Pom, A Run-Down

Photo credit to my brilliant sister-in-law Brianna. Camera wizard extraordinaire.

Spent the afternoon locked in a cool room with a window a/c unit purring gently in the background. (Thank you, thank you to my charming aunt who came and helped install it!) We curled up on the boys room on the rug indulgently ignoring the laundry and instead, we read stories, Pom climbed on and off his brothers beds and I Pinterested my little soul to bits. I cleaned house mentally, got three quarters of the way through my current novel and then made a long list of things to take the to dump and things to send to Goodwill. Its almost dinnertime now and I am feeling considerably better than before.

And thus, am thinking about a cheery topic...the encapsulation of Pom as small, interesting person of his own. Here he is, in all his 13 month glory....get to know him.

Pom Loves:

1. Iced coffee. I made the wee mistake of letting him sip a decaf version once on a hot day and now he lunges madly for the cup every time I have one...am in perma-defense mode with cold drink in hand.
2. Watermelon. Pom can go blow for blow with A in contests over his favorite fruit. Its a summertime special.
3. Animals. Dogs and birds are both big hits. He gets nervous and can even be shaky and paranoid around them but he won't be kept away from them either so its a magnetically, nervous pull. He giggles and dives for them, imitating barks or chirps but then does a freaked out/giggly retreat and then repeats the cycle over and over.
4. Water play. He runs for the ocean, isn't afraid of waterfalls, cannot be kept out of a bath and freaks out about being walked past puddles instead of being allowed in post-haste. Love my small mer-man.
5. Singing. He sings along with any voice he hears on the radio, any goofy song his daddy makes up or any tune at church that strikes his fancy. Love it when we are passing street musicians and he starts "singing" along. 
6. "Nakedy Time." Every night before bed when all the other kids are in bed we've developed a little ritual together. We take off his dirty clothes, wash up any muddy smudges and add lotion where needed and then let him have a little roll about on our bed in his birthday suit before dressing him up for the night and tucking him in the cradle. Its his favorite. He chortles and pounces on the pillows, coos and giggles plays peek-a-boo with us and then eventually winds down to snuggling and long sleepy blinking and then we know its bedtime. So sweet. Love it. 
7. Seltzer Water. Ru used to spit it out and his brothers have all had a shudder-and-drool kind of response to bubbly water fizz but not Pom. He guzzles the stuff and begs for more and jockeys to be included anytime some is being drunk near him. He's a baby of culture. 
8. Silkies. The very fastest and most sure fire way to soothe him when he's cranky, help him cope with teething pain (hello molars!) or get him to sleep is to give him one of my slinkiest slips made of a satiny material. He sucks on them, wadding up the material and shoving it in his mouth....and is vastly pleased. 
9. Eating Dirt. I never saw a child more enamoured of eating dirt...and I don't mean just tasting it or sucking on his fingers despite their dirty state, he actually scoops handfuls of dirt or sand into his mouth on purpose and if not caught in time will just swish and swallow very happily. Ugh. 
10. Board Books. He loves to hear a story, maybe its just the rythmic cadence of the sound or maybe he's really comprehending the plot, who knows....he just likes it. He likes to bring books to me and he likes to turn the pages and he loves the lap-time that literary excuses bring.

Pom Distains:

