Patience mantras

I'm officially subscribing to a patience mantra to get me through the next phase of my life. Instead of blissful exploratory independence, Vivian's crawling has created lots of drama in our house. Firstly, she mainly likes to crawl over to things where she can pull up to standing and look around. She's still very wobbly and has to yank her torso all about to keep track of Pip's whereabouts, so this leads to frequent tumbles. So I always have to keep my eye on her and hands nearby. Secondly, she doesn't want to explore toys on her own, she wants Pip's toys. Or sometimes Pip wants her toys. But 90% of the time they want the same toy. Pip seems unable to grasp the concept of sharing with her, who up until this point has basically left him alone. Poor thing is getting toys pulled nastily out of her hands left and right. I keep righting the wrongs and imploring Pip to share -- any guesses how this is being received?

Vivian is fighting back, though. She crawls over to Pip and grabs his hair, cheeks, eyebrows, and mouth. At first just gently enough to be annoying and he swats her away, then with a vengeance that leaves tiny little pink finger marks. Take that! But all with this sweet face, as if to say, "hey, just checking you out honey!"

Some pics over the last few days ... Pip playing with the car set from Grandpa. It requires hand-eye coordination on a whole new level and I fear it will be quite a while until the cars stop flying off the tracks.



Pip caught sleeping peacefully, ugly doll hugging away at his neck.


Karen and Molly visited today and Vivie (of course) stood up with Karen and explored her mouth too. I think we have a dentist in the making.

Morning reports

Time for some more morning reports. Mine to Phil today:

We had quite a whirlwind of a morning with 7 adults and 13 kids. Pip had meltdown after meltdown having to share his toys. Those boys are all talk. I made Jameson, Nicholas, and Pip all repeat after me: I will share the trains. I will not throw the trains. I will not break the trains. All heads nodding yes. Flash forward two minutes, no problem sharing, no throwing, no breaking ... but all the trains decided to go opposing ways around the track and extreme whining and tears ensued when they inevitably butted heads. I should have added: I push my trains in one direction, the same direction, as all my friends.

The rest of the morning was more of the same, no adult conversation, spending all my time policing Pip. Viv was having a blast crawling about and watching everyone. She needed barely any attention, which was good, because when Jess came around 12 she brought dunkin donuts to thank us for loaning her the car seat. Pip saw then and immediately broke down into the tantrum to end all tantrums to get a donut. Could not stop crying ... into the bathroom for a timeout. Came out telling me he was done crying as he was crying. Back into the bathroom for another timeout. Repeat 3 times. Up into his room until he could stop crying. Repeat 2 times. Finally I went up there and hugged and rocked him until he could relax. We came downstairs and he dutifully ate 3 raviolis and half a yogurt -- I thought he was just being good, until he announced that he had eaten his lunch so he deserved a donut.

Phil's report to me on Friday:

An unfortunate twist to the usual routine: the Curran family did notcompletely evade the sicknesses floating around here. Katie is up in bed, unable to go to work due to vomiting. Sounds pretty similar to what you had...she can't even keep water down. I spent the morning down here with Chase to hopefully keep him healthy. So the typical report will have adifferent flavor.

Wake up Viv- 6:40 (yuck!), Pip- 7:00, Chase- 8:50

Breakfast: Viv- 4oz (plus 1oz at 6), Pip- ~5 spoonfuls of Cheerios and some milk, Chase- 5 oz

Morning activity: Viv- trying to grab whatever Pip was holding, Pip- trying to get away from Viv and working on his train tracks, Chase- cuddling and laying in the gym

Nap: Viv- unknown (at school), Pip- unknown (at school), Chase- 10:15 in Viv's crib...my songs areequally effective on this little guy

Actually, Pip had a great dropoff. All morning he was saying "I'm not going to the old school! I'm going to the pre school!" When we arrived,all the kids were in Preschool 2 (or whatever that connecting class is). Pip bravely wandered in and got right to work.

Tender moments

Just so that I can't say later that Pip never wants to play with Vivian, this is proof that he does. He has a very sweet streak and is increasingly willing to share or bring toys for her. Phil even got him to sit down with Vivie and show her how to use the dinosuar toy. Here's a cute video clip of Pip holding back and letting Vivie try:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcKX2whDCWw

Grammie and Grandpa visit!

