Monday, March 19, 2007

Green popstickles and blue Elias eggs

Boy, tis the season for lots of special holiday activities. After Christmas sugar cookies and Valentine's heart taping were such a smash hit, I decided that all we could celebrate with zealous all holidays. On Friday, we made green "popstickles" with lemonade and green food coloring. PROBLEM 1: Never let a two year old manage the food coloring right out of the gate. He squeezed the bottle with such great force, green sprayed all over the counter and none in the cup. PROBLEM 2: Never let a two year old pour green lemonade into a "popstickle" container without some sort of precautionary tray beneath the project to catch any spills. And, also, never let a two year old pour green lemonade on the counter in front of all the kitchen drawers. Sticky yucky mess everywhere! Mission was accomplished but at a cost to mom.

On Saturday, we put on our green. Elias was green from head to toe and very delighted to wish everyone Happy St. Patrick's day! We had green milk for breakfast and the "popstickles" for dinner!

Today, we dyed easter eggs! After having the boxhalf eaten by a special little guy, we decided it was time. Boy, did he get into it! I did a demonstration, and before I was through, Elias had several eggs in each of the three bowls of dye. He swished and stirred the eggs around with the little metal stick that comes with the dye. And of course, had his fingers in each one too! (Those little wire things are impossible to use). He used the little magic crayon to scribble out some lines and I put all of our names on our own individual names, which he really enjoyed. Dahlia sat across from us in the highchair and ate the crayon I gave her to use to draw on her egg. Fun was had by all! Elias scooped out most of the eggs, but decided that three eggs needed a super long dose of the blue dye. He's three eggs turned out the very coolest!

Of course, we had to sample one egg that had cracked. Elias had quite the technique of literally smashing the egg with amazing force unti lthe yolk was completely squished! I thought for sure he was going to have nothing to eat but a handful of shell mashed into egg white. He was able to peel the shell quite well, and then nibbles away at the white. Fun was had by all!

Saturday, February 24, 2007

The Opossum and other spooky tales

Last week, whilst getting ready for a walk in the cart, Elias wandered about the garage as usual and then asked, "Momma, what's this thing sleeping here?" I asked him what thing and walked closer to where he was standing. He was right next to a nasty, HUGE disgusting ole' opossum. I freaked and practically left him there in the garage. I scooped him up and he was terrified by me. By the time we made it into the house, I had composed myself and was able to apologize for scaring him and explain what I had saw. Yuck Yuck Yuck. And, we had one hell of a time getting that sucker out. Pretty much we didn't get it out as much as it left on its own accord at dark. That was great topic of discussion for many days following.

This has been a challenging month in the life of Elias. We continue to chip away at the potty training. His is a question of will, I think. Often, when he's "making feces" in his pants, he'll look at me first and I'll asked the inevitable question, to which he will yell back "NO!" Oh well, can't blame a girl for trying. We are trying to be strong. Well, at least stronger than him, otherwise for sure, we'll all flop. He's doing well and is overall quite cooperative, especially when he feels that we are consistent and enthusiastic, too. Tough work.

We were going to start preschool this month, but that didn't pan out, which is just as well. I was really feeling like it was too soon for him to be away from me for so long. So, we adjusted a little with the babysitter so that Elias and I can have some alone time while Cheryle is here. I have really been enjoying it. I am learning a lot from him. Learning how to just accept him for who he is and letting go of my own agendas. It has been a challenge, but one from where growth all around has occurred.

Elias is such an amazing and funny little creature, too. He's been impersonating Dahlia's cry and her babbles quite a bit. I think he is really feeling the shift in her needs and how it is affecting the attention he receives. 2 1/2 is really so hard because they are always testing limits and sometimes I find him so aggravating, but getting upset only makes things worse. I have to stretch my patience and reframe the situation, remain calm and try to make a learning lesson out of everything. It is hard.

Elias is 2 1/2. What's going on with him? He wants to get into everything, he wants to do stuff he shouldn't. He's curious about what happens when he does stuff, like toothbrushes down the drain (one out, two more down). He likes to splash water and spit water from one cup to another. He likes to splash around in his pee on the floor. He likes to pat his sister on the head and squeeze her until she cries (sorry Dahlia).

