying “that’s enough knocking, they heard you”). Last year Alex lagged behind the whole time as he gazed around and took everything in, and this year he was much more confident and assertive. The highlight of Chloe’s evening was when we went to the house of a neighbor who got really into the Halloween spirit and they had spooky music and the person giving out candy had a scary witch latex mask. Chloe said “I’m not afraid!” and marched right up and talked to the scary witch. Afterwards Chloe said “She’s not really a witch, it’s just a costume. I talked to her and now she’s my friend.” And then Chloe repeated the story several more times because she was so proud of herself for being brave. All told we only went to about 17 houses (Chloe and I counted to make sure we got at least 15) before Chloe said she was ready to go home. At home we checked that their candy was safe and let them eat as much as they could while watching a half hour cartoon. I’m usually a stickler about limiting their sugar intake so Casey kept saying “Are you sure they can eat this much candy?” and “Have you seen how much they are eating?” I just love Halloween and no one got sick, so all’s well that end well.

week ending oct 28, 2007:

October 28, 2007: Alex has been having a hard week this week. He’s had 3 tantrums, one of them at school which resulted in his being sent to the office. There is no other repercussion associated with being sent to the office, no “this will go down on your permanent record” talk, no spanking or anything, the teachers just have their hands full with their students and don’t have time to deal with a child who won’t go along with the group. But, as soon as they got in the car after school Chloe told me “there is a place at school called the office where they send bad kids and Alex had to go there because he wouldn’t walk”, so Alex got the idea that going to the office is a punishment and he’s ashamed. Even before the incident he didn’t want to go to school and feeling ashamed just compounds his dislike of school. Fortunately the next time they go to school is Tuesday and it is the Halloween party, so at least he’s got something to look forward to.

On Wednesday we were all supposed to go to the aquarium with Grammy Barb, but Alex had already had 2 (unrelated) tantrums that week and then he told me he didn’t want to go the aquarium. I got out the pictures from our last trip to the aquarium and Alex just calmly reiterated that he was not going to go. I thought about it for a while and decided that a trip to the aquarium with crowds and lots of unfamiliar experiences would probably just further stress Alex out and that a calm day at home with Grammy Barb might be just the ticket. So Chloe and I went to the aquarium and had a fabulous time and Alex stayed home and had a nice time. When I got home I showed him all 80 pictures that Chloe and I took and mostly he was interested in them, but at one point he did mention that he was a little sad that he’d seen the dolphins. Our pictures http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/Aquarium2007

Also this week the kids started swimming lessons. I had signed the kids up before they started to hate school and before Alex was showing signs of being stressed out. The kids had a great time at their lesson and liked their teacher and I stayed in the pool area (in the 85F 85% humidity instead of on the other side of the observation glass) so that Alex would be able to see that I was right there.

Also this week we bought some new tea and the kids were very excited about it. They are so fascinated with each step of making the tea as though heating water, bobbing a tea bag, waiting for it to steep, wringing out the bag, and stirring in milk and sugar are each steps in some magic spell. We bought a multipack of caffeine-free herb teas with flavors like lemon, orange, ginger, cinnamon apple, and chamomile. They willingly tried all those new flavors (which a big deal for kids their age who usually reject the unfamiliar).

week ending oct 21, 2007:

Week ending October 21, 2007: This week the kids have been making me laugh, and making me think, so I thought I’d spend some time cherishing the little moments. Chloe is so curious about the world she comes up with some challenging questions. For instance one day she was quizzing me in the car “Did God make the sky? Did God make the dirt? Does God make cars?” So I told her that people make cars and she said “How do people make cars?” So I came up with “Well they take metal and cut and bend it into the right shape”. She said “How do they know what the right shape is?” Jeez kid, cut me some slack! Another day she asked out of the blue “where are Great PopPop’s body and bones?” I’d seen the progression coming on that question. When we went to the Science Center we talked about how the dinosaurs lived a long time ago but they all died and all that is left is their bones because they don’t need bodies or bones in heaven. Also this week she asked if her cold was caused by a bacteria or a virus. This question is partly because of the Magic School Bus episode that goes “inside Ralphie” for a look at how the body fights illness, and party because a few days earlier Alex started the cold with a sore throat and I had said we might have to take Alex to the doctor to find out if his sore throat was caused by a bacteria or a virus.

