Three-year-old of a Different Sort

Today has been a different day for us here in the Lee house. I'm not sure what changed, but Daniel is being different today. It all started when I came downstairs to get coffee at 6:30 am, and Daniel politely insisted that he needed oatmeal right then. I agreed, but then had to leave him to wait for it to cool off to eat to deliver coffee to Matt. Several minutes later Daniel came upstairs to announce that he was all done with his oatmeal. There was not a speck on him, so I assumed that all was fine. He returned downstairs alone which is pretty unusual for him. He always wants company. Well, he came back upstairs with a face and hand full of chocolate cupcake crumbs. I guess he was still hungry and was fed up with looking at the container of cupcakes that were still around since Saturday, so he decided to do something about it.

The next unusual happening was that he chose to have baby carrots for his morning snack and also insisted on carrying the rest of the bag around in his pocket from 10 am until he finished off the last few at 12:30 pm. What a goose! I guess I can't complain about having a kid that eats a bunch of carrots.

So while Daniel was upstairs 'napping,' he was very quiet for 35 minutes or so, and then I started hearing him go back and forth between his room and the bathroom and the water was occasionally running in the bathroom.  I usually force him to come downstairs before I'll go up and chat with him, but today I decided to go up and give it a look. Well, the water was from a toy octapus that squirts water. Ok, no big deal, but then I went in his room and the chair was directly underneath the ceiling fan, suspicious to say the least.

Next Daniel announces in a voice as matter of face and serious as he has ever been, "Mom, I'm doing an experiment." Me, "really?" Daniel, "Yes, I am going to put the towels up there (gestures to the fan) and the I'm going to do this (puts book over his head)." I can only assume that the book was protection from the falling objects.

After this announcement he asks me if I can get the fan pull out of the glass shade for the bulbs where it was caught so he can continue his experiment. At ths point, I removed the fan pull, shook my head, made some mild direction of the "fan pulls are for grownups" sort and left. I was unable to come up with more specific or strong correction because my mind was flooded with visions of my sister and I putting things on the fan blades in our room and seeing what happened when we turned the fan on. This event happened on several occasions. What goes around comes around I guess. Hopefully he will move on to the next experiment soon.

This kid has a mind for science. Yesterday he was asking me for a magnifying glass so that he could see which feet were on the Cootie in the picture on the box.

It is wonderful to see him trying to figure out his world and coming up with the words to describe what he wants/sees/thinks. Finding the words and patience to go step by step is extremly furstrating for Daniel which makes it frusterating for us, too. I love these moments when I get a glimpse of what is going on inside his head.

Strange Milk Buying Neuroses Developing

It dawned on me today that I'm developing some very odd milk purchasing neuroses when I returned to my desk at work from picking up lunch with a gallon of milk in tow. This on top of ending our anniversary date on Sunday with a trip to Target to browse and I purchased a gallon of milk just in case. Our family's consumption of milk has reached a new level. I'm not sure if the consumption is actually up or if it is just magnified since we are all drinking the same kind of milk now. It's changed enough that I'm always a little worried that we are going to run out of milk. I can't imagine what happens when the kids are teenagers or if we have more children. I bet that is the day that I come home with several gallons of milk and an extra refridgerator to hold all the milk.

Conversations with Christopher

More than once last week, this was my first conversation with Christopher. Me, "Good Morning Christopher!"
Christopher, "I want Daddy to open my door. I have dreams Mommy."
Me, "I'm sorry Daddy didn't open your door today. What did you dream about?"
Christopher, "Babies. I dream about babies, Mommy."


Then today on the way home from school Christopher announces:
"Mommy, I want to go to the dentist. Yes, I go to the dentist first. I go to the doctor, too, Mommy."
Me, "Really, Christopher, you want to go to the dentist and the doctor."
"Yes, Mommy, I go to the dentist first, and the doctor, too, Mommy."
"Why do you want to go to the dentist?"
"My mouth hurts Mommy. I hurt my mouth on the big friends side, Mommy." (there was no apparent injury)

If you have not noticed, Christopher says most things twice and punctuates almost every sentence with the name of the person he is addressing.

Not all conversations are this pleasant. For instance, yesterday there was a brief break in the action, so I hopped up in the tree to remove the Christmas lights. It was somewhat timely as the tree trimmers were working in the backyard at the time and they needed to get the tree with lights as well. Anyway, the boys decided to come watch, so we got all bundled up, but Daniel did not want to wear his mittens. We were only going to be outside for a few minutes, so I figured the consequences would become obvious to him rather quickly. For several minutes the boys were pushing and yelling at each other on the porch and creating a rather noisy scene, but they were not getting too overly adjitated. Well, when I finished I asked them what they were arguing about and Christopher announced that, "Daniel needs his mittens on," and Daniel whined that, "Christopher was telling me to put my mittens on." Seriously, Daniel got totally worked up because Christohper told him to put his mittens on. Christopher seems to have a good grasp on how to get under Daniel's skin. I see some interesting conversations coming my way.

