week ending june 29, 2008:

Week ending July 29, 2008: This week the kids and Casey and I went to the National Zoo with MomMom, PopPop, Skye, Blade and Aunt Tricia. The kids had a great time. Here are the pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/NationalZoo2008

This week the twins and I were talking at lunch one day when Alex said “there have to be bad guys or the good guys wouldn’t have anyone to fight”. Chloe said “the good guys can fight the good guys, that is how they practice”. I said “wouldn’t it be nice if there were no bad guys and no one had to fight?” Alex said, “No, I like fighting”. It occurred to me later that maybe he just meant he likes to see fighting in the movies, but at first I was pretty surprised that Alex didn’t like the idea of a world with no bad guys.

Alex was pretty cranky again this week. One night as I was reading bed time stories to Chloe I could hear Alex crying and fussing at his father in the next room. When story time was over and I went in to give Alex his good night hugs and kisses he gave me a really angry look. I asked if he wanted a hug. He continued with the evil glare. I explained that he didn’t have to have a hug if he didn’t want to, I could just go downstairs without a hug if that is what he wanted. Still no answer. I told him that I couldn’t wait forever for an answer, he’d have to tell me yes or no, did he want a hug, or I was going to have to go downstairs with no hug. Still no answer, so I went downstairs. I could hear him cry for a little while, but when I went back up to turn his light off after the usual 10 minutes, I asked again if he would like a hug. This time he said “no”. He kept that up for 2 days. On the 3rd day after I’d turned his light off I heard the stairs creak, so I went to see who was there. Alex stood on the top stair and held his arms open to me. I gave him a big hug and he squeezed me tight and gave me a kiss right on the lips. I asked if he missed his good night hugs and kisses. He nodded. I said I missed them too. I was really overwhelmed by the sweet reunion.

This week seems to be all about Alex, but some weeks are like that. This week Alex learned how to whistle. He’s been practicing blowing and slowly moving his tongue to try to find the proper tongue placement and all of a sudden today he found it. I gave him a surprised look and hollered “you did it!” He looked sheepish and covered his mouth with both hands like he wasn’t sure that he really wanted to have whistled. Then he got a big grin and tried it again.
I took the kids to see the Wall-E movie this week. Chloe liked it, but Alex had his hands clasped over his ears during several parts of the movie.

week ending june 22, 2008:

Week ending June 22, 2008: At the end of last week I took Chloe to see her Cousin Natalie and her Aunt Danielle’s dance recital. There were 35 song-and-dance numbers and Chloe started out dancing while sitting in Grammy Carole’s lap and about ½ way through gave up the pretense of sitting and stood up to dance. Fortunately we had an extra empty seat in our aisle that gave her room get her grove on. Every day since, she’s asked me to put on our Spanish Guitar CD so she can dance around the living room.

On Monday I wanted to have a take-it-easy day to recover from all the effort we put into throwing the surprise party, so I offered to take the kids to see Kung Fu Panda. Sunday night Alex said he was excited to go. By Monday morning he said he wasn’t going to go. I found previews on-line and played them and Alex changed his mind and decided to come with us. Then I told Alex that there was a bad guy in the movie and there might be some scary parts. I really wanted Alex to go, but he does tend to get overwhelmed with the big screen and the super-loud surround sound at the theater, so I thought it was better that he be able to prepare himself to expect the bad-guy and to remember that it is only a movie that can’t hurt him. In the end, Alex decided he’d really rather stay with a sitter while I took Chloe to the movie, so Grammy Carole offered to watch him. In the theater Chloe was nervous during the previews and then relaxed once the film started. When the bad guy appeared and started doing bad guy stuff, I asked Chloe if she was ok. She looked at me and shouted, “Mommy, this is AWESOME!” She really loved the Kung Fu action and wants to learn to jump from roof top to roof top. Now Alex can’t wait for the movie to get to Blockbuster.

On Thursday we had a play date with my friend Jules from college who now has 4 kids. Alex and the oldest boy, Turner, played with the GeoTrax electric trains for about 3 hours. It is so funny how much differently Alex plays when he can find another boy to play with. When Alex came downstairs I could hear that his cough had become “barky”, so I rushed him off to the doctor. In the past, once the cough gets barky it just gets worse and worse until he can hardly breathe, so now I take him in as soon as I hear the bark. The doctor loaded us up with meds and Alex is on the mend already.

