Cages

Wow, three weeks without a post, oops. I've been in my usual summer funk - I can't bear this heat, why haven't we moved to the mountains yet? - and haven't felt like writing. Please get here, fall! Last week we did at least visit the mountains, for our annual Sylva trip with the Goddards. It went by way too fast! I'll let the pictures do the talking, except for two points: Henry and Jessie had the best time ever playing together and were instant best friends; and we ate ice cream every single night of our vacation!

Henry: Henry is so close to starting school. Only eleven more days! Today we got him a new school haircut, and last week we received the backpack and lunch sack we ordered for him online. I had the doctor's office fax his vaccination record to the school today, which made it all seem very real all of a sudden. I still need to get a sheet and blanket for his nap mat, although those items are probably unnecessary - when I told him he would be taking naps at school, he actually laughed. Kind of hard. Like, "Ha ha, Mom, you know I can't sleep without you!" Next week we go to visit his classroom and meet his teacher, which I think is an excellent idea, and I have to go to an informational meeting for parents one night next week, too. I'll be the parent silently

sobbing in the corner. In other Henry news, he is really into drawing right now. He mostly draws people, often family portraits. His people look a lot like primitive sun drawings, or amoebas - one circle with four lines radiating outward for the arms and legs, in varying sizes depending on the age of the subject. Sometimes he also encloses them in cages, so they can't escape. Not sure how to interpret that; fear of abandonment? Anyway, it's fun to watch. While we are in Sylva, I found a wooden child's easel with a blackboard, a dry erase grease board, and a roll of paper on Craigslist for $30, so now he'll really be able to do some drawing. (But that is definitively the last large item our playroom can accommodate! I mean it this time.) Finally, something funny I keep forgetting to write about is Henry's in-the-car "I need to pee" sound, or his "pee sound," as he refers to it. It's kind of a protracted grunting sound he makes when we're on the road (Uhhhhhhhhh. Uh. UH!) and it's accompanied by spasmic thrashing, kicking, and head tossing. Russell and I know when we hear it to start looking for a place to pull over. Henry thinks it's hilarious, and he is right!

Charlie: Charlie, age sixteen and a half months, had his fifteen month checkup today (oops). He weighs twenty six pounds and is 31 1/2 inches tall (or 2 foot 7, as I like to say). The doctor continues to fret over the size of his head (XXL), but I think we've pretty much convinced him it's genetic. Developmentally he is doing fantastic: walking, babbling, running, dancing, saying a few words. And oh yeah, sleeping, too, finally! Now he wakes only once a night, most nights, and I will take it! Charlie's assigned duty in our family right now is "bug patrol": he scours the floors and nooks and crannies of whatever environment we find ourselves in, and when he finds a bug, or even a small speck that might be a bug, he stops and points, bloodhound style, saying, "Buh! Buh!" He does this until someone comes over to inspect the object and gives him a yea or a nay, "Yes, it's a bug, Charlie," or, "No, that's a tiny piece of Lego. Henry, please keep the Legos on the table!" Then he moves on, satisfied he has fulfilled his duties. Bug patrol.

Charlie has a special chair in the den he likes to sit in and look at books. It's a little blue futon-style chair I bought at a consignment sale when Henry was a tot. Charlie loves sitting in this chair, and sometimes he'll disappear and I'll go looking for him and find him alone in the den, sitting in a chair, looking at a book. This definitely reminds me of me. And Russell! Charlie sleeps with a blankie now! I finally got one of my children to form an attachment to a sleep object! I don't know why this feels like an accomplishment, or why it's important, but since I've had children, everyone has insisted that such attachments are healthy. With Henry, I am the sleep object he attached to, a less desirable situation, I've been led to understand. So there you go, world: one of my kids is doing something "normal" in the sleep department! I'm sure it's a fluke.

Other news: I found out a few weeks ago that my friend, Jenny, and Henry's friend, Parker, are moving to Texas in a few weeks. This is terrible news for us, because we love them!! I'm not sure Henry really understands yet, but I understand well enough for both of us. I am the first to admit that I don't make close friends that easily, and Jenny and I have been good friends. Throughout my life, it has seemed that very often when I do form a close friendship, one of us moves away (usually me!). I know this is just part of life, and part of living in a BIG country and a very mobile society, but I'm still considering requiring future friend applicants to sign some sort of...stagnation agreement, wherein we both vow not to move away. Kind of an adult version of the cages Henry draws! That sounds reasonable. I'm sure it won't scare away potential friends, or anything.

