milestone

Claire turns 5!

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A very proud Claire turned five today. She is excited to be one year older all of the sudden. Leading up to her birthday, she had asked me if she would get taller when she turned five, since her five year old friends tend to be taller. She was sort of interested when I told her she gets a little tiny bit taller every day.

Her birthday fell on a boring old Monday this year. She had actually spent the previous four days at home for Thanksgiving, patiently awaiting her birthday. I had been tempted to let her open one of her presents early over the long weekend, but I held off, assuming that would set a dangerous precedent. I can just hear, “Please Daddy! It’s almost my birthday” next year.

We decided to push her big birthday party to following weekend, and for tonight let Claire pick where to eat for dinner after we picked up her and Molly from school. She was initially overwhelmed by the decision. She thought briefly about going to Jason’s Deli because they have hot dogs and free ice cream. But she decided against it because the ice cream would spoil appetite for birthday cake after dinner. She settled on McDonald’s, mostly because of the playground.

We ordered hamburgers and went out to the playground seating. So we sat out there on the dark playground alone as a family at 6 pm on Monday night. It was a little odd, but Claire was happy, and Molly was really excited about the whole thing. Pretty soon, a girl Claire’s age and her little brother showed up, along with their mom and dad. Claire went to the girl and said her usual, “Do you want to play with me?” And of course within a minute there was a lot of running and screaming and laughing. Claire got excited enough to climb all the way up the tall, dark, plastic tower and slide down the pitch black covered slide several times. This was unusually brave for Claire, who would normally be hesitant to climb the tower even when well lit.

We eventually turned loose a very interested Molly, who immediately crawled over to the bottom of the slide and tried to crawl up it, never mind incoming kids twice her size. Molly was overjoyed to get a shot at the slide, and she kept frantically trying to climb up the slippery slope and let herself slide down. With our help, she got to slide down a few feet at a time. She was overjoyed, and was having a great time celebrating with Claire.

Once we got home, we put an exhausted Molly right to sleep and did presents and cake with Claire. We gave Claire a little purple stuffed kitty with an unusually long furry tail, and an Annie costume. She had been going through an Annie obsession lately, and had been asking to be an “Annie actor” a lot, specifically asking for an Annie dress, an Annie locket, and tap dance shoes (by which I think she meant black dressy shoes). We thought this would be the perfect gift, and she was anxious to try it on. Once she got it on, though, for whatever reason, she froze up and started to look very awkward and uncomfortable. We really felt bad for her. I don’t think I have ever seen her look that uncomfortable in all her life, and why will always remain a mystery. The wig was really bad and didn’t really look like Annie; maybe that had something to do with it. Anyways, it was not a loss in the end. She would go on to wear that outfit many times over the next few weeks, but she would never perform any Annie songs or dances in it. She just liked to put in on after school and curl up on the couch and watch TV in it. Whatever makes our five-year-old Claire happy!

Pushing the limits

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Molly is one “step” closer to walking, thanks to the help of a small wooden stool that her Grandaddy made for her sister a while back…

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Readin’ and Talkin’

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The kid and the baby, aka Claire and Molly, each demonstrated some significant progress today in their respective fields of reading and talking.

This morning, Claire had written out the random letters O-L-A-J-A on a piece of paper and decided to try to sound out the word. She had been learning letter sounds at school for the past several months and was feeling pretty comfortable with the letters now. She slowly and deliberately read it out: “Oooh la jah.” It was amazing to see her really read something. And this was definitely not a case where she just recognized a word from memory, like her own name. (Granted, she might have been referring to the small Spanish village of Santa Olaja de la Accion, but I am going to stick with the random letters theory.) I decided to go with the momentum and write out my name: P-A-T. She slowly read it out: “Paaat. That’s your name!” Definitely not a fluke.

Molly was impressed with Claire’s reading but did not want to be overshadowed, so she showed off a bit of her own hard earned new skill while getting ready for bed that night. Kit and I were chatting while putting Molly into her pajamas when Kit used the phrase “thank you” in the middle of a sentence. A few seconds later, Molly clearly said, or tried to say, “thank you” three times in a row. It sounded kind of like “tank wa, tank wa, tank wa”. We cheered and gave her a big hug. Molly beamed, and then started saying “Daddy” over and over. That is a pretty easy go-to word for her, along with her favorite “uh oh”. Molly tried to say “Mommy” but is still having trouble with that darn “mmm” sound, but she definitely tried. Molly also has trouble with the “nnn” sound as well and has not yet learned to say “no”, but I am sure that will be a future favorite.


