mathmom's blog

The other day, Amanda made a beautiful collage of Loveland with hearts, rainbows, foam glitter stars, and a happy picture of Amanda. Apparently, it was a picture of "putting joy back together." At the bottom of the page, Amanda had glued a plain strip of black paper, on which she had written "unloved land." At dinner that night, when I was admiring the picture, Ella complained that Amanda put her into unloved land. "That's not very nice, Amanda," I said. Amanda explained that Loveland was for people who were calm and peaceful (and smug, apparently). "I'm calm and peaceful," said Amanda, "and you're not." I was about to try to rescue the situation somehow, when Ella stood up, banged the table, and said loudly, "I am too calm and peaceful!" Amanda smiled. Fortunately for our family, there is room for calm and excitable people in the world. Fortunately for me, Michael came home that minute, so I was spared any ...

The other day I had to give Luke a bath by himself---Amanda was still eating, I think. He got in the bath, looked around and sighed. "I need some friends," he said. We call toys our friends sometimes, so I got him a few toys. He appreciated the toys, but repeated his request for friends. I was getting a little exasperated, so I asked him, "What kind of friends do you want?" "Sister friends! I need some sisters in the bath with me!" It is funny that he doesn't want to take a bath alone, which I think stems from the fact that since he was 9 months old I figured it was more efficient to wash two kids at a time than one. But also it is very sweet that he calls his sisters his friends. Hopefully that will remain for a long, long time.

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...

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.

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation To call upon a neighbour and to say: -- "We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight, Unless you pay us cash to go away. Luke loves candy. The other day he pushed the chair up to the counter, climbed up on the counter and opened the cabinet where the Halloween candy is kept. I don't give him as much as his sisters get, but his desire is clearly larger than his sisters', since it is unmitigated by any sort of internal restraint. He quite unabashedly begs for candy from his sisters. I tell them to take the candy and eat it in their bedrooms, away from Luke, but they feel sorry for him and don't like to see him cry (perhaps they sympathize, having to deal with the same cruel mother). They will give him a square from their candy bar, or a skittle, or some other small token to help him feel better. And that is called asking for Dane-geld, And the people who ask it explain That you've only to pay ...

I just sat down to write about how Luke is getting into more trouble these days, when I looked up and saw that he had climbed onto the chair by my sewing table, gotten the scissors down, and was walking around, opening and closing them. I jumped up to get the scissors away (careful not to run, since then he would think I was chasing him and he would run away) and managed to bang my little toenail back. I put the scissors away and Luke started taking books out of the bookshelf... This is one reason I haven't posted as many blog entries as I wish I would. (The other reasons involve laziness and reading other blogs and trying to think up comments for them...) Let me give you one more example: We had just had the house cleaned, including the floor washed. Luke managed to climb up onto the kitchen table, upset a glass of water (getting many things on the table wet). I grabbed him off the table and walked into the kitchen to get a rag. As we passed close to a counter, Luke manage...

Yesterday I went to a dentist appointment (no cavities!) and a friend watched Luke and Amanda while I was gone. When I got back, I noticed that Luke was being quite attached to Amanda. He wanted to be where she was, doing whatever she was doing. For example, Luke noticed that Amanda was sitting on the floor of the kitchen eating a chocolate chip cookie. Luke went over to her, hugged her head, fell over her, backed up to her (his new trick is walking backwards) and tried to sit in her lap, petted her hair, and so on. Some of this attention was unwelcome on Amanda's part, but she generally liked it. A bit later Amanda was sitting in a wheeled walker toy. Luke was pushing her across the floor. When they ran into something, Amanda would move it out of the way and tell Luke to keep pushing. This is especially impressive considering that Amanda is 27 pounds and Luke is 19. He will go over to his sisters during dinner and beg food from their plates (they happily oblige). They try ...