Despite being a strong believer in the family dinner, we don't actually have one all that often.
Weekdays I get home first with the kids, who are hungry and ready for dinner. Most evenings they get some "wholesome organic" version of "kid food"; meatballs, hot dogs or fish fingers with veggies (frozen and microwaved), and mashed potatoes (ditto), or spaghetti hoops. If I have a bit of extra time they get quinoa or cous cous with steamed fresh broccoli. If I'm late and everyone is frantic they get toast and honey and scrambled eggs. I usually have the kids in the bath by the time geekydaddy gets home at 7.00, and they are both in bed by 8.00. We are rather British about bedtime and routine. It is the only way I know how to survive, and although I feel guilty that I'm glad to have them in bed, even though I only spend a few short evening and morning hours with them on weekdays, and guilty that we don't expose our kids to enough adult cuisine, I do relish our quiet dinners for two, catching up on our day over a glass of wine after the kids are in bed.
But on Saturdays we try to have a family dinner. Today I made shrimp tacos. The food was very well received, I love to hear my daugher exclaim how delicious the shrimp (cooked in lime and garlic) are, and to see her heartily devour a self assembled soft taco, beans dripping everywhere. Despite all sitting down at the table at approximately the same time, the occasion still never feels very cohesive. I find that Geekydaddy and I don't actually get to sit and eat our dinners until everyone else is done (I seem to recall my mum bouncing up and down in the same manner to meet our demands all through meals when we were growing up).
This evening, after popping up to prepare a second quesadilla for Geekyboy, who inhaled the first as if he had not received nourishment all day, then chopping extra shrimp up for Geekygirl, retrieving numerous bits of lost cutlery, and rescuing a burning accidentally left on pan, Geekygirl finished her dinner and was excused from the table. We finally sat down to our much anticipated food, when we heard "Mummy, I had an accident". Running to the bathroom I found my little girl standing in an unfeasably large puddle of pee, which had been released within just a few inches of the toilet. Maybe the food was so delicious and the company so riveting that she just forgot that she needed to go. Around this same time Geekyboy had started to protest about being restrained in his high chair so Geekydaddy released him. He of course made a bee line for the pee lake, and just before he started to splash in it in his socks, Geekdaddy swept in and got him.
With both adult humans distracted for a spilt second, the animals, who erroneously believe themselves to be emaciated, deprived street curs, decided it was their turn to get in on the act. Orangegeek, a cat who is so old and creaky he now claws instead of jumps his way onto a lap, can still summon a balletic leap of silent grace when shrimp is involved. Geekydog, who retains enough of her training not to jump onto tables to steal food, seems to believe that touching the table with her tongue doesn't count, and so will sneakily lap the table edge, hoping for morsels, if no one is looking. We turned around from the great pee cleanup and realized our dinners were about to be stolen from us by the animals, so we left the children and the bathroom in various states of uncleanliness and decided to finish our dinners.
It might be a while before we attempt the family dinner again.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Is my baby channelling the late "King of pop"?
One day last week I was stealing a moment at the computer while the kids played. Geekyboy was playing with the CD's. Outdated as they may be as a form of music storage, we still have a good few hundred of them in an attractive pottery barn "CD bookcase". (What a useless piece of furniture that will turn out to be in a few years, with its neat little 5" x 5" square shelves! Antique dealers of the future will be able to pinpoint in a second "Ah yes, a music storage shelf unit, circa 1995, from the shortlived "Compact disc" era). And I still vividly recall how futuristic they seemed when they first came out, watching the silvery disc spin so fast through the little sunroof in the lid of my boombox, not understanding how it produced the crisp sonic experience.
Geekyboy, tired of amusing himself by pulling CD's out of the shelves, toddled over and presented me with one. "Dants" he said to me, bouncing up and down by bending his chubby knees. (I think he means "Dance"). I took the proffered CD, then did a double take. He had handed me a copy of "Bad" by Michael Jackson. Now MJ's music has been playing on the radio since his death, but it had not occurred to me to put it on at home. I didn't realize that we actually owned any of his recordings. This CD must have been Geekdaddy's, probably purchased around the same time that he bought the "Billy Ocean's Greatest hits" CD, that lurks next to his Phish and Pearl Jam.
