Giving Thanks

I'm thankful that Jack and Kate are the kids they are. Jack drives me up the wall sometimes with his reluctance to eat, stalling about going to bed, and other mild annoyances. But he's also a tremendously sweet kid, thoughtful, drawing pictures for us ("This one is for Mommy. Now I will make one for you. I will always make you pictures."), bringing Kate toys when she's crying ("Here, Kate. Here's a pirate guy. Here."), being kind without any sort of guile.

Kate just makes me laugh. She's totally into walking around, grabbing things, thrill-seeking. Going up stairs, going down stairs, climbing onto footstools. At Aunt Cathy's, there was a Kitchen Aid Mixer on the floor. She went up to it and tried to climb onto it like a horse. She sees Jack and the girls playing with something and she goes over and gets involved, usually by walking through it. "No, Dogzilla!" Jack says, in reference to a kids book we read sometimes. She is Dogzilla, a walking engine of destruction, and it's a riot.

I'm thankful it's bedtime.

Drawing Kate

Kate has always liked Jack's markers; she'd grab them and walk around with them clutched tightly in each little fist. She's not strong enough to get the tops off, so it's not a worry yet. Now she's interested in the easel. Jack and I had made a picture recently; she at some point had used a marker (with the top on it) to smear all the dry-erase ink around.

So last night I sat down at the board with her. I drew with a marker, she whacked at it with a marker with the top still on. I took the top off and gave the marker back to her, showing her how to make actual marks on the board. She immediately went to lick the marker. I took it away; she cried; I tried again. This repeated, until I gave her back the marker with the cap on. She gave me a look and walked off with the marker. My marker, I could tell she was thinking.

After a minute, she came back to the board. Stood next to me. Looked at me with a big, broad smile. Looked at the capped marker in her hand. And then turned to the easel and whacked at it again. For a while we drew together, me making marks, her whacking at the marks. Chiming in her trademark "Aaaaa-aaaa-AAAAA!" Throwing me a grin every now and again.

For now, I guess, that's drawing Kate.

Blob about the Aquarium

I took the kids to the Maritime Aquarium yesterday. I was so tired later that when I wrote a note to myself to blog about it, I wrote down "Blob about the Aquarium."

Basically I've come to realize, though, that if we don't get out of the house and do something on Friday, we all go insane. With Jack it manifests as whining, with Kate it manifests as general crankiness, with me it's a little of both. Anyway, going out is better. So after Kate's nap yesterday I rounded them up in the car and we headed off to the Aquarium. Membership has its privileges.

Jack likes to climb up on steps in front of some displays to see the fish up close. I held Kate up and she was into it but also maybe a little taken aback when they swam right up close to her (which is understandable). But mostly she was into it. This is the first time we'd gone since she's been walking, so it was cool to see her walk around in the rooms with tanks all over the place. I think mostly she liked having a huge room to walk in.

At the starfish and crab tank, there was a huge class of kids, which was frustrating to Jack. And then to both of us when we came back again 10 minutes later and there was a different huge class of kids. Definitely a drawback with the Aquarium: huge classes of kids on occasion. And I could hold Jack up some, but holding up both Kate and Jack was a challenge, to say the least.

At the shark tank, we all enjoy it, but the kids lose interest far sooner than I do.

I'm a little concerned about the tank with the big sea turtles in it. Six months ago there were 2 huge turtles. One even swam up to the glass and waved at us. That was great. Three months ago, there was only 1 huge turtle. Yesterday, there was 1 small turtle. Jack asked me where the big one was. I said, well, he must be out exercising in the yard. I don't know, it was all I could think of.