1. Sitting Down In The Highchair. He really is ridiculously insistent about this one. I continue to expect we'll train him out of his persistent desire to stand or climb out on the tray and put his grubby little feet right onto the table. I have taken to spending the meal holding onto one foot and keeping him pulled down in his seat. Please, say he'll give up soon!
2. Being Hot. Don't we all? Pom will be extremely irritable whenever the temperature gets to the sweating zone. He wants to nurse, he doesn't want to, he wants to be held, he'd like to be left alone, he wants to be down and crawl around, he is angry that he has been left alone on the floor to fend for himself...etc.etc.etc. Its a no win. Its just too hot.
3. A, Horning In. He's very attached to me and is quite possessive. We try not to accommodate this one too much but he'd really prefer it if A never kissed me or hugged me or snuggled up with me. I belong to him in his mind and he will fiercely wedge himself in between us if so moved and push and push to get me all cleared off to himself. Silly little dictator.
4. Horses and Cows. He likes dogs although even they make him nervous. Horses and cows were too much. They make him skip the giggling part and go straight to the blind panic climbing up my arms and then my face. Too big, I think.
5. Being Buckled In His Car Seat. He usually sits and drives along pretty happily once we're on the road but he thrashed and wedges himself straight, refusing to bend at the waist when I try to buckle him in. Much screaming ensues. 
6. Being Told, "No" His eyes fill with big crocodile tears and then his face crumples and often he yells back at me "Nah Nah Nah!" and his latest trick is trying to throw punches at me to show how upset he feels at being scolded.
7. Coming Down The Stairs, In Arms. This isn't a major deal anymore but I still notice it from time to time. He startles when being carried down the stairs. I think he feels gravity and has become aware of falling and realizes that the downward momentum feels dangerous and it makes him nervous.
8. Most Vegetables. He eats fruits with impunity, has finally come around on meats and will happily eat a fresh bean or pea from the garden while I do yard work but most things I serve at meals (cooked broccoli, carrot sticks, sauteed greens....etc.) become at best a teething toy and at worst are just rejected outright. 
9. Rain. He loves water and craves swimming and bathing, adores drinking water from a cup and has learned to sign "water" avidly now but water coming down from the sky? Too much. He just gets angry and cries if we ever have to dart through a downpour on our way into a store,
10. Being Left-Out. He's a classic youngest child, always jockying to be included and watching with a shrewd eye to stay up to the minute on the latest happenings. He wails pitifully when the big boys get candy treats and he is forgotten or there are bikes for bigger boys to peddle and he is left out. He's got a real yen to be part of the pack. 

Pint-Sized Bug Man

My thoughtful little second-born, Dee is becoming quite the little scientist. He has a newly emerged special love for bugs of all kinds. He is a careful watcher, a fan of the tiny things in life and curious about things that move. All the necessary requirements.

He got "in trouble" recently at a kid event for secreting along his magnifying glass (one of his favorite toys) and then whipping it out in company and promptly giving every kid there green eyes showing how it worked. I am sure he was looking at some kind of bug...or at least looking FOR some. He seems curious about everything from crickets to aphids to butterflies. His nature loving mama is pretty touched by his new proclivity.

I was a similarly small-picture kid as a little girl and loved spending hours outdoors being still, watching things, often the teeny tiny things, mites under a log, the wiggling tadpole embryos in frog eggs, and all the detail on the seed head of a grass stalk. A lot of slow, silent, solo discovery. Brings back fond memories to watch him on the same path.

I love how gleeful he is about noticing some little, over-looked being that is going about its curious business somewhere like the inside of a lily or the page of someone's book. He's thrilled to learn things about them too and sits happily regurgitating details of the life-cycle of aphids at the dinner table. One of the few times when he is a chatterbox...so fun to have a corner on some information nobody else has. Not even his big, impressive daddy knows what a cricket eats! Love to watch that personal pride in such a good and wholesome thing. Makes me think a lot of E. O. Wilson, of etymological fame.

Am thinking about how to encourage him. I would love to make an ant farm together to watch. I think he would get a big kick out that. I think I had one as a kid a couple of times that was just in a glass jar....but the ones that between two pressed sheets of glass like a picture frame are super appealing. I think a good, large page, nicely illustrated book on insects is in order too for the ever growing library. What else would you do for or with a pint sized bug lover?

Related articles

• The Bugs of June 2012

  ---

• Good bug, bad bug: How can you tell the difference?

  ---

• Animals and Common Garden Pests

  ---

The Nib Review

 Time for a little expose on my smallest son. He's almost sixteen months old, and still a cheery-hearted boy who is often a balm for my over-scheduled soul. When life is falling apart at the seams I frequently feel like he is the bright spot and I love his relational little self to pieces.