I'm not someone who believes in visitation from spirits of the dead, but it was eerie that of all the CD's in the rack, Geekyboy found this one, only a few days after Michael Jackson's death. According to Chinese custom, babies are not allowed at funerals, the thinking being that they are still close to the world beyond, and so can see the dead walking among us.
Skeptic that I am, I dismissed the idea that the spirit of the king of pop had visited our humble home, and put Geekyboy's selection down to a random chance event. But I decided to play the CD anyway, I'd forgotten how good a song "Smooth Criminal" is, and we danced together. Geekyboy showed off the dance moves he has started to develop. He pivots on one foot, bending his knees and stamping the other foot rhythmically on the ground while pumping his arms. Its cute. Thank goodness he didn't break into a moonwalk though. Then I would have really been spooked.
Geekyboy, tired of amusing himself by pulling CD's out of the shelves, toddled over and presented me with one. "Dants" he said to me, bouncing up and down by bending his chubby knees. (I think he means "Dance"). I took the proffered CD, then did a double take. He had handed me a copy of "Bad" by Michael Jackson. Now MJ's music has been playing on the radio since his death, but it had not occurred to me to put it on at home. I didn't realize that we actually owned any of his recordings. This CD must have been Geekdaddy's, probably purchased around the same time that he bought the "Billy Ocean's Greatest hits" CD, that lurks next to his Phish and Pearl Jam.
I'm not someone who believes in visitation from spirits of the dead, but it was eerie that of all the CD's in the rack, Geekyboy found this one, only a few days after Michael Jackson's death. According to Chinese custom, babies are not allowed at funerals, the thinking being that they are still close to the world beyond, and so can see the dead walking among us.
Skeptic that I am, I dismissed the idea that the spirit of the king of pop had visited our humble home, and put Geekyboy's selection down to a random chance event. But I decided to play the CD anyway, I'd forgotten how good a song "Smooth Criminal" is, and we danced together. Geekyboy showed off the dance moves he has started to develop. He pivots on one foot, bending his knees and stamping the other foot rhythmically on the ground while pumping his arms. Its cute. Thank goodness he didn't break into a moonwalk though. Then I would have really been spooked.
Monday, July 6, 2009
A serene weekend, then back down to earth with a bump. Or a splat.
We had the most idyllic fourth of July weekend. We are fortunate enough (or crazy enough, we vacillate between the two), to have a vacation home up on Donner Summit, near lake Tahoe. The abridged history of how we came to have this place starts with a bunch of friends and a ski lease. Common here in northern CA, friends get together and rent a cabin near the ski resorts for the ski season, from December to April. When I met Geekydaddy, he and his group of friends had been leasing a cabin in this manner for a couple of years. I joined in, and for six more years we spent every winter in this crumbling cabin in "Serene lakes", this aptly named mountain community. That seventh season, when it came time to renew the lease, the group finally fell apart; marriages and relationships with non skiers, dog ownership (ours) and much delayed adulthood took its toll, and ski cabin gang was no more.
So in a fit of craziness, and without any idea of how much our intended family was going to impact our finances, geekydaddy, geekydog, the cats and I became the proud owners of a bit of mountain real estate in this same community we had grown to love during our ski lease years.
In the five years since then we have come to love Serene lakes even more. What had been just a winter playground is now our summer destination too. The lakes, frozen in winter are warm in summer, the roads lined with wildflowers rather than snow banks, and the community maintains a little sandy beach where kids can play and swim in the sun. The smell of pine trees baking in the sun will always mean summer to me now.
Over the past years we have basked by the lake every summer. First just with Geekydog, watching other peoples children play, imagining at first, then hoping and longing for our own. I warmed my pregnant belly, un-selfconcious in my bikini amongst unpretentious neighbours. Geekygirl sat in the shallows, and ate sand her first summer, then grew to jump on sandcastles and brave the lake in water wings in her second, while I warmed another growing belly. Last year geekybaby learned to sit in the warm sand and winced with distaste as I attempted to nurse him with cold wet boobs, while Geekygirl made friends and traded shovels with other kids, and this year; how can it already be her fourth summer?, she pretends to be princess Ariel, dancing through the sand and water, and her brother tags along behind while I sit in the shallow water, scaring the other beach residents (but delighting my kids at least) with my rendition of "part of your world" from "the little mermaid".
