Garrett's Most Valuable Possessions: A Sword, A Dog, and a Valentine.

Today Garrett made it very clear to me that I was not to move his dog, his sword, or his valentine from Emma. We all know how much Garrett loves his dog. He greets his dog like he is a real person: "Oh, hello, Dog. How are you? I fine. You want watch monster show Dog? Okay." More recently Garrett has shown an enormous affection for his Batman sword. He has his sword at the ready to slay the dragons in his playroom (the ones that are supposedly flying over our heads at all times). He often invites me to a duel, although somehow I always manage to end up with the floppy Styrofoam sword and he has the indestructible Batman sword. When I am invited to duel, I am assigned the role of a scary foe: dragon, ghost, skeleton, pirate. Sometimes Garrett puts the curse of fire on me by standing in a very particular pose and hurling fire from his hands and mouth. I then have to die instantly, only to be revived by a kiss moments later. I rather like dying by fire because I get to lay down and rest from the duel and I get a kiss from Garrett. He usually chooses to kiss my foot so that when I lurch up ready for battle, he is farthest from my hands. Garrett's third favorite object is a huge floppy heart given to him by his classmate, Emma, on Valentines day. He doesn't have a crush on Emma. He just is impressed by the size and form of the heart. He says, "Oh, mommy, look at this. It's a heart! It's my heart." If Mary takes his heart he gets very upset. The other day he insisted on laying on the couch with his faithful dog, his mighty sword, and his enormous heart. He said, "Here, mommy, you put on a monster show and sit on couch with me." He truly looked as if he had everything a person could need in this world.

"Ghee"

Mary has a special word, "ghee", which I have deduced means, "Here ya go," or, "Give it here." For example, she may find a wayward crumb on the floor and decide that it should be picked up. She will crouch down, pick it up, hand it to me and say, "Ghee." Or she may lick her plate clean, proudly pick it up with both hands, put it in my direction and say, "Ghee." Or she might wake up from a nap, hoot and holler until I come get her, then search for her bottle in her crib, hand it to me, and say, "Ghee." I take the bottle from her and then lift her out. Sometimes she says, "Ghee" when she wants to make an exchange. I have a toy that she wants and she is already holding something, so she hands her toy to me, says, "Ghee", and then takes the desired object from my hand. Whenever she says it, she says it proudly. "Ghee" is never uttered with a whine. It's a matter of fact happy sound. Even Garrett is starting to say it when he shares something with her. He'll give her a bite of his sandwich and say, "Ghee, Mary!" Lately she has been putting objects in her mouth that are too small to be in there, such as a die, or a Chapstick cap. I give her a very disapproving look, hold my hand beneath her mouth and sternly say, "Mary, Ghee!" She very quickly spits the object into my hand. Mary is learning very quickly that she can make us all bend to her whim!

Cabin Fever

I just wanted to share this picture because it gives you a good idea of what we're all going through as we wait for decent weather and to dig ourselves out of our garage. In this picture, Garrett has insisted that he wear his Halloween costume and that Mary wear her Halloween coat (a tiger). Mary wants to wear her winter hat inside because she's trying to suggest that we go outside. She has also managed to confiscate my keys and I truly believe that she is contemplating her chances of just taking the car out herself!

A Trip to the Dentist

Last week before the big snow hit, I had a dentist appointment. I had made the appointment for the late afternoon in the hope that Chris would be able to come home early from work and watch the Moo and the Mo. He couldn't come home that day because he had a job talk to attend, so I considered cancelling the appointment. Everyone else I know who will watch my kids has their own kids with the flu, so I was stuck with no help. I called the dentist and said, "Um, my childcare plans fell through, should I just reschedule?" My dentist and his staff are SO nice. The receptionist said, "Oh, you can bring them. You have three kids, right?" I quickly denied such a claim, "Oh, no, no! I have two." She said, "Well you can bring them. The little one goes in the stroller, and we'll keep our eyes on them. I can run interference." I said, "Okeee Dokee. Thanks! See you at 4." Since we were expecting the big storm, people were out and about in the very cold weather stocking up on things. I had already subjected my kids to a hellish trip to Walmart (a place I NEVER go to, but sometimes it's the only option) and their patience was wearing a little thin. I really thought my chances of having a peaceful trip to the dentist were next to nil. It was so cold outside. I had to wrap them in so many layers of clothes, they looked like suitcases. On the way to the dentist that afternoon, I decided to attempt a rational conversation with Garrett. It went something like this:

