Thursday, June 16, 2011
Pee pee
It's been close to a solid week of no diapers, except when we're in the car and overnight. Camryn is so proud of her success. Despite a few minor accidents, she is happily using the toilet for both number one and number two! When in close proximity to the real bathroom, she prefers to use the BIG toilet, "just like Ethan," otherwise it has been super helpful to this process to have the little potty nearby at all times. Traveling all around the house, carrying it with her wherever she goes like a suitcase.... She seems so......grown up. Which, for me, is tough. Just like when I stopped breastfeeding them at age two; it feels like the milestone has arrived way too soon, and that this is the official end to babyhood. I'm still wistful about nursing, and even Cami occasionally asks if the milk will ever return because she would like some. How I wish I could stop time and keep them as they are forever. For all of my complaining, I know that I will look back on this time, when I'm even older and grayer, as the best time in my life.
Though I am theoretically and philosophically TOTALLY against bribes and threats, I have found them indispensable in my parenting. And in my experience, the best kind of bribe is The Double. It goes like this: I need Cami to do something (i.e. use the toilet), so I bribe her with what we call a "kaka candy" (one m&m per poop--pee pee doesn't get a treat). If I bribe Ethan as well (also giving him one m&m when she poops), I'm much more likely to get the desired outcome as he now works for me--and he is a very motivated employee when chocolate is at stake! Same goes for threats. Since Ethan introduced Cami to the phrase "stupid idiot," he is responsible when she uses it against me (even though she gets it backwards every time and yells, "You idiot stupid!" when she's mad). So now, when either one uses any combination of the offending words, neither gets dessert nor any other treat the whole day. Yummy food, I tell them, simply cannot go into a yucky mouth.
Though I am theoretically and philosophically TOTALLY against bribes and threats, I have found them indispensable in my parenting. And in my experience, the best kind of bribe is The Double. It goes like this: I need Cami to do something (i.e. use the toilet), so I bribe her with what we call a "kaka candy" (one m&m per poop--pee pee doesn't get a treat). If I bribe Ethan as well (also giving him one m&m when she poops), I'm much more likely to get the desired outcome as he now works for me--and he is a very motivated employee when chocolate is at stake! Same goes for threats. Since Ethan introduced Cami to the phrase "stupid idiot," he is responsible when she uses it against me (even though she gets it backwards every time and yells, "You idiot stupid!" when she's mad). So now, when either one uses any combination of the offending words, neither gets dessert nor any other treat the whole day. Yummy food, I tell them, simply cannot go into a yucky mouth.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Two ships passing in the night, Poolside and Goggles and Giggles
Well, more like boats that pass in the day.....
....And the photo shoot....
....And the photo shoot....
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Dadapult
I like this new blog. I like reflecting on the day and thinking about all of the great, and not so great, moments that came fleeting by. Those moments I normally wouldn't even have noticed, that would have come and gone without a glance or a second thought. Happily, neither Ethan nor Cami, nor H for that matter, seem to mind the constant attention of my iPhone and are willing to let me snap away at them. I suppose they're used to it by now anyway. Being here is always such a welcome rest for me. It still astounds me every time we come how much of my time and energy is freed up (for indulgences such as this blog), when I drop housework, and the rut of routine, from my daily itinerary. How much happier and healthier I feel, physically, emotionally and mentally. How much more meaningful the day becomes and how much more present, patient and playful I can be. And I'm pretty sure that both Cami and Ethan, and H for that matter, notice it too.
I found the troops outside when I came back from my run this morning. They were on the swing, swinging, in what initially appeared to be ordinary swinging fashion. However, when I looked closer, and remembered to whom I was married, I saw that this was no proper swinging at all. They had dragged the large plastic slide next to the highly suspended swing, (for additional height and speed), and were swinging in pairs like monkeys in jungle trees, hooting and screeching and all. And then, if that wasn't enough, daddy decided that Ethan should be catapulted from the swing and proceeded to push belly down Ethan with all his might into thin air (hence the title of this blog, "dada-pult"). Thankfully Ethan has a good sense of adventure and no one was injured.
We spent the afternoon lounging around, swimming in the pool, and taking a walk to the nearby playground. Ethan had a big fit when Camryn refused to follow his lead in play. To my delight, two little girls watching the scene dramatically covered their ears with their hands, stared and giggled, and gave Ethan the much deserved and necessary feedback so that I didn't have to. I think this may have been his first brush with real embarrassment. He shut up and we had a lovely rest of the afternoon. Thank you girls.
Dinner was a delicious feast of sushi and other Asian treats followed by red bean ice cream. Not sure I would order it again, but the kids seemed to enjoy it!