This weekend we had the pleasure of the company of our dear friends Uncle S. and Auntie N. Single friends who love kids, they gave me the great luxury of a few moments of reading time, where I started to read an actual bona fide intellectual novel (Shalimar the Clown, by Salman Rushdie), having forgotten to purchase my trashy magazines. Time will tell whether I actually get to finish it! We broke out the glue and coloured paper and decorated our sunhats with stars and spangles, then headed to the beach for the celebration. The kids played, we drank corona and lime, the dogs basked in the sun (Auntie N. has a chihuahua mix, much adored by the kids for his compact size) . The simple pleasures of friends, family and sun were such a welcome break to our harried lives.
While walking to the beach we encountered many off leash romping dogs, so I, unwisely in retrospect, let geekydog off to play. Geekydog is mostly obedient. But does not always come back instantly when called. She is like a three year old child, if she could say "In a minute, Mum, I'm just coming" I'm sure she would. Being a non verbal canine child, she instead returns after five minutes of my yelling her name and working my way through my list of "emergency" recall commands, looking gleeful and guilty. This time she had an odd green slime on her muzzle and a funky smell about her. I hoped that whatever she had ingested was not too horrendous, and we carried on our day uneventfully with the miscreant safely back on leash.
We always stop for fast food on our way home on Sunday night. Geekygirl was eagerly anticipating her happy meal, but the thrills of the day overcame her and Geekyboy, and both kids succumbed to sleep within a few minutes of hitting the freeway. After a long drive, it seems that the entire population of California gets in their cars and heads from one side of the state to the other on these holiday weekends, we transfered the kids to their beds, unpacked the car and collapsed.
I was woken at 6am by a hysterical Geekgirl. She wanted her French fries, and was inconsolable for a good twenty minutes when she realized that it was morning, she was back in San Francsico, and she had slept through the fast food stop.
We got the day back on track eventually, afte she accepted that Cheerios were what was for breakfast, but we were all very, very tired when we came home this evening. As we climbed the stairs, my nose was assaulted by a strange, foul and rather swampy, or should I say lakey smell. Geekydog spends the day in our bedroom, and it was clear that this bedroom was the source of the fumes. I ordered the children to stand back and opened the door.
I'll spare you the details, but clearly whatever she had consumed at the lake had taken its revenge on her bowels. The poor beast was mortified by her loss of control, all pleading eyes and placating tail wag, and when released into the garden proceeded to assault the flowerbeds with more of the same dark evil explosiveness. And I had my very favourite job in the world to do, mopping up dog diarrhea, while surrounded by hungry exhausted children.
Even with one child out of diapers, sometimes I feel that there is way too much poop in my life.
Back to reality. Until the next time.
So in a fit of craziness, and without any idea of how much our intended family was going to impact our finances, geekydaddy, geekydog, the cats and I became the proud owners of a bit of mountain real estate in this same community we had grown to love during our ski lease years.
In the five years since then we have come to love Serene lakes even more. What had been just a winter playground is now our summer destination too. The lakes, frozen in winter are warm in summer, the roads lined with wildflowers rather than snow banks, and the community maintains a little sandy beach where kids can play and swim in the sun. The smell of pine trees baking in the sun will always mean summer to me now.
Over the past years we have basked by the lake every summer. First just with Geekydog, watching other peoples children play, imagining at first, then hoping and longing for our own. I warmed my pregnant belly, un-selfconcious in my bikini amongst unpretentious neighbours. Geekygirl sat in the shallows, and ate sand her first summer, then grew to jump on sandcastles and brave the lake in water wings in her second, while I warmed another growing belly. Last year geekybaby learned to sit in the warm sand and winced with distaste as I attempted to nurse him with cold wet boobs, while Geekygirl made friends and traded shovels with other kids, and this year; how can it already be her fourth summer?, she pretends to be princess Ariel, dancing through the sand and water, and her brother tags along behind while I sit in the shallow water, scaring the other beach residents (but delighting my kids at least) with my rendition of "part of your world" from "the little mermaid".