"Garrett, Mommy has to go to the dentist. That is where we're going right now."
"Ooohhhh! Okay."
"Now, when we are all at the dentist, we will all sit in special places. Mary will be in her stroller. Okay?"
"Okay. Mary cute."
"Yes, Mary is cute and she will be in her stroller. Mommy will be laying down and the nice lady will be helping mommy. Garrett will be sitting on the chair next to Mary."
"Garrett sit in chair."
"Yes, Garrett will sit in the chair. Now, you can't get up and you can't be noisy. We're all going to try to be quiet in our chairs. Can you help mommy by sitting in your chair and waiting quietly?"
"Yes. I wait in chair."
"Okay. Great."

I managed to get everyone into the dentist office, unwrapped, and seated in the waiting area. As a stroke of genius I had remembered to bring goldfish crackers and Mary was very happily dining on them. I had a pop-up book for Garrett, and a book with buttons for Mary. Sometimes I am just so smart! All was well. They called my name and we all filed back to the room. I reminded Garrett of the plan. He said, "Garrett sit in chair!" Except Garrett couldn't "sit in chair," because I was due for x-rays and the kids couldn't be in the room. The hygienist and I put G and M out of the way of the x-ray machine, but in a place where they could see me. The whole thing looked a little uncertain to Garrett. From the back of the room, he shouted, "Oh no! Mommy you hurt? You okay?" I couldn't really talk with those pieces of cardboard in my mouth, but as soon as I popped one out, I said, "Yes, Garrett, mommy is okay. I'm just taking pictures." He said, "Well, okay, mommy." Then a few moments later: "Mommy, you a big girl. You do good job!" It was so cute. I remembered that when Garrett had his first trip to the dentist last year, I kept telling him what a big boy he was and how he was doing a very good job. Throughout our visit at the dentist he continued to reassure me that I was a big girl and to make sure that I wasn't being hurt. Occasionally he'd say, "I wait in chair." At some point he got antsy and the hygienist gave him and Mary toothbrushes, but Garrett quickly turned them into swords. Mary almost lost an eye and I asked Garrett to hold my hand until I was finished. I never needed the receptionist to run interference and when we were finished Garrett got to pick a toy out of the box for being so good.

Snow, Snow, Snow!

We have had so much snow! Miss Moo and Mr. Mo are climbing the walls. Last week Chris had two days off of work because the University had to cancel classes for the first time since 1979. Granted, we don't have 9 feet of snow like they do in upstate New York, but still we have a driveway that is the length of our house and shoveling out 3 feet of snow is a lot of work. Staying in with the kids all day gives me brain freeze and I don't have a lot of energy to make blog entries. I thought I would chime in and post a few pictures of the kids in the snow because they are so darn cute in their little snow suits.

Garrett loves to take his snow shovel and scoop up the snow. Unfortunately he then flings it at the nearest person. He got in trouble for this a few times and decided that he would just rather go inside. Garrett's favorite indoor activities have been to play scary dragon (more on that later) and to watch his Scooby Doo movie about vampires, which includes a legendary vampire called a Yowee Yahoo. On several occasions I have been asked to draw the Yowee Yahoo so that Garrett can attack it with a crayon. Perhaps the Yowee Yahoo is with us in the snow and Garrett is trying to bring him down with a snow shovel. While Garrett may enjoy battling world evil with his snow shovel, the rest of us do not appreciate being sprayed with icy snow.

Mary absolutely loved being in the snow. She even likes to wear her snow boots inside. She likes to touch the snow with her mittens and then clap all the snow off of them. She falls down into the snow on purpose so that she can watch me shake all the snow off of her. She also delights in a freshly shoveled path. For Mary a stretch of shoveled sidewalk is a long runway, on which she can run in her snow boots until springtime.

