Nora Droppings

Nora loves being a mother. A couple months ago I took the kids to the park and while I was busy playing with Jack, Nora found her way over to an 8 month old baby in the swing. I went over to make sure she was playing gently enough and the mother assured she had been “very sweet”. The baby’s name was Rex and Nora was happy pushing him and talking to him in a baby voice until it was time for Baby Rex and his siblings to leave. For the entire ride home and several days/weeks after she kept talking about Baby Rex and when we would see them again.

As a good older sister she also likes to mother Jack, at least when she isn’t picking on him. She will try and comfort him with toys, or songs when he is upset. She also like to be the “mother” during baths and tries to wash him, which results in the bathroom floor being covered in water. Sometimes she will talk to him in a baby voice, “You like trucks don’t you, Jackie?”, “You’re a good little boy!” and react like a proud Mama, “awwww, he is the cutest!”.

She has been talking like an expert and using the phrase “of course”, as in “Well, I needed to get the dinosaur eggs, of course”.

This confidence has cause her to argue with us on some phrases, such as when Wendy said we will be home in a jiffy, she said, "No, it's jippy. We will be home in a jippy!"

She also called Wendy's beauty mark a "booby mark".

Conversation with EKG the other day, as I was watching her eat an apple.

EKG:”Daddy, why are you looking at me?”

Me: “Because you are my daughter and I love you.”

EKG: After taking a bite of apple and thinking. “Daddy, ask me why I’m looking at you.”

Me: “Nora, why are you looking at me?”

EKG:”Because you are my daddy and I love you.”

The other night putting them to bed, Jack said, "Your beard is getting long, Daddy. You need to cut it." I asked Nora if I need to cut it and she looked up at me and touched it and said, "No Daddy, it's beautiful!"

Jack Droppings

Here is a post of some random things I've jotted down about Jack, but never made it into a full post. Better clear out the drafts before the new year.

Jack, and one other girl in his class, have been using my/mine instead of I/I’m so we get

“Mine Burp”
“My love dump trucks!”
“My am poopy”
“My help you please, Mommy?”

Twinkle Twinkle has been his favorite bedtime song for months and months. He loves to sing along, off key, and sings it, “Twinkle twinkle, little star. How my wonder what you are.”

Other phrases that make us laugh:

“That unbelievable!”

“You amazing , daddy!”

"That an excavator!"

"My am Super Why!"



He also doesn’t say the “s” in words that start with an s and consonant, so he gets “crapes” (scrapes) and “cracthes” (scratches), he likes to “pie with my little eye” (spy) and he is a “peedy runner” (speedy). He likes “cool” (school) where the other day he made a “tar” (star) for the tree. He loves to point out “quirrels” (squirrels) and sometimes at night he gets “cared” (scared).

He has the sweetest, “Hi daddy!” I’ve ever heard, even when he uses it when I catch him on the stairs after he has gotten out of bed after bed time. It's followed with, "What are you doing,Buddy?" "Ummmmm, Nothing!"


He has also been a great delivery man, “my am making deliveries”, with his dump truck which he fills up with water bottles and brings to us on the couch.

"How did he die?"

Ever since Nora was 2 or so she took an interest in how things died. I think this stems from her fascination with dinosaurs, since at the end of almost every book it talks about how they went extinct. I remember the first time she really understood that dinosaurs were extinct and how sad she was talking about missing them and never being able to see them.

Since then she has asked how my mom and Wendy's dad died, as well as how all of our old pets died. We have also talked about how plants die and she got sad this year when the trees lost their leaves. It was kind of striking at first, but since Wendy and I are "reality based parents", we were happy to explain how our loved ones have passed. Nora has always taken it in stride and has asked a lot of questions, about how we felt and how we still fell ("Do you miss her?"). There is a reason multiple teachers have called her the most empathetic kid they have ever taught.



About a month ago we were reading a book about Washington D.C. they showed the mint and a $5 dollar bill, so she asked who he was.

G:"Abraham Lincoln, he was President of the United States."
EKG: "Is he dead?"

G:"Yes he died a long time ago."

EKG:"How did he die?"

G:"Well, he was shot and died."

EKG: Looking confused -"But I get shots and I don't die."
G: Realizing I just crossed a line of childhood innocence - "Well a man shot him with a gun and killed him"
EKG:"What was that mans name?"
G: "His name was John Wilkes Booth."
EKG: "Why did he kill him?"
G: : Wish I had given cancer as the cause - "Well Lincoln did a lot of great things, but some of those things made some people mad."
EKG: "He must not have been a nice man."
G: "No he was not a nice man at all. But Lincoln accomplished so much before he was killed we still celebrate him as one of the greatest presidents."