Ode to Pajama Pirates

Costumes are fun!

Christmas 2011

It's be a wonderful and busy Christmas holiday. I can't believe that we start to get back to normal life tomorrow. Here are a few snippets from the holiday. My quick synopsis is that it is so much fun to see the boys discover all that the holidays mean. Daniel is fully into the small manipulatives and can follow a Lego or Playmobil pattern like a champ. It's really cool to watch. Christopher is all in on the trains and is fully experiencing what it means to be 2. Yeah for Mom and Dad ;) We've really enjoyed having Maggie here for the holiday in addition to Dan and Peggy. Christopher is in love with her dog, Tate, and usually greets him with, "I love Tate."

Proceed with caution. Lots of sprinkles straight into the mouth.

Daniel loved this activity.

Cheering on the Badgers with Non.

Christopher really enjoyed the game. When we asked him if he wanted to go to the Badger basketball game, he quickly recited, "Go Bucky, Big Red W, On Wisconsin, Down the Line."

Daniel working on the marble maze that Santa brought.

Boys at play.

Watch out world here we come!

Unfortunately this is the only picture of the three boys that I got from Christmas Day.

Teacher's Comments

Today when I picked up the boys at school, they were helping the teacher assemble the castle gift we had given the class. The castle had many, many pieces that had to be put together to create the finished product. I commented on her bravery taking on that challenge with four little helpers. She said, "It would have been easier if Daniel did not keep telling me that I needed to do it differently because it did not look like the picture on the box." Then she said, "but we do have all these leftover parts." Me being of the engineer mindset glanced at the box and then looked at the castle and assessed that she had, in fact, constructed the castle incorrectly. At that very same moment, she said that she had been telling Daniel that there was probably more than one way to put it together. Then it dawned on me... Is Daniel inherently like this, or did I create it? I'm guessing it is the latter because my reaction to her very nice, although not exactly like the picture on the box, castle was exactly the same as his. Luckily I'll have my chance to do much assembly in the coming days. Christmas with small children results in lots of assembly.

In that moment when I heard my words being echoed back from my son's mouth I realized that I just needed to let it go. Let it go, Rachel, let it go. I've known this for years, or at least I've been told that I focus on some of the smaller details, but I've never seen such a great example of it. I guess she is right, it's ok if all of the pieces are not in the exact right spot. Good thing is, I'm working on finding inner peace. I've taken up yoga, and I love it! So on those really trying days, I just head over to Dragonfly Hot Yoga and sweat it out ;)

We are putting together our last gifts for Christmas, and can't wait for the big day. Too bad it's likely going to be a brown Christmas this year. The little snow we had melted. Ok, must hit the hay and get a little sleep before tomorrow. Here's to hoping your Mother passes on her best qualities to you!

And just for reading, here is a cute picture of the boys.

Christopher-isms

Christopher is a very verbal child. He talks a lot about everything. He also mimics so much of what he hears. It is quite entertaining listening to him. He also has quite a few funny things that he likes to say and do. It all started with tricky several months ago. Anyway, here are a few for your enjoyment:

- When he sings the alphabet, he says "ooo" instead of "u."
- When we start pulling into the driveway he announces, "We're at Mommy's house ... Mommy."
- Most sentences are followed by ...(dramatic pause)... Mommy.
- His name is slowly gaining all of its letters. It started as "Kiffer," but will occasionally come out as, "Chrispher" now.
- Back in September or October when the days started getting much shorter, Christopher learned that it could be dark outside and it was such a novelty (he's been going to bed at 7 pm for as long as I can remember), he would run to the window and point and say, "dark outside" repeatedly until we would acknowledge that it was, in fact, dark outside.
- Christohper loves all the Christmas decorations, he has been pointing out all the "tiny balls" in the neighborhood on the way home. He likes to do that after he tells me, "I found it, Mommy. I found the moon, Mommy."
- Everytime he sees the phone out he says, "Talk to Gigi, Mommy?" and tries to talk to her even though no one is there.
- At every meal, no matter what we are having, he always asks Matt for a, "bite please."
- Christopher is also very interested in cooking. He always comes into the kitchen and asks if he can, "See it, Mommy. See it please?" Then he insists that he look in each pot and in the oven just so that he is in the loop about what's cooking. Hilarious if you ask me.