be ware, be ware, be a very wary bear

Xander was asking about the bump on his chin. I told him 'It is a kisses box. The angels gave it to you so that you can save up kisses. Whenever you feel a need for kisses, just rub it and it will spread kisses all over you and you will feel better.' He was quite pleased with this explanation... then I looked over and Jason had a long face. 'I don't have one of those.' he said mournfully. I smiled and said 'Xander has a kisses box because he was born too fast for the angels to kiss him all over. You, on the other hand, have kisses all over (freckles). All you have to do is touch one of those and you will be kissed, will know that you are loved.' That pleased him and off he went. Once again I am reminded that I need to be careful what I say and to whom...

On a separate note, have been reading two fascinating books: the first is called 'Zero:Biography of a dangerous idea.' I started reading it because Jason and I were discussing cultural contributions and I mentioned that the Mesoamericans had the concept of zero long before it appeared important in the west. Then we started talking about Zero and where it came from and when it appeared and I realized I didn't know! So I told Jason I would get the book and we could learn about Zero. And so we are. The second book is called 'Why children fail' by John Holt. Very interesting. Worth reading by anyone who interacts with children.

new diet

Well, I am trying the dietary changes suggested in 'Little Sugar Addicts' and so far they seem to be working. Have increased the protein component of the boys' diets and am being very vigilent as regards the sugars they consume. Luckily both boys like things like eggs and peanut butter and when I make oatmeal I make sure to add milk as the liquid and keep the sweetner limited. Dinosaur oatmeal will be a VERY occasional treat as it is outrageously high in sugar. Of course, that is why Xander loves it so much. Funny thing about the boys: Jason dislikes fat (except for things like McDs French Fries), spice (except for Salt) and is generally pretty good about limiting his sugar consumption at any one sitting. Xander, on the other hand, LOVES spice, sugar, fat ('Pease, may I have a little bit of more butter for my bread?') and sweets. His appetite for all things, when he is in good health, is vast... Henry the 8th, perhaps? Jason is the moderate... in most things.

Xander has, meanwhile, entered a very uncomfortable stage: he is possessive of EVERYTHING. We return books to the library. He cries. We donate stuff to Goodwill. He cries. We mail off copies of Captain Wavy Cape. He cries. We MENTION mailing off copies of Captain Wavy Cape. He cries. Everything is his and he is quite indignant when people dispose of things without his permission. This does not, however, preclude his giving things to people. He sees something yellow and thinks of G'ma Pat. He sees something purple and thinks of G'ma Mary. He sees pirates and thinks of his Bahbah, his Daddy, and himself. Sigh. My question now is, when does this stage end?

Tired

Tired today. Xander had an asthma attack at about 11:30 pm last night. Did not want to go to sleep. Wanted to watch 'THE RESCUERS' in the livingroom with Daddy cuddling him and his Nemo blankie. Sigh. Poor baby. I have some fellow feeling there because I have developed an asthmatic cough -- the trees are in full flare around here and we all have felt the force of that -- Tom and the boys because I am so sick/tired if not because they themselves are experiencing the allergies. I wonder about Xander though...

At any rate, Xander (and Tom and I) were up until at least 12:30/1 am. Then Tom had to get up to go to work at 4:30. He will be leaving work 'early', at 2:30 (his nominal stopping time) so that he can get home and get off to practice. I really worry about him. I told him to come home and take a nap, even if only for 1/2 an hour. We will see. I do think, however, that I will NOT take the boys to swimming today. Xander's asthma and the demands on Jason's energy would just be too great. Better to keep the morning quiet around here. I have contacted the swim instructor and she suggested that the boys could come MW, Xander at 10:30 then Jason at 11. She wants Jason in the 11 am class because it is a length swimming class and she thinks he needs the challenge. I will ask Jason what he thinks. If he is willing to sit on the side of the pool while Xander swims for 1/2 an hour, then I think I can probably distract Xander while Jason swims. We will see. Alternatively, we may have to give up swimming for awhile.