Ch-ch-ch-change

OK. I need to do a post that addresses what the boys are doing developmentally right now, because I've been neglecting that part of the blog and they are changing so rapidly!

Henry is getting ready to start preschool in one month. I am not ready for Henry to start preschool in one month. I just gave birth to him, and now I'm supposed to just send him off to school two days a week? That's insane, who does that? Who? Everyone? And most people start their kids at age three, or even age two? And for three days a week, or even FIVE? Oh. Well, that just proves that people are crazy. I've tried gently telling Henry, "Now, at first you may feel sad or afraid about being away from Mommy..." and before I can finish with, "But school will be really fun," he interrupts me: "No, Mommy, I won't. Really." (Shaking his head earnestly.). I'm actually starting to believe him a little. In other Henry news, our summer evening routine is in full swing. Every evening when Russell gets home, Henry and I head outdoors to work in the yard, sometimes accompanied by Russell and Charlie, sometimes not. I usually plant flowers or something, and he helps me dig, but this is all just a prelude to the main event: watering the trees and flowers, which, in Henry's parlance, means watering the Henry. As I water, he dashes through the stream from the hose, fully clothed. Then he heads to the water table and dumps cupfulls of water over his head. Then he pronounces proudly, "Mommy, I'm soaked!" Then, "No, I'm dry, feel my shirt," (I feel it): "I'm SOAKED!" Yesterday, Henry had the idea to make finger puppets (Caillou did it on an episode, so...), so we did that, and it was a hit. He is sleeping with some of them as I type. Some cute expressions of Henry's: "I'm getting busy," which means, "I'm getting dizzy." Today he crossed his arms and told me, "I refuse to do that." I didn't love the sentiment - he was just testing me, but still - but the adultness of it tickled me.

Young Charles is fully a toddler now, and he has such a big personality! He is a ham. He loves to go hide in the walk-in closet upstairs, then sort of surprise whoever walks in after him. He even goes in there when it's dark, and he'll stay longer than you might expect a fifteen month old to, waiting for his prey. This reminds me of me as a little kid; I clearly remember hiding behind doors and jumping out to startle my dad. Actually it reminds me of me NOW. Charlie shakes his head "no" in response to questions now: "Charlie, can Mommy have a kiss? Charlie, would you like something to eat? Charlie, are you ever going to get married and leave your Mommy?" He recognizes many words and points to a variety of objects in books when asked to. He can make a horse sound. Every morning when we wake up, he insists on looking at a book first thing. He wakes me up every morning and after every nap by leaning over me and saying a very breathy, "Hhhhhhi!" I would say he drinks from a sippy cup about 60% of the time now, but he strongly prefers his bottle and would use it all the time if we weren't staring his fifteen month checkup in the face (Dr. Johnson will definitely want him fully off the bottle by now.) He loves berries, and we've been having berries at every meal lately; I won't know how to break it to him in a few months when they aren't in season! Charlie loves his big brother, and lots of times when we're in the car, I glance back to see them holding hands!

Other family happenings: The praying mantises all escaped. I was crushed, but I was alone in my sorrow. No one else has noticed or asked after them! I imagine they're growing big and fat in our lovely yard, but they may have eaten each other. The fish tank is cycling along nicely thanks to a friend who loaned us some gravel from her healthy aquarium. It will be ready to welcome a new fish in a week or so. Unfortunately I've done a little research and discovered that every fish small enough to survive in a three-gallon tank needs to live in a school of at least five fish. But our tank isn't big enough to accommodate five fish! We may end up with one of those fighting betta fish, which for some reason really creep me out. This weekend we are headed to Morristown to celebrate baby Dylan's first birthday...I can't believe he is already one! Next week we are going with our friends David and Wayna to Sylva for our annual trip. Henry and Jessie should really enjoy playing together now, and the two Charlies should enjoy each others' company, too. We always decide when we visit Western North Carolina that we want to live there, then we come back home to the reality of finding a new job for Russell and selling our house, and we decide we'd better stay put. Maybe this year while we're there, a really fabulous job will present itself, alongside a buyer beside himself with desire to purchase a modest but generously-yarded home in Hendersonville, Tennessee...it could happen...