Chronicles #8

September - December 2008 William really loves the PBS show “Super Why” and we found the best way to get him out of the bathtub is to say, ”William, do you want to be Super Why?” He very excitedly allows us to place his hooded ducky towel on his head and goes running full throttle with his cape flapping in the wind.

William’s hat obsession has extended to all balls in the house and we often find them with Tupperware, buckets or actual hats on top of them.

Anytime something is broken (which happens quite regularly) William will bring the item to you with all pieces and imploringly say, “Ix it, ix it”.

William now says his name as “YahYum”.

I made William his B-day cake with a 3-d brownie train. He came in after his nap and made me feel good about my labors. I got a very loud, “ooooooooooh, toot toot!” He also started crying when I put it in the fridge. He went and got a chair and opened the fridge and stood there pointing excitedly at it.

William had a bit of a drippy nose and I gave him a tissue. He said, “Tanktwo”, and then proceeded to wipe his nose on his arm and then used the tissue to wipe his arm. I guess the indirect method is better than nothing.

We took William to Chuck E Cheese for his Birthday and the kid was like a pinball bouncing from one game to the next. It was even enough sensory stimulation for our busy boy.
I ask you, who in their right mind would put a tube maze on the ceiling of child entertainment center? Obviously it was not someone with a young child. William slipped past us and started to explore with glee, until he realized he didn’t know how to get out. Every few feet there was a clear plastic window and we would point which way to go, but when there was a fork in the tube, there were no windows. So frustration built into tears until he laid down on the window in sad defeat. Here comes Emma to the rescue! Emma scurried up the tube like a pro and found here brother and gently led him back. He collapsed into my arms and held on tight. Time to depart.

William is adding new words to his vocabulary every day and never on command, just when the moment is right. We were coming out of Sam’s Club and William was riding on his dad’s shoulders and handed the door checker the receipt, which the checker drew a line through. William handed it back down and said, “mile”. The checker drew a smiley face and returned it to our happy boy.

Once conquering the word smile, he now uses it regularly as we draw our smiley faces. William chants this as we draw, “dot, dot, dot, MILE”!

William sees his Daddy & I on our cell phones often and to not to miss out, he picked up what was handy, and began talking on a plastic potato.

Anytime or any context that Burton and I say “Ready”, William blurts out, “GO”!

Christmas morning was complete for William once he opened his stocking and discovered his slinky. He bounced it up and down saying, “bonk-ka, bonk-ka, bonk-ka”. I thought this might be just a special slinky sound effect but today on our walk he saw an inflatable yard Christmas Tigger and pointed and said, “bonk-ka, bonk-ka, bonk-ka”; an interesting substitution for boing.

Emma was having a fit about something in the car and to try to distract her I pointed out some horses along our drive. Emma, still in full fit mode yelled, " I hate horses!" I decided to not say anything more and ignore her. After a few minutes of sniveling and grouching Emma says in a full whine, "When I am done whining, I think I will like horses." "Mama, you be my wife & I'll be your husband. Wife, (in deep gruff man voice) I am going hunting!" After I few minutes she comes back and says, "Wife let's cook reindeer for breakfast". We were driving home at night and in front of some new construction down the street from our home, I spotted a Javelina (Shaggy wild desert pig). Burton flipped the car around so the headlights lit up the new-build house without any doors. The javelina quickly ran into the garage and there were 3 more inside. As our lights hit them they all ran into the house. Emma started giggling and said, "They think they are persons!"
At the store Emma says, “I want this toy, it’s not too expensive and it’s not annoying.”

Emma’s memory often shocks us. We went to get ice cream at Baskin Robins for William’s 3rd B-day and the last time we had gone was on William’s 2nd B-day and at a completely different location. As we arrived at the store Emma said, “ I want the rainbow ice cream with pink and purple.” She had Rainbow Sherbet a year ago.
“Mom, I want to learn how to play a tuna.”
“Tuba?”
“Yah, Tuba”

Emma: “You have to water a chi chi chi chiba chiba pet!”

Emma saying her prayers, “Thank thee for my family, I like them more then I thought.”

Emma turned 5 this December and she has been asking for a Javelina Birthday cake for the last 6 months. For those of you not familiar with South West critters, a javelina (pronounced havelina) is hairy dessert pig/hog. I was quite concerned how I could make a cake to look like this not so beauteous creature. I made a German chocolate cake as I thought the coconut frosting would mimic well their shaggy hair. After getting it cut out and frosted Emma came over and said, “It’s perfect!” I like that girl.
Emma also asked for a stuffed animal skunk, which her kind Grandma & Papa helped accommodate. Her Uncle Keith & Aunt Shelley heard about her weird obsession with Javelinas and found her a mama and baby stuffed animals. She has quite a menagerie.

