Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Brave New Tastebuds: Vitamins & Beans

Today Caleb ate 2 children's vitamins! I was so proud of him. He has always been fascinated with vitamins and frequently asks for "VITAMIIIIN! VITAMIIIIN!", but he would usually just spit them out. I suspect he is finally coming around because he wants to be just like his beloved Papa!

Then at dinner tonight, Caleb ate several green beans! Even Joshua, after putting up a mild fight, ate a couple green beans, although not before telling us they were "snakes" and "bugs"! Caleb has nibbled on green beans before at Old Country Buffet, where they are of the soft, salty canned variety. But these were frozen organic green beans steamed just until tender and seasoned with only a tiny dash of soy sauce. Way to go, boys!

Face plant

This afternoon the boys were scooting around outside on their bikes. After we'd been outside in the cold for several minutes, Joshua scooted past me and I felt compelled to put up his coat's hood, fastening the velcro closure which incidentally covers his chin and mouth. Not ten seconds passed before he rolled down the driveway toward the street and the tip of his shoe got stuck on the pavement, causing his bike to flip forward, sending him face-first into the street. These kinds of accidents happen every once in a while, but I'd never seen one happen at such full speed, as the foot of our driveway has a rather steep slope. I rushed to help him up, shocked to see blood gushing from his mouth! Ok, so maybe it wasn't gushing, but as I unfastened the velcro, blood mixed with saliva dripped copiously from his mouth as he cried, and his teeth were covered in blood, too. Thankfully our neighbor who is an aspiring nurse was home on her day off and she reassured me that it looked as though his teeth and tongue were intact, he had simply bitten his lip. Joshua, being the tough kid he is, was unscathed by the sight of his own blood and stopped crying only a minute or two after the accident. I couldn't help but think how much worse the damage might have been if his coat hood hadn't been fastened shut across his mouth, protecting his teeth. I'm sure it was the Holy Spirit telling me to fasten Joshua's hood right when I did... I normally wouldn't have bothered since he was already wearing a warm hat. Thank you, Lord, for looking out for our boys!

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Oh, sorry!

Joshua's latest maneuver has been to run towards one of us (usually Caleb), shove us, and then flippantly apologize with a quick "oh, sorry!" We have tried to explain to Joshua that you generally only tell someone that you're sorry when you hurt them by accident, whereas he is clearly consciously being aggresive for the sole purpose of having an excuse to use the latest addition to his rapidly expanding vocabulary. Silly boy!

Friday, February 22, 2008

Mozart = Baby Einstein

This week I finally got around to replacing the Christmas music CD that has been playing in our car for the past couple months with a Mozart CD. The first couple days after putting in the new CD, Caleb kept saying "Baby Einstein! Baby Einstein!" whenever we went for a ride in the car. I finally realized that some of the pieces on the CD are also the background music on their Baby Einstein DVDs (which, by the way, they haven't viewed for several months). We thought it was funny (and maybe a little sad) that in Caleb's mind, classical music masterpieces are simply "Baby Einstein" music!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Elmo's cast - trash or treasure?

This evening I was tossing something in the kitchen trash can when a flash of bright orange caught my eye. Upon closer inspection, I beheld the leg cast that Granny had crocheted for an Elmo doll that she and Babo gave to Joshua after he broke his leg. I quickly retrieved the dainty web of orange yarn and asked Joe if he had thrown it away. He said no, of course not, but that earlier Joshua had brought Elmo to him and asked him to take the cast off of the doll's leg. Then Joshua must have thrown the cast away himself! They boys have shown an interest in disposing of things in our household trash cans lately, but up until now they have been very good about discerning trash from treasure and not throwing away anything important. I'm sure that in Joshua's eyes, Elmo's cast was indeed trash, since he had witnessed his own cast being sawn off and thrown in the trash at the orthopaedic doctor's office a few months earlier. But Elmo's little Granny-made cast is definitely too cute to throw away, and I'm sure that someday Joshua will appreciate that we rescued it for him.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Tomato Staking

I haven't been updating this site much recently because I have been really working on training the boys to be more obedient, with the expectation that as they grow their hearts will be obedient to God, His Word, and His will for their lives... and also to try to improve their behavior! We are making progress, slowly but steadily. Right now we are trying something called "tomato staking", which basically involves keeping the boys next to us 100% of the time, so that we are able to see everything they are doing and can encourage or stop their behavior, as desired. When they disobey, or display a bad attitude, or do anything a godly child would not do, we correct them promptly and require them to repeat what they did in godly manner. Once they have obeyed us with a pleasant attitude, we go back to nurturing, teaching, and enjoying them as we were before. Of course we don't always tomato-stake perfectly, but we are already beginning to see the fruits of our labor. The boys are now saying "Please", "thank you", "Yes, mommy", "Yes, daddy", and "I obey". They are also much more helpful about putting their books and toys away, retrieving their shoes and coats when it's time to go somewhere, not taking all the cushions off the couch all the time, and keeping their socks on their feet throughout the day. I know these things may sound trivial to you, but it's a huge deal to us as parents! The boys are still stubborn in some areas, particularly where eating is involved, but we have faith that that they will come around in due time.