Also this week we got to meet Grammy Barb’s new puppy. Alex was very brave about picking the puppy up right away. Chloe was more tentative about the puppy’s flailing legs, but she warmed up pretty shortly. Now the kids want to go to Grammy Barb’s house every day to see the new puppy! Here are some pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/PuppyLove

week ending june 15, 2008

Week ending June 15, 2008: The pictures this week are of the dune buggy that we made out of the erector set, the pile of parts left after we dismantled the dune buggy, and the robot that we made out of the same parts.

This week Alex and Chloe became Jr Entrepreneurs. Ever since she heard that her cousins get paid to do chores, Chloe has been bugging me about what she can do to earn money. Since the kids receive gift money and souvenir money, and I let them spend it right away, they’ve learned the cause and effect that if they have money, they can get stuff they want. One day this week she was particularly adamant that I tell her what she could do to earn money so I decided she could pick up pine cones so that I could mow the lawn. She and Alex each earned a quarter and later that day we went to Sam’s Club and they each bought a gum ball. The cause-and-effect was totally reinforced and now they are hooked on earning money. It has taken me a while to come up with ideas for what they can do to earn money. Their cousins wash dishes and do chores that the twins are incapable of. I’m undecided about whether I want to pay them to do chores like dusting when I know I’ll have to go behind them and do it again. The lesson in reward for effort would be nice, but I’d really like to get something for my money. I toyed with the idea of paying them for breaking bad habits like giving Chloe a quarter if she could go 4 days without intentionally hurting her brother. Her pinching, hitting, and scratching is really troublesome to the family, but I don’t know how to make an equal offer to Alex.

This week Alex’s behavior has been sub-par. Usually Alex likes rules because they make his life predictable, but this week he has been bucking the system. Some examples are he and Chloe were fighting over a toy, I decided that it was Chloe’s turn and Alex could have the toy in 2 minutes when it would be his turn. This has been standard operating procedure for years, and is generally accepted by all parties involved, but this week it resulted in Alex pounding his fist on the stairs and yelling “NO! (pound) NO! (pound) NO! (pound)”. The rest of the week was much the same. “Alex, it is time to brush your teeth”, “NO! (kicking and screaming)”. “Alex, please pick out your clothes and get dressed”, “NO! (kicking and screaming)”. I’m not sure what alien has invaded my child, but I’m thinking about an exorcism. I also noticed that 3 times this week Alex has skipped dinner. We require presence at the dinner table, but eating is optional. The only catch is that no other food is provided until the dinner is eaten, so the evening snack offered is the dinner plate, which Alex again refused all 3 times. I put 2 and 2 together and determined that Alex was miserable because hunger was making him cranky and decided he couldn’t leave the table until his dinner was gone. Even after eating a proper dinner, he was still miserable the next day. We’d finally gotten away from making separate dinners for the kids and now it looks like we are in for another struggle to enforce the “you eat what you get” rule. Sometimes I just wonder if all this struggle is worthwhile.
Also this week we had a surprise birthday party for Grammy Barb. She seemed to genuinely surprised and all parties involved seemed to enjoy themselves.

week ending jun 8, 2008:

Week ending June 8, 2008: This week Alex told me about a dream he had. He regularly tells me about his dreams, but he said this was a “wonderful” dream. Alex said in the dream a nice man came and brought things that grown-ups like and things that kids like. He said “you know, things that grown-ups like, like cleaners and ant killers and mouse trips that go ‘BANG!’ and things that kids like, like Barbies and remote control airplanes.” It was then that I realized that I’d been remiss in expressing what things I actually like to do, and what things I do because they need to be done. All Alex sees is that when I’m not doing things for him, I’m cleaning or killing household pests. At least he didn’t say “things that grown-ups like, like Valium and tequila”. It is something of a comfort that my kids see me more like June Cleaver than Peg Bundy.

Chloe, however, thinks I’m more like the Lady Tremaine from Cinderella. I asked the kids to clean up their toys and Chloe was moaning and groaning about it and she said “why do I always have to do everything? You always said ‘do this!’ ‘do that!’” It was several hours later when I realized that she probably didn’t come up with that phraseology herself, so I asked her where she heard it. She said it was what the mice say about how the stepmother treats Cinderella.

Both kids seem to have made a leap in their coordination lately. Chloe has been working on doing cartwheels, and Alex has mastered bouncing back to his feet after he bounces on his bottom on the trampoline, which is called a seat drop. Both kids have been working on the seat drop for a long time and it just suddenly came to them. I was really impressed with Chloe while she was working on her cartwheels. She usually gets frustrated very easily and isn’t interested in putting a lot of effort into something that isn’t going exactly as she’d like, but this time she has been really diligent in her practice and is making strides.

