on guard

With Isabel on the move Cael is constantly defending his toys from her reach. She is completely enthralled by him, follows him everywhere, and he is quickly becoming disenchanted. But every now and then he glimpses the possibility that she could fill a new roll in his life.

She stands with a precarious, wobbly hold on the piano bench. He starts to attack her with the orange screwdriver, but stops, looks around, runs to get the blue screwdriver (the flat-head), and stuffs it in her hand. Isabel is wide-mouth thrilled as they fence with their plastic screwdriver swords.

what's in a name

After months of referring to a full diaper as a 'poo' Cael has finally met a bear of the same name (thankyou Sierra) in 'Pooh's Heffalump Movie'. Now he picks up every teddybear in the house and shouts "Poop, poop!" and asks to see the movie again by shouting "More Poop, more Poop!" Yes, his language skills are becoming more refined.

water baby

Cael hangs on the edge of the pool and practices getting in and out of the water over and over again. Then he sees the girls. “See gerrs seee gerrs, more gers,” he chants as lurches and kicks and splashes in their direction. They jump and bob in the water, completely oblivious as Cael follows them around the pool in awe. What better motivation to learn to swim than to be able to chase older girls?

carry on my wayward son

Cael brandishes his screwdriver like a sword and gets into a crouched stance with arms at the ready. We think he might be channeling a ninja. Where is this from? We are working on turning his strikes into tickles. It is the reaction he is looking for anyway. He just needs a way to get us. Or “getcheeew” (get you).

Isabel salutes everyone with a huge open-mouth smile. Arm up, palm out. She looks like she might be expecting a high five and bursts into giggles if she gets one. If she happens to have her binkie it looks like she is offering it up. And for added emphasis she brings out the other arm for a two-armed salute.

there's no accounting for taste

Cael insists on watching ‘Legally Blonde’ and ‘Legally Blonde 2’, pointing out the “Pink dog, pink dog!” on the cover. He then takes a nap clutching a Harpers Magazine, falling asleep with his face in a political opinion essay.

mmmm crayons taste gooood...

Isabel discovers something new every day. She is just getting to a sort of frog-legged-hop-crawl that when combined with the sit-and-spin-roll seems to get her wherever she sets her mind to go. (Cael is running around the living room picking up his toys, “no, mine,” and hiding them from his sister). Today she learned that when she drops her Cheerios onto the floor, that fluffy white thing eats them right up, but if she drops her sippy-cup Mom will return it to her. And she has just developed a new noise. It is a ‘yip’ crossed with an ‘eek’, employed primarily to attract the attention of the person with the nearest supply of food.

independence

Cael dances on stage with Tim Noah and Cindy Soup while Isabel does her Stevie Wonder impression. I am always so proud of my son for being the one to jump up and join in rather than remain in his seat. I have never been keen on following directions either. But I was wondering today as the other kids in the audience were whisked away from the stage by their worried mothers if the difference really is just that Cael’s mother has set his boundaries just a little further off than normal. I do tell him ‘no’ every once in a while. Really I do! I’m sorry, Mr. Noah, if you have to step over my son to get to your guitar. But did you see how cute he is?

back from vacation and right into Christmas

Cael is helping to decorate the tree. We take out each ornament, “Whassiss?” (What’s this?) He shows it to his sister or the cat and we find a place for it on the tree.

I am watching now as a highly motivated Isabel inches forward towards a binkie. She is not quite crawling yet, but it is as if she can will herself places.

And now Cael is jumping up and down, pointing at a higher level ornament, “Bluue birr bluuue birrr, beek, beeek!” (blue bird, blue bird, beak beak).

the busiest bee

After much anticipation, Dad and Ella are finally here for a visit. Ella (my sister, 10) is Cael’s new hero, and watching him follow her around and want to play with everything she touches is a quick trip back through time to when Tim was Cael’s age and I was Ella’s. There were some wonderful moments of play followed by the more memorable long stretches of torture. Lots of “mine mine mine’s” from both parties. I distinctly remember all the grown-ups looking on at our mutual plight in amusement, sipping their wine, knowing looks, and the bursts of laughter, maybe some crumbs of pity thrown out or a stern word. Mostly laughter. You would think, with these memories, that I would have more empathy. But no, I am just as bad as my parents were (and still are, who do you think I am laughing with?), poor Ella.

necessity is the mother of...

Cael is trying to get me to come into the TV room. I assume he wants me to watch ‘Cars’ with him. “I’m making dinner right now, Cael,” I tell him, “but you go ahead.” After long babbling pleas of protest he wanders off. A few minutes later I notice that the sounds of ‘Cars’ have been replaced by the theme song to ‘Chicken Little’ and I run in to see what had happened. Cael had removed the disk from the player, picked out a new movie to watch, managed to get it in, and even more amazingly, figured out how to get the DVD to play.