This weekend we had the pleasure of the company of our dear friends Uncle S. and Auntie N. Single friends who love kids, they gave me the great luxury of a few moments of reading time, where I started to read an actual bona fide intellectual novel (Shalimar the Clown, by Salman Rushdie), having forgotten to purchase my trashy magazines. Time will tell whether I actually get to finish it! We broke out the glue and coloured paper and decorated our sunhats with stars and spangles, then headed to the beach for the celebration. The kids played, we drank corona and lime, the dogs basked in the sun (Auntie N. has a chihuahua mix, much adored by the kids for his compact size) . The simple pleasures of friends, family and sun were such a welcome break to our harried lives.
While walking to the beach we encountered many off leash romping dogs, so I, unwisely in retrospect, let geekydog off to play. Geekydog is mostly obedient. But does not always come back instantly when called. She is like a three year old child, if she could say "In a minute, Mum, I'm just coming" I'm sure she would. Being a non verbal canine child, she instead returns after five minutes of my yelling her name and working my way through my list of "emergency" recall commands, looking gleeful and guilty. This time she had an odd green slime on her muzzle and a funky smell about her. I hoped that whatever she had ingested was not too horrendous, and we carried on our day uneventfully with the miscreant safely back on leash.
We always stop for fast food on our way home on Sunday night. Geekygirl was eagerly anticipating her happy meal, but the thrills of the day overcame her and Geekyboy, and both kids succumbed to sleep within a few minutes of hitting the freeway. After a long drive, it seems that the entire population of California gets in their cars and heads from one side of the state to the other on these holiday weekends, we transfered the kids to their beds, unpacked the car and collapsed.
I was woken at 6am by a hysterical Geekgirl. She wanted her French fries, and was inconsolable for a good twenty minutes when she realized that it was morning, she was back in San Francsico, and she had slept through the fast food stop.
We got the day back on track eventually, afte she accepted that Cheerios were what was for breakfast, but we were all very, very tired when we came home this evening. As we climbed the stairs, my nose was assaulted by a strange, foul and rather swampy, or should I say lakey smell. Geekydog spends the day in our bedroom, and it was clear that this bedroom was the source of the fumes. I ordered the children to stand back and opened the door.
I'll spare you the details, but clearly whatever she had consumed at the lake had taken its revenge on her bowels. The poor beast was mortified by her loss of control, all pleading eyes and placating tail wag, and when released into the garden proceeded to assault the flowerbeds with more of the same dark evil explosiveness. And I had my very favourite job in the world to do, mopping up dog diarrhea, while surrounded by hungry exhausted children.
Even with one child out of diapers, sometimes I feel that there is way too much poop in my life.
Back to reality. Until the next time.
Monday, June 29, 2009
First haircut.
It has been long overdue. Geekyboy has been sporting the classic "baby mullet" for some time now. I trimmed the front so that he could see, but couldn't bring myself to cut the sweet long curls at the back of his little head.
After a lovely, if crazy busy eighty degree weekend, where we packed in a trip to the zoo, a trip to IKEA, a splash the paddling pool and a Barbeque with our neighbours, Geekyboy ended it on a high note by throwing up everywhere when I put him to bed. I kept him home today, and happily he is fine, though took a three hour nap. This made for a pretty nice relaxing day for me, especially since I didn't have my work laptop at home. I have to admit I even took a nap myself.
