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.