We've been doing bath time lately, he and I. I'll fill the tub up and close the curtain (which is clear) and he'll splash and chat and tell me what he's doing. He'll ask me to hold things or ask me to put things into the tub. He'll ask me how things work or tell me about something he's thinking about. He'll tell me he's going to do something I've asked him not to and he'll tease me. There is often screaming because I won't let him do something dangerous (like jump up and down in the tub) or because I haven't done something right (like not put on his towel correctly following his bath). Here's one funny thing he did recently in the bath: he pulled his penis out of the tub, peed in measuring cup, and handed it to me to pour into the toilet. Silly. All in all, it's such a nice time together, and I love that little stink bomb. He's such an amazing little mind.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Being a parent is hard

Oh, you cute sweet thing, why must you torture me so? Today is the day of torture, worse than any bamboo chutes under the nails. Constant whining crying pick me uping. Constant disregard for every word I utter. Constant testing of the limits you know so well. Why god why!?! What have I done so horrible to deserve such torture?? What do I need to do to make it stop?

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Tiger and Tag, II

After our last go around with the fish, we were gun shy, to say the least, about having another go. This weekend, Brad and Elias went out and got two new fish, with the same names, and even consulted with the goldfish expert, who recommended drops to purify tap water for the fishes. Well, Sunday evening, things started to look bad for both fish. And, in Brad's effort to help save the little fishes, I think he may have inadvertently and through no fault of his own, sped up their demise, as when I awoke in the middle of the night, no trace of either fish was left. I searched all the rooms and eventually, found the empty bowl in my office, nicely cleaned and dry. I was so curious, I wanted to wake Brad up, but I waited until the morning. I found out that they had met the same fate as Tag and Tiger, I. Elias seemed relatively unfazed, as he was parroting my predictions from the night before that the fish were dying, right from the start. Brad says we try a Beta next. I agree wholeheartedly.

On another note, we are headlong into the beginning phases of potty training or "independence in the bathroom" as Montessorians call it. What a fun time! (tongue in cheek) Yesterday, Elias pooped in his diaper (cloth) and took the liberty to release it onto the kitchen floor. He was very excited and sat his poopy bottom down on the floor to enjoy the looks of his poo, leaving another nice smear, and to top it off, he then stepped in it and started to track it around. Yeah! I didn't freak out, but I did have some panic attacks that we might all come down with schistosomaisis or something. The real icing was during the bath, when we were enjoying friendly waterplay, Elias takes a poop right in the tub and then, as I frantically scoop out Elias first and all of the toys and then little floating turd, Elias proudly pees on the rug right in front of the toilet, despite my urgings to actually place his penis in the toilet and pee. I felt kinda gross after this one.

On a more pleasant note, this morning, I truly enjoyed watching Elias interact with some other children from music class. And I was proud and sad at the same time to see him engaging in the Pelelay game on the other side of the parachute. He is growing into such a wonderful little boy, and with bittersweet reflection, will not much longer rely on mommy being by his side to enjoy the world!

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Saturday, December 30, 2006

In memory of the mullet


CIMG1432
Originally uploaded by amykwelias.

On Brad's birthday, he convinced me to cut Elias's hair. Elias has been sporting a very trendy mullet since around December, 2005, and it has just been getting better and better with back hair growing longer and longer and front and sides in a steady holding pattern. Brad had brought up cutting the back a few months ago, but I think what sealed the deal for him was when Santa called him a girl. I don't know why it would bother Brad, what with him in long locks for so many years, but it did. So, on Brad's birthday, he convinced me that I should cut his hair so that Elias can see that it doesn't hurt and then, if all goes well, cut his hair too.

So, I start cutting Brad's hair with Elias on his lap. Brad is saying, "Don't cut there. Cut here. Okay, cut Elias's hair. Cut where your fingers are." Before I knew it, I was cutting off all of Elias's back hair. :-(

I really hadn't planned on it. It's like, I just want to push away all of those firsts, I guess, because the more firsts that pass, the more he moves away from being my baby to being my little boy, to being my boy' to being my adolescent, to being my young adult, to ...you get the picture. It's all just going by so fast. I think he does look just adorable, still, but there will never be the first haircut again and his hair will change and never be the same and I will miss it. And his mullet was beautiful, and there's nothing wrong with being called a girl. He's just beautiful and soft and sweet.

