1, 2, Guitar

The boys are fascinated whenever I bring out my guitar.  Joshua likes to strum the strings and point out the location of the capo (which is clipped onto the headstock) while Caleb prefers to whisk his fingers up and down the fretboard.  Their favorite activity, though, is counting different parts of the guitar--strings, tuners, pegs, fret inlays, etc. (Note that when I say "counting" I really mean "begging me incessantly to count something so they can count along.")  Even though counting hinders me from using the guitar for its intended purposes, I'm nevertheless proud of my boys' mathematical inclinations, especially since their favorite things to count are the frets, all twenty-two of them.  The boys do a pretty good job of counting along, actually.  They cruise through one to twelve; "thirteen" eludes them, but they typically find their bearings by "sixteen" and confidently power through to "twenty" where a premature "twenty-twooo..." is soon followed by the true and glorious "twenty-TWO!"  After a few rounds of this they'll let me play my guitar in peace.

The boys also enjoy playing with my guitar case.  If it's lying flat on the floor, Caleb, for reasons beyond my understanding, is compelled to walk back and forth on it; I tend to avoid putting it in that position.  I do, however, like to sit the guitar case upright, lengthwise along the floor, which creates a makeshift ramp for the industrious Joshua to push his toy cars down.

I'll Give You Chocolate

Prior to this past Halloween, the boys had no idea what chocolate and candy were. I specifically remember a few days before Halloween, Caleb saw one of those little candy-dispensing vending machines full of m&m's and he said "look at all the vitamins, Mommy!"

Oh, how things have changed in less than 2 months! While Joshua doesn't seem to have as much of a sweet tooth, Caleb is now a certified chocoholic. He is now sporting one of the best haircuts he's ever had because I used m&m's to bribe him into sitting still while I snipped away. Chocolate also came in handy while we took our family Christmas picture, and the boys also get an m&m if they pee on the potty.

Well, sometimes the boys say things that make us step back and re-evaluate our parenting practices. On Tuesday Joshua became very attached to a certain toy black car he had found at my midwife's office. He threw a mini fit when we had to say "bye-bye" to the midwife and her black car. Throughout the day, Joshua asked if we could go back to see the midwife and her black car, to which I always replied, "No, we'll see the midwife again in two weeks, and besides you have a ton of cars at home you can play with." Finally, Joshua became desperate. He said, "Mommy, let's go see the midwife and get the black car... I'll give you chocolate!"

When you are futilely trying to reason with a pair of stubborn 3-year-olds, bribery presents itself as a very attractive option. But when your 3-year-olds start to behold chocolate as something that can magically shift circumstances in their favor, you know you've gone overboard. All I can say is that there will be a lot less chocolate bribery going on around here from now on!

Favorite News "Celebrities"

During the presidential election season, the boys saw a bit more of the news on TV than usual. If someone on TV caught the boys' interest, they would ask, "da-da?" which means, "who is that?" and we would tell them. Interestingly enough, the boys never asked us about Obama even though they probably saw his face just as often as (if not more often than) any other. I thought it would be noteworthy to mention the news "celebrities" whom the boys did ask about, and a couple months later can still identify by name.

President Bush
McCain
Brit Hume
Bret Baier
O'Reilly
Fred Barnes
Hannity
Alan Colmes
Greta

They also frequently asked about Charles Krauthammer, but I guess his name was too much of a mouthful for the boys to commit to memory!

Santa Claus is Sad

Yesterday on the way home from my midwife appointment we stopped at the fancy upscale mall (the one with the huge snow globe that emits fake snow) so the boys could meet Santa Claus. The mall's elaborate Christmas decorations put the boys in a delightful mood. They were completely enthralled with the winter wonderland scene featuring enormous life-sized stuffed animals, including tigers, polar bears, and a giraffe that is probably 2 stories tall. Despite their good mood, I guess I was being overly optimistic when I dressed the boys in their cute new green Christmas sweaters and waited in line for a visit with jolly old Saint Nick.

As soon as Caleb caught a whiff of what was going on, he clammed up. "Do you want to sit with Santa Claus?" I asked him. "No, no, NO!" was his adamant reply as he cautiously backed away. Joshua was not as decidedly opposed to the notion, and actually crept as close as 5 feet from Mr. Claus before deciding that a polite wave and a cordial "hi" was as friendly as he would be. Of all the kids who were waiting in line with us (and the line was quite long), Caleb and Joshua were the only ones who outright refused to even sit with the man. Sure, not all of the other kids smiled, but they all sat. As we were leaving, I told the boys that they had made Santa Claus sad. Throughout the rest of the day, Joshua kept saying "Santa Claus is sad," and sticking out his bottom lip. Caleb couldn't have cared less that he had made Santa Claus sad.

