We have a refrigerator that has the freezer on the bottom and the fridge on top. It’s nice because the lowest thing in the fridge is only waist level, easy to locate stuff. However this configuration is not so friendly to kids. Leif has found this out many times when he has been excited to get some milk or apple juice. Just like a normal kid, when he gets excited he will jump around a lot not really looking where he is or where he is going. Well, with a fridge door that starts at about waist height for adults it also starts at head level for kids. Leif has bonked his head on the door many times.
That’s how we started the “Watch your head” statements whenever we open the fridge. Leif has learned that when we are in the kitchen and he hears “Watch your head” he will immediately drop to the floor and wait for us to tell him it’s ok to get up. It works great. If I open the oven and tell Leif to watch out, he will drop to the floor. If I open the dishwasher and tell him to watch out and be careful, he will drop to the floor. I have even had him drop to the floor at my parents house when opening their fridge, and they have a side by side model so the door is just an inch above the floor. But we rarley have a bonked head.
Kalven on the other hand has not learned the “Watch your head” significance yet. He will real soon though, every day I watch the space between the bottom of the door and the top of his head shrink.
Tonight Leif and Kalven were playing a favorite game. I like to call it the “Call Of The Wild”. Wanna know the rules for the game? Here they are:
1. Scream at the top of your lungs.
2. Wait for sibling to scream at the top of his lungs.
3. Laugh.
4. Repeat.
I had Kalven sitting in his chair and Leif was in the living room playing. Someone started the game, I am not sure who, but soon there was scream, laugh, scream, laugh… Thankfully they were not running through the rules too fast so it was actually pretty funny and cute. Leif would wonder around the living room playing with other toys at the same time, he can multi-task. Kalven just sat watching where Leif would go and respond to him. I could not stop them, they both enjoyed it too much.
Ok so I enjoyed watching them too.
I was at work today and Aleece called me to chat, just normal married couple chit-chat. About 5 min after we hung up the phone rang again and I noticed that callerid said it was my house again. I picked up the phone and started to give Aleece grief for some of the chit-chat we were talking about in the previous call, but it was not Aleece. “HI DE DA!” is what I heard. Leif was on the phone. Apparently after Aleece had hung up Leif kept bugging Aleece by saying “De Da now. De Da now.”, so Aleece called me at work and gave Leif the phone. I talked to Leif for about 3 min before Leif wanted me to get him an apple. I was able to get Leif’s permission to have Aleece give him one instead.
Oh, and “De Da” is how Leif says daddy. He can say mommy and momma just fine but for some reason he switches the syllables around on daddy to have it sound like de da. Man kids are funny.
So, last week we had a few storms. The first one was during the day and I was working from home. Kids were awake and Aleece was home. It was an intense storm, lots of wind and rain. The second storm I was home with the kids alone, Aleece was working. THe kids were asleep when I heard of the storm so I got stuff ready in case we had to seek shelter, radio, flashlight, water, blankets, phones, you know the usual stuff. Then I got ready and watched the storm intently, I even broke out my camera and took some shots.
This is the front end of the storm rolling through. It went from clear to dark clouds very fast.
Here you can see the clouds “dripping”
This one is from the other side of the house, you get a better view of what is coming.
This is pretty much the same time, I just adjusted the camera a bit so it captured more light and you can see more detail.
And after the storm was over, here it is just ending.
Another adjusted shot so you can see more detail.
I tried a few times to capture lightning, this is the best one I got before my batteries ran out.
Today Aleece and I had our very first parent/teacher conferences for Leif. We went and met with his current teacher and also his next teacher. Leif gets to transfer classes soon because he is not 3.
Today’s meet was mostly a formality and to introduce us to his new teacher. Leif has not been in school very long so there is not much of a progress report. We did get an un-official report though. Leif is doing well. He is starting to say more, not a whole lot but some. He is really taking to the structure of the classroom well, he will move from activity to activity. Even though Leif does not have very many new words he is continuing to be able to illustrate what he wants non-verbally. Leif is also demonstrating a better understanding of directions. Leif’s teacher also said that Leif is a very easy going kid and a lot of fun to have in class.
Aleece and I have noticed an improvement in Leif since he has been in school. He can pick up on sign language very quick and does not need as much prompting to repeat it back at appropriate times. Leif even broke into song the other day and serenade Aleece.
Kalven is still a little cranky from time to time. Mostly he is a very happy cheerful baby, but over the past couple weeks he just has seemed a little “off”. Well, last night I think I figured out one problem.
It was about dinner time and I sat Kalven down to eat. I tried feeding him mac and cheese, we had some leftovers. Kalven kept trying to grab at the spoon and push it away and was just generally not happy. I finally got the bright idea to just give him his own fork. That was it, because as soon as he had the fork in hand he turned right back into his cheerful happy baby self. Take a look…
Leif kept saying “CHEESE!”, I think he wanted some pictures too.
I have some 4th of July pictures of the boys but I have not taken them off the camera yet. I hope to do that tonight and then we can have a picture post of Leif and Kalven at the parade.
Instead today lets talk about little boys. Stubborn, crabby, moody, cute, loveable little boys.
Kalven seems to cut two teeth at a time. I think that doubles his uncomfort, but hey, I can only suggest how he grows teeth, he actually decides on the pace. Kalven is normally just a sweet loveable little boy, but when he is cutting his teeth he is a cute loveable little boy…until he gets a little tired. Then he gets moody and you really have no idea what happened. He will go from happy to crying in about 1.5 seconds. And since he is uncomfortable he sometimes puts of going to sleep in favor of crying, making him even more tired and moody. I keep trying to tell him that if he sleeps he will feel much better, but I don’t think he quite gets it yet. Oh well, this shall pass…eventually.
Leif is still going through his potty training good-day/bad-day cycles. I have noticed that a bad day for Aleece can be a good evening for me, and vice-versa. I think Leif is picking which parent gets a good day and which gets a bad day. Leif is also learning how to push boundaries. I know he understand us because he can learn new sign language signs pretty quickly. Aleece broke out our big ASL book last night and started marking pages for useful signs. Leif’s school is good. He loves going on the bus and on days he does not go to school he is known to pack up a backpack and pretend to go to school. It is so fun to see his imagination develop. But along with that developing imagination that can bring all kind of fun to life, Leif found out that he can use it to figure out new and exciting ways that he can push his boundaries. We still give time-outs but sometimes we have to move on to the next stage…”Go To Your Room”.
Ah the adventures in parenting. This is just the work that goes into making the joy of kids so worth it.
