Poky Little Henry

Henry and Evie were up in the office with me today for a bit and Evie started crying.  Henry started running around her in circles "to get gee-vie to 'top cwying".  He ran circles and circles and daddy came in to ask what he was doing.  He said to him, "I wunning wolly-polly, dumble-pumble, bell-mell."  In case you've forgotten, that's how the Poky Little Puppy climbs up the hill (roly-poly, pell-mell, tumble-bumble).  Matt also asked him today what he had for lunch and he said, "I had so much and no more.  Just like Otto."  That's from Dr. Seuss' Fish out of Water.  What a clever little boy to remember all that!

Aunt Stevie's Beach

We were in Florida this past weekend for Aunt Stevie's graduation from Nursing school.  The ride was loooong but the kids were very good.  Aunt Stevie and Uncle Eric took us to the beach on Saturday.  It was Evie's first beach trip and Henry's first time catching a fish!  What fun!  We dressed him kind of terdish, but the wind was wicked and the sun super hot and our ridiculous outfit kept the sand/sun/salt out of his eyes and the shirt and long shorts kept the sun off his skin.  He didn't get burned or have eye trouble when we left, so, while he may get beat up, at least he was safe from cancer.

 

Crib Bumpers

Anyone who has had a baby in the past 5 or so years and has read anything about having those babies knows that we're not supposed to use crib bumpers.  Young babies can suffocate on them and older babies can use them to stand up on and fall out of their cribs.  They're a big no no.  So we never used one.  Grandma got one for Henry but we never installed it because of all the bad press they'd gotten.  And we never felt like it was the wrong decision.  Little Miss Genevieve, on the other hand, has proven herself to be a little bit different.  I awoke this morning to her SCREAMING and it wasn't the "come get me, mommy" or the "oh man, I'm so mad" or even the "I'm super hungry, please quit ignoring me" cry that I'm used to.  This was, "I'm in pain.  This hurts.  A lot."  I ran up and found her wedged in the back corner of the crib with her chubby little right leg stuck between the crib slats.  And I mean stuck.  I couldn't get it out.  She moves backwards really well nowadays and must have gone back, got a little stuck, then kept pushing backwards in an attempt to get loose.  Poor little thing.  :(  I was, obviously, able to get her loose after a minute or so but I was getting really scared.  So now, against all expert advice, Evie has a crib bumper in her bed.

Cool

On the way home from school the other day, my precocious little two year old was telling me about the caterpillars they had at school and how they'd become chrysalises and that one of them had come out of its chrysalis and was a full grown butterfly and how after they all came out, they'd fly away and meet other butterflies and become mommy and daddy butterflies.  Aside from how impressed I was that my 2 year old understands the life cycle of a butterfly (not to mention how well he said the word 'chrysalis'), I was very enthusiastic about how enthusiastic he was about letting them go.  "Wow!  Cool, bubby!  When are you going to let them go?"  He has a little bit of a preschool stutter because his brain works faster than his mouth is able to form words, so in his little 2 year old stutter, he said to me, "Ma-mommy, pwease-pwease don't... pwease don't say 'cool'.  You can say, 'howey cow' if you want."  He'd told me earlier in the week not to say 'holy Moses', so this wasn't the first time I'd heard him correct me, but it was the first time he'd asked me not to say cool.  That's a word he'd been using for a long time, so I don't know when or why he decided it wasn't polite any more.  School maybe?  I prodded him about it, asking if maybe Ms. Nancy had asked him not to say it and he said, "No, Daddy say don't say cool."  Which is completely ridiculous, so I think he just made it up and decided he no longer wanted people to say it.  Ha!

Holy Moses!

Today on the way home from school, Henry was pointing out road signs to me.  He pointed to one and said, "yook, mommy, a diamond!"  I hadn't seen it so when it showed up in my rear-view mirror, I gave him the praise he was looking for.  "Holy Moses, Henry!  That IS a diamond!  Great job!"  My precocious young man responded with, "Don say 'hoey Moses', Mommy.  It not nice."  Having had no idea that 'Holy Moses' was so 'not nice,' I asked him what I should say instead.  He thought about it for awhile before saying, "well, you can say 'hoey cow.'"

Manos

We hired a Colombian nanny (Elba) in the hopes that our children would be able to learn Spanish organically, in the same way that they learned/are learning English.  She speaks to Evie exclusively in Spanish and works on Spanish words and phrases with Henry.  She's been less successful with HT because he thinks she's messing with him when she tells him what things are called in Spanish.  For example, she'll point at an airplane and say, "avion," and he'll say, "no, Ms. Elba, dat an aiw-pwane."  Anyway, yesterday, she told me that GK (who is now 7 months old) understands 'mano.'  I thought she was crazy but this morning when I was changing her diaper, I said it to her a few times.  Each time I did, she gave me her hand.  I'm not entirely convinced it wasn't because I was reaching toward her, that maybe she's reacting to my reaching rather than the word, but it was pretty cool to see.  And it made me think that maybe our plan is working!  I don't expect them to come away from the experience fluent in Spanish or anything, but even just the exposure at this age has to help with their mental flexibility, I would think.  Or at least hope.  Henry told me yesterday that the Spanish word for 'apple' is 'azana.'  I thought that was pretty good for a 2.5 year old.  Manzana is a big, hard word.  Though, he's been saying 'excavator' pretty well for the past week or so, so maybe I shouldn't be so impressed.

Evie - 7 months

"Wha shoo bake-a fo me?'

We stopped giving Henry afternoon snacks in order to ensure that he eats a good dinner so now, he's generally quite hungry around 5 pm.  The other day, he came out to tell me that he was hungry.  When he saw me making dinner, he said, "Mommy, I hun-gee.  Where my din-nin?  Wha shoo bake-a fo me?"  I about lost it.  What you bakin for me?  hahaha, oh that boy.