We did receive the Saxon Math book yesterday. Jason is very excited. I will sit down with him and we can look through it together. He is working on learning addition and subtraction in much the same way he is working on reading and spelling -- he sets the problems and then works through them. When he needs help, he asks for it and I help him. He is satisfied with that approach and I prefer it because it is HIS interest that drives the process. He is not being forced to sit down and drill. I remember reading somewhere about one mother who decided to homeschool. The complaint she'd received from the public school teacher was that her son never sat still... so she worked with that. She had him doing his math while skipping rope! She would read the problems to him and he would answer them . Apparently it worked... He got into MIT with a scholarship... Whatever works.
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And Xander... oh Xander... he is still on his 'when I was' train. 'When I was you, mommy, I...' or 'When I was daddy, I ...' The funniest ones are his animal 'when I was'. He is enormously creative. I worry sometimes that I am not paying enough attention to him but he seems more than capable of creating all sorts of games on his own.

The nice thing is, both boys love books and the library. My biggest problems when I take them are (1)stopping Jason from borrowing every book he sees and finds interesting (He is worried that someone ELSE will borrow them and he won't get a chance!),(2) keeping Xander away from the computer, and (3)getting them OUT of the library. They always find books that they want me to read to them... RIGHT THEN!! Yesterday, when Xander woke from his nap, we went to the Issaquah library -- at Jason's request. Xander loves that library because, in the childrens' section, they have a wall of gears. He will walk up and down it, turning and twisting and talking to the wall and to anyone who passes by. Jason likes it because he is ever the optomist and believes that if he just checks enough libraries, he will find a new Ricky Ricotta or LarryBoy... despite my having told him that we have read all that those authors have written! It is not that he doesn't have other series that we are reading but he is in the Mcknight mode of having multiple books going simultaneously. He even has them pegged by time of day -- some are morning reading, some are naptime reading, and some are bed time reading (the not so scary ones). It will be something to watch when he is reading independently!

Good idea

This blog is a very good idea. I hope that i soon get the hang of it, but it may take awhile. I enjoy reading about my family and seeing pictures and responding to the blog.

Allergies and little ones

I am puzzled -- was the world once less allergic? I do not know how parents, in the days before heavy duty allergy medications, were able to survive and keep their children alive and happy in the face of severe allergy attacks. Every spring (ever since I had Jason) I get hit with allergies. I am, it turns out, bitterly allergic to trees and Seattle, in the spring, is a tree fest. The good news is that I am NOT allergic to Maple or Pine trees. But, if the allergy test was anything to go by, I should never, ever go near Oak trees in the spring. (Must be a genetic memory.... Druids and Oaks and sacrifices etc) All I know is that, for that 'frisky' period called Spring, my eyes swell shut, my breathing becomes a challenge, I cannot stop sneezing and I am exhausted. Add two little boys who dearly love to play outside and you have a recipe for disaster. So how DID parents survive it? And why is it that the allergies started after I had children? Is it something to do with the physiological changes that occur with pregnancy and childbirth (like bigger feet and losing teeth?) Yet another thing no one warns women about!

The most impressive thing to me is how well the boys actually hold up in the face of my grouchy tiredness. They are tired too these days. Daylight savings has got to be one of the worst ideas anyone ever had. I have not yet spoken to a parent who actually LIKES the thing. Tom is of the confirmed opinion that it would take a constitutional amendment (to the WA constitution) to create any meaningful change. Still I am tempted to pursue that course... We will see.

Meanwhile, in other new, Jason has a new identity -- he is 'Catboy'. Where he got the idea, I don't know but periodically he wanders around the house on all fours meowing and climbing and jumping. Whenever he does, Xander obligingly SHRIEKS 'MOMMY CATBOY IS AFTER ME!' and charges around laughing like a little maniac. The first time it happened, I intervened. Then I realized, they were both enjoying the whole thing so I leave them in peace. It is a loud, boisterous game so I try to get them to play it during the day -- at night we want them calming down and, of course, both of the parents are too tired for loud shrieks and running. We really do need to build a sound proofed, padded hall/room for them...:>

I used to laugh at my mother...