While I was disappointed that we didn't get a cute picture of the boys with Santa, on the bright side, we saved $17, the price of the most inexpensive photo package. And more importantly, we probably don't have to worry about the boys ever being lured away by even the friendliest stranger!

It's Mary!

With Christmas quickly approaching, we have recently been reading the boys a lot of books about Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. The other evening we were at the drugstore when Caleb suddenly became very excited and exclaimed, "Mary! It's Mary, Mommy! See Mary? It's Mary!" At first I was confused since Caleb doesn't personally know anyone named Mary. I quickly scoped out the area he was pointing towards and didn't see any Nativity scenes on display, but Caleb continued to insist that he saw "Mary". Then it struck me-- he was pointing to a young Muslim woman a few aisles over whose headcovering resembled the attire that Mary the mother of Jesus is usually seen wearing in the boys' illustrated Christmas books. I couldn't help but chuckle as I made this connection, causing Caleb to become visibly embarrassed and concerned that his assessment might be incorrect. So I assured him that he was right, he had indeed found Mary. He was clearly quite proud of himself for making such an important discovery :)

Candle Thomas and the Towel

When the weather was warm and the boys were wearing shorts while playing outside this past Spring and Summer, we ended up with quite a few skinned knees. Joshua would become particularly distraught at the sight of his own blood. One time I put a towel on his knee to soak up the blood, and every time he skinned his knee after that, he asked us to give him a towel cover his injury. A lot of times he would limp around bent over with his hand keeping a towel in place over the boo-boo on his knee. Ever since then, Joshua has considered the towel to be some sort of healing remedy, and almost always asks for one when he gets hurt.

Joshua became very attached to the Thomas the Train candle on his 3rd birthday cake, which, of course, is made of wax. In the days after his birthday, "Candle Thomas" never left his side. Later on that week he took it along when we went to visit some friends (who have a propensity to chew on toys), and Candle Thomas came home with quite a few boo-boos. Joshua was most distraught over Candle Thomas' injuries. They had chewed heavily on the "smoke" coming out of Thomas' funnel, disclosing the blue wax underneath the white smoke. When we got home, Joshua found a white colored ink pen (which of course did not write with white ink) and tried to use it to fix Candle Thomas' boo boos. He assumed that since the pen is white, it would have white ink. When that didn't work, he found a leaf and tried to use it to rub the boo boos away, but the leaf crumbled. Then he asked for a towel, so I gave him a small baby washcloth and he pressed it tenderly against Candle Thomas, saying "this will make it better, Candle Thomas. The towel will make it better".

I felt so sad for sweet, empathetic Joshua! To try get his mind off of this traumatic turn of events, as a treat I put on a Thomas DVD and he sat watching it, clutching Candle Thomas in the towel the entire time. Three weeks later, Candle Thomas is still wrapped in the same little washcloth. Whenever the washcloth becomes undone, Joshua becomes very concerned and asks me to wrap him back up. I just think it's so sweet that even at this young age, he shows such great empathy for others, even inanimate objects made of wax.

Studying the Thomas Catalog

One of Joshua's favorite things to do is study the catalog that comes with each new Thomas train and pick out which trains he would next like to add to his collection. He usually begins by prompting me to ask him, "Which one do you want?" Today I thought it would be fun to record part of my conversation with Joshua while he pored over the latest catalog.

Joshua: (patting his hand on the floor next to him) Mommy, come and sit down. Which one do you want? How 'bout this?
Me: You want Fergus?
Joshua: Ok, Mommy, ok. How 'bout this one?
Me: Emily? Emily is too big.
Joshua: Yeah, Emily is too big.
Me: How about Salty? (Mimi has already bought Salty for the boys, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to try to spark interest in him)
Joshua: (launching into a lengthy monologue) Salty is too big. I don't like that one. No, I don't think so. How 'bout Trevor for Christmas? How 'bout Trevor? Ok? Come on, let's go. How 'bout Rusty? No, I don't like that one Rusty. You'll get Trevor for Christmas. How 'bout Terrence?
Me: You want Terrence for Christmas?
Joshua: Ok, Mommy, you be a good boy, you get Terrence for Christmas. How about Edward?
Me: You already have Edward.
Joshua: How 'bout Thomas?
Me: You already have 5 different Thomases.
Joshua: How 'bout this?
Me: Neville? (Joshua leans over to study Neville, decides to pass).
Joshua: How 'bout this?
Me: Culdee and the Apple Orchard Cars?
Joshua: Yeah, Culdee. It's like, Culdee.

We have these discussions a lot. I think most parents of toddler boys would agree with me when I say that the people who market these Thomas trains are geniuses... pure geniuses.