Say what?

We were driving along in the car, listening to the radio. "Soul Man" was on, and Logan was enjoying it, bobbing his head to the beat. Pretty soon, he asked a question: "Hey, Mom. Why is that guy soooo mad?" I nearly died laughing--"No, Logan, he's saying 'soul man.'" I don't think I'll ever have the same perception of that song again.

In other news, Eric is on spring break this week, and in two day's time, he has constructed a clubhouse for the boys, though Auden just mainly looks at it or sits on the floor of it if you plop him down. I'll admit, I had my reservations about Eric's building a clubhouse for our three year old, especially one that is off the ground (the clubhouse, not our three year old...well, not usually...), but Eric did a pretty good job. And Logan is super excited about it. When he wasn't outside playing in the backyard while Eric was working on the clubhouse, Logan was rapping on the windows facing the backyard, yelling, "Hey, Daddy! Is it done yet?!" He had his friends over today to check it out. They went tearing up the ladder, down the slide, then around the structure itself, then up the ladder again. And now we're wondering A) why the clubhouse had to be built so close to the garden and B) what we'll plant there that could withstand a constant battering of boys' feet... or if we'll even bother planting anything there at all.

Brudders

HappyBabyToothUp

Now, I'm not one to plug products as a general rule, but every once in awhile, you run across a gadget that makes your life so much easier. You marvel at its functionality and its simple design. Well, I've found one of those products--HappyBaby Foods. My mom bought a couple pouches for Auden for Valentine's Day (because what does one get an infant for V-Day?) and I made a trip to Target soon after to buy up some more of them. The packaging is the thing that totally got me hooked--they use these Capri Sun-type packages that have a spout at the top, which you can cap again if you don't use the whole serving at one time. And, more importantly, they have good food combinations that Auden really seems to like. Yes, they're a teeny bit more expensive than the jar organic brands, but they are so worth it in my book. Why? They warm up more quickly than jar food--just put the pouch in warm water and it's ready in only a couple of minutes. It's easy to get all of the food out of the package--no more scraping the bottom of the jar. And it's great to throw in the diaper bag. You don't even need a spoon--you can just squirt some of the stuff in your little tike's mouth, which is what I was doing today when we went out for lunch at Chipotle. Auden was relaxing in his car seat, and I fed him while eating my burrito--no mess to clean up afterwards. Such a simple idea, and it works so wonderfully. Dang! Why didn't I think of it first!?

I guess I don't have very much longer to worry about taking baby food with me, though. Auden is really itching to have more table food. Those cereal puffs he just learned how to put in his mouth? Yeah, when he doesn't have any on his table in front of him, he's rocking against that table on his high chair so hard, it sounds like he's going to break the thing. Why the crazy lunging forward? He's trying to get at the container of cereal puffs. He's still really terrible at feeding himself. As soon as you put five little puffs on his table, he sweeps all but one onto the floor, but my, is he proud of himself when that one bite finally makes it to the intended target.

He has also cut another tooth today--his top right incisor just broke through this afternoon. I noticed some white beneath the surface this morning, which accounted for his moodiness, poor sleeping, and drooly, snotty face, and then after his nap, that tooth had broken through. This kid has rapid-fire teeth--they're coming in one right after the other.

And, now that I think of it, Auden is really full of things that follow in rapid-fire succession. He started crawling a couple of weeks ago and has finally gotten pretty good at it. Yesterday what does he do? He starts pulling up on the furniture. Wonder when he'll be walking...Big changes for our little guy, and quickly, too.

Share with your brother!