Be vigilent in all you do. Your actions can come back to bite you. I used to laugh at my mother for locking her keys in the car -- there was one period in her life where she locked them in the car several days in a row and I was ALWAYS the one who discovered this. Oh, did I give her grief! And so, the universe, in its infinite wisdom, decided to return the favor...
Yesterday started late: the time change has thrown us all for a loop. Around 10:30, I managed to get the boys packed up and in the car -- we had errands to run. I did tell them, however, that we would go to the library first (Jason was in search of more Larry Boy, this despite the fact that he has read/had read to him all the books in the series that the library owns...) and so we did. The library itself is a bit of a mess. They are remodeling and so have stuffed the kids books back in the section of the library with the magazines and the computers. We did find quite a few books, and Jason reborrowed a Ricky Ricotta book that he'd heard previously 'I don't quite remember all the details' he told me solemnly. Who can argue with that? But time was running on and we needed to do the errands so, with some difficulty, I shivvied the boys out of the library... only to discover that I had locked my keys AND my cell phone in the car! Arggg! Back into the library, to the pay phone. I called AAA and they promised to send someone -- within an hour. Hmmm
The good news was that the sun was shining and while the weather wasn't warm, it wasn't blistering cold either. That being the case, we went outside and sat on a bench to wait for the AAA guy. I read about 6 books before Xander announced that he was getting cold. (There was a bit of a wind and I hadn't put any of us in heavy coats, not intending to be outside for any length of time!) So back in we went and sat in the library a bit. We read three more books then I dragged the boys outside again to the little grassy area in front of the library. They ran and jumped there for awhile then we sat down and read some more. About 45 minutes went by in this manner before the locksmith showed. Took him another 15 minutes to get us in but he did, finally. By this point, however, it was too late to run the errands. The boys were getting hungry and tired so home we went... And all I could think was 'Oh,will my mother laugh at this one!'
I will say, Jason was amazing through the whole thing -- helpful and patient. He played with and sheparded his little brother. Xander, of course, was too busy being a shark to care much. He charged about the grassy area and threatened to eat up the trees. He is so very two. I find myself shaking my head over him on a regular basis.
And I am more convinced than ever that diet really does play a role in how the boys do. Yesterday I made the mistake of giving Jason a peanut butter cookie as a snack to hold him until dinner. He became very fragile. Tears and tantrums over anything. Once we had him home (Tom had met us at a park), and had fed him a dinner of eggs and sausage and vegetables and fruit, he calmed down and became his reasonable self again. I am thinking that I should, at some point, have him checked for diabetes. He has great-grand parents on both sides of the family who developed the illness late in life. It might not be a bad idea to monitor the situation now and train him in the proper eating habits...
Hope today goes better.

Tea Party

Well, yesterday was the 'first tooth' tea party. Jason and Xander sat at a little table in the living room and munched on a variety of goodies and drank tea out of itty bitty tea cups. They had a blast. Xander was especially delighted with the tiny tea cups. He must've drunk 6 or 7 cupfuls -- and he even had a go at pouring tea from the teapot (a lot of it hit the table!). Jason enjoyed the cups but I think he actually enjoyed the idea of the thing more... and he loved the finger ham sandwiches! Normally he won't eat ham... We had the 'tea party' as a substitute for dinner. It consisted of three kinds of finger sandwiches, fresh strawberries, raw broccoli/cauliflower and carrots. There were also small pieces of marbled cheese and, towards the end, some tea cookies. The tea itself was Mango Passionfruit herbal blend.
Following the eating, the boys gave each other 'tooth' presents -- Jason's was legos, of course, and Xander's was a mini-fig of Will Turner. Xander is very much into little figures. They were both very pleased with their presents. All in all, it was successful.

OH! Almost forgot: Jason made, for his father, two Captain Wavy Cape Tee-shirts. When Tom downloads the pictures of them, I will add them to this page. I think that they are wonderful. Jason has plans to make similar shirts for Hope, Zach, Xander, himself, and possibly for Mom:>

Practice

Well,

Baseball season has begun. First practice was on Thursday and it was a bit of a dud -- very cold, wet and Jason and Tom were both tired. Both of them were out-of-sorts when they got home. Xander, on the other hand, was very clear. He watched for a bit. Wanted to play desperatedly then, when it became clear that he was not going to be able to, he announced that he wanted to go home and get hot chocolate. I agreed and was starting to head to the car with him when I was stopped by one of the parents who wanted to give me some paperwork. I told Xander 'Wait a moment, baby, I'll be right there.' This, however, was not to be. I finished talking with the parent, looked around and yelled 'TOM! WHERE IS XANDER?' 'How should I know,' he yelled back, 'I'm not watching him!' We both looked around and then spotted him -- he was at the entrance to the parking lot, walking along with a towel over his head and obviously talking as he walked. We both belted over there -- Tom made it first -- and I took Xander home. He ate a balony sandwich, drank his hot chocolate, told me that I needed to have a baloney sandwich and hot chocolate ready for Jason when HE got home, then announced that he wanted his bath...

Saturday's practice went better -- of course, it was at 11am and it wasn't raining. I don't entirely know how it went, to be honest. Within the first few moments of arriving, Xander announced that he had to use the potty and since we couldn't see one anywhere on the field, I carted him back to the car, loaded him in and took him to the library. As we were entering the library, he said, very solemnly, 'Don't worry, mommy. We will go back to Baseball. I promise. I just need to use the potty.' And he did and we did and that might not have been the best choice. Once there, Xander wanted to play too -- with his daddy and his bahbah. He wanted to bat and when denied that option, wailed at the top of his lungs 'I want to be BIG TOO!' Poor tyke....

Back again

Hullo there

thought of a few funny incidents that I thought I would record -- while I remember them! The first involves Xander. He is at that awkward age between needing a nap and not wanting one. Well, we have a routine: I take him into the bedroom, wrap him up in his Nemo Blanket and rock him in the rocking chair. Sometimes he will DEMAND to be put in his big boy bed, sometimes he will simply drape his head on my shoulder and beam at me saying, 'I'm a baby.' I say 'Well, baby so and so (he usually has a specific character in mind), it is time for you to nap. Close your eyes and be quiet now.' He will close his eyes for about half a second and then they will pop open. I will say 'Close your eyes or Mommy will sing.' This, it turns out, is an effective threat. "NOOOOO... Don't sing Mommy!' and he will screw his eyes tightly shut. After a moment, he will crack one eye and say 'Can I sleep with one eye open?' I respond 'Only if I can sing with half my mouth.' He grins at that one and closes both eyes. The next moment he will pop up and say 'I need a drink of water!' So he gets his drink. Then he lies down... and the next time he makes a move, I start to sing. That stops him. He lies back down... and sleeps.

I am not sure but that sleep has become a game to that one. At night, like clockwork, once all the books are done (and he is finally convinced that there are not going to be anymore!), and the lights are off, he will pop up and yell 'TOM TOM I NEED TO PEE!' (or poop). His father will come carry him off to the restroom. Then he returns. A moment of quiet then "I NEED A DRINK!' (so do I, at this point!) Jason just giggles. A drink is provided. Then 'TOM TOM I NEED TO GO TO THE POTTY!' He usually 'goes to the potty' at least three times before finally settling. Each time, his father's patience is a little bit thinner. Oh well... I don't remember anything like this with Jason. Of course, Jason wasn't self potty trained at two either!

I am including a couple of pictures of Jason's latest legos creations here. He has a blast building them and, now that Tom has his new camera, his father appears to be having a good time photographing them. Indeed, Jason has conceived the desire to create a photographic 'catalogue' of his creations. I suggested that a good companion volume would be a building guide... we will see.

So tonight is the first practice. Should be interesting since the forecast is for rain, rain and more rain -- and colder temperatures! Tom is going to try to 'get off early' -- leaving at 2 pm (normally he is supposed to leave at 2:30.) and will make a judgement call about the practice around 4 pm. I remember last year, though. There was one day in particular -- the rain was coming down in sheets, the skies, what one could see of them, were almost black so the coach called off practice and then, at 5 pm, sunshine. Of course, the fields would've been a muddy mess but after all, isn't childhood at least partly about mud?