Emma had her doctor set and had her little ear scope and said, “Mommy, let me look at the tiny aminals in your ear.”

Emma's Art Work Age 4

Here are some of our favorite drawings that Emma did this year.

Groovin'

Chronicles #7

August - September 15th, 2008

We were driving over to pick up Burton at work and Emma was drawing away on her Magna Doodle. “Mama this is a Havalima”.
“You mean Javalina?”
“No, this is a Havalima monster and it eats APPLES! It goes out when it’s not bright anymore, it goes out when it is dark”
“What does it look like?”
“It is blue and purple and it likes shadows. It has a big nose like Wallace and Grommit. It has a big chin, but you can’t see his chin because his hair covers it up and you can’t see his eyes or his nose because they are all covered up by hair.”
Emma holds up her drawing so I can see it in the rear view mirror and it looks like Cousin It.

In the car, Emma was talking to me, and her stuffed animal cat.
“Mama, this is a real cat it is not tend. Hello kitty (falsetto voice) do you want me to take you home? Oh you are such a nice kitty, I will call you Chazzanina. Oh Chazzanina I love you!”

Emma has her hand cupped tenderly around some pretend object and walks toward me, “Mommy look at my dumpster, isn’t he so cute”!
“You mean hamster?”
“Yes. Isn’t my hamster cute!”

Emma was talking with her Grandpa Holmes on the phone and he asked her if she had been running through the sprinklers this summer. We recently moved into a rental with a low maintenance, xeriscape backyard. Emma responded, “Actually we don’t have sprinklers, we don’t have grass, we just have rocks”. How sad, we have to work on that one.

“Daddy, I am a baby tiger, my name is Nausea.”

William, as ever, is our little scientist. He is very fascinated with the way things work. He examined the cookie scoop’s release mechanism by squeezing the handle over and over again, watching the gears engage. After figuring out how it worked, William placed several Cheerios in the scoop, dribbled some water on top of them by shaking his sippy cup, then opened wide and released his soggy treat into his mouth.

William has a new favorite hideout. If we can’t find him he is likely under our bathroom sink relaxing on some of the towels we keep there.

William has discovered the leverage he can achieve with the use of a spoon. When he can’t get a drawer open in the kitchen he will place a spoon under the edge and use the counter’s edge as a fulcrum and open the drawer.

Other science experiments of note: William has discovered the vacuum seal he can create on his chin with small plastic cups or with a straw dangling from his tongue. He is also doing extensive research on the displacement of water by the volume of an object. In the bath he gets the water pitcher just at the edge of overflowing and very carefully sticks his finger in. As the water trickles out of the spout he starts giggling and then he shoves his whole hand and really laughs.

William has some short phrases that he uses frequently, a lot of single command words, but seldom uses full sentences. He shocked us the other day when he was gesticulating wildly for something he wanted on the counter. There were some finger puppets up there and I picked up one and asked, “Do you want this one”?
William answered, “Give me all of them”.

Whenever there is cheering on the television or when we clap for William he will bow his head and say, “Tank two, tank two, tank two”.

Chronicles #6

Emma: Why are teeth wet?

We are driving in our car after a church activity and Emma says, "Go faster!"
Burton: I can't go faster, we will hit the Bishop's car in front of us.
Emma: What would we say?
Tracy: Sorry.
Emma: What would he say?
Tracy: I don't know.
Emma after a few minutes and saying with the gusto of just having had an epiphany,
"He would say, 'What's the big idea'"!

Emma: Mama you be a mama dinosaur and I will be a baby dinosaur. I'm hungry Mama dinosaur.
Tracy: I'm making you some cookies, baby dinosaur.
Emma: No I want food. There is food! (Pointing at her little brother.)

William's newest favorite utensil for eating rice is his shovel from his sand bucket. His favorite new hat is the bucket.

A new surprise phrase from William. We were at the park for a primary activity and one of the other kids started climbing high on the equipment and he starts yelling "Get down, get down!" William is a boy of few words, but he stores them away for the right moment and then shocks you with the clarity with which he can say them.

William really likes chocolate. When given a chocolate chip cookie, he takes his finger or whatever other utensil available and digs out the individual chips. One cookie can last him a good 20 minutes as he is very thorough.