Milestone Minutiae

I'm not sure how this happened, but Emmett is really good when it comes to sharing food with Luke. Strangely enough, it's mostly with treats. Emmett knows that some things are choking hazards, so after I give him a treat, I'll hear "Can I share this with Luke?" It happened a couple of days ago with jelly beans, and again today with some cookies. If only I could get this to extend to toys...

Yesterday I mediated a dispute when both boys wanted to have their fingers on the center drive-gear of Gearation as it bumped by. Today, a problem arose when Emmett was playing with (clean) socks from the laundry and Luke wanted some too. Apparently it took some doing to find enough socks in the basket for both of them. Now they're getting into it over polyester fiber-fill (that you use to fill stuffed animals). Thankfully, they are unaware of just how much the fiber-fill would expand if they pulled it all out of the bag.

Luke has finally started trying to say "Emmett." So far it's been coming out "Ah-mee." Emmett, of course, is thrilled.

After the fiasco at McDs, I decided to try again Monday evening at Carl's Jr. They have a better play place (that we've been to before), and I figured dinner would be less crowded than lunch. There were more kids there than I expected, but the equipment had plenty of space for all of them. I noticed that there were lots of Spanish speaking groups at Carl's that night - the two orders in front of me in line were conducted entirely in Spanish. Emmett noticed that some of the kids in the play place were speaking Spanish. When I told him that he could talk to them, he seemed a little surprised, but he liked the idea. How is it that he's surprised that he can talk to kids in Spanish? Every morning for three hours he talks to kids in Spanish! He went back into the play structure, introduced himself, and played with the kids until they had to leave.

In music class, the teacher sings short tonal patterns for us to repeat back to her. Today I've noticed that Luke has started singing tonal patterns at home, too. He'll also sing with me. He sings word-fragments and sounds, but he's definitely singing not speaking.

There have been two small pumpkins (uncarved) on our porch since Halloween. I finally noticed that they are starting to look, uh, saggy, so I went to get them off the porch. The temperature has been below freezing for a few days, so it was really easy to pick them up intact and drop them in the trash. They may be mushy and rotting, but it doesn't make a difference when they're frozen!

It's been VERY cold around here, and it seems like it's been winter forever. Emmett has been riding his scooter in the house. So today I decided to take the kids to lunch at McDs with a play-place. Whoops! It was packed, of course. But the real problem was that the play structure was just a couple of climbing towers leading to slides - nothing for little kids to do at all. With all the kids climbing up and down the towers and slides, Emmett got stepped on more than once (sadly by kids who were wearing shoes). And I noticed his demeanor turn aggressive immediately, shoving to keep his place among the kids climbing up. With nothing for Luke to do and with Emmett's attitude, I wanted to get out of there asap. I bought Emmett off with a strawberry sundae and we left.

This evening, David was working in the shop when Emmett decided to go hang out with him. He was wearing a long sleeved tee-shirt (but I knew he'd never put on a sweatshirt) so I told him to be sure to come inside if he got cold. While out in the shop, Emmett found his scooter. He wanted to ride it, but there was no room in the shop. Fortunately for Emmett, David has been a bit nutty about the snow removal lately. So this morning, even though there wasn't much on the driveway, he cleared it. The sun today then was able to dry the driveway, so David sent Emmett out to ride. In a long-sleeved tee-shirt. Today's high was in the mid 30s. It was easily below 30 by the time he was riding. David told him to be sure to go inside when he got cold, and turned the light on the driveway. So after riding around in sub-30 degree weather, Emmett came in and "needed to watch TV to warm up again." You'd think he'd figure out layering, eventually.

Today, the golf clubs that Emmett got for Christmas became swords. (An older boy who came over to play showed him this trick last Tuesday, but today was the first time I saw it.) Fortunately, Emmett wasn't mad when Luke quickly smacked him on the head; he decided he'd better stand further away to have play fights with Luke. In other weaponry news, today at lunch the crust of Emmett's grilled-cheese sandwich became a gun. I guess that's what I get for cutting them diagonally.

A few nights ago, Emmett was making noise so I got out of bed to help get him back to sleep. I was groggy, but when I turned on the light in his room I didn't see him. I heard bumping around noises, so I thought maybe he'd gone under his bed. Then he came walking out of his closet. I got him back to bed and he never acknowledged me, so I'm pretty sure he was asleep the whole time. A little spooky, really.

Who Says "Quack?" has long been a favorite of Luke's. At first he would be very excited and jump up and down while you read it. Later, when he could say "Duh!" he'd yell out the punch line during the book. These days, he's started adding in the sounds made by the other animals, too. To any ears but mine it probably just sounds like noise, but I know that " peee " is the chicks, " aaaaa " is the sheep, (and the goat) and " meeee " is the cat. And of course, he still yells out the punchline, usually even at the right time! Another favorite is Snow Bear , but Luke is never patient enough to let me read it. He likes to look at the animals, feel the texture on the pages, and make signs for the animals in the book. Particular favorites in this book are the birds and the bunny. Where does Maisy Live? is also very popular. In addition to loving the (very durable) flaps, he's saying "cluck" quite recognizabl

This morning I while I was helping Emmett get dressed, Jake came in and curled up close to us. While I was carefully helping Emmett so he wouldn't fall on Jake, Emmett said, "Do you think he crapped in here last night?" Somewhat stunned, and not smelling anything, I said, "Huh?" Emmett repeated, "Do you think he crapped in here last night?" Hmmm . So I started explaining to him that "crap" is kind of a bad word that means "poop", that people would react strongly to him using that word, blah blah blah. Emmett looked at me with his "angry" eyes, so I went on. I told him that while he chooses the words he uses, people will react differently to some words, and it's my job to be sure he understands that so he'll use the words he really wants. When I finally paused, Emmett said, "I didn't say 'poop,' I said 'CREPT!'" Oh. Then later today, Emmett asked me how to spell "laugh."

Today Luke and Emmett both had "well child" visits at the doctor. Emmett is 43 pounds, and 43 inches tall (that's the 50 th percentile for both). Luke is 22 pounds 4 ounces (about) and 30 inches long (about). That's about the 25 th percentile for height and weight, but his head is up at the 90 th percentile (48 cm or so). Luke's measurements aren't very accurate, as he was thrashing around and screaming the whole time. The nurse was kind, and chose her numbers quickly. Luke settled down and was happily playing with Emmett while we waited for the doctor. When Dr. Lynch arrived, Luke immediately freaked out and screamed off and on (mostly on) for the rest of the visit. We asked the doctor about the pain in Emmett's neck, and it went something like "Doctor, it hurts when I do this." " Ok , don't do that anymore."

Luke likes to dance. If you sing and ask him to dance, he'll lean left and right, picking up his feet. Sometimes he takes lots of tiny steps and goes in circles instead. Either way, it's cute. He's also continued singing with me when he doesn't fall asleep nursing. It's very sweet. I can hardly wait for music class to start again!