Life with Two Sweet Boys: February

Jonah loves Isaac's underwear. He tries to put it on, but having little success getting it over his legs, he often wears it on his head instead. Then he waits for us to laugh.
Isaac puts on his own underwear and pants now, but he always wants us to lay it out so the front is facing up. Jonah has caught on. Now when he finds a pair of Isaac's underwear, he grabs it and says "um-wear," then throws it down dramatically and says "Funt! Funt!" He often seems to be showing Isaac - here, big brother, this is how you do it!

Below is Jonah in a sweater that was once Adam's. True retro style.


Feb 2:
I've been reading chapter books with Isaac - The Black Stallion and Charlotte's Web, both old favorites of mine. He loved the Black Stallion and surprised me with his understanding of the story. I substituted smaller words here and there, but for the most part, he listened to an entire novel with great attention - 2 chapters at a time before he began to thrash around the bed - and begged for more each night.
At bedtime tonight, Isaac summarized the story of the Black Stallion to his bear. We just finished the book this afternoon, but we'd read the early chapters several weeks ago. I was amazed how much he remembered and at the new words he used correctly, like island, harbor and spring (of water). He told about the storm when they were on the big ship and even the small detail of Alec trying to turn on the lights - "but there was no power because the lightning had pulled it out." He told how the ship sank and "all the people fell in the water," and Alec tied a rope around the Black (slightly off, but close enough!) and the Black pulled him to an island. On the island, he found some strawberries (again, close enough), and he ate them all. And there was a spring, where the water came kind of out of a drain (ha!). And Alec tried to catch a fish, and he missed the first one, but then he caught it. And he ate it, but he was still hungry. And then a boat came and Alec went on the boat.
Me: Did the Black go too?
Isaac: Yeah, the Black went too. They tied a belt around him and lifted him up...
Then that boat was going to Portugal...(Brazil, but same language, right?)
Alec's parents sent him some money so he could go home...
Alec lived in New York...
Alec wanted to do some races, and he told his Dada if he could do some races, and his Dada said yeah...train to Chicago...

I'm obviously not copying the entire summary because it was long, but I couldn't believe how much he'd absorbed. Isaac loves stories as much as anyone I've ever met. Maybe he'll be a writer...Certainly, he'll be a reader.

Isaac had a good long one-sided conversation with Bear that night. The next topic was earthquakes. Isaac was very interested in earthquakes and volcanoes in February, so we'd been talking about how they happen and finding YouTube clips to show him. Here are a few quotes from the next monologue.

Isaac to Bear: Now I'm going to tell you about earthquakes...
Earthquakes happen where there's a fault line. You have to stand under a strong desk or doorway. Everything starts shaking really hard like this...Everything falls down...
But we don't have big earthquakes here...And we don't have little earthquakes here...
Me: Where do the big ones happen?
Isaac: The big earthquakes happen in California. Little earthquakes happen in New Jersey.

Next topic: volcanoes ("The not extinct ones erupt...they're REA-wy dangerous.") and mud puddles with boiling water (I think this came from a Yellowstone conversation.)

Sometimes I have to do all the talking, but that night I just sat and listened for a half hour. And I could have listened much longer, but it was getting late.


Isaac loves to run out on the balcony in the morning, even if he is barefoot and it's covered in snow. Sometimes we let him. He'll know if he gets too cold. Jonah likes to go wherever Isaac goes. That's why it's easier just to keep the door shut.

FEB 3:
Jonah told Isaac sorry today, unprompted, after throwing things at him. Since then, he's been saying "Sah-ree" and rubbing his tummy whenever someone is crying or hurt, and often when he does something wrong. It's so cute, you can't stay mad at him even if he deserves it.

At naptime, Isaac: "Is there going to be a toy drive here?"
Me: "I don't know of one..."
Isaac: "I think I want...I think I want to make there be a toy drive here."
Me: "That's nice of you. Who do you want to give the toys to?"
Isaac: "Um...maybe I'm going to give them to Landon maybe." (HA! Landon is one of Isaac's best buddies, who like us has a perfectly adequate supply of toys.)

This afternoon, Jonah kept picking up Isaac's wallet and going through it. Isaac got upset, so we picked up all the bills, the receipt and one Thomas card off the floor and put them back in. Jonah was still holding one card, padding around the house and saying sweetly: "pay...pay..." while Isaac wailed. I tried not to laugh.

