Peek-a-boo

Got Matthew to bed. Played with Melissa -- she was in a ticklish mood, right up Daddy's alley. Usually she's too busy with Important Baby Business to be tickled, but sometimes in the evenings she's more in the mood.

So, I played with Melissa, then sat down with my laptop to read some blogs. Melissa crawled over and climbed up my knees behind the laptop screen. I thought she was going to try to pull the screen down and chew on it the way she's done in the past. Instead, she poked her head out to the side and looked at me. Then pulled her head back. Then put it out again.

She wanted to play peek-a-boo! I played along: "Where's Melissa?" "There she is!" She giggled and giggled. We played for a good long while.

Burned out

Just for the record, my three-year-old-son can beat your three year old at Burnout: Revenge.

(A driving game that encourages crashing is right up his alley. Since that's pretty much his goal anyway.)

Our Happy Baby is Back!

Matthew and Melissa both had a really nasty virus for about a week- fevers, severely congested noses, throwing up, the works. For several days I just held kids in my lap and we ate popsicles and watched movies. Since they were feeling so lousy they were clingy and whiny. Fun fun. Matthew bounced back more quickly, but Melissa just started getting back to her old cheerful self Saturday. (She's starting to sleep better again, for a while she was sleeping only 2 hours a night. Ugh. This is also why I haven't been very diligent about posting- I'M still recovering from sleep deprivation!)

Today she's been so pleasant! She sits on her knees and bounces up and down while making happy hooting noises. She's so much more playful, giggly, and excited about everything. At church she flirted outrageously with other ladies and babies. Melissa really came to our family delighted about life. It's so nice to have our happy baby back.

-Rachel

Baby activities

[I actually wrote this before Rachel, but she didn't know, and covered the same material in her long post today. I liked hers better, so deleted this one. Now Rachel wants me to paste it back in.]

Melissa's picked up a couple tricks. One is blowing: Daddy blows; baby blows back. Yeah, it's kind of dull, but she likes interacting with us.

The other is clapping. She loooooves clapping. Then we'll clap back and she'll grin a huge grin and clap some more.

Rachel has ordered a baby sign language book.

It's quiet in the house...

...the kids went with Daddy so now I have some time to collect myself and write about the last 2 weeks. If only I could remember everything.

Marriage and Rings

Two weeks ago, on a Thursday, Jonathan flew out of town to speak at a computer language conference. He submitted his topic 6 months ago and committed to attend before he learned about his friend's upcoming nuptials. Friday, his best friend got married so I attended the wedding and reception following. Ellis, Jon's friend, is over fairly often, and used to come with Grant (Matthew's uncle). Matthew started calling him Uncle Ellis. (We didn't want Matthew calling adults by their first name, but Mr. So-and-so seemed so formal for a close family friend so Uncle Ellis stuck). I informed Matthew that Uncle Ellis got married to Aunt Merri (How's that for confusing to a 3 year old?)

Matthew responded, "Uncle Ellis not married. Uncle Ellis have no ring."

Where he picked up on marriage with rings I have no idea. When I took the kids to the reception that evening (a friend watched them for the wedding) Matthew wanted to make sure Ellis and his bride had rings. When he saw the rings he conceeded that they were indeed married. I think he was pleased, he does seem to like Aunt Merri. But then again, maybe his whole concept of marriage is having a ring. His Uncle Grant is engaged to be married in August. When Matthew heard of this, he again stated that Uncle Grant could not be getting married because he too lacked a ring. Perhaps it will sink in when he meets his new Aunt Lisa.

The rest of that weekend is a blur. I remembered being so grateful when Jonathan came home Sunday evening (late) even though he had to go to work on Monday. I was so tired.

Speaking of New Aunts

Matthew's Aunt Telitha and Uncle Nolan had their baby not too long ago. Yea! I'm an Aunt! Baby James is Matthew's and Melissa's first cousin on either side. I was pretty excited when I heard the news. When I told Matthew about his new baby cousin, he informed me,

"I have baby sister Lis lis (Melissa). Don't want TWO babies."

