When things go well

Most of the entries in this space concern some of the more humorous or challenging experiences with the kids. It's worth, however, remembering that things do go pretty easily sometimes. Yesterday, before Sarah's plane, she took Jamie to the 3-D dinosaur IMAX movie. He seems to have enjoyed the movie, even though, predictably, he did not want to wear the glasses.

As Connor watched her and Jamie go out the door he began crying. I settled him down and began reading him a book and he sort of leaned over and let his head fall on my lap. Yawns and eye-rubbies immediately ensued. It was a little early for a nap I thought but then he had just eaten and gotten a new diaper. I suggested it to him and for once he said quietly, "Yeah." So we read a couple of books upstairs and he pointed to the crib and said "Buh-bee (baby) nigh-nigh!" So I plopped in the crib and that was the last that was heard of him for two hours. Sometimes, not too often, parenting is easy.

A bientot, Mommy!

Well, Sarah is off to Provence now. We took her to the airport yesterday and Jamie, who has been prepped for this for some time sort of lost it. Things lined up badly. He had woken up fairly early that morning and had not napped, as is his wont now. He was getting cranky to begin with and got into one of those moods where he is determined to be displeased. First, we suggested he wear his Spiderman sandals. Normally this is a slam dunk, but feeling contrary, Jamie decided he wanted his sneakers and had a tantrum. This turned into an extended fit over a variety of insignificant things. About 10 minutes before we got the airport he fell deeply asleep, of course, so much so in fact that he was snoring. This meant we had to wake him up to take him inside, which was not good.

So when it came time to say goodbye to Mommy, he was in a pretty fragile state and just started bawling. Connor was more or less non-plussed. I think Sarah's fellow passengers may have been a little impressed actually, at the intensity of the farewell, as we walked off with Jamie saying "MAMAAAAA!!!" between sobs.

Things actually settled down pretty quickly after that, though. The mood changed considerably when we had to pull of the airport road so Jamie could pee. A good outdoor pee always cheers him up.

Spiderman, Spiderman

Jamie has quite definitely settled upon Spiderman as his favorite superhero/alter ego. He has still not, of course, ever seen a Spiderman movie, TV show or comic book, but he knows what he likes. While I was in London, Sarah and he happened upon a Spiderman costume in a store. Jamie was shaking with excitement about it, but had to wait for a less exorbitant version from e-bay. He now wears his Spiderman outfit more or less all the time when we are at home. He has also taken to answering the question, "What's your name" by saying, "Jamie, but my real name is Spiderman!"

I guess because he's never seen the actual thing, and because he's 4, he is full of questions:

What does Spiderman do?
Why does he shoot webs?
Why does my costume have a spider on it?
Does Spiderman ever sit down?
Does Spiderman lie down?
Can Spiderman ever die?
Is there a green Spiderman?
Can Spiderman be a bad guy?
And, in response to a movie poster featuring Spiderman and Kirsten Dunst: "What is Spiderman doing with that woman?"

Scenes from a developing vocabulary

As much as we are amazed by Connor's close attention to our words and ability to recreate them, Jamie has a remarkable habit of turning particular phrases back at us. Sometimes this is troublesome. For instance, when we are disciplining him, he likes to say "You're not speaking very nicely to me!" something we tell him not infrequently.

But most of the time it's very cute. Some recent examples:

The other morning Sarah was putting the boys in the car for school. She asked Jamie why he didn't have his seatbelt on yet, and he said, "Because I'm getting myself SITUATED!"

Yesterday, Jamie was calling for Sarah to come downstairs to help him look for something and she replied she would come down in 5 minutes. "Okay," he replied, "in the MEANWHILE, me and my Dad are going to look for it!"

Girls

For some time now, there has seemed to be some emerging division of the sexes at school among Jamie's friends, as the boys have enacted their PowerRanger/ Transformer/Ninja Turtles/Spiderman/Batman superhero personas. We heard from one Mom that her little girl was sad because the boys didn't play with her any more.