Christmas

Christmas came and went at the William's household. It was fun, but what can I say, the kids still think Santa is a freak and they are more interested, in many ways, in the bubble wrap that comes around the present than what's inside. There were some winners this year for Elias, depsite having to really coax him into unwrapping his gifts:

1. The triangle instrument (Elias wants to carry this around with him whenever we leave the house. He doesn't play the triangle, though. Mostly just holds it.)

2. Mousetrap-The Game

3. Replacement sugar bowl for his tea set

4. Basketball hoop and net

He's really enjoyed the books and puzzles and other toys, too, but has really taken a liking to these.

Yesterday, we went to OMSI with Oscar and there were literally 20 billion people there. It was a chaotic mass of miniature humans running to and fro, away from their parents beckoning them back. Ugh. This was not the day to go to OMSI. However, despite the crowd, we did fairly well until the very end when Oscar and Elias got into a tussle over some dehydrated peaches. First, Oscar throws himself on the floor because he is not allowed to hold the original bowl of peaches. Then, when offered some peaches in a secondary bowl, grabs the bowl and flings the peaches all over us. He proceeds back to the original bowl that Elias is still clutching. I intervene, to help stabilize the bowl. Oscar's mom comes to the rescue and removes Oscar from the bowl. But then, from out of nowhere, I find that Elias and I are now in a tussle over the bowl. I'm thinking, "NO! THIS ISN'T WHAT I'VE MEANT TO HAPPEN!" Elias is looking at me, screaming at me. I try to release the bowl to keep it from exploding everywhere. It's too late, Elias pulls the bowl and peaches are released into the atmosphere! In the midst of all of this, Dahlia is trolling around the floor eating peach and cheddar bunny debris. Nice, nice ending.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Funny little guy

While waiting for Daddy to show up at the restaurant this evening, Elias was entertaining himself with the packets of sugar. He was shaking them and respecting what we had discussed that shaking them and pretending to use them was okay. He excited shook the granulated sugar and looked at me and said "That makes a beautiful sounds!" tee hee.

Monday, December 18, 2006

sleeping prince

After being denied access to mommy's milkshake, things started going downhill this evening. He's been up there with dad for about 10 minutes crying, shrieking, shrill-screaming. I have debated going up, but feel as if I may have already done enough. Ugh. I believe yet again, we are moving into another phase.

Today was a great day. We got lots of errands done and everyone stayed pretty much together through it all. Problems began at nap, with an inordinate amount of kicking and hitting (what it this about?). After a great deal of rearranging and discomfort, Elias settled in to a position and gave in to sleep. He was holding onto my earlobe at the time. His limbs lighten and eventually, his hand just flops down on my face. I stealthfully sliver from under the blanket and look at him sleeping. Everybody always talks about watching their babies sleep. I know I haven't done this nearly as much as I should. He looks just like Brad when he sleeps. And, it's hard to image that he was so frustrated just a few minutes prior. So peaceful, my sweet.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Grandma Jean, Tiger and Tag

Today, we had one of our conversations about Grandma Jean and how she isn't here anymore. It started with a Christmas Tree Ornament, one that we had inheritied from Jean's vast Christmas decoration collection. It was a monogrammed one, and when we were putting it up on the tree yeaterday, I told Elias that it had belonged to Grandma Jean because it had her name on it. This morning, he pulled it off of the tree and said, "Momma, this one is Grandma Jean's. She's not around anymore." And this led to Elias remarking that she was at her house "cuz she's not around." We talked about how Grandma Jean was very sick and died, like the fish, which I had already forgotten the names of, but he chimed in with "Tiger and Tag (MAN, that boy has got a memory)." We talked about how Grandma Jean doesn't have a house because she died and is no longer around. A few minutes later, while I was in the kitchen, Elias followed me in, still holding the ornament and really trying to understand what it really meant to have died, he said to me, "Grandma Jean is not around." I said that was right. Then he said something like, "Grandma Jean loved Elias very much," and I said, that was right too.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Here we are

 Posted by Picasa

Ball begins with "B"

Elias has started to do the most amazing thing...he has started to identify the first letter of some words by sounding them out. It started with Zoo and Zebra and Organic. We just kept going from there, identifying Bowl, Baby, Popcorn, Pear, Refrigerator, etc. A whole bunch of words! He's pretty amazing! That amazing mind!!