My list of quirky stuff that I noticed Alex doing this week includes Alex telling people “my Mom can do that”. When we were at Sunday school and the DVD player wasn’t working Alex told the teacher “my Mom can fix it”, and when Grammy Barb couldn’t get the brownies out of the pan Alex told her “my Mom knows how to do it”. The kids do know that I have my limitations though. When there was a bug in the bathroom Chloe said “we’ll have to call Daddy to get it” and then Alex grabbed a big toy and squashed it himself. That is one gender division I can live with! Also this week Alex was sitting on the toilet when he asked “why does that toilet paper turn the wrong way?” I’d never shown the kids how to install paper in the holder so I’d never pointed out which way the paper “should” turn, but I am fastidious about putting the paper in so that the paper hangs over the top. Poor Alex I guess he will now inherit that quirk. The pictures this week are of Chloe with a picture of an eagle she had drawn all by herself, and Alex with a belated birthday gift.

week ending oct 14, 2007:

Week ending Oct 14, 2007: This week I decided to visit the preschool. The kids have been getting progressively less enthusiastic about going to school and Tuesday they told me they were NOT going to school. They told me they were not going to put their shoes on, they were not going to get in the car, they were not going to get out of the car, and they were not going to walk to class. I told them it wasn’t optional (not in so many words), and they relented and went to class without a fuss, but I was still concerned about what was driving them to not want to go to class. The school has an open door policy, so I stayed with them in the class for the whole 2.5 hours. Alex and Chloe appeared to have a wonderful time with lots of interaction with the other kids, lots of playing inside and out, and nothing that looked too rigorously academic. I talked briefly with the teacher about my concerns (she’s quite busy watching all those kids) and she said that Alex and Chloe don’t complain about being at school while they are there. She suspects their refusals are just a power struggle with me. She did say that Alex refuses to participate in some of the activities, usually the arts and crafts stuff, and she just invites him to join in, but doesn’t make it mandatory. At home Alex is not always excited about arts and crafts, so I’m not surprised. I’ve spent a lot of energy wondering whether having them in school for 2 years of preschool is the right thing to do, especially since they tell me they don’t want to go. Right now I haven’t seen them upset about having to go to school or about anything that happened at school, and I have seen Alex making progress with social skills and they are both making progress with their writing/drawing skills, so I think school is beneficial for them this year. I don’t need them to be MENSA members, but I think this time away from home with other kids will help them make an easier transition to Kindergarten which (for our state) is a full day and 5 days a week.
On a lighter note, Chloe’s been embarrassing me (and making me laugh) by saying things I know she must have heard from me like “Don’t worry Mom, it’s not the end of the world” and “Why do I have to say ‘stop it’ 12 times?!” Alex made us laugh the other day when he was trying to tell us which shirt he wanted to wear. He said “the nipple pocket shirt” to describe the shirt with the pocket on the chest. I guess I’m just immature because I can’t hear someone say the word “nipple” without laughing. Here are the pictures from our visit to the U.S. Botanic Gardens this week: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/USBotanicGardens

week ending oct 7, 2007:

Arm paint on their "real real birthday"












We invited friends to the mall and played in the play area














I paid $1 for them to ride this roller coaster simulator at the mall. Alex seems to like it!


Week ending October 7, 2007: This week we spoiled the kids rotten. On Monday they got to go to Toys’R’Us and spend the money that people gave to them for their birthdays. I made them walk the entire store and look at everything before we put anything into the cart. What they ended up putting in the cart was very different than the 1st couple items they had the impulse to buy. On Tuesday there was a birthday celebration for the kids at school and they sang “Happy Birthday” and Alex and Chloe got crowns, and I sent in ice cream and popsicles (cupcakes are not allowed at their school). Tuesday was also their father’s birthday so we sang “Happy Birthday” to Daddy and ate more cake. On Wednesday it was their actual birthday or their “real real birthday” as Chloe told everyone. Chloe was so excited to not be 3 anymore. She danced around the house and sang “I am 4! I am 4!”. She also asked me about a hundred times “How old am I?” and I’d say “How old ARE you?”, and she’d say “one two three FOUR!”. The Face Paint Lady was at the mall so I invited some of their friends and they got their arms painted (for free!) and had pizza for lunch and I let them have Sprite (soda is absolutely thrilling for them because I almost never let them have it). Then at home after dinner we sang “Happy Birthday” again and the kids asked us to put candles in their left over birthday cake. Then they opened the presents from us. It was so much spoiling I was really starting to wonder how they would adjust to going back to a life that wasn’t ALL about them.