One of the many many tasks on my "must do this week list" has been "geekyboy's first haircut". Other items include: Sister's childen's birthday gifts (I forgot her third childs birthday last week, and feel like a terrible aunt) Cats need shots, all animals need flea treatments, tahoe house needs blinds, I need a dental visit, kids need a dental visit, and other critical things I have probably forgotten)
I took advantage of this unexpected break in routine, and headed down to "Kids Cuts" for his first short back and sides. He hated it, refused to sit in the cute car chair and had to be held on my lap, as if he were getting shots, not a gentle grooming by a kind lady. Throughout he cried "Daddy, Daddy". Now daddy, as you can see from my family picture, has a fine head of flowing California hippy hair. So lustrous is it, that the clerk at his favorite gas station calls out "hey, Fabio" whenever he fills up there. Maybe Geekyboy resented me chopping off the curls he inherited from dad. When he is older I have no problem with him choosing to wear his hair long, but when it comes to toddlers my conventional side kicks in. I think long hair looks a bit daft on little boys.
He ended up with a neat short crop, and looks suddenly older, more boy and less baby. And I have added to the endless contents of my purse a little packet of baby curls.
After a lovely, if crazy busy eighty degree weekend, where we packed in a trip to the zoo, a trip to IKEA, a splash the paddling pool and a Barbeque with our neighbours, Geekyboy ended it on a high note by throwing up everywhere when I put him to bed. I kept him home today, and happily he is fine, though took a three hour nap. This made for a pretty nice relaxing day for me, especially since I didn't have my work laptop at home. I have to admit I even took a nap myself.
One of the many many tasks on my "must do this week list" has been "geekyboy's first haircut". Other items include: Sister's childen's birthday gifts (I forgot her third childs birthday last week, and feel like a terrible aunt) Cats need shots, all animals need flea treatments, tahoe house needs blinds, I need a dental visit, kids need a dental visit, and other critical things I have probably forgotten)
I took advantage of this unexpected break in routine, and headed down to "Kids Cuts" for his first short back and sides. He hated it, refused to sit in the cute car chair and had to be held on my lap, as if he were getting shots, not a gentle grooming by a kind lady. Throughout he cried "Daddy, Daddy". Now daddy, as you can see from my family picture, has a fine head of flowing California hippy hair. So lustrous is it, that the clerk at his favorite gas station calls out "hey, Fabio" whenever he fills up there. Maybe Geekyboy resented me chopping off the curls he inherited from dad. When he is older I have no problem with him choosing to wear his hair long, but when it comes to toddlers my conventional side kicks in. I think long hair looks a bit daft on little boys.
He ended up with a neat short crop, and looks suddenly older, more boy and less baby. And I have added to the endless contents of my purse a little packet of baby curls.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Evidence of motherhood
I was bustling into the office one morning last week, ready to present our latest findings to our scientific advisors, nattily attired in my black "business pants", pressed jacket and an elegant working woman top purchased from a real clothing store rather than from Target, when I dropped my handbag on the ground, and in that one moment destroyed the image of "serious professional woman" that I had until then felt confident that I was projecting.
My handbag had contained:
A cellphone, a treo, a camera, a wallet, sunglasses, a portable USB drive, a name tag from a conference I attended about six months ago (sounds professional enough so far), but then we got to; a ziploc bag of dog treats, loose change from three different continents, two tubes of glitter glue, two pacifiers, three sparkly hairslides, a crumpled check for soccer classes that I must have forgotten to turn in, a bottle of purel, a bag of animal crackers purloined from the zoo, an almost clean plastic fork, post-it notes saying "Geekygirl scratched her friend today (complete with frowny face cartoon)" and "Geekybaby needs diapers", some sanifizing wipes, some unsanitary looking used (for noses not bottoms, I must add) wipes, and a plastic monster.
Outed!
What's in your purse/handbag?
My handbag had contained:
A cellphone, a treo, a camera, a wallet, sunglasses, a portable USB drive, a name tag from a conference I attended about six months ago (sounds professional enough so far), but then we got to; a ziploc bag of dog treats, loose change from three different continents, two tubes of glitter glue, two pacifiers, three sparkly hairslides, a crumpled check for soccer classes that I must have forgotten to turn in, a bottle of purel, a bag of animal crackers purloined from the zoo, an almost clean plastic fork, post-it notes saying "Geekygirl scratched her friend today (complete with frowny face cartoon)" and "Geekybaby needs diapers", some sanifizing wipes, some unsanitary looking used (for noses not bottoms, I must add) wipes, and a plastic monster.