In the car coming home from music tonight, Isaac: "Probably they don't have toilet paper in Texas. They just use this thing that sprays water to get the poopoo off their bottoms..."

In Jonah's room at bedtime, Isaac: "I love Jonah so much."
And he's been saying "I love you" to Jonah when he hugs him night-night.

FEB 8: MY SWEET ISAAC

I aided in Isaac's class today, and there was a rude exchange between 2 other boys. J. told R. he didn't need him as a friend because he already had a good friend. R. immediately burst into tears. I was comforting R., and Isaac came over to ask why he was crying.
Me: "J. said something mean to him, so he's sad."
Isaac then gave his highest form of comfort: he leaned over and solemnly kissed R. on the cheek.
Oh, how do we tell him? I want him to keep that sweetness forever. But some of the 4-yr-old boys in his class think they're so cool and have surely watched more TV than he has - and have surely picked up on cultural nuances that Isaac is still blissfully unaware of...
Adam and I decided later we need to tell him that kisses are for family, but we can hug friends or pat them on the back. I never want him to stop giving those dear kisses of comfort to me.

Later: Isaac was mad because Jonah accidentally knocked over his lego tower. Isaac really wanted him to say sorry. I explained to Isaac that we could ask Jonah to say sorry, but he doesn't understand that he did anything wrong.
Me: "Do you want him to say sorry anyway?"
Isaac: "Yeah."
Jonah, calling sweetly from the top of the slide behind us: "Sah-reeee."
Isaac: "It's okay. I was just mad at you." He then climbed up the slide and gave Jonah a hug. "I'm not mad at you anymore."

Later that afternoon, Jonah was on the floor in front of the slide, playing with my wallet. He took all the cards out, and I was waiting for a chance to sneak the important ones into my pocket. I got back my credit cards, but he was still carrying around my license. Eventually, Jonah put that down too and was briefly distracted. Isaac quietly picked up my license and handed it to me without a word, before his brother could notice. I was amazed at his subtlety and understanding. Wasn't it just last week that he was the one pulling cards out of my wallet?

FEB 10: When I got Jonah from his nap, he'd been crying while I finished a layer on my painting. I picked him up, and he stopped crying and said "Sad!" Then he started sobbing and put his head on my shoulder. (Heartbreak for me, but wow - he can express his emotions at age 16 months!)

That afternoon, Isaac was crying upstairs. Jonah ran toward the stairs and said, "Isaac, Isaac." Then he said "Sad."

Now, in early April, anytime Jonah hears someone crying, even from a distance, he frowns and says "sad." I love that he connects the action to the emotion.

FEB 11: New words. Jonah asked for his slippers - he pointed to where we keep them and said "Bi-ber." When I put them on, he laughed and said "Tickle."

FEB 13: THE BEGINNING OF PRETEND
Jonah was pushing buttons on the microwave in the play kitchen, doing his usual, dear "bayp...bayp...bayp...REH-ree!" (beep, beep, beep, ready! if you didn't get that) But this time, he was putting "food" inside and pulling it out. The food was a wooden ladder from his fire truck. He was pretending to eat it with a great, gutteral huffing noise - "HHHruh!" Then he would offer me some and say "Mama HHHruh!" So we took turns for a while.

FEB 15:
Isaac is obsessed with safety - smoke detectors, burglar alarms, glassbreaks, and today, the fire exit map at the vet's office. We studied it together while we were waiting with a dog, a cat and Jonah (surprisingly peaceful in the little room), and I read to him that there were two ways to get out safely in case of a fire. I showed him the front exit, where we'd entered, but I didn't know where the back exit was.
When the vet tech returned, Isaac said loudly, "UM..."
She laughed and asked if he had something to say.
Isaac: "What's the other way to get out of here safely?"
As she obligingly tried to answer, Jonah held up a drool-covered hand, fresh out of his mouth, and said "HAY-uh!" And with brows furrowed in annoyance, he held up the (invisible, to me) hair that had been stuck on his tongue. He then continued to point out hairs from his tongue throughout our visit.
Isaac is obsessed with safety; Jonah is obsessed with hairs in his mouth. Apparently he gets a lot of them, and he gets a little mad over the tickle.