Also this week we went to a children's festival called "Touch A Truck", here are the pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/TouchATruck

hula

The twins taught themself this dance and they call it the hula

ballet

Chloe had her last ballet class this week because the 6 week session we signed up for was over. Before the 2nd class Chloe had already decided that she didn’t like ballet lessons and didn’t want to go anymore. I asked a lot of questions about why she doesn’t like the class and one time she said “there are strangers in the class”. It is true that we did not know any of the girls in class before hand, but that has never been a problem for Chloe who makes friends wherever she goes. I sat and watched most of a class and it looked like fun to me, but there is no time for goofing around and getting to know your classmates, it is all stretching and dancing. I guess Chloe hasn’t had a class like that before where she couldn’t goof off, and she might not be mature enough. While Chloe is in class, Alex and I wait out in the hallway with 11 other moms and siblings. Fortunately there is one little boy who is about Alex’s age and Alex gets along very well with him. On the first that we met the boy Alex came over to me and said “Mom, I made a friend!”. I asked Alex what the boy’s name was and the boy overheard and said “Hawker-H-A-W-K-E-R-6-letters”. At the end of the 6 week session it was Alex who was sad to not be going to ballet class anymore because he’s afraid that he’ll never see Hawker again. Unfortunately Alex didn’t express this sadness until after we’d driven away from the building for the last time, so I haven’t asked Hawker’s mom if Alex and Hawker could get together another time. Hopefully we’ll run into them somewhere.:

Easily entertained

Just for grins: I discovered this week that if you leave several pennies entombed in Playdough for several days, then pry them out, then leave them to soak in water for two days to try to get the Playdough off, and then leave the pennies to soak in vinegar for 8 hours because the water did not soften the Playdough, you can eat a hole through at least one penny. Just in case you were wondering.

week ending jun 1, 2008:

Week ending June 1, 2008: This week’s stories are about the everyday quirks of my two 4 year olds instead of any specific events.

Starting very early in the school year, I took the kids to Blockbuster every Tuesday after school to rent a movie (I have the “Rewards Card” and Tuesday is rent one, get one free day). Every week while we waited in line the twins would ask “can we have a gumball from the machine?”, and I would always answer “no, we come here to get movies, not gum. You can have a piece of gum from my purse.” Doing some mental math, I think that is at least 30 weeks of Tuesdays, so at least 30 times that they have been told no gumballs, but that never deters them from asking the next time. Then I realized that billions of lottery tickets are sold to people who, week-after-week, do not win the lottery. So I guess any wishes I had for the kids realizing that I’m never going to buy them gum at the Blockbuster is in vain, but that isn’t a real problem, just one of those charming attributes of young children.

The kids have a strange notion of hide-and-seek. They like to play hide-and-seek every night between when we brush teeth and when we read stories. Sometimes the kids hide and they want their dad to find them, and sometimes they ask their dad to hide. Here is the strange part: they hide in the EXACT same place every night. I just don’t understand why it is so fun to go “find” someone when you already know where they are. I guess I’m just too literal. Fortunately for the kids, Casey is a good sport and allows them the joy of “winning” this game.

My next strange-but-true story is about blowing the kids’ noses. They hate it. I mean really hate it. They’d rather sit for 20 minutes screaming on the steps (as in, “you may not leave this step until we blow your nose”) than to blow their noses. I’ve tried everything I can think of to desensitize them to the process including talking about their fears and promising that no one in the history of history has ever been hurt blowing their nose, but haven’t had much luck. At one point I thought that Chloe wasn’t physically capable of breathing out of her nose, so we tried blowing out birthday-sized candles with our noses. After a few tries the kids thought that was GREAT fun, but it didn’t seem to quell their fears about blowing noses as I’d hoped. Gradually Chloe seems to have gotten used to the process, but with this latest cold, the issue has come up for Alex again. I’ve tried insisting that he blow his nose once, everyday. He’d do it very tentatively and not very productively, but at least he’d try. By the 3rd or 4th day Alex gave it a real try and had a very productive blow. He grinned from ear to ear and said “Mom, that didn’t hurt, it tickled! I’m going to do that EVERY DAY!” I was so joyful until the middle of the same night when he kept us awake with his coughing and sniffling and I got up and asked him to blow his nose and he kicked and screamed for 20 minutes about it. Oh well. Just chalk it up to one more quirk of the age.