A few days ago, I overheard the following discussion between Zeke and his best friend K. We were all in the car.
K.: I wish I could have my sister's bed. I want to have my own room and sleep in my own bed. But I also want my mommy to be there with me so I can hug her in the night. Z.: Hm. Well, you could dream something up. You could (pause) ... you could build a ramp. And if in the night you felt like you wanted a hug, you could (pause) ... you could walk on the ramp and go into your mommy's room and get a hug. K. Hm.
Tonight Zeke was asking me about why some big trucks have bunks above their cabs. I explained that it was so the drivers could sleep if they were taking long trips. He then wanted to know how the trucks kept driving while their drivers slept. I explained that they didn't. He was, it seems, thinking about the image of a driver climbing up into a bunk above the cab of his truck and looking out those little windows. He thought for a minute and then remarked:
Daddy -- wouldn't it be funny if there was a window in your head, and you could climb up into your head and look out the window? And then your head would be bouncing around with you in it.
Presumably many of my three or four readers will be familiar with Theodore Geisel, b.k.a. Dr. Seuss, and maybe also his well-known graduation present book, Oh, the Places You'll Go. We have a copy of this lying around and Zeke has taken a liking to it. He has been asking to have it read to him a lot. But yesterday he decided to "read" it to Talia. I didn't get it all down, but here's a reasonable chunk of it.
When you're on earth, it's not much fun. You're on the outside of the earth. You're done.
Oh, let's go, to the places you'll go. It's in space. In outer space, you know.
You might catch, or you might score, On the greatest one of all. One hundred. Or.
Except when it's not, there's a game you can't win.
The end.
In the original, there are a lot of pages that begin, "Except when it's not," or "Except when you don't," or things like that. Just in case you're wondering. Also, Zeke has suddenly gotten interested in outer space and asks lots of questions about planets. Someone at preschool must have mentioned the fact that Pluto has been demoted to, what is it now, a planetoid or something, because he has been asking me why Pluto used to be a planet and isn't any more. He wants to know if it shrunk.
At any rate, the first line really made an impression on me. And he definitely has the anapestic tetrameter pretty well down.
Friday, February 06, 2009
Things Zeke asked me today:
Why are poisonous snakes in museums?
Why is the bottom of your mouth part of your head?
Zeke, a few weeks ago, trying to comfort a friend on the way to school:
Don't think about your mommy. And don't think about your daddy. I'm thinking about how nice it is inside our school. And about how nice our teachers are.
Today, when I picked the kids up from day care, Talia informed me: "Eat cake. Happy birthday to you." This was the first time I've heard her tell me, in a declarative way, about something that happened in the past. (There had been a little birthday party for one of the kids in her "class." She couldn't tell me whose birthday it was, but Zeke filled me in on the details.) In fact, I believe it's the first time I've ever heard her use language to describe something that was neither (1) immediately in front of her or (2) something she wanted us to get or do for her. Maybe I'm wrong, but this seems like a major cognitive milestone to me, in terms of how she uses language and how she thinks about events. I don't remember anything quite this dramatic with Zeke.
Here's something else -- two photos, showing Zeke at age 22 months and Talia at age 18 months (a few weeks ago). I think it's pretty striking -- you can really see how much alike they look.
Z.: I want to go with you to the store so you don't forget to buy Froot Loops. Me: Why do you want Froot Loops? Z.: Because they're very expectful to eat. Me: What's "expectful"? Z.: "Expectful" means, um, "really reliable." Me: What does "really reliable" mean? Z.: (after a pause) Poop.
Not sure where he ate Froot Loops, but I don't intend to buy any, just for the record.
It's been a long time without a real update. Sorry about that, loyal readers (all three of you). In the meanwhile the clan has been off on two short (four-day) vacations, one to Ricketts Glen State Park (about fifty miles west of Scranton), where we hung around in a small cabin and did some light hiking (very light) in what passes for mountains in Pennsylvania. The other one was to a rented vacation house at Chincoteague, Virginia, i.e., a trip to the beach. Both were a lot of fun. Both kids liked Ricketts Glen, and they also found they liked the beach, though the waves made them nervous. Zeke in fact was in some distress the first few times he watched his mother go into the surf.