Yes, it's happening more frequently now. Auden is crawling well and, of course, he's attracted to whatever his big brother is playing with, and, of course, Logan rails against his little brother touching anything that is his toy. Despite the fact that Logan has about 300 Hot Wheels cars, Auden cannot have one because he will drool on it. I feel like I'm reffing more than parenting. "Share with your brother! Give him a turn!" I thought maybe I could entice him to be nicer to his little bro by warning him: "Logan, you're teaching your little brother how to behave. If you play nice with him now, he'll play nice with you when he's bigger and share his toys" (even though this is completely untrue). No dice. Logan wants all the toys, even if they're designed for wee tikes. Interestingly enough, when Auden goes to play with something now, suddenly Logan thinks that toy is the most amazing object he's ever seen and must have it for himself. (The photo serves as proof.) Take today, for instance: Logan was playing with his tool bench, so I dragged out one for Auden. It's maybe a foot tall, has little pegs on the table-top that light up and sing when you smack them. Cute toy, but totally baby-ish. Logan never gave it the time of day before Auden came around. But today Auden plays with it, and Logan muscles him out of the way. "We can share it, Mom!" He said when I intervened. Then before I knew it, Logan strong-armed Auden again, knocking Auden's arms out from under him, which caused him to smack his mouth on the table part of the toy. At least Logan showed some remorse. He apologized, and after Auden had calmed down, he asked, "Is Auden alright?" I don't know if it's tougher being a younger or an older sibling, but I have a new appreciation for how tough it is being a mom of two siblings.

I myself am an older sibling, and I was pretty jealous of my little brother most of my childhood. I even tried to off him by throwing him a Tinkerbell tea party. I poured some of my Tinkerbell perfume into my tea cup and coaxed my brother to drink it. I swear, I didn't realize the seriousness of my actions until my mom figured out what had happened and called Poison Control, whose number was affixed to our home phone with a sticker--the white skull and crossbones peered down at me spookily from its black background. Then I was worried. Fortunately, Tinkerbell perfume isn't that toxic after all and Greg turned out OK. I thought I was pretty much the worst older sibling out there until I heard what my friend did to his younger sister. The movie ET was out that year, and he thought it would be a good idea to leave a trail of Reese's Pieces candies for his sister, who was a toddler at the time. The candy trail led out the front door of his house...into the street. When I heard that story, I laughed until I was in tears...and then I felt better about myself.

So I think we older siblings all have a real mean streak when the little ones come barging in and disrupt the motions of our parents' orbital patterns--because until he came along, the world totally revolved around me. I wonder what cruel things Logan will try on Auden...But seeing as how Auden is quite a bit larger than Logan was at this age, I'm thinking this little guy will give as good as he gets. Just to be on the safe side though, I can tell you that Logan won't be getting any Handy Manny aftershave for his birthday this year--if they even make that stuff.

Another Milestone

Auden hit another milestone tonight at dinner. After he ate his baby mushy meal, I gave him some of those little cereal rice puffs to keep him occupied while I tried to feed myself for a while. He's been swiping at the cereal bits but hasn't quite mastered the pincer grip yet. Well, tonight, he did it. It took him forever to actually get the thing in his mouth because it had stuck to some slobber on his hand, but he officially fed himself. It was too funny--Eric, Logan, and I were all watching him struggle with it, and we all cheered for him when he finally got the little puff into his mouth. Yay, Auden!

Pea shooter

Today at lunch, Logan learned the joys of catapulting his peas off his plate onto the floor and table. He accidentally hit his cup on to the end of his spoon, and--whamo--he became a pea shooter...then, later a pea-picker-upper.

Auden, Meanwhile, is cruising around with the greatest of ease. His new favorite thing is to crawl through a fabric tunnel we purchased long ago at Ikea. Logan and Auden were chasing each other through the tunnel for most of the morning today. It's pretty adorable to see them genuinely playing together at last.

Reality Check

So I put Logan's superhero cape on him last night. He acquired this fantastical piece of felt at a friend's superhero party--what a clever idea for a party favor. Anyway, I had put it away because I firmly believe in toy hiatuses--the longer a toddler is separated from his toy, the more he loves it when it returns. Case in point with the cape. He squealed, "My cape! My cape!" like a little girl, and said, "I'm Super Logan!" and started to do these little hops and arm flaps. Before I could figure out what he was trying to do, he said whiningly, "Oooh, but I can't fly." I had to explain that superheroes were just make-believe, but then I decided that the explanation was really no fun, so I ended it by holding him in a Superman flight pose and whooshing him around the basement. "I'm flying! I'm flying!" he screamed and giggled. Who needs a reality check after all?

He's crawling, folks!