As usual, when Camryn disappeared for more than a few minutes in the evening, I began the search and rescue effort. I found her in the bathroom, dressed in Ethan's bathing suit, standing in the dog's water bowl. When questioned about her strange behavior, she answered simply, "I'm swimming".
I found the troops outside when I came back from my run this morning. They were on the swing, swinging, in what initially appeared to be ordinary swinging fashion. However, when I looked closer, and remembered to whom I was married, I saw that this was no proper swinging at all. They had dragged the large plastic slide next to the highly suspended swing, (for additional height and speed), and were swinging in pairs like monkeys in jungle trees, hooting and screeching and all. And then, if that wasn't enough, daddy decided that Ethan should be catapulted from the swing and proceeded to push belly down Ethan with all his might into thin air (hence the title of this blog, "dada-pult"). Thankfully Ethan has a good sense of adventure and no one was injured.
We spent the afternoon lounging around, swimming in the pool, and taking a walk to the nearby playground. Ethan had a big fit when Camryn refused to follow his lead in play. To my delight, two little girls watching the scene dramatically covered their ears with their hands, stared and giggled, and gave Ethan the much deserved and necessary feedback so that I didn't have to. I think this may have been his first brush with real embarrassment. He shut up and we had a lovely rest of the afternoon. Thank you girls.
Dinner was a delicious feast of sushi and other Asian treats followed by red bean ice cream. Not sure I would order it again, but the kids seemed to enjoy it!
As usual, when Camryn disappeared for more than a few minutes in the evening, I began the search and rescue effort. I found her in the bathroom, dressed in Ethan's bathing suit, standing in the dog's water bowl. When questioned about her strange behavior, she answered simply, "I'm swimming".
Aunt Hildi
We had so much fun visiting Aunt Hildi, Uncle Rich, Rebecca, Jesse, and Julia today. We all love each other to death and Ethan and Camryn are so lucky to have such incredible older cousins. I remember so well one of my first visits with the Rosenfeld family when H and I were newly dating. I was so taken by all of the cousins playing together (Julia was just four at the time!), I'd never seen kids so happy just to be together, (and I was teaching kindergarten at the time!). And while H and I were nowhere close to even thinking about marriage, I imagined my future child, and how lucky he'd be to be a part of this warm and loving family. And now here we are, seven years later, and my monkeys have become an integral part of that gleeful bunch I so admired! Oprah always says, "visualize visualize visualize!!!"
Ethan was very much looking forward to swimming and was disappointed to learn that it was too cold again today. Hard for a kid to get that, "I don't mind mommy, really, I promise. And don't worry, you don't even have to come in with me. It's good practice for me to swim while you watch and teach me." He's very polite when he wants to be and he seems to be practicing new, more effective, strategies to get what he wants. Rather than throwing a tantrum (his not so long ago, usual m.o.), he is much more likely to try explaining, reasoning, and convincing me why it's in all of our best interest to do as he asks. Manipulative at times, he gets away with it because he's clever, funny and unbearably cute. He takes after his father in so many wonderful ways, but of the two of us, I am definitely the skilled manipulator and probably the cute one too. Clever and funny go to H. It's interesting to watch these negotiating life skills develop, and humbling to see yourself, good and bad, in your child. Anyway, he got over it fast when Julia showed him her cool glowing swords, and
they played hard until one broke. Ethan also inherited some really cool animal books from Jesse. He enjoyed looking through them and seemed particularly impressed by the tiger.
Cami had a quiet day and for the most part stayed by me and Aunt Hildi. Of course she snacked a lot, and developed a new love of Hildi's homemade hummus! We all enjoyed a delicious dinner of fresh pesto, garlic bread and watermelon and had plenty of laughs playing board games and watching home movies that H made at my expense.
They were both worn out by the time we got back to nani's.
Ethan was very much looking forward to swimming and was disappointed to learn that it was too cold again today. Hard for a kid to get that, "I don't mind mommy, really, I promise. And don't worry, you don't even have to come in with me. It's good practice for me to swim while you watch and teach me." He's very polite when he wants to be and he seems to be practicing new, more effective, strategies to get what he wants. Rather than throwing a tantrum (his not so long ago, usual m.o.), he is much more likely to try explaining, reasoning, and convincing me why it's in all of our best interest to do as he asks. Manipulative at times, he gets away with it because he's clever, funny and unbearably cute. He takes after his father in so many wonderful ways, but of the two of us, I am definitely the skilled manipulator and probably the cute one too. Clever and funny go to H. It's interesting to watch these negotiating life skills develop, and humbling to see yourself, good and bad, in your child. Anyway, he got over it fast when Julia showed him her cool glowing swords, and
they played hard until one broke. Ethan also inherited some really cool animal books from Jesse. He enjoyed looking through them and seemed particularly impressed by the tiger.