Solid Showing

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Today, we gave Molly her first crack at “solid” food. By solid, I mean a mushy mass of rice cereal and formula that would make oatmeal look like a cake. Still, it was a big step. Molly had recently taken special interest in the stuff we are always putting into our mouths and not taking back out, aka food. It must almost seem like a magic trick to her.

This was a whole-family event. Claire was super excited about Molly trying solids. She understandably thought that rice cereal was some sort of breakfast cereal and suggested that she and Molly have it in the morning. At her request, we did make some rice cereal for Claire to try it out and help encourage Molly. Claire was not impressed but did eat some just out of pure enthusiasm. She made a point of showing Molly how to do it, eating it with big sweeping motions. Kit then gave Molly a spoonful of the mush, and Molly took a bite. She seemed surprised but excited by it. Of course, she ended up pushing most of the mush out with her tongue, but it was a good start. We kept this up for another few minutes, and Molly ended up doing a little better keeping the food down. She really had fun with it and seemed to think the whole thing was sort of a game. Also, she seemed to feel important and grown-up sitting up in the new Bumbo seat that Kit had picked up just that day just for this occasion.

For the record, while Molly enjoyed her rice cereal, the rest of the family dined on
enchilada casserole, thanks to the Soup Peddler. Claire was not excited about the food and tried to help out by putting it back in the kitchen before even taking a solitary bite. We convinced her to try three bites, and which point she realized it was pretty good and went ahead and ate the whole thing.

Mad Rolling!

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Between stomach problems and various illnesses for the past few weeks, Molly has not been making great strides physically. She is still a very small baby and mostly lays around on her back. But for the first time since early-to-mid January, Molly has had a solid stretch of full health and good eating.

Last weekend, Kit and I both agreed it was time to get Molly exercising again to work up her strength and endurance. Namely, this means tummy time, or laying flat on her belly. This does not sound too tough, but it is a workout for Molly. She strains and cries as she arches her back and lifts her head to look around. After only a few minutes, she is crying and exhausted, and we have to pick her up to let her catch her breath. Last weekend, Kit started Molly on a really tummy time regimen of three times a day.

Well, Molly’s good health and this focus on tummy time seem to be paying off. Molly hit a major milestone at school today. During tummy time, she rolled from her front to her back, and then again from her back to her front. She even repeated this a few times! She also started to relax during the tummy phase, and looked around and giggled instead of straining and crying. Way to go, Molly! we are glad to see you “back” on track!
todo: picture


Carseat Milestone

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Molly reached a rare size milestone today. When we strap her into her car seat, her shoulders were starting to seem kind of cramped. The straps had to go pretty far out of their way to reach up over her shoulders. She had outgrown her newborn car seat settings! We upgraded her car seat straps from the very smallest to the next one up. It is nice to see some real evidence of growth.

Baby Fingers

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When Molly is trying to get to sleep (or perhaps trying to not get to sleep) she has started playing with her hands a lot. She’ll hold up her arm and turn them back and forth, up and down for minutes on end, just watching them. I guess she is learning that these crazy sticks are actually attached to her body, and she can move them around by herself. That would be fascinating.
She also likes to manipulate individual fingers. She often holds up two fingers in sort of a V sign. At school, the teachers said Molly does this a lot. In fact, one time the only way they knew Molly had woken up from a long nap was the tell-tale two fingers rising up from her bed, where her body is otherwise out of site. I joked that this was like something from a horror movie, and they said, “Yeah, beware the two fingers!” I realized later that the video game Left 4 Dead 2 is what I was thinking of. Creepy!


Panda on the Loose

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The new school year started today for Claire. She has graduated to the next class, and is now officially a Panda. This is good since Claire is now with her own age group. She had spent the first few weeks in the Colts classroom with slightly older kids since they had a random spot open just to get her through the summer.

Claire may benefit from having more girls in her new classroom as compared to the Colts, where there were only three girls to about a dozen boys. However, she will leave behind some friends, including her very favorite twins, Alex and Leo, who she seems to follow around and literally pull their arms towards her to make them play with her.

Claire’s new teacher writes a little summary of all the kids’ days, which is helpful. Apparently today Claire ate “some” of her lunch (just the muffin and bluberries), but she was too busy talking to do much eating. (One of her Colts teachers had also remarked that she “treats lunch time as sort of a social hour.”) Claire’s new teacher circled “cheerful”, “silly”, and “talkative” to describe Claire’s mood today. I am glad Claire had a good day, especially since she is a little sick. If I were to fill out the same form for tonight, I would have circled “cuddly” and “frustrated”.