On Saturday we went to a birthday party at a petting farm. The guest of honor was a friend from school named Natalie. Natalie’s parents only invited 4 kids from school out of the 12 in their class, so I guess Alex and Chloe must have made an impression on Natalie. Since feeding the animals went over so well at the Catoctin zoo, I thought the petting farm would be really exciting for them. Unfortunately all Chloe really remembered about the zoo was that a goat bit her finger. She didn’t think about the dozens of animals that she fed before and AFTER she got bit. At least she did get close enough to pet the animals on the neck as long as the animal’s lips were at what she judged to be a safe distance from her. Alex wouldn’t get near hardly any of the animals. I think the problem was really that all the 10 cousins and siblings at the party would each gather in front of whichever animal we were to pet, and Alex was overwhelmed by the crowding. In the end he did pet a bunny rabbit while the other kids were off feeding pigmy goats.
On Sunday they went to Sunday school. I told them the night before that the next day would be Sunday and we would all go to church. This is the 4th week since summer break and I guess the kids are tired of it. They both told me they weren’t going. I told them they didn’t have a choice. After we got to church and the children were called out of the service to go to school, Alex and Chloe both ran back to the classroom with the other kids, so they weren’t THAT adamant about not going. When I caught up they said they wanted me to stay in class with them. Last year they were excited about Sunday school and didn’t complain about staying in class while I listened to the sermon, but this year they’ve asked me to stay at every class. At least since I’ve been watching all the classes I know that the teacher is very nice, the curriculum is fun, and there is nothing for them to be scared of other than the run-of-the-mill separation anxiety.

week ending september 30, 2007:

Week ending September 30, 2007: This week we had the kids’ birthday party. I spent weeks getting the house ready for the party including pressure washing, wiping baseboards, and cleaning everything in the china cabinet. It is the only time of the year when everything in the house is clean all at the same time, but of course the kids don’t care a lick about how clean the house is. Grammy Carole and I spent almost all day Saturday baking and decorating two cakes. It took over an hour to mix and tint 9 different colors of icing before we even started the decorating. At least this year we managed to not break any of the cakes (like I did last year). The party didn’t start until 4pm on Sunday, so Sunday school was a nice distraction, and then we had to eat lunch, and then we took the kids to pick up the balloons, and then we spent an hour hanging streamers and other decorations. After that the kids started asking “when are people going to start coming here and bringing me presents?”, so we killed some time by setting up Daddy’s new hammock, and letting the kids open one present. As people started to arrive Chloe was really disappointed that she couldn’t open the gifts right away. Not explaining the order of the party events further in advance was poor planning on my part. After a while the kids settled into playing with 2 of their cousins and had a great time swinging on the swings and bouncing on the trampoline. I did some face painting on the kids. I’d been practicing all week on Alex and Chloe. For the first couple of days they thought getting their faces painted was great, but today Alex decided he didn’t even want to have his painted. Two of Chloe’s balloons escaped during dinner and she was really upset even though she had three left. She’s lost balloons before and not been particularly upset. Maybe the anxiety of waiting all day for her party wore her out. Anyway, it wasn’t long before it was time to sing Happy Birthday and cut the cakes, and then we did a piñata, and then opened presents, so she had plenty of other things to think about besides the balloons. All told the party went very well. We only invited family to the party because the kids didn’t ask to invite their friends and the family group is usually 24-30, but I think next year we’ll be able to handle inviting the whole family and some friends. Here are the pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/4thBday2007

One other interesting story from the party involved my friend Claudine. Alex and Chloe don’t see Claudine very often (maybe 3 or 4 times a year) and Alex is usually very shy around Claudine, so much so that he will hardly say a word. Well this time Claudine was the first to arrive at the party and Alex ran right up to her and said “Look at my birthday ribbon! Do you want to see my cake? It is Lightning McQueen!”. She commented how good it was to hear Alex talking so much and I realized that she is at least the 3rd person to say that in a week and a half. Perhaps going to school has allowed Alex to practice talking with people he doesn’t know very well and this has given him confidence. Or maybe just being a little bit older has caused the change. Whatever the reason, I’m glad to see him making strides!