She got very quiet and had tears in her eyes, so I hugged her and tried to be comforting. Well, as comforting as one can be about murder anyway.

It's funny how desensitized you become about murder and violence, it's on the news and in almost every tv show or movie. It was sweet, and a little sad, to see her shocked reaction to the idea that people would willingly kill each other. She is used to things dying and animals killing and eating meat, so I didn't think of the difference until I saw it in her eyes. I'm glad at almost 4.5 years old it came as such a surprise to her that humans can be cruel. For many kids her age person on person violence is a reality not a revelation. She will have plenty of time as an adult to deal with hurtful people, she should enjoy the innocence for as long as she can.

Of course, she was fine the next morning and the next time we read that book she remembered Lincoln's name. How he died didn't come up in the conversation.

Happy Halloween

Pure Joy

How is that for a kid having fun? Taken at Italian Fest a couple weeks ago.

End of Summer

We have finished up summer with lots of outside walks, trips to the zoo, local festivals, and a wonderful weekend to visit family in Lyons, Ohio. The children often bring me sticks, flowers, acorns, leaves, and assorted grasses (Jack says, "A very beautiful flower for you, Mama!"). I simply do not have the heart to throw them away when they are so excited to give the beautiful nature to me; so, I started this Nature Bouquet to display the treasures. The rocks & shells are from Whidbey Island in the San Juan Islands of the Puget Sound. The whole thing has resulted in a lovely addition to the kitchen. It makes me smile and has the added benefit of making dish washing significantly less dreary.

Here's a look at the kiddos, growing so big with sweet smiles. Here with the "babies" they chose to take to school this particular day. I cannot help but flash forward to 5 or so years from now when they are in cahoots together scheming some way to outsmart me. Can't you see it too?

And look at our big 4 1/2 year old girl. Still has those dimples! I am drawn to the happy poses since the emotion regulation task of her age has us riding a roller coaster of significant highs and lows throughout the day. Whew buddy, I had no idea a kid could be so happy one minute and melt down into complete despair the next. It does make me appreciate parents all over the world, past and present, who have lived through their kid figuring out appropriate emotional responses to getting and not getting what they want.

Last weekend we visited Geoff's cousin, Susan and her family. Susan and Joe have been married for 33 years (amazing!). There is a quite famous picture of Geoff as a five year old in their wedding in a cutest white tuxedo ever. Geoff's mom Susie loved that picture and since it was just her birthday, I was thinking about how much she would love that we spent time with Susan and Joe on their family's land. There is a gorgeous pond, corn field, and barn, not to mention the breathtaking home. One of my favorite spots (which I discovered only because there were four extra adults around to keep eyes on the kids) is the big rock and grave marker of Susan's mom and Susie's sister, Barb. She is buried there by the pond under the shade of a pretty tree. I am comforted by knowing that anyone can visit Barb without effort; with a steaming hot cup of coffee in the foggy morning as I did; or even in your pajamas if you like! I really think we would all deal with death a little easier if we grew up with reminders of our dearly departed close to home.

Well, we played and visited a farm, chose wonderful vegetables and the best apples you'll ever eat (Seriously, Ohio should be famous for its honey crisp apples). Joe let the kids drive the tractor and we all took turns, even me!


And, as is true when you visit people with big hearts and a genuine love for children, the entertainment seemed effortless. Here Susan adorned Nora Kate with jewels and scarves until she found her inner gypsy. April and Luke were there the whole weekend too and so Nora and Jack both found friends in the young 20-somethings, who seemed to also delight in our babies. I know that you parents out there will understand this, if you have kids over the age of 2. Not everyone in the world finds our kids as amazing, funny, smart, or fascinating as Geoff and I do. Now, don't get me wrong, we all need our breaks from kid-centered attention. But, I have come to appreciate the adults we encounter who truly and genuinely find pleasure in my children's laughter. Those people who interact with them on their level instead of waiting for our kids to come to them. The rare individual who engages them in a way which challenges and cherishes them for simply being on the earth. Susan, Joe, Luke & April are these kind of people and we thank you so much for the love. Susan and Joe are about to become grandparents for the first time, but they are already really, really good at it!

So, as we enjoy the 80-degree weather outside in October, we have been blogging less and less; but hiking and walking and biking and leaf collecting cannot wait! We know you understand. Finally, I'll end the post by wishing Happy Birthday to baby Eleanor Rose, born just about a week ago now, to our friends Todd and Lauren. Welcome to the world little one!