FEB 17:
At Lulu's gymnastics birthday party, Isaac wouldn't try anything. He just wanted to sit by me, leaving occasionally to run around, then come back. The instructors had the kids running to a vertical, thick soft pad and were helping them scale it and land on a soft mat on the other side. I kept asking Isaac if he wanted to try it, but he didn't want to. So Jonah tried to encourage him - he walked over to Isaac and leaned in his face and said "Try! Try!" He patted his big brother on the shoulder a few times, then gave up and came back to sit with me.


Above is the back of the minivan borrowed from the Toyota dealership while we had some recall work done. Adam let the boys explore the clean new car while I was at an appointment one day. Isaac fell in love with the spaciousness and the automatic features and is now telling us regularly that he wants a minivan. He even offered that we could get another baby so we would need one.

Below, the boys always have fun alone with Dada. This time, he took them to a hardware store and they came home with their own rake and shovel, looking a little dangerous in the backseat.

But very happy with their new tools.


It was late February when Jonah started yelling, with perfect annunciation, "high-way!" anytime we drove anywhere. Ironically, Isaac used to always ask, until very recently, if we were going on the highway. Isaac was hoping we'd say no because he doesn't like to go too fast. However, Jonah's "highway" sounds like an order. He demands a ride on the fast road.

Home life is sweet, but school has been harder. In February, we also began dealing with a bully in Isaac's preschool class. It's been an interesting year, with 10 boys and only two girls, and most of those boys already four since last fall. Several are 10 months older than Isaac, and there has been a lot of hitting all year. I'd thought Isaac just did his own thing and stayed out of the aggression, but it turns out that one boy has been hitting him repeatedly, to the point that Isaac one day told me: "Mama, I don't want to go to school because I'm afraid someone is going to hit me."

Isaac doesn't hit anyone at school. He is, as he says, nice to everyone. I tell him that is just the way to be, and we've been working on ways to stay nice but be strong too. He felt enormous relief just from telling me - it had obviously been bothering him deeply for a long time. We are still working on helping him have the confidence to stand up for himself, but things are certainly better now that he's not carrying this burden alone anymore.

I hate that he has to learn about cruelty already, at age 3. But I realize he has to face this sometime, and I'm just glad he can do it from the safety and support of all our love.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was a bit like Christmas this year, with the anticipation and then the daylong supply of sweets and surprises. Isaac was thrilled with the holiday, starting with the night before, as we kept him up past bedtime making valentines for his class.


Though we missed our sleeping Jonah, the three of us had a great time. Isaac was very particular about the valentines - each one got the same number of stickers, and he was naming which friend each one would go to, even though we weren't supposed to personalize them.

Adam came up with the design, I cut out all the hearts, and Isaac put them together. Pretty cute!


On Valentine's Day, Isaac's class hung their decorated, brown-bag mailboxes, and we helped the kids put one valentine in each bag. Then there was a party. Teacher Sarah handed out their bags at the end of class, and Isaac sat on the daybed at home and lovingly pulled out each card. I told him who each was from and let him eat one more piece of candy from among the treats some kids had given. Most of the cards were homemade, like ours.

All day, and for weeks, Isaac carried that bag around the house, pulling out all his valentines, then carefully putting them back. If Jonah tried to pull out the valentines, he had a fit because those are "special."
The treats were gone quickly, except for a pack of Chips Ahoy cookies that were probably pulverized by the time anyone opened them. I'm not actually sure what happened to them.

That night before bed, we let the boys open their cards that had come in the mail, and I gave them each a little gift from us. Celebrating this holiday is fun!

Jane and Greg had sent cards with sheets of fun stickers, which Isaac especially loved. My parents had sent them each a card with dollars. Jonah was delighted to have dollars of his very own to hold, as he badly wants a wallet with dollars like Isaac has, and Isaac doesn't like to let Jonah play with his (it's "special" - and well, Jonah can tear up a dollar pretty fast when he gets annoyed).


I'd picked out a Russell Stover heart box of chocolates for Isaac - the kind my parents always gave us, which I loved and still love. I didn't want to get candy for Jonah, but I found this crazy lightstick (with red hearts along the side) instead.

Feb 5 & 6: Sledding!

Sometimes I forget how fun winter can be.

I gave Adam a sled for Christmas 2009 because he'd always loved sledding as a kid, but also as a way for us to get outside in the cold and have fun and exercise together as a family. So on a February Saturday, with a few inches of snow on the ground, we took the sled to a nearby park. It takes so long to get coats, hats, mittens, boots and snow pants on two kids, but it's always worth it once we get out there.