Walt Disney

Walt Disney: Our neighbors have a plaque in their kitchen that says “House Rules: If it is hungry, feed it. If it is dirty, clean it. If it is sad, love it.” And there are some other rules on the list, but these ones really stuck with me. I like the no-excuses, no complicated who’s-turn-is-it, no who’s-fault-is-it manner of these rules. Life should be simple. If something needs to be done, do it. Then the other night a stray cat came to our back door and I couldn’t help but think of these rules. This was one hungry and sad cat, so I put out food and water, but the cat wouldn’t stop crying until I sat down and pet it for a while. The animal was nothing but skin and bones, but it took a break from eating to get a little love. Our first meeting with the cat was after the kids had gone to bed for the night last Friday. The next morning the cat was still there on the back patio and the kids were very excited to see a new cat. At first the cat wouldn’t get within 8 feet of the kids, but after a day of patience, the cat will let them pet it if the kids stay sitting down (as soon as they stand up, the cat heads for the hills). I talked with the kids about how the cat has to stay outside because we already have an inside cat, and our inside cat has no claws and the outside cat has claws (so I really can’t see the two coming to an equitable arrangement for dividing up territory inside the house). Then I asked the kids what we should call the cat. Their 1st idea was “Sydney”, but we have friends who have a cat named Sydney, so that didn’t sound like a good idea to me. Their 2nd idea was “Wanda”, but that is the name of our cat who lives inside our house, and I tried to explain (again) that it would be confusing to have two cats with the same name. Their 3rd idea was “Walt Disney”, and that is what we’ve been calling the cat ever since (7 days now). Walt Disney comes for food and love every day, and we’ve treated Walt Disney for fleas. Soon we’re going to have to take Walt Disney to the vet to see about other parasites and rabies shots and reproductive sterilization. The kids have been asking for a new pet, everything from hermit crabs to dogs, so maybe Walt Disney will be the answer to their prayers, although I’m already worrying about how Walt Disney will weather the winter and what to do with his/her food and water when the weather turns. I guess we’ll just figure it all out one way or another.

week ending sept 23, 2007

Week ending September 23, 2007: One week left until their 4th birthday party. Chloe tells me that she wants to be 4 RIGHT NOW and then says in that really whiny-complaining voice that she’s been 3 for such a LONG time. I think she’s implying that it is somehow my fault that she’s had to be 3 for so long. I guess it is confusing about which events are under parental control such as bed time or how many cookies are allowed for dessert, and which events parents are not in control of, such as the weather or how old they are (although one could argue that a year is of arbitrary length and that gauging age based upon the number of trips the earth has made around the sun IS something that I have DECIDED to adhere to rather than something completely out of my control such as the weather, but that is not within the scope of this document). Anyway, when the kids turned 3, they were wearing diapers every day, sleeping in their cribs, we took the stroller and diaper bag with us wherever we went, and waking a sleeping child was considered by both parents to be something of a tragedy. Now diapers and cribs are a distant memory, and the kids are sleeping great almost no matter where we take them. When Alex was 2 he used to have a lot of trouble getting back to sleep if something (or nothing) woke him up. Sometimes I would end up in his room for hours trying to figure out how to get him back to sleep. Now he WANTS to sleep at night. One time a few months ago I could hear him coughing non-stop in the middle of the night and I went into his room to see if he needed a drink. He said he didn’t want to sit up and take a drink, he wanted to sleep. Finally after I wouldn’t leave him alone he took a drink and then I asked him if we wanted me to stay with him until he got to sleep or if he wanted me to go back to my room. He said “go to your room”. It was music to me ears! It was during this year that he gained the confidence that he could get himself back to sleep, and during this year that I started to get a lot more regularly scheduled sleep myself. Potty training was every bit as difficult as it sounded and then some, but hopefully it is a milestone we can put behind us. As their 4th birthday approaches their personalities continue to grow. Chloe has boundless enthusiasm and loves to spend all her time interacting with people, although she’s sometimes short of temper. Alex displays an affinity for problem solving of the visual-spatial variety, he’s gaining confidence in tackling new situations, but he is sometimes stubborn. This year the kids also started riding bikes and going to school, Chloe had an endoscopy, they did their first trick-or-treating, and had their first dental appointments. Next stop driver’s ed and college. At least I can still pick them up and carry them, although it has been a few months since I’ve picked both of them up at the same time. What will the coming year bring? I can’t even guess, but that’s ok because we’re just taking things one day at a time.

week ending sept 16, 2007:

Week ending September 16, 2007: This week Alex seems to have gotten over his fear of school. Tuesday was his first full day (2.5 hours) and he was still nervous, but by Thursday he was saying that he is not afraid any more. Chloe is still pretty blasé about school, she doesn’t seem to care if she goes or not. She hasn’t had much luck getting the other little girls to talk to her yet, so I’m hoping that once the kids get more used to each other, Chloe will like it better.

