Two Year Checkup

Rebecca had her two year old well exam this morning, and when I told her we were going to the doctor first before school, she seemed very pleased. "I go doctor! I go doctor!" she kept announcing happily. I felt rather guilty but I wasn't about to tell her that she wasn't going to like it.

As usual she was quite happy until we were escorted back to the exam room. Then a look of "wait a minute, I remember this place...." seemed to dawn on her face, and she was her usual uncooperative self for the physical exam, ear check, throat check (she somehow managed to cry through clenched teeth which the doctor found very impressive).

After the doctor left and we were waiting for the nurse to come give her shots (flu and hepatitis A), Becca tried to escape from the exam room, crying "I want go doctor! I want go doctor!" as if not understanding that that's where we were... she seemed to think this was some torture I was inflicting upon her in lieu of the promised doctor visit. The shots, of course, were not received well, she was not appeased by the stickers that were offered to her, and then she threw a fit because she didn't want to leave.

That's right, she didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay and read books in the waiting room. So I had to carry her kicking and screaming out to the car.

The numbers--

Weight - 27 lbs (50-75th percentile)
Height - 35 1/2 inches (90th percentile)
Head circumference - 19 1/4 inches (75-90th percentile)

A Trip to the Gardens

The sun came out this afternoon so mom and dad and I took the kids to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. The kids loved running around (especially through the water) and looking at the flowers and butterflies. All the pictures of butterflies and flowers in the slide show below were taken by Ben. And yes, the butterly on the woman's face was real!

It's a Birthday Party!

We were very lucky to have both sets of grandparents with us for Becca's birthday this year! We had a quiet party on Saturday with just the family, pizza, and cake... the cake featured Becca's two favorite animals, bunnies and monkeys! Despite it being a rainy day, we had a great little party.

It's a Birthday Girl!

9/25/07 at 9:25 am...



9/25/09...



We love you Becca!!! Happy birthday to the best little girl on the planet!!!

A Happy Bunny

I was able to get her into the bunny head by telling her it was a "bunny hat" (she loves hats). I imagine I will be able to get her into the feet by telling her they are "bunny shoes" (she loves shoes). I am not sure about the body though. We have a month to figure that part out.

No Cross Contamination, Here

It occurred to me suddenly, while watching Ben eat his dinner tonight, that lately he has been taking the whole "different foods can't touch each other on the plate" concept to a whole new level... it kind of snuck up on me and I didn't even really realize it until tonight that Ben cannot have his food groups sharing the same plate, much less touching each other. So here he is at dinner tonight, with a plate of chicken with dip, a plate of brocolli, a bowl of strawberries and a plate of cheese nips (somehow a compromise because he didn't want rice). Considering our liberal use of paper products in this household, Ben's new eating habits may single handedly be responsible for the destruction of a rain forest somewhere.

Bumblebee

The kids' Halloween costumes arrived today (for once I ordered them relatively early instead of panicking at the last minute). Ben was more than happy to model his Transformers costume, which was a gamble on two levels... first, I did not consult him before I ordered it since it was kind of an impulse buy, and second I didn't know what size to order but since he's tall and costumes usually run small I ordered him a 7/8... both gambles paid off, and he loved the costume AND it fits. Yay me!

It remains to be seen whether or not you'll ever see a picture of Rebecca in her rabbit costume. She was very happy to look at it in the packaging, but when I made a move to put it on her she cried, "no, no! no bunny!" and ran away. Halloween may be a bit rough for Becca, come to think of it, considering how afraid she is of mascots and that type of thing... it just might be genuine torture.

Future Black Belt?

I'll let you all be the judge!

Learning From Big Brother

Two examples of how Becca is learning from her brother:

1. Last night I was taking a minute to go over Ben's "magic words" with him for school -- he has a "treasure box" that he brings home once a week with new flash cards of words they are learning to recognize at school. By now there's about ten words in there. Becca saw me doing the flash cards with Ben and she came running over and climbed up on the bed. "I want play! I want play!" she said. So, after I did the flash cards with Ben I had to do them with her, too. For her of course I just showed her the card and said the word for her, and she repeated it to me. She seemed to think it was a fun game, even though it was just words, no pictures or anything.

2. This next example is a little more annoying! When we are in the car, Ben always asks to listen to a certain CD which is a compilation of pop songs sung by kids. Lately he's been wanting to listen to the track "Allstar" (from the Shrek soundtrack), which he knows all the words to and asks me to put it on repeat so I have to listen to it constantly. He calls the song "Shrek" because he associates it with the movie. Anyway this morning I put Becca in the car after Ben got on the bus, and the CD was playing with that song on from the last time we'd all been in the car together. Thinking that I would FINALLY get a chance to listen to something else for a minute, I put the radio on. Instantly from the back seat I hear Becca's screech: "I want Shrek! Want Shrek!"

So I had to put it back on, and listen to her hum/try to sing it the whole way to preschool.

Sticky Fingers

We went to Sticky Fingers for dinner tonight. In Becca's case, the restaurant might have been more aptly named Sticky Fingers, Face, Elbows, Knees and Bunny, but I suppose that probably wouldn't fit on the sign. She particularly enjoyed the wings.

Smiley

One of the teachers at the preschool has nicknamed Rebecca "Smiley" and here's why:

Happy New Year!

For those of you not keeping up with your Jewish calendar, it's New Year's Eve! We had the requisite Rosh Hashanah food items with dinner tonight -- Ben enjoyed being in charge of portioning out the honey, and Becca ate so many apples I thought she was going to turn into one. She didn't really know what the honey was, except that she liked it. She kept asking for "more sauce."

Here's Becca wishing everyone a happy and healthy 5770!