Outed!
What's in your purse/handbag?
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
supersize us
Every now and again I'm reminded of how Americanized I have become in the thirteen years I have lived here. We recently had the great pleasure of having my brother and his wife come to visit, and we took a trip up to our place in tahoe. Not yet being so American that we have a car large enough for four adults, two kids and a dog, we split up and rode in two cars. My brother rode shotgun with me on the trip back. We stopped, as we often do, to get a fast food dinner for the road.
I placed my bag of fries on my lap, partially unwrapped my filet of fish and balanced it by the fries, draped my lap with napkins and put the car in drive. My brother looked at me, horrified. "You can't drive and eat, that's illegal" he said. I must have looked quite baffled, both because I don't recall him ever being so sensible, and because, well, eating a burger while driving is a national pastime. As any good American knows, about 50% of all the meals that people consume in this country are eaten in cars. I'd better watch out if I ever move back to the UK, I'll get arrested for elevating my cholesterol while driving.
We took another Tahoe trip this weekend, just us and the kids, and again had dinner on the road. Geekygirl has become quite practiced at eating her happy meal in the back of the car. (Before we had kids I would have frowned upon both the unhealthiness and the messiness of this, but when you have a 3 hr drive on a Sunday night, and just want to get home, eating in the car allows us to get home so much faster that I have come to embrace it). Geekybaby, only 16 months old, had not yet been initiated into the 'car meal' culture. On previous trips he had been too young for solid foods.
This time I was hoping he might be sleeping when we hit Burger King, so avoiding the dilema of whether to let him watch his sister dig into her delicious empty calories, but he was still fine and lively. I bought him his very own carton of fries. And he did a fine job, gripping them tightly in one hand and eating with the other. I have to confess these are not his first fries. Geekygirl was at least 18 months old before she tasted their evil goodness, but this little guy has eaten them ever since he developed the abilty to grab and eat finger foods. We felt so proud at this latest landmark, his first fast food in the car and he passed with flying colors!
I placed my bag of fries on my lap, partially unwrapped my filet of fish and balanced it by the fries, draped my lap with napkins and put the car in drive. My brother looked at me, horrified. "You can't drive and eat, that's illegal" he said. I must have looked quite baffled, both because I don't recall him ever being so sensible, and because, well, eating a burger while driving is a national pastime. As any good American knows, about 50% of all the meals that people consume in this country are eaten in cars. I'd better watch out if I ever move back to the UK, I'll get arrested for elevating my cholesterol while driving.
We took another Tahoe trip this weekend, just us and the kids, and again had dinner on the road. Geekygirl has become quite practiced at eating her happy meal in the back of the car. (Before we had kids I would have frowned upon both the unhealthiness and the messiness of this, but when you have a 3 hr drive on a Sunday night, and just want to get home, eating in the car allows us to get home so much faster that I have come to embrace it). Geekybaby, only 16 months old, had not yet been initiated into the 'car meal' culture. On previous trips he had been too young for solid foods.
This time I was hoping he might be sleeping when we hit Burger King, so avoiding the dilema of whether to let him watch his sister dig into her delicious empty calories, but he was still fine and lively. I bought him his very own carton of fries. And he did a fine job, gripping them tightly in one hand and eating with the other. I have to confess these are not his first fries. Geekygirl was at least 18 months old before she tasted their evil goodness, but this little guy has eaten them ever since he developed the abilty to grab and eat finger foods. We felt so proud at this latest landmark, his first fast food in the car and he passed with flying colors!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
on language
There are so many intangible pleasures of watching one's kids grow up. Delight in their delights, amazement at their imagination, and the sheer joy of snuggling with a pudgy infant who changes almost daily into a little person. For me though, my greatest fascination is with the development of language. I feel such a leap of understanding and connection when the kids can explain to me what is going on in their inner world. Of course we communicate before there are words, but this language explosion is such a fabulous, unique, human thing, that I find myself constantly amazed by it.