Late Mama Musing on Her First Turning Four

We did not forget to mention that Eleanor Kate turned four years old, but I am the Birthday blogger and I have been trying to relax in the evenings and not work on things on my To Do Lists. So, here I am talking about my kiddo's latest milestone, almost a month afterward. It's been a funny thing, these birthdays and how much they cause me to reflect. So much more than my own birthday. I can see all of the time since like a movie running in my head, and I get slightly emotional at how fast it is going. It is what everyone says: It goes fast, childhood is over in a blink, enjoy it now! Well, we do try.



Throughout are pictures of a happy Saturday birthday party. Nora invited her whole class and we had a nice turnout. The Dinosaur theme and pool backyard party was a hit! The slip 'n' slide was a huge hit, and everyone just had fun.



Here are the cupcakes!

So, what have I been musing about since Nora's 4th birthday? A bit of her present, future, and past. Right now, I think about how smart she is; how feisty and difficult she is; how very emotionally extreme she is from the happiest happy to the most negative and tortured sad; how creative and loving, thoughtful and amazing; how easily terrified she is of splinter removal while at the same time how easily she handles thunderstorms and scary episodes of Scooby Doo. How she makes me things at school and picks me weeds and flowers, tells jokes and sings like a kid, all loud and unashamed. Nearly every thought of her at 4 makes me smile.

Then, I find myself day dreaming about her future life: I wonder what she will become (I'm not a paleontologist yet! Maybe I'll be a zoologist!") and who she will love and how tall she will be (EK: "Mama, you're taller than Grandma." W: "Yep, and you'll probably be taller than me." EK: "Noooooooooo!!!!"). I wonder how well she will love herself (EK: "Nobody Loves me! Harumph" said just to get us protesting and hugging and kissing on her, usually ending in a fit of laughter); if she will struggle making friends or in school, and just how life will be with so much media. Who will her idols be? Her crushes? Her style definers? What will her master status be? How will she communicate with others?

And, well, then there are the looks back at her life up to now. Nora loves me telling stories about her in my tummy. Some of the facts she mixes up are pretty funny, but she loves the stories of kicking me when I would lay down and of being awaken by a pie pan and wooden spoon during a fetal heart monitor appointment. Oh, and I adore the pictures! Tiny itty bitty and then chubby baby girl, all smiles and heart melting hugs. Walking so easily, then loving a new baby brother, and trusting her Dad and I to "keep her safe, right mom?"

Well, here is where I get emotional. I try every day. To keep you and your brother safe and healthy. I worry about you every day, but we live life and have fun and we make mistakes and you cry and I cry and we are learning together. I get frustrated more now than I used to baby girl, because I know how smart you are and how lazy you can be, and how hard-headed and uncompromising. I also smile more than I used to, like when you hug your brother and watch out for him and still want me to hold you and fall asleep when we snuggle. When your eyes light up after school and you tell me jokes and are the first one to laugh.You are amazing and 4 is a big one. One more short little year before school is kindergarten instead of child care. This is the year you learn to swim and ride a bike and write your name. So, a little looking back, reflecting on the present, and contemplating the future is normal for your mama. I am having loads of fun at the zoo, too. Happy Birthday Baby Girl, we could not adore you more.

"Tractors"

We recently had some major plumbing work done (don't ask), but the one advantage is we had a "digger" parked in our yard for a couple of days. First thing is of course to put Gracie in the bucket.


Jack has been loving "tractors", what he calls any construction equipment, and points them out with glee when ever we pass one, which has been quite often as all of Columbus seems to be under construction. So being able to sit in one was pretty cool.






Here is a picture Nora took and me and Jack sitting in it.


This is a picture from the July birthdays at Aunt Pam's house. Nora got a pair of binoculars which was very fortunate as they were fighting over the pair Aunt Pam had. Here they are looking for something together. By the way, both kids agree that Aunt Pam's house has "the coolest toys."

Special Day

Eleanor Kate is 4! To celebrate her birthday I took a day off work on the 13^th because that day there was a “Dino Madness” workshop for preschool kids at COSI. We didn’t tell her about the plan until the day before because waiting a few days can seem like forever to a 4 year old. When I told her Tuesday morning her face lit up and she was very excited about her “special day with my daddy.” It was the first thing she mentioned to me at pickup Tuesday and she said she had been telling all of her friends. The only sad thing was Jack, saying “Me too, Daddy?” when I was explaining the day to Nora, but I promised him his own special day coming up.


