July 08, 2009

Seriously Rocking

Charlie expects to play guitar hero every night after dinner.  It's a date, an appointment, a necessity.  He asks throughout the day, but grudgingly accepts that he's going to have to wait until after dinner.

His favorite songs are...

  • No Sleep 'til Brooklyn by the Beastie Boys
  • Eye of the Tiger by Survivor
  • One Way or Another by Blondie
  • American Woman by The Guess Who
  • Are You Gonna Go My Way by Lenny Kravitz
  • Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne
  • Heartbreaker by Pat Benetar
  • La Bamba by Los Lobos

I keep trying to get a picture that shows just how happy he is to play it, but he's just too serious about the whole thing.  So here are pictures from two different nights that show what we do after dinner.  When Charlie's not playing himself he dances in front of the TV (blocking our view).  He carefully mimics the actions of the musicians, playing air guitar and punching his fist into the air.  Tommy tends to watch for a while, then wander off to his room. 

09jun271 09jun274

09july010 09july011

09july017 09july018

July 06, 2009

Life's Getting in the Way Again

No time for transitional paragraphs!

Charlie and Tommy bonked their foreheads together this morning.  Charlie was trying to tell me about it.  He said, "I bumped my two-head on Tommy's five-head."  In Charlie's mind, four must not have seemed to be the appropriate number for a two-year-old or a five-year-old.

We went to a really fun pool party BBQ on the Fourth of July.  The boys swam like crazy.  After the first round of swimming, we changed them both into dry clothes thinking it would be more comfortable.  An hour or so later, they opened the pool again so the kids could swim some more.  As soon as Tommy saw the cover coming off the pool, he stripped off all his clothes and scrambled for his wet swimming suit.  He didn't care that there was a crowd full of strangers sitting around!  He wanted to get in the water as quickly as possible!  It never even occurred to him that he really shouldn't be buck naked in front of everyone.  Guess we need to have a conversation about inappropriate settings for naked time.

Tommy lost his third baby tooth today.  He asked me to pull it out and stood calmly while I did.  I never would have been that brave as a child.  He has two of his 6-year molars in the back of his mouth, behind his baby molars, so he has a total of four grown up teeth already.

July 02, 2009

Misc. Stuff

A conversation from this morning...

Me:  Are you feeling a bit grumpy this morning Charlie?

Charlie:  No, I not grumpy.  I not a Care Bear.  I just Charlie.

***********************

We finally bought a kiddie pool for the back yard.  Seems like we're pretty hard on them, so we have to buy a new one every couple of years.  Charlie's been loving it, especially since he can't swim while Tommy has his swim lessons.  Charlie gets REALLY cold though.  He doesn't have much body fat to keep him warm.  Tommy practices snorkeling and splashes around.  He doesn't seem to think of it as too babyish this year.  We'll see what he thinks next year.

09july005 This isn't a great picture, and I'm sure I'll get better ones as the summer continues, but I wanted you to see Charlie's Eye of the Tiger dance.  He punches the air with the rhythm and really rocks out.

*******************************

Tommy actually LOVED his day with out TV on Monday.  It was supposed to be a punishment, but on Tuesday morning he declared that thought they day was much more fun without TV.  He said, "I don't think saying No TV is an appropriate punishment for me any more.  I like days without TV because then I have lots of time to do things in my room.  You'll have to think of something else next time I get in trouble."  All righty then!  He's actually been going into his room for some quiet time after lunch.  He settled himself into his bed with a book-on-CD  yesterday afternoon when it was time for Charlie's nap.  By the time I came out of Charlie's room (with Charlie who was absolutely NOT NAPPING) Tommy was alseep.  One out of two boys sleeping in the afternoon isn't too bad, I guess.

*********************************

09july008 They've actually grown a lot closer this summer, because they've spent more time together.  Charlie's really going to miss Tommy when he starts Kindergarden.

June 30, 2009

Charlie Quotes

Seeing this face peek over the top of my laptop makes me smile.

09jun276 

Random quotes for the day...

"Grandma's house is too far away."

"I think more fruit snacks is a great idea."

"That movie too scary for me.  It for big boys like Tommy."

