Ice Cream

Me: After we pick up a bag of Elsa food, we can go get some lunch.
Weston: You know, I like ice cream better.
Me: Better than what?
Weston: Anything else.
Me: Are you trying to convince me to get you ice cream instead of lunch?
Weston: Yes, I am.

20 minutes later, upon arrival to our lunch destination:
Me: Ok, let's go!
Weston: Yes, let's go *whispers something indecipherable*
Me: What?
Weston: I said, "Let's go *whispers something indecipherable again.*"
Me: I still didn't hear the last part. Can you say it loudly?
Weston, grinning: I said, "Let's go get ice cream," but I said it quietly so you couldn't say no.

While Big Brother's Away...

...little brother will play!

Weston is rediscovering the art of keeping himself busy and is quite enjoying himself. We had all kinds of plans for this week, but then Weston came down with a fever, so we're hanging around at home instead.

Since he doesn't seem to actually be feeling very sick, he has been spending his time making up strange games for himself. Yesterday, he built a structure that he referred to as, "the longest fence in the worrrrrrrrld."

 

Today, he has made a road with a gate and is narrating the game with a constant chatter of, "Beep, beep, get out of the way!"

First Day Reflections

When I picked Luke up from his first day of kindergarten today, he insisted on walking out to my car without holding the hand of the older child who was supposed to be helping him out, insisted on climbing in himself, insisted on buckling himself in. One day into "big kid school" and he's pretty sure he's grown.

Me: So what did you think of school?
Luke: Awesome.
Me: Did you have a favorite part?
Luke: I liked everything. There were too many things to even remember them all, but they were all good.

Later, upon inspecting his lunch bag:
Me: Um. You didn't eat very much, did you?
Luke: I ate the cheese stick for snack and the blueberries and pretzels for lunch. Never pack berries again because when I open the container, they fall out onto the floor.
Me: And then what?
Luke: The teachers picked them up. Actually, maybe next time I could just ask one of them to open it in the first place.
Me: Maybe so. And why exactly did you only eat a cheese stick, pretzels and blueberries?
Luke: I thought that it would be time to do the next thing, but surprise! At lunch, there were lots of other kids still eating, even after I put my lunch away.
Me: Uh-huh.
Luke: Maybe tomorrow, I can just eat until the teacher rings the bell.
Me: Hey, good idea.

Luke: Will Weston go to this school when he's in kindergarten?
Me: Yes, probably.
Luke: You know, they have a preschool there. He could just go now.
Me: Yes, I know.
Luke: So? Can we do that?
Me: No.
Luke: Aww. Why?
Me: Because kids who go to that preschool go five days a week and I want Weston to only go two days a week.
Luke: Yeah, but Mama? I think Weston will like going five days a week because then, he won't have to wait as long between when he leaves school and when he goes back next time. And also, they HAVE to go five days a week here because if they don't, how will they ever learn Spanish? It would take way, way too long if they only heard Spanish two days a week. And if Weston went here, he could talk in Spanish to me all the time.

Me: So is there a story time at school?
Luke: No. But did you know you can read WHENEVER you want?! It is so awesome!

I fully expect that the kindergarten honeymoon is going to come to an end sometime within the next couple of weeks, but I'll gladly take the happy-for-now transition instead of the tearful transition that some kids endure!

Almost Back to School

We got to go see Luke's new classroom at school and meet his teachers and I thought it was a very exciting morning. Weston thought it was so much fun that he wanted to stay and play all day. Luke, on the other hand, when asked what he thought about his school, replied, "I'm ready to go home now." And so it begins.

I'm pretty sure that he was feeling overwhelmed by the fact that a room that is supposed to hold twenty-eight 5-7-year-olds and two teachers was attempting to contain twenty-eight 5-7-year-olds, their various parents, guardians, and siblings, and two teachers. I don't blame him for being a bit skeptical, but once we got home, he read the daily schedule that they sent home with us and started to get excited once again about going back next week. (And true to self, his escape from the loud, crowded classroom was to sit in the reading corner and read a very long book about sea animals.)

Afterwards, we went to the toy store and bought Weston's belated birthday presents and then went out to eat at an Indian restaurant. Over the past couple of years, we've gotten into the habit of stopping at this restaurant for lunch every couple of weeks because it's on the way home from preschool and they have a lunch buffet and they usually only charge me for one meal, even though my children can quite easily eat as much as I do. It was a nice way to spend our last weekday of life before elementary school.

Three!

Weston turned three yesterday and he is oh-so-proud of that fact. He has been waiting to be three for some time now because he has been promised that when he's three, he can go to preschool and take gymnastics classes. I daresay he's going to hold us to those promises!

He is the most lovey kid, frequently telling me, "Mama, you are the best mama in the world," or "You are my favorite girl, Mama." Of course, he yells, "You are a very bad mama," with equal frequency, so it might just be that he's a child of the moment and he feels everything intensely. He gives pretty terrific--albeit slobbery--hugs and kisses and when he's feeling happy, which is most of the time, he's a lot of fun to be around. When he's feeling unhappy, he says everything with a whine attached to it and insists on having everything Just So and sometimes, he tries to bite your face off. That part is less fun.