Lately, however, Jamie seems more and more interested in girls. Our on-the-way-to-school stories lately have focused around Jamie and his friend Shawnie and "the team" referring to the superheroes - usually J and S as the leaders supported bu Luke, Siler and the lone girl, Leah Mei. Yesterday, however Jamie said that the story would be about a new team member, and a girl no less, Jackie. This is, to be very clear, an elite group of fire-fighting, bad guy-catching, Batmobile-driving superheroes, so this is a major honor, though one fully deserved. In the ensuing story, Jamie made sure that she got to play an important role in reeling in a criminal stealing double-decker buses in London.

Another clue about the rising status of girls comes from a Wiggles video the boys are into right now. There are some singing and dancing pirates (don't ask), some men, some women. Out of absolutely no where the other day in the car Jamie informed Sarah that he liked the girl pirates better. When asked why he thought for a bit and said "Because they talk prettier and sing prettier."

Cha-cha!

Given his ever-expanding vocabulary and desire to name everything he sees, it is not surprising that Connor has produced a name for himself: Cha-cha! It actually makes a great deal of sense, since it is a similar format to the other key players in the family unit here: Ma-ma (most important, of course), Jay-jay, and Da-da. We have a book with a little mirror in it and Connor likes to look in and say, in sing-song voice, "I see Cha-cha!"

Among his recent additions to the vocabulary, a particularly cute one is "Ach-pus" for octopus.

Play ball!

I took Jamie to a Rice baseball game the other night which was great. Though he was visibly excited when he saw the pitcher throw the first pitch I think he saw virtually none of the rest of the game, but had a blast anyway.

In the first place he liked that one cheers at the game meaning that he could, for once, yell at the top of his lungs in a fully sanctioned way. He got a good laugh when the umpire failed to punch an opposing batter out on an apparent strike three. Prompted, of course, Jamie waited until the boos subsided and let loose with a ringing "C'mon that was a STRIKE". He was applauded.

He also met a charming 6-year-old named Margaret, who came bearing a wondrous new thing: peanuts in the shell. The two of them worked their way through a whole bag of them. This was great for Jamie because it is a) a snack, the preferred form of food intake b) the shells can be discarded on the ground, so one can be messy and c) he got to bang the shell on the chair, my head, the ground, any hard surface at all. Good times.

They also chatted amiably about important things. Jamie informed Margaret (he had a bear of a time with that name) that he was a VERY good baseball player, and she said she believed him. Then dinosaurs came up and Jamie asked what Margaret's favorite dinosaur was. She answered with something made up I think, and Jamie said T-Rex was his fave. Alas, by the 6th inning it was time to go, but when we left Jamie and Margaret hugged like old friends.

Cute!

Connor is very cute. He has a way of saying "Bye-bye" that seems to make women everywhere swoon. He says bye-bye to each and every teacher at school and they just laugh with delight.

But he also seems to understand the concept of cute. The other day he was wearing some corduroy pants that his great Aunt Joan had given to Jamie and Sarah remarked that he looked cute. He then began pointing at his pants saying "cuue pans", "cuue pans." Seems somebody at school had been complementing them.

Then yesterday we were watching a TV show with a caterpillar. This word Connor renders, pleasingly, as something like "bada-bada". So he starts cooing at the TV "Cuue bada-bada, cuue bada-bada." Takes one to know one.

Superhero time

Jamie has a cohort of silly friends at school and they run around on the playground saving the world from criminals and bad guys (there is evidently a distinction there, though we're not quite sure what it is). His friends have introduced him to the world of superheroes, as well. They morph seamlessly from Spiderman (who often drives a batmobile) to PowerRangers to Ninja Turtles to Transformers. Superman, interestingly, is of no interest, and don't try. Jamie, it seems, has either chosen or been named the green PowerRanger, making green his new favorite color.

The funny thing is that Jamie really has no idea what all of these things are. This was clear the other day when an interest in Star Wars emerged from the playground. As a means of coping with Sarah's impending 5-week absence, I think, Jamie has been imagining fun things he will do with Daddy. So the other day he came home saying he's "been wanting to watch Star Wars for a long time" (probably meaning since 11 o'clock that morning when it first entered his consciousness). Maybe, he suggested, he and Daddy could stay up late one night while Mommy was gone and watch.

But later that day, when he was telling our friend Paul Brady about Star Wars, Paul sensibly asked which is his favorite Star Wars movie. Jamie answered with great certainty, "I like the green Star War." No idea.