Nib Likes:

• Giving kisses. (so lovely, this stage!)
• Mornings. He's a glowing, chattering, cheery boy in the mornings...all mornings...starting at least by 7:30 AM but often 5 AM.
• Sweet corn. He got my Williams family corn obsession gene and will easily polish off a whole ear alone, two if he's allowed. 
• Dried fruit. He loves cranberries, cherries, blueberries, prunes, dates and anything else you let him try.
• Music. He's a dancer and a singer this one and he loves a good round of plunking notes out on the piano. Any repetitive noise can be danced to and sung along with if you're enough of a music lover: car alarms, nervous toe taps, squeaky hinges and the noise from a bowl of eggs being beaten with a fork.
• Nursing. He's still cutting the very last of his teeth so I'm being an indulgent and comforting mommy but the end of milk is in sight. I am feeling like I need to stop soon. Trying to enjoy every last bit before the end.
• Story books. He brings stories to A and I, often particular favorites (a board book picture dictionary or The Little Train are some of his loves)
• Sword fighting with his brothers. (all sticks become swords!)
• Babies. Babies need kisses and Nib is happy to oblige, along with kind pats on the head.
• Greeting people. He waves wildly and yells "HI! HI!" to passing strangers on the other side of the street when he's behind our closed living room window. Love the ardor he has about this new skill.
• The phrase "Uh oh!" Such an exciting thing to say, use it as often as possible.
• Plucking treats off the fruit table. Such delight! Take as many bites as you like and then chuck it....unless Mommy catches you!
• Helping empty the dishwasher. This is his particular chore. He loves to hand me silverware so I can put it away and also enjoys pushing "Start" when it has all been re-loaded.
• Eating. He is hungry far more often than three times a day right now. I feel like he wants to eat constantly. Handily his appetite is pretty broad and he self-feeds pretty neatly.

Nib Dislikes:

•  Cherry tomatoes. He loves the way they look and almost always wants to try one but they always come right back out with lots of spitting and a repulsed face. More Sungolds for me. :)
• Sharing. Nobody smaller than him? You can tell. He's sweet but a bit assuming as far as being the center of attention goes. Kid needs a few younger babies in his life.
• Being left out. He's really learned to be part of the pack and it drives him crazy to have his big brothers do things he can't...and it is four shades of terrible when they go away and he can't come. 
• Being in his car seat. The car seat shrieking stage was a little late in coming for this kid but it has definitely made it's appearance now. He is tolerant on short jaunts but on long car rides he has begun to assert his own, piercing will. 
• Being told no. He wants to be picked up when he orders it, to be read to on demand and to be given any snack he hauls out of the pantry. Limits are not cool. The next thing he plans to do is be two years old.
• Having his hair washed. He doesn't put up the wild fuss that his big brother Dee does but he doesn't like this part of bath time very well and complains about it until I finish and leave him to paddle in peace.
• Being carried or stuck in the cart at the grocery store. I still make him refrain because it is just too much for me to handle but he sure would love to be free to run down all the aisles in joyous, unrestricted glee. 
• The end of ice cream. Okay, maybe I'm stretching with this one, it might properly belong on the "Likes" list but he does put up a pouty-lipped royal fuss when his much enjoyed ramekin of ice cream is scratched-out-all-the-corners-empty and not one more drop can be coaxed out.
• Wearing socks or shoes in the car. Think you'll be efficient and appropriate and make sure I'm full dressed when I am buckled into the car before we head to the library. Ha! Think again, Mommy. No dice. Those suckers get shucked as fast as you can turn the engine over.
• Latched or locked doors. Nothing drives him batty faster than trying to open a door and finding it fast. He hates that!

And that's about the size of it. At the moment he's still a very mellow little person who is just starting to show us what thrills and frustrates him. I can't wait to see more of him unfold. He is a lovely little man and I am curious about what else the world will show him about himself, nothing left to do but wait some more and see!

My Top Parenting Conundrums

Ah, the power of a list. One of the great things about making lists, especially bad lists...is that they later become records of things you no longer sweat over, a way to look back and grin because that list is no longer dogging your heels.
I like to make lists but I also like to keep lists so that they can be persued later, and generate smiles. One of the things that's so very infuriating about a current stressor you're dealing with is how it seems so overpowering in the moment. Don't you hate that? I do. The way that whatever-is-your-current-nemesis seems tower over the rest of life in a threatening way. I know full well that it really isn't half the big deal it feels but it really is hard to remember. One of the ways life can get overwhelming fast is with parenting conundrums. You know, whatever puzzle is currently keeping you awake at night...how in the world do you get your kid to______________??? Or to stop doing ____________?

I was just pillow-talking with A the other night as we were drifting off and I told him how helpful it is to me when parenting issues seem insurmountable and baffling to remember the last battle I conqoured as a mom and how truly hopeless I felt about that one too. I have done the cycle enough times that I now "get" that I will always feel like I'm on the brink of disaster about whatever issue I'm trying to solve...and then I'll get through it, somehow. And the other side feels really good to be on.

