Snowballs

We have had an incredible amount of snow these last few weeks. It has also been very cold and I am very sad to report that our latest gas and electric bill is in the amount of $631. Yes, we must insulate. And yes, the kids should wear gloves or mittens outside. Julia is very good about it. Wes refuses. He loves putting on his jacket, boots, hat and "barf" (scarf), but will not wear any of the 6 different pairs of mittens he owns. Luckily, there were a couple of warm snow days around the new year, so he did get to play with the snow with his hands. Here he is throwing snowballs and asking for me to make more at the end.

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Reading!

It has been incredibly interesting and fun for us to watch Julia learn to read. All of the sudden, she's seeing words everywhere. Billboards, the signage on trucks, our kitchen spice rack. She blurts out, "Old Bay," and I'm like what? Oh, you're just reading random things because you can now.

Pre-school did a good job teaching her the different sounds that letters make. In kindergarten, they have reinforced that while introducing "high frequency words" to memorize. In some ways, it's a bit tedious. They practice these high frequency words in little "books" made up of four sentences. "We like to play. He likes to play. The dog likes the ball. We like the dog." It was probably a tedious process when I learned to read to, but it's not how I remember it. I remember the very book, "Farm ABCs," which I still have (my mom may be considered a hoarder by some), when I feel like I figured it out and started reading. It seemed like an epiphany - I probably just forgot all those 4-sentence books that got me there.

In the fall, Julia was starting to sound out words here and there and made us realize that there are so many many exceptions to the reading rules she was learning. Why is the word "post" not pronounced "pahst," but "poste"? Why is "have" not pronounced like "save?" How do know if a word starts with "c" or "k"? So many things we just accept, but Julia is at a stage of actually thinking about reading. It's amazing to think how her brain is changing. We were at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia over the winter break and saw a cool presentation about the brain. They invited us to read words that were different color names, like black, blue, orange, etc. Only the words were printed in colors that did not match the word. For example, the word black might have been printed in orange ink. We were supposed to name the color of the word that they pointed to, but there was always a lag time because our brains our hardwired to read, so that we might have started, "Bla. . . I mean orange." Then they asked for a 5 or 6 year-old who was just starting to learn how to read to do the exercise and there was no lag time at all. These past few weeks, Julia has really gained steam in reading, so I think a month ago, she would have seen the colors first, the word second, but in a few weeks, I think she'll be like the rest of us readers and see the word first, the color second. I know that there are babies who can read from the infomercial, "Babies can Read!", but in the normal world, quite a milestone.

Anyway, here's a little clip of her reading one of her more advanced homework books.

Step Into Boredom

"White horse, brown saddle. Black hoof." Words - verbatim - from a Step Into Reading book that sells itself as the perfect first step for your kindergartener who is eager to read. Julia purchased the book - based on the upcoming Disney movie remake of Rapunzel - from her school's first Scholastic Book Fair. She was very happy to buy it. Now, she is worried that the movie will be like the book!

To be fair, the back of the book does say that it is about how Rapunzel loves colors. But really, how can a kindergartener get excited about a book that makes no effort to tell a story? There's an interesting picture of Rapunzel singing on a table while Vikings toast her with their mugs of beer, but all it says is, "Rapunzel wears a purple dress." The "story" ends, "Rapunzel is happy. She loves colors. She loves the lights." I know it's useless, but still I wrote to Random House to complain.

Julia and I did have fun though, imagining if all princess stories were told so stupidly. Snow White meets the 7 dwarves. They wear different colors. Prince Charming's hair is brown. Snow White is happy. The end.

Julia's 5th

In hindsight, we're glad Julia asked for a backyard art party. It took a lot of planning and finger crossing for good weather, but it was a really beautiful day. Our friends, Joyce and Steve, were awesome enough to make us this video slideshow of the pARTy. The kids got to decorate their own goody bags, journals, rubber duckies and party hats. They made their own colorful lollipops and spin art with water guns turned paint guns. They played, "Pin the Smile on the Mona Lisa," and just got to paint whatever they wanted on large paper taped over the garage. I think Wayne and I had almost as much fun as the kids.

Wes - 15 months

(warning: the following post is too long and may be boring to everyone else other than me. More than anything else in this entry, I just wanted to remember as much as I could about Wes at 15 months).

To really remember a child's firsts, I would have to keep a daily journal of what my kids said and did each day. So this entry - far from a daily journal - is just a stab at trying to capture Wes at a certain moment. He's changing so much, I just want to remember something at this point in time because Julia is a constant reminder that I will not be able to remember I love about this specific time (all of Julia before who she is at this moment kind of blurs together).

So . . .

Wes loves shoes. I bought his first shoes (not counting Robeez and Robeez knockoffs) - Stride Rite sneakers - a few weeks before he started walking (May 24, 2010). The first two times we put them on him, he hated it and screamed bloody murder. The next time, I slipped them on his feet while he was napping and he was okay with them. After that, he quickly associated shoes with going out (a byproduct of a no-shoes household) and was happy to have us put them on him. In fact, when Wayne and Julia would leave in the morning, he would desperately go to the shoe rack and point back and forth between his feet and his shoes to say that he also wanted to go out (I sure hope I can catch this on video because it is beyond adorable). Since he doesn't really talk yet, his gestures were accompanied by, "Aaa, aaa, aaa." He brings us our shoes when we're getting ready to leave. But it's not just about going out, he reminds us to remove them from his feet if we forget after getting home. I think he likes having the responsibility of shoes. Or he likes the ritual of them. Or he just likes that he knows what they're about. (Postscript, at 16 months, "shoes" is one of his first 5 spoken words.)

