Mrs. Jenkins

One of A’s favorite book characters is Mrs. Jenkins. Mrs. Jenkins is a fox, but A is certain that she’s a cat. Mrs. Jenkins is the teacher in the book Yoko. In the past week A has asked that we refer to her as Mrs. Jenkins. She even introduced herself as Mrs. Jenkins to someone who asked her name at the playground. Now when we read the book, A insists that we say A every time Mrs. Jenkins is mentioned. A thinks this identity switching thing is brilliant.

Peek-a-boo

N is now getting what peek-a-boo is all about. It’s still one of A’s favorite games! She likes to cover her head with a blanket and have us ask “Where is A? Under the bed? In the pantry? Sally, have you seen A?” N also recognizes himself in the mirror. He loves looking at his reflection. When I ask “Where is mommy?” he looks up at my reflection and smiles. When I ask “Where is N?” he cracks up looking at himself.

More teeth are coming. N is biting anything he can shove in his mouth. He loves to bite us. We’re not too crazy about it. Teeth are not helping with sleep. We’re not too crazy about that either.

N is trying to push up on all fours. It’s hard work. He can get himself down on his belly from a seated position. He wants to go places.

We went to buy A some underpants yesterday. I think I was more disappointed than she was that there were no purple underpants. She chose some Elmo underpants. Oh, well.

No diaper – day 2

I thought that yesterday was another one of a kind, but mid morning, A ditched the diaper and was back in underpants. We spent the morning at the Larz Anderson park, potty in tow. It was so much fun. A asked if we could go there tomorrow and have lunch by the water. I think it’s going to rain….

Blankie and Metzi stayed at home. We are on a verge of all these breakthroughs…

A had only one accident and that was during a temper tantrum, so I guess it doesn’t really count.

D came for a visit and was very impressed by A. A read D three books – Yoko, Knuffle Bunny and Knuffle Bunny Too. She did a wonderful job. I was quite impressed myself…

N is chomping down on everything. His favorite things to bite are our shoulders and our fingers. It’s painful. He’s also into pulling the hair on L’s chest. Ouch. And on the subject of pain – N was on a roll of no sleep. One semi long nap can’t make up for all the lost sleep at night and too short naps earlier in the day. It’s gotta be the teeth (they’re almost out). At least he’s been having a blast taking a bath – he figured out splashing!

No diaper

Today A spent the entire day in underpants. No accidents. She even took her nap without a diaper. She seemed to think peeing in the potty was pretty cool. Yay!

It was a beautiful day. A spent a lot of time on the tire swing in the front yard. She loves it. Big pushes!

N is teething again. He is so miserable. He is now scooting backwards – it makes him SO mad.

We must be doing a good job (for now) in raising good Jewish kids. A told me this evening “I like going to synagogue. We sing and eat. I like it.”

I can…

Things A can do all by herself:
1. Button and unbutton her sweater
2. Dress her babies
3. Diaper brown bear
4. Put on her sweater
5. Put on her own diaper (we do not approve)

N is very good at feeding himself. He picks up the spoon and gets it straight in his mouth. Tonight he had delicacies – asparagus (he just loved sucking those spears!) and sweet potato.

A visit to the doctor

N’s 6 months check up was a couple of days ago (but he’s closer to 7 months). He was 18lb 5oz and almost 28 inches long. All we talked about with Dr. B was sleep. Or lack thereof. He asked if there might be some family history of this. I thought it was funny he asked, given that there was… He gave us a referral to see THE sleep doctor – Dr. Ferber. I’m wondering if N was somehow impressed by this, because he slept for 8 hours straight that night. It got me thinking that we might be getting lucky. Alas, it didn’t last long. Last night, N was up every 2 hours. We will be needing that appointment after all.

N is infatuated with L. All he wants is his dad. When L leaves the room, N’s face darkens and the crying begins…

Mother’s day

Today was Mother’s day. We didn’t even talk about it. Maybe next year.

N is trying to crawl. He scoots backwards when on his belly. He does pretty impressive push ups. Now he doesn’t like it when we leave the room – he gets extremely upset when his favorite people suddenly disappear. He’s still into eating books.

This morning A decided that she is wearing underpants. We took the potty with us on our Aroboretum lilac Sunday picnic. 2 accidents. But it was fun! In the evening A needed to pee, but was apprehensive about using the potty. She needed to go, but kept getting off the potty. She asked for a diaper. We had a little discussion. Then I needed to pee. Modeling works. Or maybe she really needed to go. A said “There’s a yellow puddle in the potty. Let’s show Daddy.” We did. After that she asked to put on a diaper. It had been a long day. I wonder if we’ll be back to diaper fetish tomorrow.

Not by day, not by night

When we were in Israel, L’s mom told me that when L was a baby she wrote a short skit with this title. Turns out baby L was a very crappy sleeper. Shortly after he finally fell asleep, he would be up again. Day and night.

What can I say – like father, like son.

Smushi

A’s new favorite book is Yoko. It’s about (surprise! surprise!) a cat. Yoko’s school lunch is sushi (smushi, as far as A’s concerned). It doesn’t go down well with the other kids. But there is a happy ending. And one learns that Israel’s national food is potato knishes (it’s not like the author got the sushi part right…)

This evening, I took A to our local smushi store to get us some dinner and watch the smushi man make the smushis. A was super excited about eating smushi. She bravely ate 2 thin slices of an avocado maki. It’s good it’s Friday night. She devoured our challa. She’s still on her special diet.

Diaper fetish

A has a diaper fetish. She just has a thing about diapers. She can spend hours putting diapers on and taking them off her bears. She insists on a variety of diapers to choose from. She likes to hold diapers (clean ones) and can walk around with them all day long. She used to like getting diapers from her friends (because they had “special” diapers – “Micky mouse diapers” and “Green diapers”.) Now she’s into sharing too – at her last visit to the playground she insisted on giving one of her diapers to a 5 year old girl. Luckily, the girl had a little brother who was more appreciative.

This must have started more than a year ago, as I distinctly remember SIL E commenting on how advanced A was with imaginary play when she attempted to change a bear’s diaper.

We’ve gone through A asking to change her diaper practically every hour; A discovering old diapers in the closet and putting them to use as bear diapers; A confiscating N’s diapers after he was born; A asking for a diaper “to hold” once she got to coop; A wanting to check out what kind of diapers other kids use; A pretending her blankie was a diaper; A deciding that diapers “don’t go on the belly! Not like that!” (sadly I have no idea what this means); A pretending her washcloth was A diaper. We did have a short period of A not wanting to wear a diaper, but now we’re in “I want to close the flaps by myself” period.

Underpants (even ones with Mini mouse!) don’t seem to have the same appeal. A never heard about landfills.