In other news, Talia is really talking. She's hard to understand, but she is definitely stringing short sentences together. She imitates her brother a lot. She has a few fairly adorable verbal idiosyncrasies, like saying something that sounds like "see" instead of "it's" -- thus, when eating, "See good!" or when playing, "See funny!" (You can see an example of that last one in the video at the bottom of this post.) For a while, when she was eating, she'd always comment enthusiastically, "I yike it!" but that seems to have passed. Her other habit is screaming at the top of her lungs when something excites her, and also dancing around, with lots of prodding from the audience. The two of them, at least at the moment, are getting along famously and really enjoy one another most of the time.
I have no real good stories off the top of my head, aside from the little one-liners that I've been posting. But there are a few nice photos. If you are reading this in an email, you probably won't be able to see them; click here to see this post on the web, where everything ought to work properly. Same goes for the little video at the end of the post.
First, here are the photos from Ricketts Glen.
(Note: Some of my favorites aren't visible here because they show someone else's kids. If you want to see those, go to Flickr.com, which is a site I use for managing digital photos, sign up for an account, and then visit my page and add me as a "contact," either as "friend" or "family." I can walk you through this if need be. After that, the hidden photos should be visible here. If this is too much of a pain, well, eventually I'll come up with something else. Also: I have left out many of my own photos that show only scenery, but if you want to see those, they're here as well. Ricketts Glen is a very nice place.)
Here are some Chincoteague photos. For some reason we only took very few (sixteen). You can also see them here.
And finally, here are a couple of other recent favorites. Personally, my favorites are the ones of Zeke and Talia perched together on the "changing table" (i.e., a foam pad on top of a dresser), both goofing around. (For some reason they're not displayed together, but they're part of a series, and it'll be obvious when you flip through them.) All those can also be seen here.
And, one last little tidbit, here is a one-and-three-quarters-minute video of Talia and Zeke jumping up and down in a crib. That's all it is, but it cracks me up anyhow.
Hicked: "a little bit broken." Trains, in particular, can easily become hicked. Moots: "when you do what you're not told to do it, but you do anyway." No usage example. Grass-griffs: "a little hedgehog that comes out at night and sleeps in the day, and eats grass."
To my surprise (I guess this is what happens when you have someone else taking care of your kids for more than half their waking hours), Zeke has an opinion about what colors are appropriate for boys and for girls. Overheard recently (K. is our next-door neighbor, a girl about Zeke's age):
K.: Zeke, do you want to eat yours out of a pink bowl? Z.: No. K.: Do you like pink? Z.: No. Pink is for girls. K.: Do you like purple? Z.: Yes, purple is for boys. K.: No. Purple is for girls. Black is for boys. Z.: No. I don't like black, but I like purple. Purple is for boys.
Here's Zeke and Talia goofing around, having some toast and jam on the bed.
And here's Talia having some string cheese in her high chair.
At the moment, the kids and I are out of town. The residential sewer lateral that connects our house to the city sewer appears to have collapsed and needs to be replaced. (If this sounds expensive — it is.) No showers, no flushing the toilet, etc. Luckily Naani and Pop-Pop are only two hours away.
Zeke's been able to recognize his own name in writing for a while now, mainly (I assume) because you just don't see that many short words that start with "Z" (especially when they're written on the back of, say, the pictures he draws at daycare). But this surprised me. Tonight, Zeke stared at this bowl for a minute or two and then asked, "Daddy, what does this say?" I said, "What do you think it says?" Then he sounded out what he saw: "Tuh... ah... luh... Talia."
Later, I was reading him a book (about Rosa Parks -- not sure this is really the most appropriate for his age, but he likes the pictures of buses) which includes, in large type, the text of a spiritual, beginning with the words, "O freedom, O freedom, O freedom over me." I read this out loud to him, and he interrupted me and pointed at each of the "O"'s in turn, saying "O feeding, O feeding, O feeding over me."