"No, Matthew. This is a cousin. We admire him from afar (too far! They're in Ohio!) and don't take him home with us."

"Oh, okay."

He seemed mollified that we would not be adding to our family another baby just yet. One is quite enough for him!

In baby news

Melissa now claps her hands together. She really takes pleasure in getting other people to clap with her. She'll also grab a finger on each of her Daddy's hands and pull them together to clap his hands. I've decided that she'd probably like baby signs, because she enjoys interacting with people so much. We'll see how that goes. Melissa has also learned how to blow. She picked it up when I changed her diaper. I'd blow to distract her, or if her bottom looked sore, and she started blowing back at me! At first I thought she would only do that during a diaper change, but Jonathan demonstrated otherwise. The two of them were blowing at eachother and laughing like loons. Pretty silly.

On the Discipline Front
or Revenge Pee II

We found ourselves as parents nagging our son and giving warnings. As a result, we didn't see the desired action from Matthew until we sounded mad. So we scrapped all warnings and just administered the consequence immediately. (Usually by placing him in his room until he was ready to be pleasant again). Well, being the strong-willed spirit that he is, he decided to up the ante. When placed in his room he'd get back at us by delibrately wetting his pants. The first time it happened I was willing to give him the benefit of doubt. The second time it occurred it was unmistakably on purpose. So I had him put his wet clothes in the washing machine, wipe up the mess in his room (with help of course), and stay there until his clothes were clean again. He literally went through all his pairs of pants and spent the majority of the day in his room. Hmmm. At the end of the day I was frustrated, though I did get 7 or 8 loads of laundry clean and folded.

Daddy got a brainstorm.

Matthew's room was too comfortable a place to be while waiting for his clothes to wash. He had plenty of toys and distractions in there. In addition, the carpet was a poor place for urine cleanup. So Dad emptied the bathroom of all its contents. He didn't leave soap, toilet paper, or even cupboard drawers. The next time Matthew decided to get even we were prepared (and we didn't have to wait long). Daddy calmly told Matthew that he seemed to be having a hard time getting to the toilet in time, so he would be spending his time in the bathroom while his clothes washed. After that point he would be welcome to join us again. He was furious and raged for a while. After some time he told us he was ready to be good. We told him we were happy about that, but his clothes were not quite done. Again he fumed and then settled down. So far he's repeated the revenge pee only once more. I guess it sounds a little drastic, but we had to nip this habit, and other milder methods hadn't worked. Boy what a stubborn son we have!

But he can be so charming too!

It is one of the sweetest feelings in the world when he spontaneously wraps his arms around my neck and tells me "I love you Mommy!" (Just recently he switched from Mama to Mommy most of the time). He also loves to rock and sing together.

Recently he mastered the ABC song, though the LMNOP part is shaky. He is quite pleased about knowing his ABCs. Popcorn popping, Twinkle twinkle are also in his nightly reportoire. Currently his favorite bedtime/naptime book is Peter Rabbit. I can't even count the number of times I've read it. Occasionally I can tempt him with something else, but he remains a loyal Beatrix Potter fan. I don't understand why the repetition- he knows the storyline and will jump in before I even have a chance to read it! Oh well, maybe Daddy can read Peter Rabbit tonight.

Which reminds me

About a month ago Matthew watched a Seasame Street in which they talked about writing on the computer, and he decided he wanted to write his name on the computer. So I opened notebook typed his name and showed where the keys were. He was engrossed for half and hour! And he typed his name over and over. In the process, he learned how to spell his name written or verbally. He still doesn't have the coordination to write with a pencil yet, but maybe we can teach him more words on the computer.

-Rachel

In the kitchen

Matthew likes to play cook lately. Right now, he's "cooking" hot chocolate. His castle turrets are the stove burners; a ball is the marshmallows. He's careful to use oven mitts, because it's hot!

He also likes to "cook" his ball collection. He has a dozen or more balls that he puts into a pot, and simmers them for a while. Then out come the mitts again.

Sometimes he cooks with Melissa. This is more Mama's idea than his: "Melissa will help you! You put the balls in, she takes the balls out!" Matthew is a little dubious about this "help" but goes along with it sometimes. Melissa thinks Matthew is soooooo cool.