"Special Agent Oso, the unique stuffed bear, is on a special assignment."

"I very, very tired.  You sing some songs?"

"I don't want bite of your toast.  It too spicy for me."

"One way or another, I'm gonna get ya, get ya, get ya." (Blondie!)

"Shhh.  Be very quiet.  Tommy is sleeping."

"Where Rabbit's house?  Oh, it in Hundred Acre Wood.  It too far away to visit."

"My swim class be in two days.  Daddy take me to it at inside pool."  (Um, no, sorry, you don't have a swim class.)

"I did it!  I found your book mark in your book.  Here go Mommy.  I pull it out for you."

June 29, 2009

Tommy in Trouble

You'd never guess by looking at this overwhelming cuteness that Tommy does occasionally struggle to control his temper.  He probably struggles less with it than your average 5 year old, but it's still there.

09jun257 

Now, one would never describe Tommy as mild mannered.  The boy, he is intense.  That's not a bad thing, because it means he's very good at focusing and perservering and is overwhelmingly enthusiastic about things he cares about.  He's also very sensitive, cheerful, open and confident.  He's very, very opinionated and strong-willed, but that hasn't really been difficult for us since he learned to talk, because 1) we are also very opinionated and strong-willed and 2) he is simultaneously very sensible.  As long as we explain things to him, which courtesy and respect would lead us to do anyway, we've usually golden.  As a matter of fact, Tommy has never faced a serious punishment.

Until now.

He's been threatened from time to time - "you must do X or Y will happen" - but we've never had to follow through.  I know we're lucky in this.  He's done stupid, careless things, but never on purpose.  He's always remorseful when he makes a mistake, immediately upon realizing what he's done, so we've always been able to just give him a stern talking-to and then trust that he'll never do that thing again.  He's not defiant.  He can be argumentative, but he's moderately polite about it and will back down if he sees we're serious.

Until now.

He was angry with us yesterday for sending him and Charlie inside while we were saying goodbye to some friends.  They were acting a bit out of control with the gravel and the rain-filled sandbox and we were tired of trying to reign them in, so we sent them inside.  Tommy was NOT happy about it.  Being mad is fine in our house, but you have to go to your room for it, so off he went.  But then he opened his window and started yelling for our attention.  And then he head-butted the screen and broke it.  He wasn't TRYING to break it, but that's still destructive behavior spurred by anger and NOT OK. 

David was very mad, but then David is a paragon of self control.  I was amused because Tommy inherited his temper from me and I could totally identify with wanting to smash something.  I hid my amusement, of course, because there's a difference between wanting to smash and actually doing it.  Tommy was HORRIFIED at what he'd done. 

But then he tried to say it was an accident instead of owning up to what he'd done.  We were already headed toward serious consequences territory, and that little attempted cover-up pushed us firmly over the line.

His punishment was a ban on all TV/computer for today.  Charlie still gets to watch TV at the three usual times in his daily routine, and when Charlie's watching TV Tommy has had to entertain himself in his room.  Plus, Charlie is currently napping and Tommy is having quiet time in his room instead of watching TV for his quiet time.  I didn't think there was any reason I should be punished along wtih Tommy.

It's acutally going quite well.  He's been a bit dramatic and weepy at the times when he usually gets to watch, like when he first woke up, but he's entertained himself remarkably well, without whining.  It helps that we bought him a new desk Saturday.  He's been sitting there doing legos and drawing and listening to audiobooks most of the day.

09jun262 

Don't worry my friend, the day will be over soon, and Daddy was able to fix the screen.

My Photo

The Cast

  • Sally
    The Mommy. Librarian. More neurotic than average.
  • David
    The Daddy. Engineer. Taller than average. Nicer than average.
  • Tommy
    The big brother. Five years old. Loves dinosaurs, legos, super heroes and Scooby-Doo.
  • Charlie
    The little brother. Two years old. Loves the Wiggles and art and music and balls.

Original Sally Says

  • Jan 2004 to Aug 2007
    You can still see all the snuggly goodness of the first 3.5 years at the old site.
Blog powered by TypePad

Statistics



  • View My Stats