Well, it's almost time to break out the baby gates and double-check we have collected all the toys with small parts for the time being. Auden started crawling this week. He's clumsy and really slow at it, but he's got it down, and once he has a toy or other object he wants to get at, he makes his way to it successfully. It's funny--Logan started crawling around the same time, but his first crawl was doing "the worm," that old dance from the '60s, and he got where he wanted lightning fast that way. Auden is much more deliberate with his actions. He jerks his hand way up in the air, then gingerly places it before him, and the caboose shortly follows. He doesn't seems to mind if he crawls at a snail's pace just yet, nor do I, to be honest. I have a feeling I'll need all the help I can get keeping up with two boys on the go!

Sorry for the rant...

There are days when I wonder if bringing children into the world was the smartest idea on my part. I love my kids more than anything in this world, but what kind of world do they have before them? Earthquake in Christchurch, which really jarred us, since Eric and I lived there for only a very short time, but absolutely fell in love with the place and people. Earthquake in Japan and a possible nuclear meltdown. Massive protests throughout the Middle East, which are as exciting as they are unnerving--will the people attain the freedom they're hoping for, or will they fall into the hands of another dictatorial regime? As if there weren't enough unsettling news on the tv, I watched Inside Job last night. Should I just use cash for everything and stuff all of my money under my mattress in protest against the government officials who are refusing to do anything to prevent another financial catastrophe? And how about our schools? Will my kids be able to thrive there, and will they be instilled with a genuine passion for learning, or will they just be bored? I want the world to be such a better place for my boys, but are the actions I take really making an impact at all? Heck, do they even offset the damage I do to the environment as a typical American?

Fear manifests itself so differently for children. Logan has been asking for us to leave his closet light on at night to keep the monsters out. He didn't think my defense strategies of talking back to the monsters or spraying monster repellent around his room were good enough. What are monsters except those nameless, shapeless fears that one day become more real than our childish minds could imagine? And as I think about how much I trivialize Logan's fear of monsters, how much I wish he would stop wasting his time worrying that some imagined beast is going to chew on his hand (that's what he's worried about, folks), I realize that the worrying I'm doing is pretty wasteful, too. Maybe my actions won't do much to offset the crap that happens everywhere else, but I leave the closet light on anyway--it's a simple and ridiculous act, but it keeps the monsters away, and that's really all that matters in the end.

I want my Beedon back!!!

This past Thursday, Eric left for Vegas to run his marathon and the boys and I traveled down to my parents' house so that we could have some fun and I could have some back-up from the fam. (I seriously don't know how single moms do it.) Eric's race went well--he ran the marathon in the Red Rock Canyon and finished just under 4.5 hours--great job, daddy-o! But I think he's revised his vision of what a good idea it was to piggy back a Vegas trip onto a marathon. Staying up late, eating tons of food at the buffets, waking up insanely early to catch the shuttles to the race and airports really did a number on him, but he's walking a little less like he just got off of a long horseback ride today, so that's an improvement.
The boys and I went to the children's museum while visiting the folks, which was fun, and we relished the warmth on Friday--it was in the low 60s--heavenly compared to what we've been experiencing around here. The weekend was wonderful, but I made one giant mistake as we were packing up and taking off on Sunday...I forgot Logan's beedon. I got home around 8:00 Sunday evening and I unpacked all of our things when I realized the beedon was gone. You all know what that is--the "most special blanket I've ever seen, that is so chewy!" Well, it was a pretty horrendous episode. Logan was on melt-down mode because he was so sleep deprived from the weekend. We put him in bed, and he asked, "Where's my beedon!?" I had to break it to him that it was at Grammy Renee's. Tears and screaming ensued. A shrill "I want my beedon back!" was all I heard as I was trying to get Auden to sleep. Finally, I laid Auden down for the night and had to cuddle with Logan until he was sleepy enough that he didn't care when I crept back to my bed for the night. It could have been worse. He was happy to know at least his grammy had his special beedon. "Grammy Renee will take good care of my beedon!" he said.
The beedon came in the mail today--he smiled and screamed like it was Christmas, and I didn't even have to persuade him to take a nap. After I came back upstairs from collecting the laundry, I found him half asleep on his floor, his head propped up on his monkey bean bag, chewing peacefully on his beedon.