I thought it might be kind of fun to write down a list of the top things that are driving me insane with my kids right now. Then I can look back and remember how the things I never thought could be resolved mended themselves and you never know, maybe some of you have answers for me! There's power in numbers.

My Top Parenting Conundrums

1. Trying to get Ru to keep his pants dry.  It's not a capability problem, and it's not an issue when we're out and about, just when we're home but I'm pulling my hair out and losing my mind trying to keep up with his laundry, sometimes I'm making him change his pants and undwear three times a day. When I ask him why he's wetting he tells me that he is too busy playing to go to the toilet, and that he "stays dry when we go places." Argh! I have talked until I am blue in the face and am clearly not getting through. Am considering giving him a limit for how many outfits he gets in a day and then making him wear his pajamas the rest of the day if he runs out of clean options. Am still puzzling over a solution.
2. Teaching Nib not to take bites out of fruit at random. We have a low fruit table, well within the reach of children and the boys are allowed to snack on fruit sometimes and also to pick fruit to each at meals. We want healthy food to look alluring and we like stocking enough produce that the boys can "graze" a bit on fruit. That said, part of our philosophy involves even allowing this fruit to be within reach of the baby's little fingers. Nib likes fruit too and Nib has learned about picking out his favorites for snacking but he doesn't know about asking first and he also doesn't remember to eat only at the table. I keep finding peach pits hidden about the house and coming upon him sitting on the floor with juice running down his chin. I keep telling him firmly to ask Mama first and the big boys keep and eye out and remind him too but in the meantime it feels like it will never. I realize this is problem of my own creation and that most American moms would never dream of leaving fruit down where their baby can get it and assume they can teach him to ask first but I truly believe it will work. That said, I also am finding this tiresome and would sure love it if he'd "get" it.Until then, the baby gate is coming in handy for making sure he doesn't jet away out of the room and make a beeline for the fruit table.
3. Teaching both older boys to be socially polite. They used to be! I swear they did but somehow there was some kind of a hiccup and suddenly they're self-conscious which ends up equally socially awkward. They reply to greetings in public with mumbled replies, horrible faces, absurd nonesense or even snarling and tears. I am not sure how in the world to get them to remember their pleases and thank yous and learn to look people in the eye and smile when they arrive someplace. Argh! I keep reminding them before we go inside a business or enter a friend's house and we do some rehearsing scenarios at home, and of course I try to model social warmth myself. So far...we're still striking out a lot of the time. Boy, would I ever like to win this one.
4. Teaching Nib not to sel-injure. When reprimanded for something, or told no about something he wants, he's taken to trying to slam his head on the floor. It's all quite distressing, and although he's clearly communicating his upset (what he's after, I'm sure) we're worried he'll hurt himself or develop a bad habit of violence for expressing unhappiness. We're alternating between scolding him firmly, stopping him physically by grabbing his head or picking him up and warm, soothing words to calm him and help him feel that life is still worth living. We're clearly not sure how to handle it since we're waffling all over the place with method and he's still doing it so we haven't solved it yet.
5. Wheedling. Ru is the biggest culprit here. When we tell himself something he doesn't want to hear or he asks us if he can have five candy bars at the grocery and he doesn't get the answer he wanted...he wheedles. Instead of taking our answer respectfully and dropping it he figures if he asks over and over and over he'll eventually get the answer he would like. Infuriating! I have to really watch it to nip this in the bud with him or else I can quickly steam-train into an emotional wreck after he hammers me with "Please, please, please, please!!!" and a few whines thrown in for good measure. Another little twist on the theme is when he wheedles and I say to him, "You were given an answer...what did I say?" And he replies..."You said yes?" with a wickeded little sneer. Oooo!!! That's a bad one. So far I'm emplying time out and firm scoldings when he wheeldles and am not making any firm headway. Anyone have a brilliant solution?

And if any of you want to share your own personal headaches at the moment, then I'll know I'm not alone and when we're down the road a couple of months we'll be able to look back together!