Grammy Carol had a coupon for a free sitting and discounted prints at a portrait studio, so we took the kids. They said they didn’t want to go, and didn’t want their picture taken, but the photographer was so funny that in the end they were sad when he was done. The studio will send us a link to an on-line copy of the proofs and I’ll send the link around when I get it.

We took the kids for a sleep-over at Mr Rob and Miss Tina’s house on top of a mountain in Frederick. The kids were immediately excited about going and they grabbed their bags and started packing. While I packed the clothes and toiletries the kids each packed a bag of toys. I have to limit them to one bag each or they’d keep going until every toy they owned was in a suitcase or backpack. Alex said “I wuv sweeping at Miss Tina’s” (he’s still pronouncing ‘l’s as ‘w’s). The next morning we drove up to the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve http://www.cwpzoo.com/ which is a small zoo and petting farm in Thurmont. The kids loved it, especially getting to feed pellets to the animals. They fed deer, goats, donkeys, and lamas. Actually, I’m thinking they would have enjoyed Clarks Ellioak Petting Farm http://www.clarklandfarm.com/ just as well and it wouldn’t have cost nearly as much, but hindsight is 20/20. Pictures from the zoo are at http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/CatoctinWildlifePreserve

The image below is the first frame of a video of Alex and Chloe singing Jimmy Buffett’s song Volcano. Click the triangle in the lower left of the picture to play the video.

week ending sept 9, 2007

Week ending September 9, 2007: This week we went to the Renaissance Festival and took the kids fishing again. The kids had a great time at the Ren Fest. We rode an elephant, got face paint (on their arms), watched the joust, watched a pirate show for kids, ate dinner, played at the pirate playground, and went on a pony ride. Here are the pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/RenaissanceFestival2007 Alex’s favorite part was the joust, which surprised me, and Chloe’s favorite part was the elephant ride. Going to the Fest with kids is a whole different experience than going with adults. Everywhere we went people made eye contact and smiled and many of the actors working the fest talked to us. King Henry came over to us at dinner and told us some jokes, and later as we were walking by the Queen and her Ladies in Waiting, we were invited to sit with them and be serenaded. Chloe felt like a princess!

The fishing trip went great, and this time we’d brought Grammy Carole, Granddad, Uncle Dan, and Natalie along. Natalie LOVED pounding through the waves and she shrieked and jumped up and down every time we got going fast. We caught 11 fish in an hour and Natalie got to reel a few in. Alex is still really excited about fishing and has the greatest laugh when we are boating a fish. Chloe didn’t want to do any reeling this time, but she ran over to see each fish as we brought them out of the water.

We had an interesting situation earlier in the week. Chloe came to get me and she was crying something unintelligible about her toy kitty called Marie. She led me into the bathroom where I found Alex holding a dripping Marie over the toilet. I roared “Alex what did you do!” and he immediately started crying so hard he couldn’t talk. I decided to put him into time out (so we could BOTH calm down). Every time I put the kids in time out I explain, as simply as I can, what the transgression is, so I said “you are NOT allowed to put Chloe’s toys in the toilet.” Chloe then said “he didn’t do it, I did.” Now I’m really confused. Chloe’s still crying and she says the “Marie is DIRTY!”. I say “you put Marie in the toilet because she was dirty?” Chloe says “the toilet is always dirty!” What? After much more question and answer I find out that they’d been throwing rubber worms at the ceiling (a favorite past time) and one stuck, so Chloe threw Marie at the worm to knock the worm down and Marie fell in the toilet. I apologized repeatedly to Alex and thanked him for helping Chloe get Marie out of the toilet and we had a group hug.