Many people told me "Oh, if you have a girl first and then a boy don't worry that he is developmentally retarded, boys just speak late". But Geekybaby seems to be breaking the mold, maybe he falls more into the "Second kids speak earlier than first kids because they want to talk to their sibling"theory. Because our two kids were born within a few days of each other, separated by two years, it is easy to compare milestones. Geekygirl went through her "language explosion" at about 18-20 months. Geekybaby had his first words at just over 12 months, and now must have 10 or 20. I'll list them at the end of the post, for posterity. And for grandparents!
This week we had our first true conversation. I was sitting on the living room floor, next to the dogs bed, and Geekybaby came over and said "Dog. Woof. Where?" in a quizzical tone, and pointed to the empty dog bed. "Are you asking where the dog is?" I clarified. "Yeh" he said, and nodded. "I think she is in the kitchen" I told him. "Oh!" he exclaimed, and toddled in that direction to find Geekydog, and obtain his daily big sloppy dog kiss.
I sat back and went over this little conversation, and was awed by the fact that my little 16 months old and I can understand each other through language already.
Geekygirl, also a prodigy in her mummy's eyes, talks non stop, I love this window into her mind. She made me laugh with this little exchange on the drive home from preschool. She has become interested in age, in particular the fact that she is 2 years older than her brother. "How old will he be when I'm 10?" she asks "Well he is two years younger, and 10 minus 2 is 8" I reply. This conversation can go on for a while, but should be productive in mathematical learning (She can add, but subtraction is still a mystery). Then I heard "How old are you mummy?" "I'm 38" I replied.
"How old will you be when I'm 38?" She asked. This challenged my mental arithmetic skills and cast my thoughts into the unimaginable future, but I managed to reply, with a sigh, "I'll be 72".
Geekybaby's word list:
Mummy, Daddy, Ball, Book (first word!), cheese, cracker, milk, dog, woof, yes, no, ball, balloon, bubble, airplane, apple, neigh, moo, baa, pig, cow, quack, duck, fish, shoes, socks(gocks), up all done, bird, baby, sister, tub, whats that?, where, open.
Many people told me "Oh, if you have a girl first and then a boy don't worry that he is developmentally retarded, boys just speak late". But Geekybaby seems to be breaking the mold, maybe he falls more into the "Second kids speak earlier than first kids because they want to talk to their sibling"theory. Because our two kids were born within a few days of each other, separated by two years, it is easy to compare milestones. Geekygirl went through her "language explosion" at about 18-20 months. Geekybaby had his first words at just over 12 months, and now must have 10 or 20. I'll list them at the end of the post, for posterity. And for grandparents!
This week we had our first true conversation. I was sitting on the living room floor, next to the dogs bed, and Geekybaby came over and said "Dog. Woof. Where?" in a quizzical tone, and pointed to the empty dog bed. "Are you asking where the dog is?" I clarified. "Yeh" he said, and nodded. "I think she is in the kitchen" I told him. "Oh!" he exclaimed, and toddled in that direction to find Geekydog, and obtain his daily big sloppy dog kiss.
I sat back and went over this little conversation, and was awed by the fact that my little 16 months old and I can understand each other through language already.
Geekygirl, also a prodigy in her mummy's eyes, talks non stop, I love this window into her mind. She made me laugh with this little exchange on the drive home from preschool. She has become interested in age, in particular the fact that she is 2 years older than her brother. "How old will he be when I'm 10?" she asks "Well he is two years younger, and 10 minus 2 is 8" I reply. This conversation can go on for a while, but should be productive in mathematical learning (She can add, but subtraction is still a mystery). Then I heard "How old are you mummy?" "I'm 38" I replied.
"How old will you be when I'm 38?" She asked. This challenged my mental arithmetic skills and cast my thoughts into the unimaginable future, but I managed to reply, with a sigh, "I'll be 72".
Geekybaby's word list:
Mummy, Daddy, Ball, Book (first word!), cheese, cracker, milk, dog, woof, yes, no, ball, balloon, bubble, airplane, apple, neigh, moo, baa, pig, cow, quack, duck, fish, shoes, socks(gocks), up all done, bird, baby, sister, tub, whats that?, where, open.
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