A Girl Who Knows What She Wants-- and how to get it.

Mary is going to outsmart us all. She comes up with new words all the time. Her latest words are Elmo, baby, and happy. Everytime I get her out of her crib, she hands me her empty bottle, then hands me her shoes, and runs down the hall and says, "SHOW!" She goes to the portable DVD player where the Elmo show lives and presses the play button. When we go down stairs, she will hand me her coat if she plans to go out. She goes into the kitchen and will hand me a cup with the matching lid and request juice or water. Sometimes when she's hungry, she gets out her personal plate and sets it on the table. When we're at the play area in the mall, she plans elaborate strategies to escape the play area and run for the coin operated cars and animals. For example, she'll pretend that she's taking particular delight in an object just inside the play area, while feasting her eyes 0n her real objective. Then, when it seems that she can get a healthy start on me, she takes off, laughing with satisfaction. I bought her one of those things that looks like a child's backpack, but is actually a leash. Garrett put his on with total glee. His looks like a dog. He immediately wanted to pretend that he was a dog and I was the dog walker. Mary's was shaped like a monkey. As I approached her to put it on, she screeched and ran away. It was like she was saying, "I'm not a fool. Get that restricting contraption far away from me." I should have known that you can't leash a monkey. I told Chris, "We have to watch out for this one. She's going to sneak out of her bedroom window when she's 13. She will know how to avoid the creaky stairs. She will learn to hotwire a car." I'm really hoping that it will be possible to put GPS tracking devices on your children before Mary hits puberty. Her will and determination is both the best thing and the worst thing about her! Unfortunately for Mary, I know her type very well and I'm ready to take her on; the person she is named after was just like her! Fortunately for Mary, the fact that she is like her namesake means that she will enjoy many passionate, fulfilled, and humorous moments in her life.

So Sweet!

Today I bought Garrett some child safety scissors so that he can learn to cut paper. Yesterday I got him a cutting workbook, and I was actually excited to get the scissors so that we could get busy cutting! Garrett is a good snipper, but he has trouble making directed cuts or cutting a paper in half. When I picked up Garrett from school today I said, "Garrett, I got you a surprise!" He said, "A surprise?" I said, "Yep. It's in the car and you can have it when we get home." He said, "Oh, thank you, mommy. That's so sweet of you." I had to laugh at his very genuine appreciation. I said, "Garrett, you're sweet." I thought he would ask me about the surprise in the car and that I would have to tell him that he could have it later. But he didn't mention it all. He talked about his day at school and told me when I had a green light or a red light. He asked me for a Scooby Snack (graham crackers in the shape of dog bones). When we got home, he happily pounced out of the car, went to the door, waited for me to unlock it, went inside, took off his jacket and said, "Mommy, can I have that surprise now!?" I said, "Yes, of course. Thank you for being so patient, Garrett. Here you go-- I got you some of your own scissors and we can play with them when Mary is napping." He said, "Oh, thank you mommy! Thank you for that surprise. We don't want Mary to touch them. Time for Mary to go to bed." I said, "First we have lunch, then Mary goes to bed, then we learn to use the scissors." He ate his entire lunch and let Mary hold the scissors, still wrapped in their package. After Mary was in bed, I brought out the workbook and encouraged him to hold the scissors in a particular way and try to cut the lines on the pages. But all Garrett wanted to do was to cut something in the shape of a shark fin and tape it to his back so that he could pretend to be a shark in the water. How could I say no to the sweetest little shark in the whole ocean?

Two Chefs in My Kitchen

Today Olivia came over to play with us while her mommy took her brother to the doctor. Garrett loves to play with Olivia because she is so happy and passionate about everything. I had set up some crayons and markers and paper for Olivia and Garrett to busy themselves with while I attempted an early dinner prep. (I had the fortunate situation of Mary taking a long nap and Garrett being totally enthralled with Olivia.) Miss Olivia doesn't miss a thing. The minute she saw me put on my apron she said, "Oh, that's pretty!" I said, "Thank you, Olivia. This is my apron. Would you like to wear one?" She assertively said, "Yes." Garrett said, "Me too!" Olivia chose the apron with the cherries and Garrett chose the yellow flowers. I thought they would just run off and play in the aprons, but instead Olivia said, "What are we making?" I said, "Oh, well, let's see. We are roasting chicken. Would you like to help." Olivia said, "Yes, I will help." Garrett said, "Me too, mom." I said, okay, "Well, the chicken has been cleaned and now we are going to baste the pieces with olive oil. I gave them each a basting brush and they painted the pieces. Then I put on all the herbs and spices and the kids each squeezed half a lemon into a bowl. We added the fresh lemon juice to the chicken. I said, "Okay, that's it. Now we put it in the oven." Olivia watched the chicken disappear into the oven and said, "Now what else are we going to make?" She had no intention of wrapping up her cooking lesson anytime soon. I said, "Hmm... we'll have chicken and salad and pasta for dinner... we'll need dessert. How about cupcakes?" Shouts of joy filled the kitchen. So we set about making our cupcakes. Mary woke up from her nap and Olivia's mommy and brother, Caleb, returned just as the cupcakes were coming out of the oven. We all visited with each other while the cupcakes were cooling and then we frosted, decorated, and ate them! Mary had a little trouble with her cake, but she managed to transfer most of the frosting from the cupcake to her body. It was a most enjoyable afternoon.