Wes bites. Julia and I have bite marks and bruises from him. I never imagined I'd have three bite marks on me at a time. And while I have been sharp with him, I don't feel mad. 99% of the times that he's bitten, it's been out of playfulness - he doesn't understand. He thinks that when I say no and wag my finger at him, it's a game. He now smilingly wags his finger back at me and I do my best not to melt. Julia has been amazing. She has gotten upset that he's hurt her, but she hasn't gotten mad at him either and hasn't ever taken a retaliatory action for his biting. We try to say, no bite, kiss. Or try to give him something he can bite.

Wes has communicated for awhile even though he hasn't consistently used words. He learned sign language for the word, "more," early, but has used it to mean, "want." The first words that I was certain he understood were "Deng" (ceiling light) and "Ralphie." One of his consistent words at this time is "Aarf." I guess he might hear that "word" more than any other. Thanks Ralphie. He says this whenever he sees any animal, including the birds and squirrels he sees on our walks. His "Aarf" is very convincing and many a dog has turned their head back at us wondering what the heck they just walked by. He also says two Chinese words, "Bao bao" (asking to be picked up) and "Hua" (flower). Oh, he loves flowers, always pointing them out to us. Somehow, he knows only to ask us to pick him weed flowers on our walks.

Lately, he says, "Ba" in combination with pointing to mean that he wants whatever he's pointing at. He also says a disgruntled, "Aaeem," when he is upset. Julia claims it's a bad baby word and frequently tattles on Wes for saying, "Aaeem." Once, when I made light of her complaint, she told me that "Aaeem," means that Wes wants to bite, hit, kick and pinch us forever. Wes also says, "Ahm," not to be confused with "Aaeem." "Ahm," means he wants to eat. And yes, it is embarrassing when he puts his face to my chest and says, "Ahm, ahm." Sporadically, he does seem to use "Mama," "Dada," "Ball," and "Mo" appropriately.

Wes mimics many things now. He learned early on to point the remote control at the television so we try to keep it hidden when watching something or else we won't be watching it for long. He has also pretended to talk on the telephone for awhile now. When someone else is actually on the line, however, he tends to just push buttons. He uses a hair brush and a tooth brush too.

Wes seems to have an instinct for sports. He loves balls. He throws well, he kicks well (for a 15-month old), he likes to hit the ball around with a stick a la field hockey. After "playing" t-ball just once at nana and baba's house, he dragged the tee out the next time we were there and placed the ball on the tee himself. Without any encouragement from us, he likes to try to throw the ball into the basket. I'm just amazed how natural it is for him and wonder if this means he's destined for greatness. No really, I just wonder how much we can predict from a toddler's behavior. (On the flip side, I'd like to think that Julia's current indifference to athletic activity doesn't mean that she won't like playing any sports.)

Wes loves waving. I love hearing other kids excitedly tell their parents that the baby waved at them. More than peek-a-boo, he loves playing the game of waving. He'll wave to you across the table, then wave to you again. Then he stretches his hand as high as he can and waves to you with a really happy excited expression on his face. It makes me wish I was that happy to see people.

Wes loves Julia - he loves hugging her, barreling into her until she falls down. If she cries or whines, he starts to cry.

Miscellaneous: he likes pushing belly buttons, tapping our noses and giving me his smelly feet to smell. He likes climbing - it's hard to keep him off our kitchen table and chairs. He won't sit still for books and doesn't care for milk. He's sensitive to being told, "no," and he's not so good at faking crying (we know when it's fake).

Anything else? I guess, if you can't tell from the above post, I'm very very much in love with him.

American Idol

I wonder if anyone has ever auditioned for American Idol with a performance of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. If not, I hope Julia doesn't become the first. We watched an AI show with her tonight and she is excited. She wants "to go to sing at the place with the judges" and she wants to go to Hollywood. She said, "I think I am the best singer who sings everywhere (pause) Rudolph the red-nosed Reindeer, had a very shiny nose . . . ."

So while Wayne and I are happy that Julia can now watch a show that we want to watch, I can already see how this show throws a little wrench into our mantra that the important thing is not being the best, but trying your best. And having fun. Julia's at the age where everyone says, you can be anything you want be. For now, of course, we can continue to encourage her in whatever she loves, but at some point, we may have to intervene/re-direct, so that she does not end up on the audition reel highlights of American Idol. I mean, all those clueless people - couldn't their parents have done something?

Between Christians and Devils

Between Christians and Devils, Julia turned 4. Literally. Her birthday party - held at a central New Jersey farm - was under a tent situated between a Christian retreat and NJ Devils' (a hockey team) corn maze registration tent (some sort of fan appreciation event). A hay tunnel for kids opened out on one end by the Christians' tent and on the other, the Devils'. People could also enter and exit the hay tunnel through an opening in the middle, which is the one Julia and her friends used since it was right next to our tent. It would have been funny to have noted which direction the kids chose to go once in the tunnel. As it was, I don't think many of the kids exited either end of the hay tunnel. They just came back out to us, telling us stories about hay monsters and the like.

This year, we decided to invite everyone from Julia's class, so it was her biggest party ever. A week before, as she attended he friend's transformer-themed party, she declared that she was going to have a Princess-Transformer-Apple-Picking Birthday party. I thought briefly about trying to satisfy that request, but we stuck with a general apple/farm theme. We gave a nod to princesses by putting a Snow White (eating an apple) cake topper (homemade by Julia's aunt) on the cake. Despite rain, we had a really great time and I think the kids loved getting wet and muddy and hay-ey and picking apples and feeding the animals.

Our friends, J and S, were nice and talented enough to make this picture/video slideshow of Julia's birthday.