Hugs

This morning L and I were hugging and kissing before I went out for work. A watched us curiously, then with embarrassment. She said: “What are you doing? Big people don’t need to hug!”

11 Months

N was 11 months old yesterday. 11 months. I can’t believe it. Things N has been up to:
- Climbing up steps
- Climbing down from the sofa
- Sticking his hand in the toilet
- Unrolling all of the toiler paper
- Saying A-ba for daddy, A-ma for mommy, Ma-for water, repeat tik-tak for clock
- Signing: All done, hello
- Cinco!
- Not understanding where his feet disappeared to (under his socks!)
- Picking up toys and other objects if we ask him to
- Not liking having his diaper changed
- Biting
- Not sleeping, not sleeping, not sleeping.

Sharing

I was talking to a mom at the Tot-Lot who was telling me that she heard a psychologist talking on NPR about the fact that children don’t understand the concept of sharing until they are at least 7 years old. My experience so far is that this is an emerging concept. At 3, A seems to think that it means: “what’s yours can be mine”. At the zoo she told her friend M: “We’re big girls now, we need to learn to share” (A wanted M to let her press some buttons in the exhibit). Today, when I put on some jewelry she said: “Mommy, when I get older you’ll let me wear the necklace. You need to share, OK mommy?”

First day of Preschool

Yesterday was A’s first day of preschool. She was pretty excited the night before and it took her a long time to fall asleep. In the morning we packed her cool doggy lunchbox (we somehow managed to avoid getting a Spiderman one) and off we went. In A’s classroom we search for the purple dinosaur, saw all the kids say goodbye to their parents and then it was time for mommy to go. There were some tears, but half and hour later when L called the school all was well. L said that A was really happy when he came to pick her up. She had a good day.

After school the director emailed with some formalities. The first sentence of her email read: “she is an amazing child!”. She is.

Solo

Last night L went out to gallery openings and I put the kids to sleep on my own. First time in more than 10 months. Wow. Wasn’t too bad at all. Next step is finding someone else to put them to sleep.

Talking

I’m pretty sure that N is saying words. He says “Aba” when he sees L in the morning. He also says “ba-ba” for a sheep and can point to one on a page full of other images.

He also says “ba” about almost anything and A is quick to tell him: “It’s not Daddy, it’s Mommy!”

I think he’s also signing – today he made the sign for “all done” twice. Maybe we should teach him the sign for “sleep”.

L’s birthday

It was L’s birthday earlier this week. A has been preparing for a while. She decided that L’s present is going to be a smiley face ball she found at the Tot-Lot. She spent several days wrapping up the present. She used about half a roll of scotch-tape.

The day before L’s birthday I took A on errands. We were discussing cake (I was planning to go to a bakery to get some cake in lieu of actually baking a cake). A asked if we could go to Costco (because that’s where we got her cake, although I have no idea how she knows this). We went to Trader Joe’s. A spotted some muffins in one of the isles and said that we should get these “cupcakes” for L. They were of the whole wheat, organic, fruit sweetened variety. I tried to dissuade her, but no dice. It’s good one of my favorite local bakeries was open on labor day. I got a heavenly peanut butter and chocolate mousse cake.

A was also very good about keeping the whole thing a secret, although at some point she said: “Daddy, I’m not telling you that K & B & M are coming….” When I shushed her and whispered in her ear she said “Mommy, talk regular it’s not night now”. Ah, yes.

The cupcakes weren’t that bad after all.