Guitar Hero

Last night Matthew beat his first Guitar Hero song. On easy, and with Dad doing the frets and whammy bar. But he hit the strummer all by himself!

When I first got the game 4 months ago Matthew tried it a couple times and just got frustrated. He could sort of connect the notes on screen with what he was supposed to do, but had no rythm whatsoever so anything less than a really long pause between notes baffled him.

He still has trouble sometimes concentrating -- he would have beaten his song several nights ago if he didn't keep getting distracted and offering me some random observation while the notes passed by unheeded -- but I'm very pleased. That's my boy!

Beverage adventures

Melissa's has a really bad cold and hasn't been nursing much with her nose so stuffy. (She hasn't been sleeping much, either. Maybe 2 hours a night for the last 3 nights.) So Rachel's had to pump some to avoid discomfort, not to mention possible mastitis.

So Friday morning I gave Melissa a snap-top sippy cup full of breast milk and sat her in the swing, while I went downstairs to take care of something. When I came back up, Melissa was happily playing with a topless, upside-down sippy cup. The milk was all over the swing and the floor.

Today I tried again, with a screw-top this time. I put the business end in her mouth as a hint. She grinned at me, grabbed the cup from me, reversed it, and tried to put the same end in MY mouth.

At least she's having fun with it!

A boy needs his dad

I was at PyCon in Texas for three days last week. Matthew missed his dad. When I got back he had started including in his prayer, "Bwess Dada come home [to] Whatthew [from] work." I was flattered.

Melissa Updates

Melissa cut a bottom tooth last week. She is also cruising with her walking push toy. She holds on to the bar and pushes it along. She is very pleased with herself. We suspect it won't be too long before she's walking.

Jonathan says that when he takes her in the morning (while I sleep, Thank you Jon!) or any other time I'm not around she'll be initially fine playing with her Daddy. After a while she'll start crawling around looking in various rooms and saying MamamaMa! MamamaMa! Jonathan thinks she's trying to call me. I haven't heard this yet, but it sounds cute. When he does bring her to me she acts very excited.

-Rachel

Time to Go!

Thursday Matthew was having a tough time getting dressed. He's fully capable of putting his clothes on once they've been laid out, he just wasn't in any particular hurry to do so. Unfortunately it was a preschool day and I was tired of being late. After an hour of dilly dallying, I told him I would set the timer (for 10 minutes) and when it rang we were leaving because it was time to go.

The timer rang.

The Matthew was only partially clothed and he gave me a "now what?" look.

The Mother was prepared.

I scooped up Matthew put him in the carseat with a blanket. Meanwhile he yelled at the top of his lungs about his lack of pants and socks. He seemed utterly shocked that his Mother would enforce "time to go." I let him protest in the car while I gathered the rest of his clothes and put them in a bag. I also called his teacher and informed her of the state in which Matthew would be arriving. She said, "Oh this is perfect! We will be discussing choices today!" So unwittingly, Matthew became the object lesson.

During the drive to the house where preschool was being held that day, Matthew let his outrage be known. I carried him to the house wrapped in a blanket. He sobered up at this point (I think because he knew it wouldn't affect the outcome). Once inside, I deposited him in the bathroom with his bag of clothes, gave him a kiss, wished him a good day, and walked away. I was a little worried about how he'd behave, but my concerns were unnecessary. "He was so good today! He offered to help and was so polite," his teacher raved. Yesss! Chalk one up for Mom. He was pleasant the rest of the day. I think it was a good learning experience.

-Rachel

Calvinball

In one of his anthlogies, Watterson answers what he says is a FAQ: "What are the rules to Calvinball?" And he answers, "It's simple: you make it up as you go along."

Little boys understand this instinctively. Yesterday during a LAN party for adults, one of my friends brought his son Ben over to play with Matthew. They chased each other around with one of Matthew's green balls, and I'm sure that what they played was Calvinball. It involved, at various points, ping-pong-ball guns, auxilliary juggling balls, and hitting each other. (Everything little boys do together will at some point involve hitting each other.)

