Mr. Bossy (sort of)

Yes, our little Connor can be quite demanding. As many of you know, he has always been rather less ambivalent about food than Jamie. As Connor's vocabulary has expanded, he has clearly sensed the opportunity to really get what he wants out of a meal. One day coming home from school with Sarah, she mentioned dinner and Connor began chanting, loudly, "I want chicken!!! I want sausage!!! I want oranges!!!" And the other morning, she asked him if he'd like an egg for breakfast. He nodded vigorously and then as Sarah turned her back to head for the kitchen he said, "Mommy, make TWO eggs!"

He can actually be very polite, though. Recently we had a friend over who asked him if he'd like something and he replied in his little baby voice, "Yes, ma'aaaam". Interestingly, he has sort of confused "Thank you" and "you're welcome", or, more accurately, simply decided to use the latter in all situations. So you bring him dinner and he looks up and cheerfully says "Welcome!" We understand he's saying thank you, but it does seem sometimes as though he thinks we should be thanking him for the privilege of serving him.

Tales of Ike, pt. 2

So, it took only one "special" night at home to convince us that we ought to get the heck out of Dodge. As unlikely as it may seem for a 4-year-old, Jamie has an old friend, Siler, with whom he has been tight since he was about 1 1/2. Siler recently moved to Corpus Christi and Jamie has been really missing him. When the storm looked like it was headed to Corpus, Siler was going to come here, but now that the tables had turned we decided to make the 3 1/2 trek to see them. Getting out of Houston wasn't too bad though we had to detour around closed highways. Most of the traffic lights were out (many still are and apparently will be until November) and this is a challenge given the odd mix of extreme timidity and aggression that characterizes Houston drivers.

Jamie, of course, began asking if we were in Corpus before we had gotten a mile from our house, so the drive was long. But once we got there we had a wonderful time, staying in a hotel with an indoor pool and open-bar Happy Hour. Siler's parents took wonderful care of us and Jamie and Siler were beside themselves with excitement.

The next day, Monday, we spent at the lovely aquarium in Corpus and at Siler's house, where the two of them resumed their silliness as if they had never been apart. Our leave-taking from them was really quite poignant. Jamie began crying at the first mention of leaving Siler and just went he'd gotten it back together a little we asked them to hug. Once Jamie's wee arms were around him, Siler broke into tears and looked up accusingly at Sarah and said, "Don't take him from me!!!!" Sweet boys.

We stayed that night in the hotel and then got up the next day and went provisioning for a return to Houston in which, as of then, one could not get water, ice or gas. Connor, of course, had managed to dirty all the clothes we had brought for him, so we also bought some new clothes and headed out. We stopped every 60 miles or so for gas, wanting to keep the tank clean. Sure enough, about 50 miles out from the city the gas stations were empty. We then found an open restaurant to feed the boys and headed back into town to spend a powerless night, which was actually perfectly endurable thanks to a miraculous cool, dry spell that lasted most of the week.

Tales of Ike, pt. 1

Well, loyal readers, it's been a long time since posts and much has happened. The big joy here is that we have electricity back. The boys seemed pretty much untraumatized by the storm. We put them to bed as normal that night and then as things started to get a little crazy around 11 we brought Connor downstairs, and there we all stayed for the night. Jamie woke up several times but thunder seems to scare him more than wind so, as unbelievably noisy at it was, he never seemed alarmed. Connor just slept through the whole thing.

The real story, however, started the next day. Our power had gone out at about midnight after several false starts. We got a tantalizing flicker of power at about 7, but then nothing. We all walked out to see a river on Calumet St., a pool in our backyard and a lake in the park next door. That day itself was fine, but the hurricane left muggy hot weather in its wake and the first night without air conditioning was hot hot hot. Jamie, for reasons unknown, INSISTED on sleeping under the covers despite complaining vociferously about the heat. Amazingly he did fall asleep, but when he woke up at 4:30 (more on that to follow) he was soaked in sweat, as if he'd been in the bath. Sarah and I slept not at all, her because she and Connor were being tormented by the mosquitoes, me because of the hot still air. The experience has scarred Connor, who has something of a complex about mosquitoes, whom he refers to as "e-bogs", as in "ladybugs." Unfortunate to lump the lovely, harmless ladybug in with the mosquito, that proof of the imperfection of the world, but there you have it.

Things got even better at about 4:30 when the alarm started going off. Seems as the battery ran out it put the system into some kind of panic mode. But because the power was out and the batteries were gone we couldn't turn it off. Even in the midst of the ear-splitting noise, which was soon joined by a chorus of screaming children, the irony of the fact that there was somehow power for the alarm to sound, but not for us to turn it off, was not lost on us. Eventually, however, it seems to have worn itself out and stopped. Sitting on the stairs in the aftermath of this, and in a surprisingly chipper mood, Jamie opined, "This is a SPECIAL night!" Special, indeed. We decided more or less on the spot to avoid more special nights and decamp to Corpus Christi. More on that to follow.

Friends

Connor has moved up to the 2-year-old room at his school and there are a number of kids there who have been together for a year now, exactly half of their little lives. Connor likes listing his friends. He seems especially intrigued by the twins, Ella and Grace. When he gets to them he holds up all four of his fingers with the index and middle finger tucked behind the ring and pinkie fingers (to signify 2, of course) and says "Two Ellas". The other kids in the class can tell them apart perfectly. Connor may be able to as well, but he seems far more interested in thinking of them as a unit.

New York New York

Well, I'm looking forward to going to the Big Apple this weekend, but I'm also feeling a little badly about it. Jamie has been getting more and more interested in the city for some time. This relates to a) a long-standing concern with the skyscraper and b) a very cute Curious George story in a book from his great aunt Thea, which includes a number of the landmarks. We've talked about the Chrysler building and the subway and the Guggenheim Museum, among other things.

But I was not prepared for hearing from Sarah how upset Jamie was to hear that I was going without him. She said when he heard he absolutely fell apart when she told him this. And he doesn;t even know that I'm seeing his cousin Eric AND going to a baseball game. I have promised him that we will go soon, but it's not soon enough. I'm buying him off with a light sabre (saver to him) when I get back.

Nothing but Star Wars...

An epochal event has taken place this weekend as Jamie has seen Star Wars for the first time. You may remember there was some discussion about it before Mommy went to France. He brought it up again the other day and asked if we could watch when he was 5. Sure, I said. There was then a brief pause and he said, "Can we watch it a little sooner? Like...today??!" So, I ordered it in Netflix and we've been watching it all weekend. Jamie really likes it. Tops are the "Light Savers" scenes and second are scenes with blasting, especially where "Luke almost falls in the cavern."

He asks all kinds of detailed questions, many of which are difficult to answer in any simple way, but most of them concern good guys, bad guys, and the details of Darth Vader. Because he heard of Star Wars at the same time as PowerRangers and Transformers, he thinks that the individual characters are each a Star War. He is, of course, very fond of R2D2 and also not clear about what it is that C3PO, whom he refers to as "R2D2's golden friend", does exactly. He is also curious about Chewbacca's role. At the end of the movie, when they are all walking down to get the medals Jamie asked of Chewie "Why is that dog-like Star War walking with them?"