Dee At The Moment

 Oh, little Dee! Time for a little zoomed in focus on who this little person is turning out to be. I am trying to figure out how to handle all his little quirks and mannerisms. He's easily upset, only moderately communicative, and really hard to talk down once worked up, but also sweet-hearted, observant and very full of spirit. I find him both uniquely charming and particularly draining. I am so glad he's not a baby anymore as he is a lot more fun as a little boy.

As an infant he was a bundle of nerves, and pretty impressively colicky. I remember walking and walking the floor with him in my arms and wondering if the night would ever end. He's my asthma child, my surgery baby (see this post about his ptosis surgery), my wee engineer, my collector, and my thinker. I love working with him, having quiet moments alone together and watching all his little interests flicker and glitter as he tries on new ideas and expresses his likes and dislikes. Have a look yourself!

Dee Dislikes:

• The strings in fresh mango
• Spicy things....except for salsa...he likes salsa
• Pebbles in his shoes
• Buckling his seat belt
• Rumpled tags in the back of his shirt
• Getting things stuck in his teeth
• Ru, making faces
• Eating with a fork
• Tomato sauce on his pasta
• Open containers...he has to put lids on bottles, fasten hinges, lock locks and close boxes.
• Sunshine in his eyes
• Sleeping
• Red peppers
• Strong wind
• Having his hair cut or washed
  

Dee Likes:

• Painting (he could paint by the hour...especially if alone)
• Wiping things down with a sponge
• Watering plants (with his own little watering can)
• Baby ducks
• Soft eggs yolks
• The color yellow (everything should be yellow)
• Spiderman and Batman
• Motorcycles
• All seafood....smoked salmon, shrimp cocktail, steamed lobster....you name it!
• Cutting things with scissors
• Being outdoors alone
• Listening to birds "talk"
• Muffins
• Pancakes
• Steak
• Milk

Poetry Friday: A Birthday Poem

My small, middle boy is three today, on this brightly sunny, Poetry Friday. We had waffles for breakfast (per his request) and I sprayed a tower of whipped cream on top of his and stuck a candle in it. He dimpled and blew it out and dug in. I think it will be a good year.

Here's hoping this year he learns how to: keep his pants dry all the time, sleep through the night, whine less and talk more, and buckle his own seatbelt. Three is the year. I'm ready and I know he is too.

Happy Birthday, Dee! I love you so. Today the poem is all yours.

Young Biography

He is forklifts, nose wrinkles and faithful glasses of milk.

He is the towering T-rex bones at The Museum of Natural History

He is bottomless sardine tins, Frog and Toad and quiet spaces.

He is a toddler in a surgical gown, a homebirth into quiet waters.

He is whipped cream slurped off the sundae and a raspy dinosaur voice.

He is the way that butter, once-melted-into-your-oatmeal, ceases to exist and is mourned.

He is a painting of Jesus on The Road to Emmaus that hangs at the back of the sanctuary.

He is a tiny sparkle in the corner of an unremarkable beige pebble at the beach.

He is infinite little pebbles, heavy in the pockets of tiny pairs of sagging jeans.

He is sirloin steak and oozing pricey cheese and a funny, little gear that turns, just so.

He is my second son, and this morning he was three for the first time.

You can find all kinds of other poetic delights today at Dori Reads, the home of our Poetry Friday round-up hostess.

Ru Snapshot

Today the beginning of a new bevy of lists. Kids tastes and interests, even their most passionate ones, change like the wind. At the moment...this is a snapshot of my oldest son.

Ru Likes

avocados

(he and I scoop avocados out of the shells with spoons together)

sweets

forklifts

 chocolate milk

"fixers" (repairmen of all stripes)

taking pictures 

skateboarding and skateboarders

pudding

Aunt Gigi's apple cake

 buses

baking things

dinosaurs

farmers

being read to

(we're working on Little House In The Big Woods)

sausages of all kinds

plain cheese pizza (I am mortified)

weed whackers and leaf blowers

dogs, of all kinds

Darth Vader

salad

helping A take out the garbage

marbles

painting (both walls and watercolors)
St. Marcellin cheese

snow

having a knife at dinner

drinking water

his flip-flops 

(he's very sad about the non flip-flop winter footwear custom)

salt on his food....lots of salt

mopping the floor

washing dishes

peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

Ranch dressing

Ru Can't Stand

tomato sauce on his pasta

fish of any kind

taking a nap

having his food cut up for him

long socks

zipping his coat up 

(he prefers to wear the whole thing flapping open, hanging by the hood from his forehead)

soup

having anyone in the room while he's dressing

having anyone think he's "dumb" (his current paranoia)

mangoes

waiting for winter

being put on the spot

dried pineapple

pants that are too short

Scribble Shirts

Today, I had a little help in the form of a fabulous mother's-helper from church who brought her freckled brightness to our home and played endless games with two bouncing little boys so that I could multiply my hours and get astounding amounts done. There is fresh clean laundry...there are matched socks...there is even warm banana bread...and there were even naps for all three of my sons!

