mathmom's blog

I've been trying to teach Luke that he is not allowed to sit on my lap during meals. This has been going not so well. Luke sincerely believes that my food is his food, my water is his water, my chair is his chair... Today I kept putting a crying, wailing boy back into his chair (right next to my chair) as he kept trying to climb into my arms. This is not new. The new part is that as he was wailing and throwing himself into my arms he was saying " Wuv you! Wuv you! Wuv you!" He's already learning how to wrap me around his little finger. I'm worried for when he gets older...

Today after breakfast, Luke was eating the last of the cereal in his bowl. As I was clearing the rest of the table, he grabbed the bag with the remaining crumbs of cereal and tried to put it in his bowl, but ended up spilling it all over the table. Luke and Amanda then proceeded to grab double handfuls of the crumbs and stuff them in their mouths, until one of them knocked over Amanda's juice, which happened to be in a real cup, not a sippee cup. My first reaction was to grab the two of them, spank them and lock them in their rooms until I had the house clean. I realized that this would probably take until they were in high school, so instead I left the scene of the crime until I could relax. If it were just the table, that would be bad enough, but the whole house has gradually been getting messier and messier, and I seem to be constitutionally unable to deal with it... I did eventually manage to wipe the table, before the juice had cemented the sugary bits of the cereal to t...

At lunch today, Luke learned that if he puts a grape in his mouth, closes his lips partially over it, and blows, the grape will shoot out across the table onto the floor. He also learned that if Mama gives him a cup to drink out of (not a sippee cup) he can use it to blow bubbles. Lunch was very giggly today, on two people's parts. Not so much on Mama's part, although since Luke did go over the floor, picking up and eating the grapes he spit out, I guess I should not complain.

Many of our friends have come down with the stomach bug. I am holding my breath waiting for the (almost) inevitable. I can almost hear the "Jaws" music: da dahh. Da Dahh... I would like to try to get away this weekend. We'll see if it works out.

We celebrated Luke's 2 nd birthday today! Yay ! We went jumping this morning at the local bouncy place until Luke was so worn out he couldn't climb up to the slide, and then we came home for a short nap. Michael and I hadn't gotten around to getting Luke a birthday present (oops) so Amanda, Eleanor, Luke and I went to two toy stores looking for the two toys I had determined Luke really needs: a basketball hoop and a toy vacuum cleaner. We found a hoop that has suction cups that (sort of) stick onto the back door, so the basketball is taken care of. Apparently there was a run on vacuum cleaners, because they weren't in stock. We could have gotten a pink bubble mower instead, but we chose to get a "popper". One of the best things about having a food allergic child is finding creative substitutes for difficult foods, in this case, substituting rice krispy bars for birthday cake. Much easier to make, and the kids are guaranteed to like it. Michael lit two...

On Monday, we went to the local mall and the kids got a ride on the merry-go-round. Eleanor had a good time. She picked out the most beautiful horse (the one with the most purple on it) and moved up and down and back and forth with the horse, so as to get the most enjoyment out of the ride. Amanda got into the "teacup", a circular seat which revolves when you spin it around a center post. Amanda has often gone on this with Eleanor, but this time a grandmother and her 3 year old (about twice the size of Amanda, I thought) were riding it. Needless to say, it was quite a different experience. Eleanor likes to spin it very fast, change direction, etc. Amanda tried hard to spin it, with no help from the other two (although the 3 year old occasionally pushed the wrong way as she tried to help). She managed a slow whirl, nothing like the ride with Eleanor, but a ride of her own making, so it was good. Luke, who I like to think of as a daredevil child, is actually quite cautiou...

Luke loves to "cook" while I am cooking: he'll take pots and pans, bowls and cups, spoons and whisks, and generally scatter them all over the floor while preparing a masterpiece. He prefers to pour water from container to container, but he'll cook with whatever comes in handy. Today he found one of his stuffed dogs, put that in a pan and put the lid on. He came over to me, lifted the cover off to reveal the dog, and said, "hot." He was very confused when I asked if it was a "hot dog". I guess his language doesn't map that way.

Amanda has some pretty interesting ideas. Yesterday evening she said that she was never going to live with anyone else when she grew up. I asked if she was going to get married. She said, "I was already married! When I was just 1 year old!" She didn't say who she was married to. I asked if she was going to have kids. Yes, she responded. I wondered if they would live with her. What followed was very complicated, but it boiled down to the idea that I would be traveling around to lots of different places, and she and the kids would stay with me. This morning Michael mentioned the Udvar -Hazy airplane museum. Eleanor asked what it was, and Amanda said, that's the museum that you sleep in. We were there when she was 3 years old. I think there was a moment of silence after that comment as I thought about the best way to respond to an idea so unrelated to reality...