The Aquarium has a play area/tumble room type place for kids under 5. Lots of mats and things to climb over and jump on. I wanted to take Jack there, one to get him some exercise, and two because he can be shy in those situations. We went, and for a few minutes he clung to my leg. Kate immediately walked around and around and around, and side to side. "Aaaa-aaaa-AAAA!" she said happily. There were two little girls Jack's age. Jack went to grab something near them, and one of them said to him it was hers. Jack, rebuffed, came back over to me. I was as crushed as he was, and then the girls' Mom told them to invite Jack to help them build something or whatever. The girl came over and was all like a teacher: "Hi, do you want to help us? We're building a fort...." Jack was still in a shell. I encouraged him, but it didn't happen. At first. Five minutes later, though, they were carrying some bouncy pad thing, and he went and helped them. And they played together. I burst into song. OK, not really. But I was happy for the little guy and beamed at the girls' mother. Later, Jack talked to their Mom, rambling away about "My Daddy said....my Daddy took us here to.....Yes." (His new favorite word is Yes; I think he'd said yeah for a while, but now everything is, "Jack, do you want to go with us?" "Yes." "Jack, would you like some milk?" "Yes." Very matter of fact, you probably have to hear it, but it's a riot. Anyway.) "Well, I like the sharks and the turtles but I didn't know where the big turtle was and I....."

Kate continued to run around as if she'd been locked up in a cell for the past week. "Aaaa-aaaa-AAAA!" Turning to look at me with a big smile every once in a while. Coming over, then heading back out. She was a big fan. Clearly, they both need Friday activities, even if it's just running around a mall play area or something. Maybe next week.

I think they both liked it more than the Aquarium.

Charades

Rainy and gloomy Saturday afternoon at home, and we didn't think to have a kids movie on hand -- have to get that fixed in the future. Anyway, Emily came up with the idea of playing Charades, which we explained to Jack and he seemed fine with it. Daddy started.

I got on my hands and knees and let my arm trail down from my head and made trumpeting noises. I think Jack guessed a variety of things including "dog" and "ghost" before Emily guessed elephant. Then it was Jack's turn. He thought for a minute, got a little smile, then jumped up and down, smiling. We guessed a few things before "bunny," which was correct. We all took turns again, then came back to Jack.

Again, he jumped up and down in place. Er...frog? No. Jumping bean? No. Bunny? "Yup!"

We all took turns again. Back to Jack. He jumped up and down in place. Frog? "YES!"

Kind of funny.

Sick Kate

Kate got sent home sick from daycare yesterday; well, they didn't make her go home alone, they called me. Fever of 101.9. I got her, figured, well, no biggie, we'll get her some liquids and rest and she'll be fine, little cold or virus. Turned out being pretty scary, initially because she did this thing where I thought she was awake and I picked her up and her eyes were open but not focusing on me and she was kind of limp and moaning...turns out she was asleep, or mostly asleep, so heavily that she didn't even know I was there. Took me 10 minutes of near panic and debating with myself, is she asleep or is she awake and disoriented, what should I do, is she OK, why don't I call...Oh. She's sleeping.

Anyway. She slept well last night and seemed mostly OK this morning, but come this afternoon she was starting to feel really warm. Temperature of 102.1. So, I took her to the doctor. She was OK in the waiting room, looking at the fish in the tank and pointing at things: "Yes, Light, Katie. Uh-huh, Fish. That's a little girl. Yup, another light." Fine in the office, until she saw the doctor, the same one who gave her a flu shot less than two weeks ago. She appeared to remember, clinging to me and wailing. That was fun. "So yes, Doctor, I, excuse me, I TOOK HER TEMPERATURE...Katie, it's okay....AND IT WAS...."

Turns out she's getting molars and has a cold or virus of some sort, so yeah, she's not feeling too great. Rest and liquids and maybe Tylenol. We went home and she fell asleep in the car, so I let her sleep in the garage (it's downstairs from our living room for about 20 minutes -- her first garage nap, actually). When she woke up she just wanted to be held, so I held her in my arm like a baby and watched a little bit of Resident Evil, which yes is a really inappropriate choice but her eyes were closed, I promise. And we did that until Mommy and Jack got home.

It's funny the difference. When she's healthy, she's a little dynamo, pulling toys off shelves and magazines off coffee tables, making a beeline for the stairs as soon as my back is turned (and when she reaches the stairs, turning to look for me, so she can smile and say, "Da!" As in, that's right, I'm going up the stairs again, oh yeah, that's right." Sick, she's like the anti-Kate. No energy. She actually crawled a little bit today. No desire to do anything but sit in my arms, find Mr. Thumb, and half-sleep or sleep.

She rallied this evening, walking around a little with her rings on her arm (note picture from a week ago) which was huge progress for her. And hopefully we'll all sleep. Good night.