After we dropped off Jack and Mama, we swung back by home to get her first surprise, matching “Never Forget” dinosaur t-shirts. Then we headed to DK Diner in Grandview. It’s a great homey place with good reasonably priced food . . .oh and they make their own donuts. Nora did a good job eating her breakfast and picked out a donut with sprinkles. She didn’t touch the actual doughnut, except to lick the icing and sprinkles off the top.

We got to COSI and headed to the workshop room which was filled with all sorts of dinosaur books, several of which we own or have borrowed from the library. Nora picked out some ones we hadn’t read and we looked at those until the class started. The young girl/volunteer running the workshop was good with kids and friendly, but when it came to dinosaur knowledge she couldn’t hold a candle to Nora. She asked some basic questions (how big, carnivore/herbivore, what killed the dinos, etc.) and Nora, seated right next to her was firing off answers quicker than other kids could respond. I actually tried to slow her down so other kids could (incorrectly) answer some questions. One kid confidently proclaimed that “a cannonball” is what killed off the dinosaurs.

A couple of examples of our girl outclassing the teacher include:

Teacher: Was the T Rex a herbivore or carnivore?

Half the class: Carnivore!

Nora: So was Allosaurus, and giganotosaurs and carnotaurus and Troodons were sometimes

Teacher: I guess those are dinosaurs?

Walking into the exhibit is a flying reptile and the teacher mentioned it going in and out.

On the way in:

Nora: Pteranodon!

Teacher (unsure of herself): Or a pterodactyl . . .

On the way out:

Nora: A Quetzalcoatlus!!

Teacher: < looks at me>

Me: Had the largest wing span of any of the flying reptiles.

Teacher: Oh . . .

Nora also told the teacher there were dinosaurs who swam in the ocean and named Pleisiosaurs and Ichthyosaur. Technically not dinosaurs, but I’m pretty sure they were new animals to our teacher.

Back in the room they had some semi dino themed crafts for the kids to do. We buried a fossil in plaster in a Dixie cup and some other crafty stuff, but we ended up reading some more of the dino books we had not seen before.

After playing at COSI a bit after the workshop we headed to Wendy’s for lunch. While there I told her about what we were doing 4 years ago at that time, basically they were torturing Wendy for 14 hours trying to get Nora out. She enjoyed that story and asked about other things so I recounted her 1^st birthday and some of her old friends. One of the fun things as Nora gets older is we can have real conversations and she asks really good questions.

About 4 times during the day while talking to people at various stops she told them, “This is my special day with my daddy!” Not that they understood, but it made my heart swell every time. After a good lunch we headed home and fell asleep on the couch with her laying on my chest for a 2 hour nap. All in all just about a perfect “special day”. Now, where to take Jackie?

Never Enough ComFest

Here are some more pictures from ComFest: Here is Nora putting Jackie to bed in the wagon (because he is a baby), under the watchful eye of a little girl close to us who was fascinated by Nora & Jack's toys.

Jack about to jump from said wagon.

And laughing really hard when he hit the ground. He did this about 35 times.

It's hard to tell from the picture below, but it shows Eleanor's brand new baby doll that we had only bought 5 hours earlier, in a "nest." Nora protected her baby in its nest by prowling around and growling at innocent Comfesters as they passed. After enough strange looks and fierce growling, we suggested that she move her baby to a less traveled area, which resulted in greatly reduced growls at, and strange looks from, strangers.

She has been loving the show Wild Kratts on PBS where the Kratt brothers use special suits to have the "creature powers" of the animal they are studying. So her imagination in being animals has been fun and challenging at the same time. There are only so many times I can respond to a grunt or growl when I ask, "What do you want to drink?"

And, isn't this a great picture? I believe most of you know that Eleanor was named at Comfest 2007, right? I think this picture shows how deep Comfest runs through her and it's probably because she was there only 2 weeks before her birth and at every one since (oh, and her parents try and live the Comfest principles in daily life).

Yeah, it's a good life hangin' out at Comfest.

ComFest

We of course hit ComFest again this year and had a great time. Wendy and I got a sitter on Friday and took it in adult style and on Saturday we took the kiddos. The weather was perfect Saturday and our shift was about 5 hours.


The kids loved seeing all the sights and were very well behaved included carrying ketchup through the crowds following Mama to get back to our home spot near the Gazebo Stage to have some fries. Later in the evening me and the kids wandered up to the stage, it was a little loud for Jack but Nora and I had a good time dancing along with the music. I relish any time she is willing to dance with her dad.





We also had big fun with bubbles. I have a decent bubble wand, but "Mr. Bubble Guy showed up with a wand that made bubbles bigger than your head. Between the two of us we got quite a crowd of kids running around and popping bubbles.


Here is Jackson trying on my official "festival hat".