one-way ticket to Big-Kid Land

That would be Mary. She is so grown-up these days. It is….astounding. Wonderful. Sad. Funny.

She’s started calling me Mom (as opposed to Mommy). “Thanks, Mom!” “No, I got it, Mom!” “Hey, Mom? Can you come get me a paper towel?” (not a good sign, that last one). No one told her to do this; it’s like she learned it at secret underground Big Kid School.

Anyway, she is very grown-up. Wesley, as well, is heading for adulthood at breakneck speed, which is dismaying and adorable at once. This morning, Wesley figured out what pretending is. That’s right–he figured it out! Mary was crawling around and barking. I said, “Are you a doggie?” He looked at Mary, then looked at me, then shouted, “Is a doggie!” and began petting Mary’s hair. He laughed hysterically every time he petted her and she barked. So. Cute. Seriously, so cute.

Anyway. The actual purpose of this post is PICTURES!

Check it out: they actually sat together, without pushing, crying, pinching, stealing toys, or otherwise creating mayhem!

Granted, they were watching “The Muppet Show,” but still.

 

Last weekend, we went on a family outing. Linny’s Deli, the park behind our old apartment, Daedalus Books, sushi. What more could we ask for?

Mary, eating potato chips–she was delighted:

Wesley, eating potato chips–he was mistrustful, but he got over it.

Because, you know, he loves food. All kinds of food.

Mary had her first grilled cheese ever. Wesley got a quarter:

By the way, Mom–I told Mary you like to make grilled cheese sandwiches. She expects one when we visit you.

Then we went to the park. Mary hit the ground running.

Gah! Like I said. She’s a big kid.

Nothing scares her now–look at the size of this thing.

Then there’s Wesley: he likes to stay close to the ground. (Actually, that’s not really fair. He is a tentative kid but somehow climbing is usually exempt from his normal Principle of Being Hesitant.)

Since Mary is such a big kid, they can swing together on a swingset with one baby swing and one regular swing!

Or, Conor can swing with Wesley.

Mary pops out of a hole, looking very self-satisfied:

Just to prove I was there, here I am with Wesley. He is snuggling me in this picture and saying, “Oooo hoo hoo,” which is his noise he makes when he cuddles someone or something. It is ridiculously cute.

Conor tried to take a family photo. (Note that we are all sort of in it, if you count his shadow.)

conversation report

Scene: Conor is leaning against the counter in the kitchen, surreptitiously eating the last piece of some substandard toffee. Mary comes in.

Mary: Daddy, what’s that?

Conor (stalling): It’s….

Mary: Is it a granola bar?

Conor: No, it’s not a granola bar. Actually, granola bars are kinda better than this.

Mary: What is?

Conor: You know what it is? It’s a disappointment.

Mary: Daddy, can I have some disappointment?

Conor: Probably. All too soon and too often.

new recipe

Mary is “cooking.” Her recipe?

“We get some sugar. We get some butter. We get some milk. We get some bones. Welcome to the Muppet Show!”

Toddlers are weird.

Is it bedtime yet?

So, last night, Wesley woke up around 1 a.m. and didn’t go back to sleep until 6:15. That’s right, 6:15. I do not know why. I do not know if he’s going to do the same thing tonight. I do not know anything. Partly because my brain is fried from getting 1.5 hours of sleep.

I have to grade 23 papers tonight, minimum. Of course, this means that the kids’ Neediness Index is at an all-time high. In the past hour, the following things have happened:

* they have eaten four bananas between them and have fought over every one [although I keep pointing out there are plenty to go around];

* Mary has dumped a potty-full of urine on the floor [on purpose];

* I put Mary in time-out for this and she promptly announced, while I was cleaning up the pee, that she had pooped on the stairs;

* Wesley has pulled a book down on his own head, cried, and then tried to tear the pages out;

* Mary has insisted, weeping copiously until I complied, that I get a bowl for her to put blocks into, so that she can feed the blocks to her new imaginary dog, Ralph, who lives in the bathroom.

AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH. That’s all I have to say about today.

Halloween!

Since photos are obligatory…

Wesley the tiger immediately [and permanently] shed his sweater, making him….a kid with a tail.

Mary the fairy eating candy:

After trick-or-treating, we went over to Grandma’s. Mary and Wesley helped her hand out candy.

Mary says, “Would you like some tea?”

“It’s delicious. Have some.”

Mary contemplating the vending machines at Jiffy Subs:

Wesley was intrigued by the video games.

Mary also wanted in on the video games.

Never mind candy. She wants french fries.

So does Wesley.

covered in chocolate and ketchup–sign of a good day.

last but not least–our pumpkins. Mary’s is the less representational one.

so November is National Novel Writing Month…

…and in honor of that I declare my participation in a lesser festival, International Dissertation Writing Month!

Basically, this means nothing–as every month is Dissertation Writing Month–except that I’m going to keep a word count for November. This may be a crazy idea because I may not actually want to know.

Mary and her dolly

Cute, eh?

why I haven’t blogged in a week

Almost a week, anyway–I am busy. Want to know why? Here’s what we’re doing:

* Conor just finished indexing a book…at, like, 8:00 this morning. So all weekend I have been wrangling kids and keeping the house running while he worked on that.

* Grading papers. I always forget how long it takes. I used to be able to just put myself in grading jail until they were done; however, grading jail is a lot less effective when you’re jailed with two toddlers.

* Working on my dissertation–which is going well. I’m cruising along. Me and Graham, we’re buddies.

* Canning applesauce. This was yesterday’s project. I put in three big bags of apples, got three jars of sauce. But it is totally delicious. They are, at least, quart jars. This whole canning thing, which I’ve never done before this summer, really reduces your “huge pot of whatever” to a “sort of emptyish huge pot of whatever.” Plus the kids ate it.

* Feeding Wesley [and Mary]. Wesley’s in a growth spurt and he is…well, he’s back to the phase that Conor called the “very hungry Wesleypillar.” And he is still hungry. [Still waiting on the two weeks in the cocoon part.]

* Helping get Grandma set up with a new computer [she's finally going Mac! yay!] and high-speed internet. Conor’s uncle is fielding the high-speed changeover, but Conor spearheaded the change to Mac [and the new computer in general]. This is totally necessary, because Grandma’s old computer was…well…I’m not sure what it was doing. It was clearly about to die spectacularly. So, she’s up and running and will be getting her cable internet tomorrow.

So, no real blogging going on! But I’ll do better soon, I promise; I plan to take some pictures. That’s always good for a post or two.

this is just to say

I have eaten
the brownies
that were in
the freezer

and which
you were probably
saving
for dessert.

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.

[sorry, WCW.]

the sun came back

…so we went to the park.

Mary is so big.

Wesley says, “What? It is SO for going up.”

Mary watched some bigger kids.

And she ran around.

Wesley snuggled the dinosaur. [It is not, in case you're wondering, the least bit soft or snuggly.]

Kids!

Wesley made a friend.

Wesley also explored the world wearing his first big-kid shoes.

We ended our trip with a swing session: