I Have a Brain - I Left it Upstairs

So Erin is obsessed with the Wizard of Oz at the moment. She found the DVD in the closet and has been asking to watch it frequently. She sings the songs and even dances along with the Munchkins. Yesterday she sat on the coffee table and didn't move throughout the whole movie.

So tonight she was watching it again. When it got to the end, where the Wizard is handing out the Brain/Heart/Courage Erin looked up from the couch and yelled:

"I have a brain!!! I left it upstairs!!!!"

She then ran up the stairs the re-emerged with a rolled paper tube. It was the copy of the service from Jay and Heather's wedding so it was just an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of parchment-looking paper rolled into a tube. She had been playing with it earlier in the evening.

She ran back downstairs and said:

"See mommy, See my Brain?"

It took me a second to put it all together, but then I realized that the Wizard gives the Scarecrow a diploma - a piece of parchment paper rolled into a tube - as a symbol of his brain. Erin missed the symbolism and went right for the concrete idea that the piece of paper was a brain.

It was one of the cutest things I have seen her do in a long time. Truly priceless.

Kisses

Last week Jeffrey discovered how to give kisses. He's always been a great mimic. He tries to copy words and actions he sees and some he picks up on very quickly. He was smacking his mouth after a meal and I said something like "Are you giving kisses?" and gave him a big smile. So for the rest of the week I'd say something like "Kisses Jeffrey" and make a kissing noise. He'd look back at me and start making his kissy noises. A few days ago I said "Kisses Jeffrey" and left out making the kissing sound and he erupted into the longest bout of kisses I've seen. It must have been because of the look on my face when he did it. He was so proud of himself.

He's always seemed a little slower than Erin on picking up on verbal cues. He has his very own language full of inflection and pauses etc... but there are very very few discernible words. He clearly says "daddy" but not always when looking at Tom, and mama is a "once in a blue moon" occasion. I do the typical thing - I name everything he's holding etc... but he seems slower to pick up on it.

Jeffrey is clearly more physically oriented than Erin ever was. It seems he is picking up faster on naming actions rather than items. When he's done eating, rather than make a fuss he simply throws all the food onto the floor and starts rocking back and forth in his booster. So I started looking at him in the eye and asking him to say "All Done." For the first week or so I'd get some kind of response, and that was good enough. As long as it sounded vaguely like "All Done" he could get down. Well this morning I looked at him and said, "What do you say?" and he quickly responded "All done." That's a huge step forward for him.

So although when we go to Dr. Quillian in a month I may not be able to admit he says "Mommy," "Daddy," "Ball," "Cup" like many kids his age we might be able to say that he says "All Done" and "Uh Oh". Who knows?

Just another reminder that Jeffrey and Erin are so different sometimes I wonder if they really are related at all.

Summertime Fun

We've been trying to enjoy the outdoors as much as possible this summer. Erin loves to play out in her sand/water table and climb on the slide. Jeffrey is just figuring out how to climb the steps for the slide. Erin also loves to play what she calls "soccer game" - merely kicking a ball back and forth. On our hilly yard that can turn into quite a workout. Bubbles are still a hit. Erin can go through an entire container of bubbles in one morning - about 50% of which ends up on the ground. We haven't gotten down to the lake yet, but that's in the books for this week once it stops raining. I think Jeffrey will just have a blast and I know Erin will.

When we go to visit Oma-Noni (still one entity in Erin's mind) we play outside a lot. They've got room for the little splashing pool and a sprinkler in the back yard. The Nemo sprinkler is a HUGE hit with both the kids. Erin was a little nervous about it at first. Other than running through the fountain in downtown Silver Spring she had never played in a sprinkler before. Jeffrey, on the other hand, walked right up to it and tried to pick Nemo up while it's spinning around squirting water everywhere. After about 2 minutes Erin decided it was ok and looked like fun. Now, Erin likes to try to catch the droplets of water.



They also spend a lot of time on the swing and slide at Oma-Noni's house when we are there. Erin likes it best when Uncle Jonathan pushes her (last time mommy pushed her, she did a forward flip off the swing and landed on her face. Mommy's not allowed to push her any more) but she is also beginning to learn how to pump her legs to make herself go. She can sit and swing for the longest time now. Jeffrey likes the bench swing and climbs onto it while trying to figure out how to make it go on his own. He's much more fearless than Erin ever was and is certainly focused. There is very little that can disrupt his attention from a goal except physically removing him from a situation and creating a new one. Simply just picking him up and moving him away doesn't work unless I give him a new project to work on.