He likes to do everything that his big brother does and is getting to the point where he can have discussions with Luke about whether a certain picture depicts a lemon shark or a nurse shark. (Luke says things like, "It's a lemon shark because it has x, y, and z characteristics." Weston says things like, "It's a nurse shark because one day, I saw a nurse shark in the ocean and it was on a wave and it chomped the people on the wave and then, it went home and it was a mama shark and the baby sharks were there and hey, Luke, Luke, Luke, do you remember, hey, Luke, do you remember when we went to the zoo?" And really, you can't refute that. How can you?)

He is currently convinced that all loud sounds are dinosaurs roaring and while he loves dinosaurs in concept, the potential reality of them is more than he can bear. His favorite colors are pink and green and sometimes orange and his current interests are mermaids, construction trucks, ponies (especially of the My Little Pony variety,) the aforementioned dinosaurs, and ferocious animals. He always asks for a taste of whatever we're drinking and his usual comment upon receiving that taste is, "Mmm, it tastes like strawberry jam!" (I do not think the child has ever tasted strawberry jam.)

He still tends to glare at people who dare try to engage him in public and balks at the idea of other kids being at places like camp and the park and his birthday party, but he is starting to play with those other kids after a few minutes instead of continuing to glare at them for two solid hours. We went to the park this morning and there were a bunch of kids building a river and after about 15 minutes of playing with them, he very proudly came over to me and announced that, "I played with that other boy who is taller than my size and who isn't Luke!" Actually, I think the "taller than his size" might be the key point here, since he still considers smaller kids babies--a fact that does not bode well for preschool, since he's pretty big and tall for his age.

He certainly makes our lives richer and more entertaining and although three isn't my favorite age, I'm pretty excited to see how he develops over the course of this year. No matter what, this kid knows how to keep life interesting!

Birds of a Feather and One Large Cat

Here are some pictures of our trip to the DC Zoo.

This picture could be titled, "Luke's Favorites at Age 5." Cheetah? Check. Eagle on his shirt? Hard to see in the picture, but check. If only there was a T-Rex peeking out from one of those trees, it would be his dream come true.

And this picture would simply be called, "Weston." I told him to do something he didn't want to do, so he just hid his face behind the Eagle and pretended not to hear me. Because of course he did.

And as long as we're naming pictures, this one would be called, "Elusive: The Search For A Group Picture." There I am, grinning away for the camera and one kid is making a Calvin face and the other is licking the eagle's head. The eagle is not amused.

This peacock was not the slightest bit bothered by our loud, rowdy selves. Weston wanted to bring it home with us. He almost tackled the next set of people who went to go look at it because, "That's our peacock! They need to get their own peacock because that peacock is OURS!" Luckily, I have become quite proficient at catching that child midair as he heads off to attack some unsuspecting stranger over some imagined slight. (Why is Luke making the weirdest faces in this set of pictures?)

 

This is the Greater Rhea. I wanted to bring it home. It was way back in its shelter when Weston bumped his head on a railing near the fence and it came all the way out in the hot sun to check on him when he started wailing. He was every bit as suspicious of the Greater Rhea as he had been of the large fish in the aquarium, so he refused to look at the camera while that bird was anywhere near him.

 

Luke and I thought this was the funniest sign ever. The aggressive crane is actually back there, but hard to see. It ran around with its wings outstretched and it really did look pretty aggressive. For about an hour after seeing this crane, Luke pretended that he was an aggressive crane and Weston and my step-father were things that aggressive cranes ate.  

Left Out

Today was Luke's first dentist visit. He wasn't thrilled about it beforehand, but when we got to the exam room and he realized that he'd get to sit in a fancy chair and watch cartoons the whole time, he got on board with the plan. The biggest hurdle the dental hygienists faced was getting him to keep his mouth open because he was so hypnotized by the tv that he forgot there were people with their fingers in his mouth.

Weston was hugely jealous of the whole deal. The chair, the TV, the goody bag at the end, all of it. So much so that halfway into the visit, he decided that he needed to get his teeth cleaned, too.

Weston to hygienist: Hey. Hey! I need you brush my teeth in that chair. I can watch that movie, too.
Hygienist: Aww, he's so cute.
Weston: No, I am not cute. My teeth are really dirty and they're reddish-brownish. There are orange pieces stuck in there and I need to brush them. And I want a bouncy ball for my present in my bag, ok?

Leave it to my kid to throw a fit at the dentist's office...because he was denied a tooth cleaning.

Bargaining

Luke's idea of a good deal...
Luke: When I have $5, I want to go back to Learning Express to get more dinosaurs.
Me: Ok, but don't forget, you have to replace that fan of Weston's that you broke first.
Luke: Oh, yeah. How about I can get a dollar when I fold my clothes and a quarter when I fold Weston's clothes?
Me: Sure.