I gave Luke some kid's yogurt today. I took the foil top off and gave it to him to lick, and he then proceeded to eat most of the carton using the foil lid as a spoon. It really didn't work very well, but whenever I offered him a spoon he said "No!" and continued with his lid project. I shouldn't complain, he did eat almost the entire serving and he didn't get any dishes dirty. We were sitting on the porch after breakfast and he was playing in the sandbox. He then found a dishrag, probably one he had brought out earlier in the year. He started "cleaning", got a bright idea, went over to the sandbox and dipped the rag in the sandbox. He tried to wipe sand all over the seat, the floor and me before I took the rag away. Apparently things weren't dirty enough. This morning he went to wake up his sister, climbed into her bed to play with things on the bookcase headboard, and slipped and went sideways over the edge. He did a flip and landed wi...

Last summer when we were on our way up to MN and WI, I bought Luke a remote control car . This car is perfect for toddlers: it has just one button. Press and hold it once, you make the car go straight. The next press, it will spin. Press again, it goes straight again and so on. Luke loves the car. Last summer his sisters were interested in it (especially Amanda) as well as his cousin, who actually figured out how to maneuver it with a purpose. But Luke has figured out how to turn it on, which gratifyingly makes flashing lights and zooming noises. Then he presses the button, sends the car off, and chases after it, giggling. He likes to make it run into things, especially himself and his mother. He likes to make it drive down the stairs, but we've almost trained him out of that. He clearly does not have much of a sense of exactly what happens when he presses the button: he'll carry the car around while pressing the button, start and stop while expecting something differe...

Today I had two not very fun outings to do: First, get my licence plate tags renewed, then go get new shoes for Amanda and Luke. Amanda had lost her shoes about a week ago, and Luke seemed to be butting up into the toes of his shoes. We did the more unpleasant one first, finding our way to the DMV in a 1970s shopping mall with dingy store fronts---not a hustling bustling hub of commerce. I was surprised when first, the line to get the tags renewed was short and pleasant, and second, one of the stores in the mall had set up two huge model train displays, complete with Thomas, ferris wheels, a mountain with miners, lights, trees, a battleship, etc. I watched a family of 3 kids aged from 4 to 10 come in. They were all fascinated, even the 10 year old who wanted to be cooler than his brothers. Needless to say, Amanda loved the trains and Luke loved the buttons. Then I went to get the shoes. It turns out that both Amanda and Luke had not outgrown their old shoes yet, and the lady t...

Why is it, that with all the great ( ok , good) toys in all the other rooms of our house, the only room that Amanda and Luke really want to be in is Eleanor's room? There are no toys, really, and lots and lots of things that she would rather they not touch. Since this happens mostly when she is not around, maybe they miss her, and being in her room is getting close to her. Or maybe they're just looking for trouble.

Eleanor's class in school has been doing an "Economics unit." In December, they set up a "factory," where parents helped kids mass produce Christmas presents: Russian tea, bath salts, trail mix, and so on. Eleanor made bookmarks. The kids were "paid" for their labor, complete with bonuses, and the next day they shopped for presents using their money. It's amazing the difference in motivation when you are adding up to see if you have enough money left over for a present for yourself, as opposed to doing yet another worksheet. Eleanor got quite good at adding 2 and 3 cents together. In January, the kids were assigned to do jobs around the house (jobs they don't regularly do) to earn money to go to an Italian restaurant. Eleanor worked sporadically at unloading the dishwasher (.05), making her lunch (.25), folding socks (.15). She earned $5.05, so we advanced her .95 so she could go to the restaurant. Eleanor now can add quarters, nickels...

About 2.5 feet... Luke continues to be one of the happiest, friendliest, most energetic people I've met. He loves to meet new people. A week or two ago we went to our favorite Greek restaurant, and as we left I asked him to say goodbye to our server. He said "bye" to her, then walked around to each table and waved and said "bye" to them as well. He's starting to talk in sentences---" Daa Too" means "got you", " dee dee way way" means "see you later," and so on. My favorite is when he is doing something he isn't supposed to, and I say "Mama says no!" He responds, "Mama, no! Mama, no!" Mostly what he is saying is clear from context, and intonation (which he gets exactly right) not from clarity of speech. Ah, he is saying one more important thing, " wuh doo ." That means "I love you." He'll say it whenever I ask him to, but it doesn't have any significance y...