Cami had a quiet day and for the most part stayed by me and Aunt Hildi. Of course she snacked a lot, and developed a new love of Hildi's homemade hummus! We all enjoyed a delicious dinner of fresh pesto, garlic bread and watermelon and had plenty of laughs playing board games and watching home movies that H made at my expense.
They were both worn out by the time we got back to nani's.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
First day
So this is the first day of this blog. Not sure how I want to begin. Not even sure how I want to address it. To the public? Like a diary? To Ethan and Camryn directly? While I would like this to be a forum to share our happenings with friends and family, mostly this is intended to be a love letter to my babies, and a story of their childhoods. The most precious and important time of life. We all forget. I want them to remember. I want to remember. So here it goes. Since I consider myself to be a terrible writer, this blog, unlike many other blogs, is not about the writing. It's about the players, Ethan and Camryn. Which makes it, I suppose, more of a 'reality play' than a blog. The point is: all grammatical awkwardness and misspellings are...uh...included to give me, the author, a little character of my own.
This week we are in New York visiting nani and grandpa. Initially sunny, hot and humid, it's abruptly turned rainy and cold. The kids love it here and they adore nani and grandpa. It's so sweet how close and attached they are, especially considering our distance and how rarely we get to see them. Ethan tells me that he would love it if we could move here permanently and I think Cami would agree.
Ethan's behavior has been great for the most part and I'm not sure whether to credit our evolving parenting skills, the end of school, being here on vacation, or maturity on his part. In any case, I'll take it. He has been swimming madly and that's pretty much all he wants to do aside from helping nani re-pot orchids in the greenhouse, and playing his new found favorite game, UNO. While he understands the concept of the game, he doesn't like anyone to actually win. Instead everyone plays out their cards one by one and the game goes on and on and on until the last person has played out all of his (and I use his because I am referring to Ethan only) cards, even if that takes a very very Very long time, and even if it doesn't actually make any sense. I don't mind though, the look on his face as he drops a + 4 wild card and revels in the power of changing the game to his color of choice, is well, pretty awesome. I love how even something so silly is magical to a five year old; the way he pronounces his change, "I'm chaaanging it to yellow" and waves his invisible magic wand over the cards, I just might be willing to play with him forever.
He is gaining lots of confidence in swimming and is using a new "aide" which actually requires that he work to stay afloat. I of course, am terribly stressed by the whole process and would surgically insert floatation devices under their skin if that would keep them safe in the water forever. It's these tormented moments of my motherhood that concern me most about the psychological outcome of my children. I am trying to worry less but will be extremely relieved when they are both strong swimmers. In the meantime, it's wonderful to see Ethan trying so hard and making such great progress. And what a great role model for Cami who loves the water already!
Ethan is spontaneously reading, writing and drawing with more enthusiasm. He's been writing love notes to everybody here, and is sounding out the words and writing the letters quite well. He just needs to accept the conventions of writing and join the rest of us who write left to right, top to bottom and leave small spaces between words. Other than that he could probably take over this blog.
What can I say about Cami? She is super excited to be wearing underwear this week. She's using the toilet regularly and seems to know when ITis coming. I just hope it lasts, she's done this before and then decided that she wants to regress back to diapers again. While it isn't news for anybody that knows her, Camryn likes to eat. She LOVES to eat. She pretty much wants to eat all day and night and we are beginning to be concerned that she has some kind of worm. Of course, we are comforted by the fact that her "chubbiness" and an intestinal parasite are most probably mutually exclusive. Not only does she want to eat anytime, but she will eat pretty much anything (two of her favorites being floss and dog kibble). And she's willing to cheat, lie and steal to get it. She has grown to be quite resourceful and fearless and can often be found risking her life, climbing on anything she can find (books, blocks, pillows), to reach the out of reach place where she thinks I have put whatever it is she shouldn't be reaching, in the small hope of finding something edible. Tonight she snuck off with a package of metamucil. I found her red handed, hiding in the bathtub just in the nick of time to give her the water she needs to avoid choking on the expanding fiber! yes, our angel has become quite a handful, and if we can't see or hear her, we can be certain that a disaster is in the making. Especially in uncharted territory. She just seems to want to do anything and everything that she shouldn't. Not terribly interested in playing with the new toys from nani, instead she's thrilled to peel wall paper, use toothpaste as body lotion, dump the entire contents of my purse repeatedly, disassemble entire closet arrangements, etc, etc, ETC., basically disrupt and destroy whatever she can. Otherwise though, Cami is excruciatingly adorable. Though she occasionally dangles from spoiling us with affection to attacking us with bitter insults when she doesn't get het way (a skill learned directly from her brother), her kind and gentle nature are always shining through. Her singing, her dancing, her humor, her independence and her confidence, her devotion to ethan.... I honestly have to bite her sometimes because I just can't stand it! She's our miracle and it's almost impossible now to imagine or remember, that she was once a three pound, helpless baby girl, born almost two months prematurely.