Words of Advice

I can't remember if I've mentioned it, but a few weeks ago Garrett was having a little trouble at school. He wanted to play dragons and swords and dinosaurs with his best buddy, Sangho, but didn't realize that his play was too rough. We had to have lots of chats about safe and friendly play. I would talk to Garrett on the way to school, saying, "Remember, Garrett. We don't hit friends. We use friendly hands." He'd say, "Okay, mommy." After school, I get a report from Garrett's teacher. Thankfully, Garrett caught on quickly and has been a much better playmate. He is usually very proud when his teacher says, "Garrett was a good boy today."

Today we gave Chris a ride to work and as we approached the building, I said, "Garrett, say bye-bye to daddy." He said, "Bye bye daddy!" I said, "Tell daddy 'good luck today daddy.'" He said, "Good wuck, daddy. Don't hit your friends! It not friendly." Chris and I had a good laugh. For another good laugh, here's a picture of Garrett in new favorite costume.

Treasure, Popcorn Parties, and Gold Capes

Garrett went to the dentist last week. He had x-rays and he had his teeth cleaned. He was very good for the people who had to work in his mouth and was permitted to choose two pieces of treasure from the treasure chest at the end of our visit. He chose two rubber dinosaurs. Everywhere we went that day he showed everyone his dinosaurs. "Look at what I got! I got that treasure. It's two dinosaurs. You see them?" Everybody learned about Garrett's treasure: Mary's doctor, the nurses, the people in the waiting room, the pharmacist, the grocery shoppers, everyone! Occasionally Garrett would let Mary hold one of the dinosaurs. I think she was getting a little tired of Garrett boasting about his dinosaurs. When we got home Mary took her nap and Garrett and I had a popcorn party with about 10 dinosaurs and dragons. One dragon has fire coming out of his mouth and it was his job to cook the popcorn. Then the dinosaurs and dragons took turns eating and talked about how good the popcorn was (Garrett literally stuffed popcorn down their throats). It was nice to see dragons and dinosaurs getting along so well. When Mary woke up from her nap, the party was over. Garrett said, "We don't want Mary to choke on that popcorn!" I agreed. But then Garrett wanted to put on the dragon costume and try to attack Mary with the gold cape. He likes to put the cape over her head and watch her try to escape. I tell him that this is not allowed. It's not safe or friendly. After Mary was attacked for the third time, I sent Garrett to "time out" and told him that he was no longer permitted to play with the cape. Mary saw that Garrett had dropped the cape to go to his "time out" spot. She got a little devilish grin on her face and picked up the cape. She dragged it over to Garrett's time out spot, stopping just about 3 feet short of him where he could not reach her. She then started to parade the cape around and wave it in front of Garrett as if to say, "Look what I got! I got a little treasure called a gold cape!"

Trying to get to Pop and GPs and Elaina's House

Garrett has been asking to go to Pop and GP and Neena's house. He wants to play baseball and go to the park with all of them. He also wants to visit Paul and wear Paul's swim goggles. I have to explain to him that they all live far away in California. To get there we would have to fly on a plane. To get on a plane, we would have to make plans ahead of time. Shortly after discussing the logistics of getting to California, Garrett saw a plane in the sky. He said, "OH look! An airplane!" I said, "Yep, that's a big airplane." He asked, "That airplane going to Pop and GP's house?" After realizing that we wouldn't be getting on a plane any time soon, Garrett became focused on having me attach wings to his dinosaur costume so that it would become a dragon costume. Dragons can fly.... perhaps even to Pop and GPs house. I attached the wings and Garrett tried to fly, but the wings fell off and he didn't get anywhere. He was really disappointed. Garrett has realized that we're not getting on a plane and he can't fly himself to California, and he is envious of other creatures that can fly. This morning we were going to the grocery store and we passed a pond. I said, "Garrett, look at the water. It's a pond." He said, "Oh, yes. Is it a beach?" I said, "Nope, it's just a pond. And there is a duck!" He said, "Oh, is that duck going to fly away?" I said, "I don't know, but he could fly away if he wanted to." He said, "Is he going to fly to Pop and GPs house and Neena's?" Surely, if a duck could fly anywhere, he'd go to Martinez, California.