Isaac and Adam took the first run down the park's bigger hill. Isaac seemed a little afraid but he liked it.

Jonah had never been sledding before. After Adam took him down, our constantly-moving toddler sat perfectly still, not making a sound. I bent down to look at him, and his eyes were glazed over. Was he okay? Maybe he was too young for this, at 16 months...



We moved to the little hill, where Isaac was more comfortable. Jonah recovered after a while, and he walked around and looked at the snow while Adam took Isaac up and down on the sled. Our little guy insisted that he didn't want to try again ("Do you want to go sledding again?" "No!"), but I was sure he'd like the little hill. So finally, I put him on the sled in front of me without asking, and we zoomed down together. It was fast but short. At the bottom, he was totally still again.

I asked, "Did you have fun? Do you want to do it again?"




Suddenly, Jonah started clapping his hands together (want sign) and saying "More! More!"

We did it again and again, taking turns with Isaac. Each time, Jonah clapped his hands and yelled for more, and Isaac said "Do it aGAIN!"





Eventually, Jonah got mad when it was Isaac's turn. He started yelling "No no no!" and then, as Isaac hopped on the sled with Adam, "Turn, turn!"



The next day was Sunday, and we woke up to several inches of fresh snow on the ground. While the snow had been patchy in spots the day before, we knew it would be perfect that morning. It was gorgeous outside - the snow was wet and sticky, and it had turned all the trees to glittering white. So we went back to the park for more sledding.





We had turned Jonah's carseat around the night before, realizing that his legs were just getting too cramped. Look how far his feet hang over the edge - he must have been getting pretty uncomfortable!


Adam and Isaac took a run on the big hill, and then we switched to the toddler hill.


Poor Jonah could hardly move in all his winter clothes - but he was warm.










Isaac was ready to go!


And Jonah needed a minute, but he rediscovered the fun of snow when Adam started swinging him.


And he loved sledding just as much as the day before.






As did Isaac.








The park turned into a Sunday morning party, as more and more families showed up.


There was laughter and squealing and shouts of encouragement, and we even saw two families from our playgroup and traded sleds for a few runs. Isaac even went down alone a few times in Mylan's bucket sled.








I was struck by how comfortable we all seemed, out playing in the snow. It was a scene from someone else's childhood, certainly not mine - but I guess winter will be much more normal for my boys than it was for me. We had fun in the snow in Charlotte, but it didn't come very often, and the cold didn't last too long - mostly, you just stay inside more until it warms up. It was fun, watching all these families out together, to discover that snow makes the whole world a playground. And if you're dressed for it, it's not that cold!

Life With Two Sweet Boys

Jan. 13, Jonah at Music Class * Thanks to Brian Campbell for this awesome photo!

I try to keep a list of some of the funny things the boys say and do, intending to record them on the blog. And I don't mean to sound like I'm bragging, since the blog is a public forum, but it's also a good place to take note of their accomplishments.

Both boys are growing and developing so fast, and they each amaze us every day. But lately, we've been especially impressed with Jonah's developing verbal abilities.

At 15 months, he could speak more than 100 words.

I started keeping a list for fun, and after 100 I lost count. But for most of February, I seemed to be hearing about 2 new words each day from him. He is definitely very verbal, and by now, he can communicate almost anything he needs and is even developing some small talk skills!

(Example - My dad said: "It's a nice day." Jonah, looking at the trees moving - "Win-wy." (windy))

Below is a list, for those of you far away and missing these guys, of funny things I wrote down in the first part of the year.

JAN 6: I was looking at pictures of Isaac and GG reading in Damascus. Jonah saw and heard me say GG. He stopped what he was doing, leaned forward and smiled a wonderful happy smile and said "GG...GG...GG." He stared at each picture, and when we'd seen all three, he gave me the more sign.
Jonah hadn't seen GG in about 6 weeks, and he was only 15 months old by now, but he remembered.
GG, we all wish we could see you more.

Early JAN: Jonah loves pushing the buttons on the microwave in Isaac's new play kitchen. He says "BEEP BEEP BEEP!" in a very deep voice, then a melodic high-pitched "Rea-ry!" (ready) as he opens the door. Cutest thing ever.