So that's a glimpse at some of the fun we've been having this summer. Once we get to the beach I'll put up some pictures of that.

A Selection of Firsts Through Pictures

So life is not all cloudy days full on "NOs" although it certainly can feel that way. In the past month or so we've had several firsts for put the kids. So here are some of the firsts captured on film (well actually on disk).

First Carousel Ride


First Play - Erin in Costume Ready for "Her Part"


First Time On Top of the Table


First Time Hiking Without Pants


First Watermelon



First Mutual Snuggle



First (Well Second) Time Jumping in a "Moon Bounce"

Entering The Land of "NO!"

And I'm not sure we're going to survive. In all 3 years this seems to be one of the most difficult stages I've come across. Looking back I'm thinking harder than the poopy panties days or the days when Jeffrey had night and day mixed up. Each night I go to bed praying that tomorrow when we get up the word will not exist any more. I know, I know it's just a stage, every parent has to go through it, she'll grow out of it -- I've heard it all. That doesn't make it any easier in the day-to-day life though.

So clearly Erin has decided that her favorite word is NO! She uses it constantly.

"Erin, let's head to the potty before we go to the park"
"NO!"

or

"Erin get in the car please."
"NO!"

Any request is met with the same answer whether it's something she really does want to do or not. If I ask if she wants to go to the library her first response is "NO" followed by a pause and then "Oh OK". So my response at first was to ignore her when she said it -- that didn't really work. Next I tried sitting her down each time she said it and letting her know saying "NO" like that was not OK. She'd give me a hug, say "I'm sorry mommy." I'd say well let's go get some lunch - her immediate response "NO!" So now I find myself doing the absolute worst thing and shouting back at her -- I know I know way wrong thing to do, but we're reaching the end of the rope here.

I think that the primary reason she is always saying NO is that I'm ALWAYS having to shout "NO" at Jeffrey. The little monkey is constantly on top of something he shouldn't be, or putting something in his mouth, or throwing all the CDs on the floor or smashing bananas into the table, etc... So Erin's even started yelling at him to stop. Again I realize this is all my fault I should create an environment where I don't have to shout at him, but... I just don't have the energy.

I'm going to try to go back to the ignoring the "NO!" response from Erin in hopes that she'll realize it's not going to get the attention she wants any more. I'm tired of fighting with her over everything. I feel like I've become the Wicked Witch of the West or something.

I'm sorry this seems to have turned into a rant, but that's where my frustrations are today. We still certainly have moments of serenity and cuteness here - like when Erin sings "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" while sitting on the potty, or when Jeffrey climbs onto his riding toys and zooms around the house babbling like a monkey (still no words here not even mama or dada). But if I seem exhausted and frustrated and beat down it's mostly because right now I just am.

My Last Saving Grace...

...has disappeared. One of the things that really helped keep me sane with Jeffrey was that he was completely not interested in stairs or climbing. Erin was a little monkey getting up and down the stairs and climbing onto furniture before she could walk. Not Jeffrey, he just isn't (now wasn't) as interested in it.

That is until last week. Erin showed him how to climb onto the coffee table in the basement. Now he likes to sit there and watch cartoons with Erin. Then he discovered he could do the same thing to get into the recliner in the basement and would sit there and even decided to crash there and take a nap (very cute). Still I could deal with this.

Wednesday afternoon Erin was playing in the basement on the computer and I was working in the kitchen on dinner. Jeffrey was playing in the living room - his usual habit while I make dinner. Tom came home and asked where the kids were. I said,


"Well Erin's downstairs playing Rocket on the computer and Jeffrey's right there in the living room."

"No he's not here"

"What do you mean he's not there? He was just right there"


Then we heard thumping from upstairs. Jeffrey was in his room playing. Happy as could be and so proud that he got up there all by himself. Now he's up the stairs faster than you can blink. Zoom.

The biggest problem now is that I can't put up gates for him because Erin still needs to be able to get up and down the stairs to the potty. So we are working on just getting used to Jeffrey climbing the stairs and having to be aware of where he is at all times.

Sigh, just another wonderful step in the development of our two mobile children household. Wish me luck.