first day of school

First day of school:
2 hours before school:
Alex- I don’t want to go to school. I don’t want new friends, just old friends.
1 hour before school:
Alex- I need you to go to school with me.
Chloe – No! I don’t want you to go school!
½ hour before school Alex decides he can do it by himself
When picking the kids up from school the teacher walks the kids to the car and says – “They are going to be very easy, they can do everything I asked”
After we pull away from school:
Chloe – “we only read one book. It was about pancakes. It wasn’t very fun”
Me- “the book wasn’t very fun?”
Chloe – “yeah”.
Me – 20 questions
Chloe – There is a girl named Natalie in my class. 2 of them.
Alex – Mom, I made friend! I have race car shoes and he has race car shoes.
Me- did you talk about your shoes?
Alex – Yes!
Me – did you ask the boy his name?
Alex – No
Chloe – The teacher said we had to take a break from playing and have a snack.
Me – What did you eat?
Chloe – Graham crackers, but only one and it wasn’t sugary race car ones.
Me – Did you paint and color?
Chloe – yes, I brought a project home
Me – I’m so excited!
Chloe - It is a surprise for Halloween. (She still won’t let me see it, it isn’t Halloween yet)
Alex – I wanted to paint but the teacher said “no”
Me – today was a short day, there may not have been enough time. Maybe next time there will be enough time for everyone to paint. Did you need me today at school? (I had told them earlier that the teacher can do everything I can do and they wouldn’t need me)
Alex- I was a little scared
Me – Do you think you will be a little scared next time, or did you learn today that school is not scary?
Alex – I think I’ll be a little scared next time.
Later that evening Alex and talked again about his being scared. I told him that doing something scary is brave. He insists that he was scared, not brave. I asked him if his teacher gave him a hug would he be less scared. He says he would be less scared. I asked if hugging the teacher would be scary. He says no. I asked him if he wants me to put a note in his tote bag to tell the teacher that he is a little scared and would like a hug. He says that is a good idea. We talk a little more and he says he’s afraid he’ll get lost at school. I can understand that. Tomorrow we’ll try to think of ways to help him worry less about getting lost. Maybe we’ll go over to school as the Friday kids are leaving and let him get used to walking the halls.

more than you ever wanted to know about superglue

I know this is called "kids this week", but this one is all about ME! This morning I got Superglue in my eye. How did I manage that? I was trying fix Chloe's broken heart by Supergluing her Cinderella gem back into her tiara. I squirted a pool of glue in the empty space in the tiara (I used quite a lot because lets face it, the stuff only sticks to skin anyway) and when I tried to place the gem in the space, it wouldn't quite fit so I pushed until it popped into place which forced the Superglue to squirt out of the tiara into my eye. I had flashbacks to one of those scare-the-life-out-of-you lectures in 8th grade shop class (I still avoid using powertools whenever possible because of the fear inspired by those lectures) and began to panic. My eye with the glue in it was so uncomfortable that the other eye started to water and as I raced over to the computer to look up what to do I realized that I couldn't see well enough to read. So I called Casey at work. "Hi, do you have a minute?" Yeah. "I've got Superglue in my eye, what should I do?" (stunned silence) "I should call poison control, right?" Yeah. "I can't read the number, can you look it up?" Yeah. So I hang up with Casey thinking I'm blind with my eye glued shut because I didn't bother to tell him otherwise. The guy at Poison Control doesn't ask me for my medical history or put me on hold (as the Ask A Nurse line always does when I call about the kids) before he tells me what to do, but he does inform me that having Superglue in my eye won't poison me. Thanks. Anyway, since my eye is NOT glued shut the procedure is to flush my eye with water for 15 minutes and call him back right away if it feels like some of the glue hardened into granules which can scratch my eye. I realize that this isn't going go to go over well with two 3 year olds, so I explain as simply as I can what's going on to Alex and Chloe, set a timer for 15 minutes and cross my fingers that they don't try any of those things that 3 year old inevitalby do like "look Mom, I can climb to the top of the TV!". After about 30 seconds of flushing my eye it felt like I imagine running sand paper over my eye would feel like, presumably just because I'd washed all the natural lubricants out of my eye. 15 minutes is a long time to hold your head in the sink and contemplate going to the ER with two kids. After a few minutes I get bored and decide to call Casey back with a status update. He says that some website confirms the advice to flush the eye with water for 15 minutes. If he hadn't said that I'd have quit with the water, because really, what could get rinsed out that didn't get rinsed out in the 1st 30 seconds? After the 15 minutes my entire eye is bright red and it hurts uniformly, but I can see, so I decide it is fine and take the kids on the bike ride that we'd been preparing for before I got the glue in my eye. After the bike ride the pain from the flushing has subsided enough that I can feel 2 or 3 granules in my eye so I start to do my own research. http://www.supergluecorp.com/removingsuperglue.html says that the glue bonds to the protein in my eye and granules will come out on their own in a few days and that there are no know cases of anyone losing sight because of Superglue (presumably they'd know because they'd have been sued). Interestingly enough it also says that it is almost impossible to swallow Superglue because it hardens once it touches your saliva and bonds to the inside of your mouth before you could swallow it. Good to know. I think that also means that the glue bonded to my eye well before I began the flushing and the 15 minute water torture was for nothing, but who knows?