juliloquy

quick learner

You have perhaps seen the video of Roo's birthday where she is clearly perplexed about the blowing-out-the-candles business. HPR helped her with the cake candles and Shmoo helped her with her birthday ring candles.

Shmoo's birthday is six weeks after Roo's, and this video shows that it didn't take long for her to catch on. I ended up having to restrain her while HPR relit Shmoo's candles.

busman's holiday

HPR has the day off and we're going on a day trip to Mt. Vernon. I hadn't realized it's so close.

And this is a photo of Shmoo in the bounce house at his birthday party.

Shmoo through the years

Shmoo made me a mother five years ago. We retold his birth story to him today, how it all started with a donut on Broad Street, and that he said "I want that!" My trolley ride home while in labor, calling HPR to tell him it was time for him to come home. How the fire alarm was going off at the hospital when we arrived, the elevator began to take us up to the 14th floor, but then stopped and returned us to the first floor. (We only had to wait a few minutes before we could go up, but I had visions of delivering in the waiting room.) Anyway, here he is, over the years. Newborn photo missing since I'm not at my computer.

Age one

A few days away from age two, in New Mexico

 

Age three, he's looking at me

 

Age four, brother bugs sister (and best Philly friend, S.)

 

And a few days shy of five, bugging tables turned

Here's to Shmoo!

he doesn't dig on swine

Only a short post today. We are exhausted from preparing for Shmoo's party, then the party itself (bounce house again this year, and s'mores, all in our own back yard), then packing up and driving 3 hours to PA grandparents' place.

Shmoo's quote to the crowd during his party. "I don't eat any meat except turkey bacon. My mom says I'm a veterinarian."

He turns 5 tomorrow!

and yet our house is still filled with crap

Things I threw away/recycled when my son wasn't looking that I had told him he could keep but that he never thought of again:

• leaves, fresh and dried
• various rocks
• pine cones and other assorted seed pods
• deflated balloons, some with ribbons attached, some without
• foxtails
• wild mushrooms
• a brownie mix box
• various candy wrappers

more on parenting tactics

The brilliant Sheryl tweeted that she charges a candy tax for every wrapper she finds on the floor. Excellent! So today, after catching Shmoo trying to lift Loki cat up with a doll scarf, I told him if I saw him hurting the cat or Roo that I would take a piece of candy out of his basket and eat it. As I was gathering shoes and coats to get us out the door for his afternoon Pre-K, I caught Shmoo roughly squeezing Roo on the couch. (He puts one hand on her belly and the other on the small of her back and pushes them together.) I announced that I was taking a piece of his candy and did it. (I set the candy aside because I had just brushed my teeth.) He was crestfallen. Candy is his Precious. So we'll see how effective this is. The best part about it is I can just calmly announce it and do it, rather than put him in time-out, which tends to get dramatic and incendiary. When the candy's all gone, however, I'll have to figure out another plan.

Shmoo's actions worry me a bit because no matter what I say/do, he doesn't seem to realize the consequences of what he does. Empathy doesn't seem to be his strong suite. I wouldn't say it's on the level of sociopath—probably more a lack of impulse control.

It's tough to find the balance of controlling him vs. letting things play out. The cat has claws and teeth and can run away and jump out of reach. Roo can speak up for herself and physically can hold her own more and more. She enjoys the roughhousing they do (different than today's incident because it wasn't mutual). But Shmoo is nearly 50 lbs and strong as an ox. Bottom line is we don't inflict harm on others. /sigh/

mistakes were made

A few recent photos have me wondering what kind of example I'm setting for my kids.

First is Roo's Britney imitation.

 

She went on to give the baby an underdog-push in the baby swing.
Seriously - she said "unnadod" as she was doing it.

All right, so two minor lapses in judgment and no one is hurt, right?
I'm afraid I can't say the same of microwaving the baby.

 

Ding! Fresh baby!

So I guess I should make some changes to my parenting tactics. Maybe the first step should be to let the kids out of their cages more often.

 

Halloween recap

Daylight savings ends. An extra hour of sleep, right? Yeah, tell that to a 2-year-old. Specifically, my 2-year-old. Because the kids both took good naps yesterday (a rarity for Shmoo these days) and because of trick-or-treating and the required combing through of the haul, we let them stay up late. It still seems so unfair that that never works for getting them to sleep in.

So, Halloween. We weren't sure how our new neighborhood would be. Seems like it would be the kind of place where people really get into the holiday. Probably it was back in the 60s when these houses were first built and there were kids everywhere. Long story short—our cul-de-sac is lame. We were the only house open for business. We are at the bottom of the cul-de-sac and only had about 10 visitors. (Wishing I had been more generous with the first visitors.) Anyway, now we know for next year.

HPR stayed home to answer the door while I took the kids out. Roo was in the stroller for some of the time. Shmoo was sweet in asking folks if he could have some for his sister, too, motioning back to us in the driveways. (Not sure how truly unselfish were his motives, but I'm choosing to put that spin on it.) Our route was a nice loop around the neighborhood. We were out from about 7-8 and toward the end, people were virtually pouring the candy into our bags. So between the kids' take and our leftovers, we're doing well.

It's crazy, but it just might work

I signed up for NaBloPoMo, which requires me to post every day in November. I believe that means more posts in November than I've put up so far in 2009. I'm looking forward to seeing where this takes me.

Also crazy: we invited all of Shmoo's Pre-K classmates to his birthday party next weekend. Nineteen 4- and 5-year olds.

Shmoo wanted to be the Easter Bunny for Halloween (?!). Easy costume! I bought a second pair of bunny ears and tail for Roo, but she wouldn't wear them.

And Roo just woke up from her nap. More . . . tomorrow!

to bump "grueling and thankless and monotonous" down a notch

Shmoo, today, on observing a nearly-empty sippy cup:
"My juice is at low tide."

Unexpected things Roo has labeled "tyoot" (cute):
a worm
a cicada
a spider (well it was itsy bitsy)