Muh!!!! Is she cute or what?

Heavens!

With all this fabulous bounty of energy and productivity I thought it was a good time to squeeze a little sewing project into our lives. Its been about forever and a day since I had a needle in cloth and I miss it. In our new house, I'm hoping to set up the sunroom to be a delicious Carlie Oasis where I can lay out patterns and cut them, water ridiculous amounts of plants, set up my easel and pose subjects for blog photography. Plan to come visit and check it out sometime...but yeah, I digress.

Anyhow! I decided to launch into a sewing project I'd been toying with a formulating slowly in my mind for a while and suddenly, once I'd decided I was sewing something, the idea gelled completely and somewhat instantly and there I was with a plan!

See, Dee has too few t-shirts for wearing in this hot weather (like four? which all end up in the hamper far, far too quickly) and he has too many of these plain white undershirts...

...enter semi-obvious "Plan"....make some of these undershirts into legitimate shirts via decoration of some variety.

I pulled out one of my fabric scrap bags and let Dee choose his favorite (bright red, what else!), cut it into squares and handed him an ink pen. He drew the scribbles of his choice and then for fun I did one and lent the pen to Ru to do a square of his own to decorate a plain tee that he had in his bottom drawer. Why leave anyone out?!?

Then, I took their pen marks and embroidered on top of them (thus to make them show up and make them more decoratively permanent. For Ru's more representational art I included a little title (Balloons with a Seatbelt, for those who wonder!) and also embroidered the date (an oversight I mean to correct on Dee's) and then I zig-zag appliqued them to the shirts!

Voila! Instant t-shirts, instant sewing project and instant artistic coolness in our ultra-productive day!  

Yay sewing!!! 

Ru-minating

Since we covered his little brother yesterday, (and it has been requested) it only seems logical to follow with Ru's latest deep loves so that we cover the subject thoroughly and make sure we've got everyone all analyzed and duly recorded for posterity.

Ru Likes:

• Water...the boy can drink it by the gallon...at every meal, and every snack and pretty frequently between eating sessions. He always asks me if I have the water bottle when we're getting in the car, even a ten minute jaunt down to church isn't safe from "the question."
• Books of endless variety. He has an insatiable appetite for "story" and spends hours every day thumbing through books cross-legged on the floor by the bookcase. I am a very happy mommy.
• Sweets. He's our sweet tooth...just like his daddy. Chocolate? YES! Cake? YES! Pie? YES! Ice-cream? Oh YES! He is after all the same little boy who learned the word "doughnut" before he supposed to even be talking according to the official time lines.
• Skateboarding. I honestly wasn't sure if his little affection for the sport would last beyond the novel purchase of his board but I needn't have worried. He skateboards every single day. It rivals reading. And frankly, for a four-year-old, he's pretty darn good!
• Hot Dogs. Did I mention that he's not terribly health conscious?
• Parks. He loves parks for one of the same reasons I drag my heels about getting up the gumption to go to them. All the other little kids. He loves all the play equipment too and the change to be outside and the novelty of going somewhere different but, when it comes right down to it...its all about socializing. He loves people.
• Showers. One of the only things that will get him out of the pool or out of bed in the morning with any sort of cheery speed is the promise of his own shower.
• (speaking of which...) Swimming! A bought him a mask and flippers for his birthday and at the tail end of last summer he learned how to go underwater smoothly and that was it...he was off. He swims until his lips are purple and he's rattling like a set of castanets every time we swim.
• "Babysitting" He loves it when I let him "watch" the baby while I cook dinner or rotate the laundry or answer the door. Nothing like a little responsibility to make your chest swell.
• Cooking. He loves to cook, bake, cut things up, or even just stand there and stir something I do the rest. Get that boy in an apron and he is very happy which makes his Mama happy too!
• Dogs. He still loves dogs just as much as he did when he was a tiny tot. This boy is destined to have his own romping, sweet-hearted little mutt to play with someday. House first, kids second...dog third. Its on the list.
• This song. I have no idea why but, he's wildly, madly attached to it. I'm not sure where in the world he heard it first or how he got the affection all cemented in his little brain but, somehow it happened. It goes on all of our mixed cd's now and he has memorized Ray Charles little vocal tricks and habits.
• Ben P_______. Speaking of illogical love.... Ben is one of A's coworkers and Ru overheard his name being mentioned in end-of-the-day discussion at the dinner table and decided he thought Ben (of whom he knew nothing and whom he had never met) was wonderful. His name became a chant around the house that Ru worked into any number of playtime pretends and then when A decided to invite Ben and his wife over for dinner the obsession reached a fever pitch. Meeting the man in the flesh did nothing to cool Ru's ardor (thankfully Ben is a charming, funny, kid-loving kind of chap) and he still asks A almost daily about if Ben saw such-and-such or knows about such-and-such or "Could you tell Ben....." 