Grammie and Grandpa visited us this weekend and Pip and Vivian both has a lot of fun. They both enjoyed showing off their toys. Vivian was at once perplexed and intrigued by the tunnel and why Mommy was inside it. She didn't want to go in, but she did like watching me through the mesh.



Later Grandpa helped Pip make a train (favorite activity). Actually, Pip wanted to play with the car set Grandpa brought, but Phil said he had to wait. He's displayed incredible patience waiting for the car set ... Phil kept saying later, later, later .. and Pip would think about it and say "ok, Daddy". He knew later was getting close this afternoon when Phil gave a concrete timeline ... after his nap he could play with them. Pip immediately grabbed my hand and announced he was ready for nap and that Phil was going to put the train together now while he was asleep and they were going to play with it after. Wow ... talk about incentives!!

Vivian also charmed Grammie ... all smiles, of course:

And Grammie worked with Pip, reading the newspaper and drawing too.

Pip got a little carried away "reading" when our backs were turned:

Pip starts preschool

Pip started preschool on Tuesday this week -- what a big boy. He seems to have taken to it very easily, boasting to Phil and I that he's not going to school anymore, he's going to pre-school, thank you very much. His new teacher, Cynthia, is a pro and is impressively in control of her classroom. Not in a scary way, just in a relaxed yet aware way. On Thursday when I picked him us he totally ignored me and went on playing with his chalk and eraser for at least 10 minutes. I couldn't even get a hug out of him. While I waited for him, Cynthia said he was doing very well but spent most of his time wandering around taking it all in, not fully committing to things yet. She said it's normal and noted that he picked up the chalk just as I came in and that his playing with it then was the longest, most concentrated time he had all week. She said that showed he was more secure with me in the room. Secure attachment achieved!! Yay!

Pip has also decided to show his big boy ways with a mastery of the words "maybe" and "actually" this week. He likes to say things in a teasing, cloying way like: "Maybe I can have a cupcake for dinner, Mommy." Insert wry smile. "Maybe you would like to get the stroller Mommy!" Another wry smile. "Probably I could fall asleep if you got me milk, Mommy." -- stated out of the side of his mouth, super wry smile.

On the Vivian front, she is very happy to be able to get all the toys she wants with her new crawling skills, requiring us to put her in a bucket when Pip has his huge train displays out (see pics)

Beautiful Ladies and a Pig Pile

Today Liz and Susan came over and the Ladies had a great time playing together in the sunny room. I think Viv and Carolina spent at least a good hour happily mouthing toys and sharing mumbles. Natalie stopped by later to try and show them how to clap.



Meanwhile, the boys were enjoying a rousing game of pig pile.



The highlight of my day, though, was after naps when Pip pulled all the cushions off the couch and we put the radio on. I showed him how to raise the volume and all three of us jumped around singing and dancing like crazy. You can't beat Queen, "Come sail away, come sail away, come SAIL AWAY WITH MEEEEE!" at the top of our lungs, with Pip on the air nik-tar (aka guitar, aka lint brush).

Natan's House

Today we had our first playdate with a family from Pip's school. Amazingly it took us over 2 years!! Ruth, Natan's mom, invited us over for an afternoon playdate. At first I thought Pip's cold might be developing into something serious, but after a day and a half of inspection, it appears to be just your run of the mill cold, so we went. Natan was there along with Jamie, Miles, and his older sister Nicole. Moms too, of course. Pip and Natan had tons of energy and loved playing the drums most of all. Regular American Bandstand when they are together. Vivian insisted on crawling over the to coffee table and pulling herself up to stand -- there always seemed to be things that we all thought were out of reach, until we realized she has the arm length of Magic Johnson. So after her squishing a cupcake and tipping over several bowls of goldfish, I learned my lesson. I didn't have my camera, but I'm hoping Ruth will email some pics she took.


Tonight is also the superbowl and we are so sad about our beloved EAGLES. Pip is also sad because he prefers Veggie Tales to football any day, and he protested by singing the theme song over and over.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRgeckFa5Ms

Here's a pic of our cutie pie, once again, standing on anything she can.



Viv is also learning to raspberry. She is SO cute when she does it because she makes this mean grimace, puffs her cheeks out, closes her eyes, and goes pfffttttt! Happiest mean face you ever saw. Here I am encouraging her along.