A good time was had by all.

You can run, but you can't hide

Melissa wasn't in the living room where we'd left her. She wasn't in the front room getting into the plants, which is usually her first destination. Where was she?

Rachel heard giggling from the bedroom. We'd left the door open and Melissa was happily tearing into a roll of toilet paper.

Kids are terrible at being sneaky. When I play hide-and-seek with Matthew ("No way!"), I can almost always track him by the giggling coming from under the blanket or in the closet or behind the door.

Not that I'm complaining!

Peanuts

Rachel took both kids to the Lehi pool this morning. Brave woman! ("Do you have any idea how hard it is to get THREE people dried and dressed, when you're the only one doing the drying and dressing?") She said Matthew really enjoyed the water slide and Melissa kicked and kicked and played herself out, so much so that she slept all through lunch strapped in her car seat, which is pretty much unheard of.

During lunch, Matthew found his blue ball in his jacket pocket -- the one he got from the doctor's office months ago. (The good thing about having a 3 year old's memory is you're always pleasantly surprised by what's in your pockets.) Then he started telling me, "Maattew ball! Not Eesan ball! Eesan take Maattew ball! No! My ball!" I think if Ethan had been there he would have gotten slugged.

Rachel cleared things up for me: at joy school yesterday, Ethan had a ball, and Matthew tried to take it from him.

I don't think he's deliberately lying when he tells stories like this. Maybe he has a good imagination -- like Hollywood said, "inspired by actual events!" Or maybe it's that 3 year old memory thing again.

Boydame

I took Matthew to his nursery teacher's house to drop off some cookies tonight. He announced our return with a loud "We're home!"

Then he started chanting, "Boydame! Boydame! Boydame!" We couldn't figure it out. It sounded like "board game," but his only board game is Candyland, which he knows by name. Blue game? Ball game? Boat game? He corrected us after each guess: boydame!

Finally Daddy figured it out: he wanted to play his gameboy! Gameboy, boygame... it's all the same, right?

I thought at first that this was proof that Matthew was dyslexic like his uncle David, who he resembles more than his dad in some ways, but while I was writing it, it occurred to me: maybe he's just applying English grammar to it. "Silly Dad. Game isn't an adjective. Game is a noun. Therefore it must really be a Boy Game."

Just a thought.

Either way, his mom and I were highly amused when we finally figured him out.

Happiness is a jar of pennies

A few weeks ago in a church meeting, I lamented Matthew's ignorance of financial matters. What prompted this was me breaking something -- I don't remember what -- and Matthew consoling me: "Don' worry, Dada. We go store, get new one!"

No! Wrong solution!

But how do you teach a kid who can barely count to three how to value money, I wondered?

One of the other men said that with his three year old, they give her pennies when she does her "chores." She gets ten or so chances a day to earn a penny -- they have a chart with them all laid out. Then when she has enough, they take her to the dollar store and she can pick something out.

Fantastic. We're trying this with Matthew now. We don't have a chart yet; we're just doing it on an ad hoc basis for now. He gets a penny if he puts on his clothes by himself; a penny for taking a nap without whining; a penny for fetching the newspapers; etc. He keeps the pennies in an empty canning jar. I think he's up to a dozen or so, plus a nickel he found somewhere.

Tonight he helped set the table, so I gave him his penny. The novelty definitely hasn't worn off yet. "I rich!" he yelled, and ran off to add it to his jar. I shook my head. "Where did he pick THAT up?" I asked Rachel. She had no idea either.

Today it occurred to me that pennies could be a stick as well as a carrot. He started whining at me a couple times and I told him if he kept whining, he would have to give Daddy a penny for putting up with him. He stopped.

Rachel isn't looking forward to explaining tithing to him, though. I'm more optimistic. I guess we'll see.

Two front teeth

Melissa's second top tooth came in today. This after a grumpy day yesterday and a restless night. HOORAY! Two teeth in, 18 more to go... I'll try to snap a picture of her new pearly whites.