Cold Weather Report

I had a decent birthday yesterday given the terrible Monday weather. I had my tacos and Chris surprised me with an ice cream cake. We didn't have room in the freezer for the leftover cake, so we just put it on the back porch. It was rock solid this morning. I asked Chris if he thought the critters would go after it. He said, "In this weather? I don't think there are any critters out there." Well it was a pretty good cake, so I wasn't surprised to see a squirrel eyeing it around 1 o'clock this afternoon. I retrieved it and spent a fair amount of time making room for it in the freezer.

There is not much new to report on the Moo and Mo today because it is too cold! This morning it was snowing fairly heavily, so I took Chris to work. I also had the kids dressed, snow suited, and ready for school. After dropping Chris off at work, I decided to take Moo and Mo back home. The snow was falling at a quick clip and the roads were difficult to drive on. I could have made it to the school, but I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get them later! I was right about that. By noon we had about a foot of snow. Garrett was desperate to go outside and play in the snow. After dinner he and his daddy went outside and shoveled the snow. It was such a hoot to see Garrett trying to use his little snow shovel. It looked more like he was just flipping it into the air, sometimes into Chris's coat and face. Watching them work together was a very sweet Norman Rockwell-esque kind of moment. Miss Moo missed all the action because she fell asleep in her dinner plate and went directly to bed. I'm sure she'll be up bright and early for her own rounds of fun.

Garrett, Party of Two, Your Table is Ready

As I mentioned on Garrett's birthday last Wednesday, we were set to have a real party this weekend. In fact, we had decided that Sunday would be a good day. Wrong. We forgot that the Superbowl was today. Also, it is colder than a well digger's butt in Alaska here and nobody wants to leave their house. We won't even open the door to get the mail. Seriously, it's -12 degrees. Not birthday party weather. So at some point we decided not to have the party, or put it off until later. Yesterday I learned that Isabella, one of Garrett's best friends, fully expected that Garrett would be having a birthday party today. She was all set to see Garrett, who she has been missing while we've been traveling, and had picked out a special present for him. Garrett has been missing Isabella too and he was thrilled by the prospect of seeing her. I decided we would just go ahead with the birthday party, except that it would be more like having Isabella over for an upscale play date. We got another cake, I decorated the table with all the party goods, we produced presents, and ordered pizza. We lit the candles, put Curious George back on the cake, sang the song, and all was right with the world. Garrett was thrilled. Isabella gave Garrett a very cool dragon for his birthday, which fit very well with the Playmobile Dragon's Dungeon that we gave him. It took a while to put the dungeon together (thank you, Chris), but it was a big hit once it was assembled. And guess who is the dungeon keeper? Mary! She's opening all the doors, sending knights down the trap door, knocking the dragon off of the castle, and generally laying the law of the land. I imagine that Garrett is beginning to think that birthday celebrations are an every day event, complete with cake and pizza. Tomorrow is my birthday, so we will have another day of good cheer, but mine will involve tacos!

Garrett's Big Trip to Target

One of the main reasons that I went home in January was to host my annual Crabfest with a few of my crab loving friends, Kate, Paul, and Mike. Basically it's an event where I try to pack as many crab based foods into one day as I can. The anticipation and joy is not unlike that experienced by children on Christmas Day. On crab day, I also relish in spending time with friends. As much as I love my little Moo and Mr. Mo, their presence is not compatible with cooking, cleaning, and devouring crabs. Crabfest is Mommy's day and the little ones need to be elsewhere.

As a tremendous act of love and generosity, Aunt Elaina ("E-Neena") offered to take Mary and Garrett for the entire day. She made arrangements with her friend Stacey and Stacey's daughter Elissa, who is Garrett's age, to go to the Oakland Zoo. Garrett had a great time at the zoo. He especially loved the big turtles, giraffes, and the reptile zoo. He saw some spiders that made a big impression too. Mary enjoyed her big ride outside. Both of them think that E-Neena is super cool for leading such a grand expedition. Garrett was thrilled to hang out with Elissa as well because he hadn't had much contact with other kids while we were home. In general, Garrett really enjoys the company of girlfriends! (Sometime I will have to write about Garrett's school buddy Shangho, but that's another story).