{Aside: He already gets a dollar for each load of his laundry that he folds and puts away. The only amendment was his offer to fold Weston's for the low, low rate of a quarter per load.}


Weston's idea of a good deal...
Weston: I want to fold clothes, too.
Me: Ok. Here's a washcloth.
Weston: *Folds and puts away washcloth.* Where are my cents?
Me: Your cents? You folded one washcloth!
Weston: Yes. One washcloth is two dimes.

Meandering

I cleaned out the kids' closet today. Switched their dressers around to make room for Luke's new school uniform, which he'll be wearing in just two weeks, when he begins Kindergarten.

As I was cleaning out some of the bins in there, I came across relics from the past five years. Baby carriers, diapers that were outgrown before they were ever used, bibs still stained orange from sweet potatoes. I put away some of Luke's clothes from the past two years--clothes that Weston hasn't grown into quite yet--and pictured Luke as he looked in them, wished I could turn the clock back, just for a minute.

And yet, there's this: a couple of days ago, when I needed to run an errand, Luke suggested that I could leave him and Weston with OtherBoy's mother, I pointed out that she's currently quite busy looking after OtherBoy and his new baby brother. Luke considered this, and then asked, "Mama, when Weston was a baby, was it that much work for you, too? Or was it even harder because I was just two when Weston was a baby?"

I blinked and he's gone from being the baby whose sleepy weight I can still remember bearing in those carriers to an insightful, empathetic child. When did this happen?

Touristing

 We went to visit my mom and step-dad near DC for a week and for the first time, I was able to do things in the city with both kids by myself. They're old enough to sit still and follow directions and be somewhat reasonable. It hit me at some point during that trip that I no longer have a baby or even a toddler--I have a preschooler and a soon-to-be kindergartner. And it was a grand realization! Oh, the freedom of not-babies.

On the train on the way to the city. We managed the transit trains by ourselves during rush hour and no one got lost, no one ran onto the train tracks, and perhaps most importantly, no one peed in their pants. (One of them did, however, spend some time yelling that I was a, "Bad Mama!" because I made him go to the bathroom. Because clearly.)

  

 There was a very treacherous splash pad near the Grands' home, so of course, we went. They had a great time until they both slipped on the wet tile and bumped their heads. (All's well that ends well and we ended with Irish food and ice cream, which is pretty much the definition of ending well.)

 

 

The aforementioned ice cream...

  

We went to this park with interesting, amazing climbing structures and my kids spent their time running down a hill and picking wild flowers. No big. But then, as we were leaving, they discovered these balls and had to climb every single one they saw. 

 

 

The one place they asked to go before we even left home was the aquarium in Baltimore, so we did. Luke loved every minute of it, but Weston wasn't altogether convinced that they fish would stay inside the tanks. He was pretty sure that the scarier ones might swim right out and eat him. Every time a big fish swam toward him, he yelled, "It's going to chomp me, it's going to chomp me!" He was less than thrilled at being asked to sit beside a big fish for a picture, as you can see:

Luke was much more willing:

I don't remember for sure, but I think this tank probably had a sting ray in it. Nothing else would have put that look of joy on Luke's face.

 

Bug Camp

Oh, my, it's been a long time since I've been here! I've been taking and saving pictures to post, but haven't made it over here to actually post them. Perhaps I'll get to work on that...

...But in the meantime, let me tell you about our week. Both kids are in summer camp this week. It's Weston's first experience with this kind of group experience and I was unsure how he'd handle the separation. Turns out, he couldn't care less. The very first morning, when I went to drop them off, they both went off to play and barely turned back to say good-bye to me. Since then, every afternoon, when I've gone to pick them up, Weston has gotten increasingly irate about having to leave. On Monday, he told me it wasn't a long enough time. On Tuesday, he told me to leave and come back on Saturday. On Wednesday, I had to carry him out kicking and screaming. Today, he tried to bite me and succeeded in head-butting me as I was carrying him out (kicking and screaming once again.) I do believe the child will enjoy preschool in September.

Since they've both been away, I've had four glorious hours by myself each day. On Monday, I did every single thing on my list of Things To Do For The Week. And then, I looked at the clock and it was 10:38. I forgot how easy it is to make phone calls and fill out paperwork when you don't have to stop every 7 seconds to escort someone to the bathroom or fill a water cup or find a snack or break up a fight or comfort a crying child. On Tuesday, I took a nap with the dog. Not even gonna lie. On Wednesday, I had brunch with a friend, went to the DMV (where I was told to come back when their computers were working,) and spent some time at the library. Today, I went to a La Leche League meeting, which is an odd place to be when you don't have a nursing baby anymore, but an even odder place to be when you don't have any children with you at all. (I got over it. I sat. I listened. I talked. I didn't have to break up fights. Good times!) Tomorrow, I'm going to stop at Starbucks and then enjoy a relaxing morning at the DMV. Funny how your idea of relaxation changes over time, isn't it?

Stay tuned for pictures from the past few weeks!