I love you my little monkeys! You are my everythings.
Nani
Mommy I love you dear mommy
Daddy I love you because of you
I'm wearing underwear!!
This week we are in New York visiting nani and grandpa. Initially sunny, hot and humid, it's abruptly turned rainy and cold. The kids love it here and they adore nani and grandpa. It's so sweet how close and attached they are, especially considering our distance and how rarely we get to see them. Ethan tells me that he would love it if we could move here permanently and I think Cami would agree.
Ethan's behavior has been great for the most part and I'm not sure whether to credit our evolving parenting skills, the end of school, being here on vacation, or maturity on his part. In any case, I'll take it. He has been swimming madly and that's pretty much all he wants to do aside from helping nani re-pot orchids in the greenhouse, and playing his new found favorite game, UNO. While he understands the concept of the game, he doesn't like anyone to actually win. Instead everyone plays out their cards one by one and the game goes on and on and on until the last person has played out all of his (and I use his because I am referring to Ethan only) cards, even if that takes a very very Very long time, and even if it doesn't actually make any sense. I don't mind though, the look on his face as he drops a + 4 wild card and revels in the power of changing the game to his color of choice, is well, pretty awesome. I love how even something so silly is magical to a five year old; the way he pronounces his change, "I'm chaaanging it to yellow" and waves his invisible magic wand over the cards, I just might be willing to play with him forever.
He is gaining lots of confidence in swimming and is using a new "aide" which actually requires that he work to stay afloat. I of course, am terribly stressed by the whole process and would surgically insert floatation devices under their skin if that would keep them safe in the water forever. It's these tormented moments of my motherhood that concern me most about the psychological outcome of my children. I am trying to worry less but will be extremely relieved when they are both strong swimmers. In the meantime, it's wonderful to see Ethan trying so hard and making such great progress. And what a great role model for Cami who loves the water already!
Ethan is spontaneously reading, writing and drawing with more enthusiasm. He's been writing love notes to everybody here, and is sounding out the words and writing the letters quite well. He just needs to accept the conventions of writing and join the rest of us who write left to right, top to bottom and leave small spaces between words. Other than that he could probably take over this blog.
What can I say about Cami? She is super excited to be wearing underwear this week. She's using the toilet regularly and seems to know when ITis coming. I just hope it lasts, she's done this before and then decided that she wants to regress back to diapers again. While it isn't news for anybody that knows her, Camryn likes to eat. She LOVES to eat. She pretty much wants to eat all day and night and we are beginning to be concerned that she has some kind of worm. Of course, we are comforted by the fact that her "chubbiness" and an intestinal parasite are most probably mutually exclusive. Not only does she want to eat anytime, but she will eat pretty much anything (two of her favorites being floss and dog kibble). And she's willing to cheat, lie and steal to get it. She has grown to be quite resourceful and fearless and can often be found risking her life, climbing on anything she can find (books, blocks, pillows), to reach the out of reach place where she thinks I have put whatever it is she shouldn't be reaching, in the small hope of finding something edible. Tonight she snuck off with a package of metamucil. I found her red handed, hiding in the bathtub just in the nick of time to give her the water she needs to avoid choking on the expanding fiber! yes, our angel has become quite a handful, and if we can't see or hear her, we can be certain that a disaster is in the making. Especially in uncharted territory. She just seems to want to do anything and everything that she shouldn't. Not terribly interested in playing with the new toys from nani, instead she's thrilled to peel wall paper, use toothpaste as body lotion, dump the entire contents of my purse repeatedly, disassemble entire closet arrangements, etc, etc, ETC., basically disrupt and destroy whatever she can. Otherwise though, Cami is excruciatingly adorable. Though she occasionally dangles from spoiling us with affection to attacking us with bitter insults when she doesn't get het way (a skill learned directly from her brother), her kind and gentle nature are always shining through. Her singing, her dancing, her humor, her independence and her confidence, her devotion to ethan.... I honestly have to bite her sometimes because I just can't stand it! She's our miracle and it's almost impossible now to imagine or remember, that she was once a three pound, helpless baby girl, born almost two months prematurely.
I love you my little monkeys! You are my everythings.
Nani
Mommy I love you dear mommy
Daddy I love you because of you
I'm wearing underwear!!
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