Outside!

We’ve had a couple of days in the 60s here in the Pacific Northwest.  We don’t mind at all!  Two days ago the kids and I decided to get out and do some garden preparation, so headed outside.  The girls were overjoyed at not needing their heavier jackets:  “It’s SPRING!  It’s SPRING!”  I’m anticipating some major sadness when the next cold weather comes.

Simeon has not had a lot of time on the ground since he’s become mobile.  He’s on the floor a lot inside, of course, but outside it’s pretty muddy, so he’s mostly stuck in his stroller.  However, it was a drier day when we went out, and I had some water resistant pants on him, so I let him down.  It’s hard to say who was more excited about it – Hannah and Naomi, or Simeon himself. 

Hannah spent most of her time unearthing worms and collecting them.  She got a total of 18 in the hour we were out there.  She would carry them, laughing about how tickly they were on her palm, and place them carefully in a container.  Then she’d observe them for a while.  Then she’d go find more.  It was too bad she had to let them all go at the end, but worms don’t make great pets, and they do make great soil, so she’ll be doing more worm-hunting in the near future if she wants to do further observations.

Naomi divided her time between helping me with weeding and chasing a ball.  She kept a running commentary going on her activities:  “Oh, I’ve dug up a good weed here!  I’m going to put it in the bucket.  I’m a good weeder.  It’s good to get the weeds out.”  She’d found a little pink soccer ball and threw that around for a while.  She also got her little trowel out of the garage and did some digging. 

Simeon crawled around, picking up rocks and sticks, chasing the ball, and generally being pleased about being down.  He also discovered (of course!) how fun it is to climb the back porch steps.  Sigh.  At least there are only 3 steps.  Sim then found the pots that are ready for planting – dirt, but not plants.  This was totally intriguing.  He picked up a handful of dirt and then tried to carry it somewhere, just like he was doing with the rocks and sticks.  He noticed that it was falling out of his hand, so he tried to go back and pick it up – highly amusing for those of us watching.  I was watching fairly closely, but he wasn’t eating it, just trying to carry it places.  Until we’d been out for about an hour, when I turned around to see Sim with a nasty look on his face and dirt in his mouth. 

I would say that Sim won’t try it again, but I’ve seen his sisters at that age.  It will probably take at least a few more tastes before he decides that it’s not good to eat. 

Pig bladder

Hah!  I bet you’ve never read a post with that title, have you?!?

This morning, in an effort to play some fun games that encourage coordination and movement, I set up for “balloon volleyball.”  The idea is to hit the balloon back and forth over a string or ribbon tied to two chairs and stretched between the players.  It’s simple and fun and we had two balloons.

Hannah thought it was fabulous.  Naomi sent the balloon over the string once and then announced that she was too tired and began a 20-minute whine and cry fest.  (I believe that the whine and cry fest took far more energy than even an hour and a half of balloon volleyball.  Strangely, nobody sought my opinion.) 

Hannah and I played balloon volleyball for a while, then decided to take down the “net” and see if Naomi just wanted to bat the balloon around. 

“When I was a little girl,” I said, using a tactic that usually gets both girls’ attention – stories from my past – “we used to play Balloon Don’t Touch the Floor.”

“Oh, Naomi!” said Hannah with real enthusiasm, “It’s just like Laura and Mary and the pig’s bladder!”  Michael has started to read Little House in the Big Woods to Naomi, and she loves the story.  Hannah is a longtime devotee of all the Little House books.  The pig bladder story is the first or second chapter of the first book – after the pig is slaughtered, Pa fills its bladder with air and the girls bat it around.  For some reason, the pig butchering has captured the imagination of my children for some time. 

“Right,” I say, trying to think as little as possible about children actually playing with a pig bladder, “so which balloon should we use?  Green or purple?”  And here’s the question I wish I’d skipped:  “Which one do you think a pig bladder would be?”

“Green,” said Hannah without hesitation.

I do not want to know why a pig bladder would be green.  Especially a nice, dark, forest green like that balloon.

Time flies – Random thoughts

I realize that things have been somewhat quiet around here lately.  That’s mainly because things have been not-so-quiet (in a good way…mostly) around our house.  It’s also in part because our laptop decided to stop working reliably, which means that I get a bunch less computer time.  Sim is always willing to “help” me on the desktop, of course (“Button!  Button!  Button!”), but that doesn’t lead to intelligible blog posts, believe it or not. 

We’re in the January doldrums as far as weather goes.  It’s been pretty rainy here lately.  I took everyone out for a nature outing (in the rain, because you have to or you’re stuck inside a lot in the winter) last Thursday.  It didn’t last long.  It was also windy that day.  That meant that the nature outing – which was to watch birds flying – was highly successful:  there were lots of seagulls riding the air currents, and it was fun to watch.  From the comfort of the car.  The outside time was not so successful.  We were out walking around for about 10 minutes before the girls both wanted back in the car. 

We have had successful nature outings on rainy days before.  We went out and scouted out the new wetlands at Magnuson Park, which was pretty interesting.  We’d been watching them get put in, so it was interesting to see the final product.  Hannah and Naomi each had an umbrella, and I had an umbrella and Sim in the front pack.  It rained off and on, but we walked all over and checked things out, threw rocks in the water, and generally enjoyed the great outdoors.  So we’ll hope for better luck with nature outings this coming week. 

I realized a couple of days ago that Naomi’s 4th birthday is coming up.  How did that happen?  And then Hannah said something about Sim being a papoose for the next Halloween.  I told her he’d be 2 by then, and then had to check and be sure my math was right.  2?!?  Of course, Hannah herself is turning 7 this year, but we’re about halfway through year 6, so I’m used to 6 and 7 seems far off.  