Dee in Detail

Highlighting my middle son today. I like to do this from time to time. Helps those relatives and friends from afar get to know my kids and also is a good way for me to both document the small things as they pass and notice myself who each of my children has become individually. Good stuff, noticing.

Dee Likes:

• Fish, in any form: smoked salmon, sauteed trout, grilled shrimp, canned sardines, whitefish pate, or steamed mussels...he loves it any way he can get it (he's his mother's boy!)
• Whipped cream. Its his dessert of choice. He's not big on sweets and if given a sliver of pie or a small wedge of cake, he'll scrape and lick the whipped cream off and leave the dessert all naked. We have taken to keeping spray whipped cream around so he can have a ramekin full when the rest of us have dessert.
• Frog and Toad. His favorite stories at the moment.
• Banjos and pianos (how's that for a great honky-tonk pairing) This is what he answers when you say "What instrument are you going to play when you get bigger?"
• Fishing. Every stick is a pole and every puddle is a lake. (Not that we actually take him fishing....that's what we plan to do at my parents this summer!)
• Digging. He has his own small plastic trowel and spends forever gouging a hole in the turf at the edge our fence and delving around in the bark mulch at the side of the next unit. Kid needs a sandbox badly.
• Pretending to be a kitty-cat. The boys often spontaneously turn into cats when A comes home. Somehow this seems like a good greeting-plan to them. Its kind of bizarre.
• Staying awake. (Yet again, his mother's son I'm afraid) We are having, find-some-freaking-way-to-get-the-toddler-to-stay-asleep-issues lately...pretty much every night and I've taken to sitting next to his bed with my hand physically on his body to help him slow down and go to sleep at naptime.
• The Zacchaeus Song. This is how I get him to calm down when he's hysterical or when he has a nightmare...I sing it over and over and over. Its endlessly loved by the little man. Not sure exactly why or how he got attached to it.
• Milk. He loves all milk but holds a special place in his heart for the milk we pick up from New Pond Farm. He holds his little cup out and tells us that he'd like "milk of fahm, pease!"
• Rocks, sticks, leaves and other natural ephemera. I have to check his pockets carefully before I wash his pants because there's always a load of treasures. There are often rocks in our dryer. I keep saying he might end up a naturalist with this kind of penchant for collecting.
• Wearing his rubber boots. Every day is a rainy day!
• "His" baby. Always lots of kisses to give out and every day starts with a dead run for our bed where he says first thing, "Good morning Baby!"
• Play-Doh. The answer is always yes.  
• Scrambled eggs. The boy loves my scrambled eggs. My little mommy heart goes, pitter-pat.

Equipped for Aquatics!

A bought him flippers and a mask for his birthday and they sat tantalizingly on top of the bookcase for months before the pool opened and he could finally use them.  And just like that....Ru is swimming.

Unbelievable. He's quite fearless...like a little spaniel in the water...splooshing all over the place with a monster-big grin and barely enough surface time for breaths.

I can't believe I have a kid who is old enough swim to me from the handrail. I am quite astonished.

And Dee is getting a desperate desire for flippers of his own. He could care less bout the silly face gear.