Associating Places with People

Today as I pulled into the mall parking lot, the boys inquisitively chirped, "Megan? Megan?" It's no wonder, since at least half of our visits to this particular mall involve scouring the clearance racks for ridiculously cheap designer jeans with Aunt Megan. We just met her there for this purpose last week, as a matter of fact. Today we had even more important business to attend to- we were meeting Daddy for lunch, followed by bargain-hunting for winter clothes for the boys to wear next year. Since hearing the tragic news that Talbots is discontinuing their children's line, Mimi and I have been all the more vigilant about scouting out bargains on cute boys' clothes, which are a lot harder to find than cute girls' clothes. Anyway, the boys' association of the mall parking lot with Megan got me thinking about all the other places we frequently go that the boys associate with the people in their lives.

  • When we pull into the parking lot at Old Country Buffet, the boys will call out "Mimi! Papa! Mimi! Papa!" because they know that whenever we go there, we meet Mimi and Papa for dinner.

  • When we drive by the local Roy Rogers, the boys will say "Babo? Babo?" because the last couple times Granny and Babo have visited, we have gone to Roy Roger's for lunch.

  • When we pull into the church parking lot, the boys will exclaim "Daddy! Daddy!" because they know that we always see Daddy at church. Daddy always has to drive separately because he has to show up early for worship team practice. The boys will also sometimes say "Branden? Branden?" asking if their buddy will be there to play with them.

  • When we drive by a certain stop light on one of the local main roads, Joshua will say "owl! owl!" because one time when we drove by there he saw a large bird which he must have thought was an owl.

  • This doesn't involve a particular place, but when I wake the boys up in the morning and immediately get them dressed, they will ask, "Michael? Michael? Baby? Baby?" because the only occasion for which I ever get them dressed in a hurry first thing in the morning (other than Sunday morning church) is when we go to playgroup, where we see their friend Michael and his baby sister, and more recently their friend Elizabeth's new baby brother who also happens to be named Michael.


There are probably more examples but I can't think of them right now!

Monday, February 4, 2008

Our little parrots

Here are some new phrases that the boys have been spouting out lately:

  • Stop it!

  • Go away!

  • No! Uh-uh-uh! Uh-uh!

  • I said no!

  • Let's go!


And spoken as an internal monologue:

  • This, or this? Ok!

  • Milk, or juice? Milk! Alright.


You have no idea how often you say certain phrases until you have two young toddlers who follow you around all day and repeat everything you say like parrots. At first I was taken aback when they started saying "go away," wondering from whom they had learned such harsh language. Then I realized that I was to blame! Whenever I'm in the kitchen trying to load or unload the dishwasher, they will flock to it and I have to repeatedly tell them to "go away!" so that they won't grab a knife, break a glass, or get soaked with water, etc. 

The inflection and tone of Joshua's voice when he says "Uh-uh-uh! Uh-uh!" is hilarious b/c he sounds exactly like I do when I am warning him against doing something naughty. And by the way, the boys don't say "No! Uh-uh! Stop it! Go away" to us or even each other, but rather when they are off playing on their own, as if they are incorportating these simple dialogues into their imaginative play. They do, however, say "let's go!" when they actually do want to go somewhere.

Sadly, the boys aren't picking up on more edifying language, which I presume is because it isn't spoken nearly as often in our house these days. Just think, by now the boys could be memorizing scripture if we spoke it to them all day long! I guess I should at least try to start by weaving some more uplifting language into my daily dialogue with them.

One edifying thing the boys have learned is to ask each other to "share!" when they want something that is in the other's possession. They usually take this peaceful approach first, and if it doesn't work after the first couple attempts, they resort to taking the coveted item by force. It's interesting to see how strategies employed by twin toddlers are mirrored by world leaders on a global scale!

In other news, the boys can now not only identify, but also sing their ABC's! They can also count to 10, and whenever they have an opportunity to count how many of something is in their presence (like how many people wearing eyeglasses are in the room) they will.

And last but not least, Happy Birthday Papa! :)