And it’s very amusing to think that, this time 10 years ago, Michael and I hadn’t even met. 

Playing

The local cousins are over today, playing Native Americans with our girls.  The play sometimes collides with their interest in the toys available here, though, like Sim’s play camera that he got for Christmas.

Girl cousin:  Let’s pretend this is my camera!

Boy cousin:  No, Indians didn’t have cameras.

Girl cousin:  Okay, then this is my toy camera.

Boy cousin:  No, they didn’t have toy cameras, either.

Girl cousin:  [definitely nonplussed]  What did they have?

Boy cousin:  They didn’t have cameras at all.

Girl cousin:  Well, I’m going to pretend this is my toy camera anyway.

Endlessly entertained

Simeon enjoyed Christmas this year.  He did not understand about presents, he did not understand about unwrapping, which meant that he didn’t do much unwrapping.  His sisters did not understand why he didn’t understand, but they did know that it meant that they got to unwrap most of his gifts for him.

Nevertheless, Simeon did enjoy Christmas.  There’s nothing a little boy is going to like better than a holiday that brings trees into the house, puts lights on them (some of which happen to be within reach of his little hands), and then puts ornaments on, too.  Then suddenly, people start handing said little boy toys that he’s never seen before.  And others will sing the 12 days of Christmas book that he loves so much.  They’ll be forced to sing it over and over and over.  He will not ask the ones who don’t sing it to read it to him again.  This book is all about the singing.  It’s not worth it without it.

Sim really enjoyed the gifts he got.  One in particular, from an aunt and uncle, he really enjoyed.  It’s a jack-in-the-box sock monkey.  Don’t ask me, I just know that if I ever have to buy a gift for a boy of 1-3 years, I’ll know what to get.  I’ll show you why:

Once Sim found out that the monkey pops out, each time Michael played the song, Sim waved his arms until…

POP!  Goes the monkey.  Then the laughter.

Then the stuffing of the monkey back in.

Then the arm waving.  The anticipation is palpable!

Then the POP!

The stuffing…

and the grin for the POP!  

This went on for a long, long time.  What I can’t portray for you in these pictures (and it’s really too bad) is the laughter that accompanied the pop each time.  It was really, really cute.  Baby laughter should be bottleable (is that a word?  I don’t think so, but you know what I mean), it’s so wonderful what it can do for even the worst mood!

Simeon refused to have anything to do with anything that interfered with the sock monkey jack-in-the-box.  One of his sisters opened for him the t-shirt Michael is posing with in the photo below.  The t-shirt was fine, but Michael wanted to hold it up next to Simeon for me to take a picture!  The nerve!  Can’t you see how that would hamper his jack-in-the-boxing?  One cannot multitask with something so important going on. 

 

The sock monkey jack-in-the-box still gets a lot of play.  Hannah is annoyed, though, because Sim has figured out how to pop the monkey out without going through the whole song.  This bothers her.  It does not bother Sim.  He’s in it for the pop, he doesn’t care about listening to the whole song. 

What to do

when you’re a serious book addict and your mom has said she won’t read to you right now (having read to you for the last 20 minutes):

Ask your sisters to fill in. 

Simeon will demonstrate.  He’s asked Naomi to read him Goodnight, Gorilla, a favorite of all the babies in our family so far.  It’s only got a few words, and you fill in the story according to the pictures.  A long time ago, Mama developed a storyline that covers the salient points and is pretty straightforward, which meant that she didn’t have to make up new words every time.  Now everyone in the house – and I do mean everyone in the house – could recite this story in his sleep.  We don’t, usually, but we could. 

Hmm…that gives me an interesting idea for a good practical joke.

Okay, back to the reading.  First, you sit in a basket and look as cute as possible.  Wearing a truck onesie that says “Helper” on it is optional, but may increase the chances of this working. 

Then you look pathetic and hold the book out to any passing person, signing “please” and saying, “Busy, busy, busy!!” which is, of course, your way of saying “please.”  Your mother notices this and, having read the book to you over and over for a good long time before you got in the basket, asks your sister to read it to you. 

Your sister, Naomi, can’t read yet.  With this book, though, that’s not a problem!  There aren’t many words and, besides, the whole family has the storyline memorized!

Then your mother takes pictures, because a 3-year-old reading to a 1-year-old in a basket is really, really photogenic.  You’ll see:

(It doesn’t hurt to include some signs of the things happening in the book, either.)

(Your kind sister even lets you point along as she says the seven “Good nights” on this page.  What a kind sister!)

Kind sister, however, knows her limit.  She’s not going to read it to you over and over and over and over and over.  Mom is still hiding behind the camera.  So serious book addict must read the book for himself.

The utter absorption in the material is just amazing to see, isn’t it?  And all while sitting in a cozy basket.

Tickle

Simeon has learned to tickle.  He will open and close his hand next to someone and go, “Guckle, guckle, guckle!”  He meanwhile looks expectantly at his victim, who is expected to laugh heartily at the tickling.  This amuses him no end.  Which means that he’s guckling a lot these days.  For some reason it’s not as amusing for the gucklee as it is for the guckler. 

Sometimes, too, it takes me a while to realize what he’s doing.  Guckle, after all, isn’t always a clear word to understand, especially when I’m doing a bunch of other things at the same time. 

But it is darn cute, and his unaffected delight and laughter about it is enough to keep me laughing about the guckles for a good, long time.