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Monday, November 06, 2006

Tiger is DEAD! A very sad evening for the Williams house

Craziness, goldfish and more craziness

Elias has been pushing my limits of sanity lately. Last week was the first week in a long time that I felt like there was no way in the world I would survive his toddlerhood. Alas, this week seems to be off to a bit of a better start. Maybe it is partially because Brad and I have decided after watching the hurricane of last week pass through our house, that maybe Elias is ready to turn this whole independence thing up a notch. Our first move in helping to build/foster independence in our toddler: purchasing a goldfish and bowl with the hopes of teaching/giving opportunities for caring for something (feeding, cleaning, etc) as well as learning more about fish from first hand observation.

So, on Friday after a very mediocre nap, the kids and I venture out to the pet store. Once inside, we take pause to adore the little white mice running on the wheel and sleeping little pink noses pressed up against the glass. Elias took quite a tumble off of a little step stool, he was so excited to watch the mice. Next, we walk over to the fish. I was aghast by the living conditions of the poor common goldfish. Literally thousands swimming on top of each other! I tracked down a guy to scoop us out one, but at 29 cents a pop, sprung for two! Mr. Independence decided he wanted a "black" goldfish. So, the guy, seeming a bit exasperated by the fact that we were asking him to select specific fish among the thousands, first scooped out a gold fish with black fins. We decided that one could be for Dahlia. We sent him back in for another. This time, he was able to bring out a nice, black goldfish, along with a few dead ones that were floating at the surface (gross). The luke warm fish guy put the fish in a plastic bag (tied ridiculously, I might add) and sent us on our way. At home, we excitedly prepared the bowl and poured the fish into the water. "What are their names?" I asked Elias. At first, I don't think he understood. He was calling them both "Tag" or something like that. After asking for more clarification, we decided that the orange one was Tag and the black one was Tiger.

Both fish had been acting peculiar since we put them in the water...they didn't want to eat! Then, the orange one started to swim to the surface to breath air. Then, the orange one started to form white dots. YUCK!!! Then the water started looking pretty bad, and still, we had yet to see a fish eat. Well, today, when we arrived home from the indoor park, the orange one, Tag, was laying at the bottom, dead, not resting, DEAD after all of three days in our home. What in the world??? So, it's sad because we hardly got to know her/him, but it has provided an opportunity to talk to Elias about death and when he wakes up from his nap, we are going to have a flushing ritual for Tag.

When I told Elias the fish was dead, he said something like that we could go to the store and get another fish for Dahlia that was "NOT DEAD." I tried to explain that "NOT DEAD" was actually "ALIVE." That sparked alot of talk like "Mommy is ALIVE, Dahlia is ALIVE." I chimed in the Elias is ALIVE, too. To that, he said "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO." Then, he would move the bowl around, causing Tag to shift a little and he'd say "Tag is swimming! Tag is swimming!"

Oh, yeah, and before Elias accepted Tag was dead, he told me we could give him some medicine and put a bandaid on him.

So, the moral of this story may be to splurge for the $3.29 fancy goldfish. We'll see how long Tiger makes it.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Crackin' me up these days...

It's official, Elias IS something else! He has really been blowing my mind with his actions lately and making me laugh all the while!

Big discovery of the day: flopping down face first on the bed is mucho fun!

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Aw, POOO!

Early on in the Peace Corps, I accidentally kicked my much coveted apricot facial scrub, smuggled in from the US, down the pit latrine ("kamo"). It was one of those moments where you're filled with such an urge for a "do-over" at the loss, but really, can do nothing but laugh at how silly it really was to a.) try to pee in the dark without a flashlight, and b.) set things of such great value so close to the hole.

We had a repeat situation State-side this morning. Elias managed to drop his adult size battery-operated tooth brush down the sink. In my and Brad's scurry to accomplish morning tasks before Brad heads to work, we took our eyes off of the little silly stinker for a few minutes while brushing his teeth. The next thing we hear is his little sweet innocent voice chirping, "My toothbrush feel down the hole! My toothbrush fell down the hole!" Our response, "What hole??" only lead to the discovery that yes, in fact, and quite frankly, against all odds, the adult size battery-operated toothbrush is lodged just out of reach in our bathroom sink drain. Who knows how long it may remain. Water seems to pass it just fine.

Monday, October 16, 2006