In some respects Melissa is remarkable like Matthew. Just like her predecessor, Melissa doesn't like to be bothered with diaper changes. She prefers to be on the move at all times and 1 minute to change soiled pants is too tedious for her. I've run out of tricks to amuse her and have occasionally resorted to pinning her down with one leg while I do diaper duty. She squawks and tries to roll over during the whole proceedure. I guess it's in the genes. Neither Jonathan nor I are particularily docile.

"I have an Idea!"

Matthew picks up on things so quickly now and likes to play pretend too. Yesterday he asked me, "What dat noise?" I told him I didn't know, I hadn't noticed a noise.
He then said, "I know! I have an Idea!"

He launched into an elaborate tale about two cars crashing outside making the noise.

Matthew also pretends to make things. A few days ago he got out some stacking cups, his toy castle, and some balls. When I asked him what he was doing, he answered, "I making hot chocolate for Mama, Dada, baby sister Lel'lis. Here." And he handed me the medium sized stacking cup with a ball in it, and an admonition to be careful because it was "hot". He then took the big stacking cup with a a ball in it, placed it atop his castle and spun the turret and cup while making humming sounds. (I think he was trying to replicate the microwave.) "Der Dada hot chocolate done."

-Rachel

Count to five

Our son has a very short fuse and gets frustrated easily. This wouldn't be so bad if he weren't a "Monk" (fictional oc detective) in miniature. Almost everything has to be a particular way or he flys off the handle. Seriously. For instance, at dinner if he gets the slightest drop on his hands or face he insists on a napkin then and there and will throw a barely used napkin in the trash and demand another one for the next spill (he used to run to the bathroom every time so this is an improvement). If we state that he must use the same napkin throughout dinner he falls apart. Don't even think of altering his bedtime routine in the slightest or there will be howls of protest.

During a particularly exasperating episode I decided to institute the counting game. Amazingly it worked! He counts to five when he starts to lose it. Most of the time I prompt him, but occasionally he'll start counting on his on accord. Counting only works for minor to medium frustrations, but hey, it's progress.

-Rachel

A couple more thoughts

Melissa cut her first tooth Friday. It's on the left, on her upper jaw, which Rachel tells me is unusual. Marching to her own drummer already...

Melissa is eating more and more solid food. She feeds herself cheerios and such in her high chair; she gets about half in her mouth now, and I recycle the other half from the seat of her chair when she's done. She also eats potatoes and carrots and she LOVES her mom's bean soup.

Matthew's diaper is dry when he wakes up, most of the time.

Melissa is thrilled, in her baby way, when Dad comes home from work. She hoots and crawls towards me eagerly. It's very flattering. Saturday I took Matthew out to burn off some energy at a play area and Melissa was most displeased that she wasn't invited. I almost took her, but I know how this turns out: 15 minutes later she's bored and wants to go home and see Mom, while Matthew's just barely getting started.

It's been a while

12 hour days starting at 6 AM mean I need to be in bed early if I'm going to do more than stare sleepily at the screen all day. Here's some capsule summaries of Peanut goings-on:

Bought a car Monday. ('94 Lincoln Mark VIII. Overpaid a bit, but Rachel was going stark raving mad not having a car -- my vette having failed to pass emissions -- so the alternative was paying $200/wk to rent something.) Matthew attached himself to a happy meal toy at Darin the seller's house, and threw a tantrum when we gave it back, so Darin gave it to him. ("We have a dozen of those anyway.")

We ate at a restaurant to celebrate the new car, and Matthew left his new toy behind. He was TICKED. I called that night and nobody had seen it, so he went to bed angry. (It's all Dad's fault, of course.) The next night I called the restaurant on my way home and they'd found the game under the table, so I picked it up. Matthew thanked me for 3 days. "I glad you find my dame, Dada."

Matthew is playing Sonic Advance for the GBA. I'm so proud. (I picked up an extra GBA at a used store yesterday, and the guy threw in a battery cover from a busted one, so now I can fix my existing, afterburner-enhanced GBA too. Woot for Phantasy Star collection!) It's a bit out of his league, though. Maybe in another year he'll hit his game boy stride.