Our home computer is still busted (not connecting to the Internet) and may remain so for the foreseeable future, so if I'm going to maintain this blog, I'm going to have to get used to using my work machine. So here goes. First, here's the news. Talia's completely mobile. Not only is she walking, but she's trying to climb pretty much everything. She continues to be pretty sweet-tempered most of the time, but she's beginning to develop a very strong will (to match her very strong muscles -- I sometimes have to use two hands to hold her still while diapering). She shrieks with displeasure when you take away something she believes is hers. On top of this, she's beginning to talk -- a lot. She has a hell of an appetite and accordingly probably sixty percent of her vocabulary refers to food. "Quacka" (cracker), "nana" (banana), "mee" (milk), "goff" (goldfish), "chee" (cheese) -- all staples. (As you can see, she's not yet adept with final sibilants and palatals.) She's also into dancing around in circles (in a sort of proto-toddler waddle) and making funny faces. It's cute.
Zeke is still getting used to using the potty. I feel like we've been saying that for a long time now. But anyhow, he continues to make progress. He hasn't worn a diaper or Pull-Up in probably several months now, but accidents (especially the smelly, filthy kind, rather than the wet, rug-destroying kind) are frequent. As you can see from the previous post, he is very interested in letters and reading. Perhaps surprisingly, he is maybe even more interested in numbers. Every time he sees a cluster of numbers together (especially in the car, like on a highway sign), he asks what it means, for example, "Daddy, what do two 2's and a four mean?" on seeing the sign for U.S. route 422. He's fooled around a little with making his own numbers, but he hasn't really discovered yet that one can draw symbols for oneself.
And then, some recent pictures.
Go here to see all these pictures together on a single page.
Finally, here's the latest quip from Zeke. This is from bedtime tonight.
Z.: Daddy! Do you smell something? Me: Um, no, do you smell something? Z.: (rubbing his nose) That's boogies! I smell boogies!
Z.: Daddy, we're completely out of date. (pause) Z.: Daddy, do you know what "completely out of date" means? Me: No. Z.: It means, we ran out of raisins. We're completely out of raisins.
In other news, Zeke's second Christmas proved to be pretty much all about Thomas. Thomas trains, Thomas books, Thomas movies, and Thomas songs. We're all learning a lot about steam trains.
Z.: Can I have a lollipop now? H.: You can have a lollipop after dinner. Z. (eats a few bites) Z.: Can I have a lollipop now? H.: After you finish your sweet potato. (pause) Z. (pointing) Mommy, you know, the lollipops are right in there.
I was out of town for a long conference just before Thanksgiving, and our old Kodak digital camera died, which partially explains the lack of posts. Here are the big developments lately.
First: Zeke's been using the potty pretty regularly and wearing underpants. He likes Thomas the Tank Engine underpants (Thomas has made an appearance here previously).
Second, and even more exciting, Talia's almost walking. I'll try and put some video online soon. She's saying a couple of words, to wit: "cat," "mama," "dog" (I think). Most frequent however are "uh-oh" and "yay." Other than that -- she continues to heal well, and from her behavior you'd never know she was in surgery a month ago.
Z.: Daddy, what's a barton? Me: Um, I don't know. Z. (reflectively): I don't know either. I was just ... saying something. Maybe it's a little ... thing. Or a little toy. I don't know.
I sent this to a bunch of friends, family, students and colleagues.
Hello again –
Talia, my daughter, finished her surgery this afternoon at around five p.m. She is going to be at Children’s Hospital at least through the end of Wednesday, probably Thursday. The surgery went fine with no complications. The surgeon kept telling us that he thought he had done a fabulous job and that she is even cuter now than she was before. Her head definitely looks different. For the moment she is very uncomfortable and not keeping food down, but I understand that’s more or less normal.
Heather, Zeke and I have received an tremendous amount of support from friends, family, students and colleagues, and I hope to be able to thank all of you individually in the coming days. For the moment, though, I’ll just say: thank you all. I appreciate it.
Nathan
I'll be going back to the hospital tomorrow. Zeke had a good afternoon with his Grammy. I plan to drop him off at daycare in the morning.
First: Zeke's been using the potty pretty regularly and wearing underpants. He likes Thomas the Tank Engine underpants (Thomas has made an appearance 
