Why boys develop more slowly- a hypothesis.

I'm now fully convinced that the vast majority of toddler boys must walk around with a permanent mild concussion. D spends a large amount of his waking moments running hither and yon as fast as he can, and then either falling and bumping his head or running into an object harder than himself and bumping his head. He's already had his first laceration last month (wandered right off the dock onto a lower level of dock and bit into his lower lip- I had a good 10 minute conversation with myself (and the unfortunate souls in my direct periphery) about whether it was worth it to stitch it up- in the end I opted for letting it heal on its own to avoid the trauma of local anesthesia, and luckily it's healed quite nicely, can't even tell it happened). First laceration at age one; M hasn't had anything deeper than a scrape and she's almost 5! This traumatic event was a couple weeks after he pushed a toy dump-truck and then himself right off the dock into the water. He hardly seemed phased after I jumped in after him a second after hearing the splash. Just coughed a bit and then let me hold him for a few minutes, then off he toddled to play with the dump-truck again. So apparently he has no fear of heights or water. Which will be a good thing later, I suppose, but for now it means I'll be buying him a lighter life-jacket (as the one we have for him is great, but a bit on the heavy side as he can't wear it and get back up on his own if he happens to fall down on his bottom, so I hadn't been putting it on him while he was out of the water and had opted for the constant-surveillance method, but that obviously isn't working so great for me).

So perhaps this permanent-concussion state explains why boys have a tendency to develop more slowly than girls. It's the constant stress to their noggins that they inflict upon themselves.

Tooth fairy

Magnolia lost her first tooth tonight! Lower right central incisor. She is so excited. Yes, she was still awake wiggling away at it until it just now fell out- at 10pm on a school night...
Anyone know the going rate for the tooth fairy???

Happy Birthday to Me

This past Sunday was my birthday.
I think I'm now officially middle-aged.
It was a lovely, lovely day. It started out with me moling in a bit (sleeping late), and then being thoroughly spoiled by Chris bringing me coffee & the paper to read in bed. He also brought a beautiful birthday card that he & Nolia made. So sweet. Then we made pancakes for breakfast. Nolia & I mixed up the batter and then Chris cooked them (they have a tendency to come out black if I'm responsible for the cooking part). Then David went down for a nap and the rest of us bumped around the house & yard. That afternoon was Nolia's ballet recital. SO CUTE! I got all teary watching her & her little ballet-mates. Adorable. Now she is thrilled because she can play dress-up in her costume (it was off-limits until after the recital). She's also wanting to wear "real" makeup all the time now (she wore it for the recital, and LOVED IT!).
That evening Chris threw me a little potluck supper birthday party. I had set up the blow-up pool on the back deck earlier in the day, and all the kiddies frolicked in it during the party. Luckily no one had the idea of jumping off of the swing into the pool. I was a little concerned that might occur to someone. Chris grilled chicken and folks brought lots of other yummy things. Joy brought the birthday cake- chocolate ganache cake from Fresh Market- heaven in a pastry box. Later there was a jam session. Nolia, Zach & Ella took turns playing the kid-size guitar while the fellas picked a few. David was completely enthralled by all the people, and didn't get sleepy until rather late (luckily he'd had a really late second nap).
Lovely, lovely day. I'm very blessed with a wonderful family and fabulous friends!

uh-oh

David has learned a new word, "uh-oh". He was playing with a rubber ball the Easter Bunny had left in his basket on Saturday, bouncing it all over the living room. One time it ended up on the back part of a chair cushion, where he couldn't get to it. He looked at me, eyebrows raised, and said very clearly "uh-oh!". Since then he's been using the expression quite frequently. V. cute.
Nolie is getting pretty good with her letter sounds, and is practicing rhyming. She still has trouble remembering that it's the end of the word that has to sound alike, not the beginning. And gets rather frustrated at times.
We attended a birthday party at the park on Sunday morning. Water balloons and water guns, a pinata, and a Hello Kitty cake. The kids had a blast. As we were getting ready to leave the ice-cream truck drove up playing its music rather loudly. Nolie kept asking what it was. After several failed attempts to redirect her attention, I finally blurted out "It's just a truck that plays music". "Why does it play music?", she reasonably wanted to know. "I guess the driver wants to entertain everybody", I said. Lame, I know. But somehow it worked and we made it to the car without the true nature of the truck dawning on her.
She is very interested in her next birthday party. And is dismayed that it is taking such a long time to get here. She wants a "pink pony, princess, pirate party". I am at a complete loss as to what to do to pull this one off. Rent a pony with its mane braided with pink ribbon, have the girls dress up as princesses, and the boys run around in pirate garb??? Pink pony pinata? How do you get all of that translated as cake decorations??? Oh, dear. I was hoping for a messy-art party, or an old-fashioned-children's-games type party. No such luck.
I find myself still struggling with the whole balancing-work-and-family-life issue. I've made no progress, and seem to be more and more tired. I want to do both things well, and worry that I am lacking on all fronts (I'm definitely lacking in the keeping-the-house-straight category). *sigh* I know you can never truly know all the details, but I see so many women (friends, relatives, acquaintances) seemingly balancing everything so well, and being really present, and I'm amazed b/c I so do not feel like I'm all that. Mama sure set the bar high. Okay, enough.

Contagious cars

My conversation with Magnolia earlier today in the car:

Magnolia: I don't feel very well. I got a virus from the car.
Me: Honey, you don't catch viruses from a car. You catch viruses from other people, and sometimes animals. (and then silence as I try to figure out how to explain this further)
Magnolia: Well, my throat hurts. Hey! You're kind of like a doctor. You make me all better! (this followed by a fetching grin)
And since then, no more talk of sore throats. Go figure...

And he's off...

This evening Joy & Zach came over. We all played on the front lawn for a bit before I went inside to start supper. David was having fun climbing up the stairs and down the stairs, up the stairs and down the stairs when J & Z first arrived. He caught sight of Joy walking across the lawn and took off walking towards her- and didn't stop until he reached her, about a distance of 10 feet! Until now he's just taken a few steps before plunking himself down on his bottom. Here we go...

On our way home from the park today, Nolia noticed a man standing outside without his shirt on. She was quite interested in this and had many questions. So when we arrived home she wanted to play outside without her shirt on. Our yard is secluded and she's four- why not? Of course, when Zach arrived and saw Nolia shirtless, he immediately took his off, too. Then while Joy, baby & I were inside somehow they decided to take their shorts off, too. We made them put them back on, but once they were inside playing off the shorts went once again. And Zach's underpants. At which point Joy had to point out that this was not a nudist colony and made him get dressed again. I guess as long as they're not doing this when they are 16... we're good. Do all pre-schoolers love to get nekkid? (Goodness knows my kids' daddy sure still does; although he will mostly confine his urges to night-time skinny dipping at the lake. Mostly.)

Chris returned home from his workshop in Central Florida just in time for supper. Afterwards we had a dessert picnic outside beneath the hogplum cherry tree which right now is a cloud of tiny white flowers. I love this time of year, when all the spring trees and shrubs are blooming. Makes me itch to get to a nursery and buy azaleas for the yard... a dogwood tree or two... perhaps another redbud tree...

Spinning fun

Nolia asked me to swing her on the swivel tire swing for a while this evening. She wanted to go "really fast around". So I spun her and spun her. As she went round and round, eyes glowing and with a big grin on her face, she called out, "My stomach's thinking!". "What's it thinking?" I asked her. "It's thinking he's spinning!".
So on & on we went, she asking to go faster and faster. Then she leaned forward to look down inside the tire swing, raising the dizziness factor up a notch. "Oh!", she yelled. "Stomach, stop thinking!".