After Garrett's big day out with Elaina, he kept saying that he wanted to go to Target. He'd say, "Mommy, I want to go to Target. I want to see the giraffes! I want to see the scary spiders." I'd say, "Garrett, I think you want to go to the zoo. Do you mean the zoo?" He'd say, "No, I don't want to the zoo. I want to go to Target!" Elaina and I were puzzled as to why Garrett would refer to the zoo as Target. Did we see zoo toys at Target? Is Target a zoo? Sometimes. We thought it was funny and let it go. Then Elaina called me a few days later and said, "I think I figured out the link between Target and the zoo: I saw a Target commercial and it had all these zoo animals going into Target! Maybe Garrett has seen the commercial." This reminded me of one of our favorite stories about Elaina's childhood. Her teacher asked her where milk came from and she said, "Safeway." The answer the teacher was looking for was "cows." My question is, what will happen the next time I tell Garrett, "We're going to Target." Garrett will probably say, "Yeah! I want to see turtles!" I'll say, "Prepare yourself for disappointment Garrett. We will most likely see diapers and toilet paper." As soon as the weather is better, I will take him to the Bloomington zoo!

Never Too Many Kisses!

Miss Moo did the cutest thing today. She and her daddy were sitting on the kitchen floor and she leaned in for a kiss. All of a sudden, if you prompt Mary for a kiss, she will close her eyes, put her face forward, keep her lips straight, and do her best to have her lips touch yours. We all took turns getting kisses from Mary. Garrett was especially forceful with his. He didn't want to wait for Mary to reach him, he just barged in on her. Mary is truly the sweetest baby. I love how she can be both affectionate and assertive. At 15 months, she can really work a room! I can't wait to get more kisses tomorrow!

Mary Has a New Pair of Shoes

Recently Mary has become the recipient of some very fine shoes. She got Mary Jane style tennies from Paul. She got Pink leather shoes and brown leather shoes from Cristina, and she got some butterfly Robbies from Elaina. Mary likes to pull her shoes off in the car. Sometimes she pulls them off at home too. Today she pulled them off and took off with her cute little waddle walk. After a few trips between the dining room and the foyer, she paused to consider her situation: it is 20 degrees outside. We have wood floors and drafty windows. Her toes were cold. She picked up a previously tossed brown shoe and handed it to me and made her "I want" sound. I put on the one shoe and she tried going about her business with just one shoe. Then she returned with a demanding look on her face. She said, "Sock, sock, sock." She wanted the other shoe. Since I couldn't find the other brown shoe, I had to give her a pink one. She seemed satisfied with this and spend the rest of the day wearing two different shoes. The funny thing is that she never tried to take them off, despite her habit of doing so. I think she likes her new style.

Puff the Lying Dragon

Poor Garrett. Today he learned that he cannot fly. He found two plastic butterfly wings among his toys, which are normally used to make a butterfly with playdough. He said, "Mommy, I want these on my shirt right here." I got some tape and affixed the tiny wings to his shirt. When he was satisfied that they were stuck on, he immediately began to flap and hop, as if trying to take off! When nothing happened, he was quite disappointed. He said, "Mommy, I want to fly! Up there!" I had to laugh. I said, "Garrett, little boys can't fly. People can't fly. Birds can fly." He said, "I want to be a bird. Up there!" He pointed to the sky. He tried the flapping and hopping strategy a few more times. Finally, he just sighed. I said, "Here, I'll help you fly a little bit." I put him in a Superman position and flew him around the room. My mom says that I'm going to throw my back out and I won't be able to lift anything at all, including my own person off of the floor. But, I'm willing to risk it. If you saw Garrett trying to fly, you'd risk your own back too! It occurred to me that Garrett may be trying to fly because we've been watching a Puff the Magic Dragon cartoon. Puff flies Jackie Paper up into the clouds. Together they save a star. Puff tells Jackie that he can do all sorts of things if only he uses his imagination and tries. Garrett will probably question Puffs credibility after today.