JAN 12: Last week the toilet in our bathroom clogged. Adam cleaned it out with a snake tool THREE TIMES before he finally removed the whole toilet to take a look. Stuck in the toilet pipe, he found a little train car with the paint worn off (friction)...Thanks Jonah!
I had no idea Jonah was putting things in the toilet...but a day or so later, Adam caught him lifting up the lid while holding another train.

JAN 14 - An afternoon walk on a mild winter day:




JAN 20: 2nd time this has happened. Tonight while nursing, Jonah stopped and looked at me and said so clearly: "Ow." I asked what hurt, and he put his finger in his mouth and pointed to a molar.
Me: "Oh, your teeth hurt?"
Jonah: "Teeth."

Apparently Jonah signed me up for a new cell phone service for $9.99/month. It's called Babes Unlimited! The description says something about unlimited downloads of photos of hot girls. He is a mess. And I don't know how to cancel it.

Yesterday, Jonah had a poopy diaper, and I was being lazy. So he got the changing pad out of the basket, spread it on the floor, pulled the diapers out from under the sofa, handed me one, and did his "want" sign - clap clap. Wow...

Also yesterday, Jonah pointed to Todd's roof next door as we passed the window on the stairs.
Jonah: "Am-mal! Am-mal!"
I looked for animals, and he was right - 2 pigeons.
Then we passed the Chinese painting, and he pointed and said "Hor! Hor!" While this version of horse could be taken the wrong way...he was exactly right - 2 horses, and we'd never shown them to him before.

JAN 22: Yesterday I started reading a book with Isaac. We'd just pulled it out of a newly-arrived box and hadn't seen it since Charlotte. The duck was looking for her brother.
From the first page, Jonah started leaning over and yelling "Wa-wa! Wa-wa!" (water)
He'd just had a drink of water and knew where his water bottle was. He continued to yell water throughout the book (not exactly relaxing reading), as the duck searched everywhere for her brother.
Finally, on the last page, she found him - in the water. I showed Jonah, and he looked satisfied and stopped yelling water.
How did he know??

We all love the enormous sheep from Jane and Greg, Jonah's baby present.




JAN 23: Images from today - the boys lying on the sheep together, both quietly reading books...and the boys rolling around on the sheep together, squealing and giggling like best buddies.

-------------
Today Jonah pointed at Todd's house through the window and said "Am-mal." So we looked for animals (birds) on the roof. There was just one up there, so I said: "There's one bird. Just one."
Jonah said: "Two."
Wow, pretty good, I thought. Intentional though?
Then he said: "Three." WOW.

Later I was holding Jonah and telling my mom on the phone about what he'd said. Jonah heard and said "ONE!"
Then he said: "Two...three...four...FIVE!" I couldn't believe it. Not quite 16 months. Obviously he's not counting, but what a great memory.

JAN 25: I was sick in bed all day. The boys had picked up some personal items at Safeway for my supply, and Isaac was on the bed with me, explaining why they'd bought them for me.
Isaac: "These are things that help you when you're sick. They have things in them that fight off bacteria...These are organic...And if you run out of these [holds up the box of pads], you can use those [box of Tampons]. These are organic. They have some that are organic, and some that are not organic."
Isaac described a few other things and then came back to his original subject. He told me the three different uses for the tampon box:
1- You get it wet, put poison water in, and put it in your mouth.
2- There's a light inside, and you turn it on if you can't see.
3- This has soft paper in it. Soft paper grows in bac-TER-ia.

JAN 30
Adam to Isaac: "Your little brother loves you so much."
Isaac: "I love him so much too."

JAN 31
Isaac to Blanket Dog: "It's just a stink [extinct] volcano. That means it's not going to do it anymore."

After dinner, Isaac was having a long crying fit because I wouldn't let him carry around the snowflake ornament we got in NM. Jonah was walking through the house carrying a broomstick that was twice as tall as he was. I was cooking the rest of the pumpkin pancakes when I heard Jonah in the dining room with Isaac, saying "Sah-ry. Sah-ry. Sah-ry."
I looked in, and Jonah was standing next to him, vigorously doing his sorry sign (rubbing his tummy) and saying the word over and over.
Then he squatted next to Isaac, put his arms around him and laid his head on his back for a big hug. He just sat there and held Isaac while he cried. He got up after a bit, but every now and then afterward, he'd stop his playing to give Isaac another big hug.
I think Isaac really appreciated it too. Once he was happy again, he wrapped his arms around his brother and gave him a big hug and then a kiss on the head.