Behavior Chart

Strangely, Ben has started asking to have a behavior chart at home like the one at school, with Blue, Green, Yellow and Red. "Red," he explained, "will mean I have to go to my room. But not the others. Just red," he added quickly. He brought it up first yesterday, and then again today (to ask if I'd had time to go get the construction paper to make it, which I had not).

I am not sure what his motivation is for wanting the chart but my suspicion is that he wants to use it as leverage to get rewards for good behavior. Yesterday he was helpful and polite bordering on bizarre at dinner, saying "please" and "thank you" at every opportunity and even inventing some opportunities to show off his good manners such as "Would you mind please passing the ketchup? Thank you," when the ketchup was right in front of him. He also insisted on setting and clearing the table, bringing Joel and I drinks, etc. I feel as though it must not have been coincidental timing with the whole mention of wanting a behavior chart at home.

So I am wondering if I should go with it, and make him the chart and be thankful that my boy is so eager for discipline, or if this is just going to end up like potty training, when I somehow wound up having to give him a hot wheels car every time he pooped.

Ups and Downs

That's a good way to describe our day today. It started out good, with a nice walk at the Greenway, a four mile walking/biking trail that happens to start right next to a Starbucks. So the kids and I had breakfast at Starbucks followed by a nice walk. Ben rode his scooter, which he is getting very good at balancing on, and Rebecca for once was content to ride in her stroller and watch the scenery. And since I had my venti iced tea lemonade and most of the walk was under a thick canopy of trees, I was happy too.

The day unwound a bit around lunchtime when Ben for no apparent reason threw a huge temper tantrum and refused to eat, and was about an inch away from spending the afternoon in his room instead of at his soccer game. He eventually pulled himself together and ate lunch, and I took him to soccer while Joel watched the Eagles game and Becca, who was kind to him and slept through most of the game.

At soccer Ben was great, even scoring his team's only two goals (they lost anyway, but we're not supposed to be keeping score... I'll leave out the part where he also gave up two goals when he was playing goalie... I thought he did awesome anyway). No pictures or video because I forgot to charge the camera battery!! I was kicking myself the whole time. He would of course score his first goal when I can't record the event.

After the game he unraveled again and threw another tremendous tantrum, this one upon learning that Joel was going to go play a round of twilight golf and he couldn't come. He eventually pulled himself together again, and we ordered pizza for dinner and read bedtime stories where he pointed out his "magic words" to me (which so far are "the", "and", "a" and "go").

If not for the moodiness it would have been a four star day... but I'll still give it three stars.

Code Red

No, not of Homeland Security fame; I am talking about the behavior scale used in Ben's kindergarten class room. Blue is Outstanding, Green is Good, Yellow means Warning, and Red means Mom gets a call from the teacher.

Today I got my first call from Ben's teacher -- or more accurately, from the teacher's assistant. It seems that Ben was disrespecting classroom materials today despite repeated warnings. This is fancy for he was throwing things. Now, when I think "throwing things", I think having a tantrum/throwing things on purpose. But, apparently he was not doing anything out of anger, he was being careless in his putting away of things and was throwing things into bins, etc. (Which I personally wouldn't classify as a code red offense, but I guess if he was told multiple times to stop and didn't, I can see how he wound up there).

Now, why he decided it was a good idea to continue to do this after the teacher told him not to, I might never know. I decided that since it was his first code red offense I would let him off with a talking-to. I gave him an opportunity to explain what had happened, but he was mute. So I gave him the standard lecture about being careful with other people's property, which he listened to with his face buried in his pillow with his head turned just enough so that he could watch me out of the corner of one eye. He nodded at the appropriate parts, so hopefully he will get the picture and phone calls from school won't become frequent!

Adjusting to School

After the three day weekend we've had a bit of trouble adjusting back into our school routine. On Tuesday at the bus stop, Ben was in tears because he wanted to stay home with me instead of going to school. We persevered though, and yesterday and today seem to be better. This morning he didn't complain about not wanting to go to school at all. I am sure it was a combination of factors such as gym class and Tae Kwon Do to look forward today, as well as a small bribe I might have let slip wherein I told him that if he didn't complain about getting on the bus all week, he might get a small present this weekend. He hasn't brought it up since I mentioned it, but I am sure he hasn't forgotten!

He still doesn't seem particularly enthusiastic about the parts of school that don't involve lunch and recess, and doesn't divulge too much about his day. (Last night Joel asked him, "Did you get to watch President Obama's speech yesterday [Tuesday]?" "Yes," Ben replied promptly. "What did he say?" Joel pressed. "He talked about what you can be," Ben said. "Did you like it?" Joel asked. "No," Ben replied without hesitation).

Becca seems to be re-adjusting to the school schedule well also. The last couple of days she has wanted me to sit and read with her when we get to preschool, and has gotten a little upset when I left. This morning though she sat down with her teacher instead, and when she saw me standing there (wondering if it was okay for me to leave yet) she waved and said "BYE!" So I took the hint.

Labor Day

The Labor Day weekend has been nice... in addition to Ben's soccer game yesterday, we had friends over for dinner, went out to dinner with Joel's parents, went swimming twice, took Ben to his first Tae Kwon Do class (he goes twice a week starting this week), and did some barbecuing. All in all, it was a good weekend. I am sad to mark the end of the pool season, since the outdoor pool complex at the JCC closes for the season after today. But, I am looking forward to cooler fall weather... or if not exactly "fall" weather, just cooler weather. Even though it's still shorts weather, it is cool enough now that we can enjoy being outside without a body of water nearby to cool off in. This weekend, for example, I noticed that we spent a lot of time out in the back yard playing on the swings and slide, which have been neglected during the hot summer months. We also ate dinner out on the deck twice, which we also hadn't done in a while because of the heat. So, even though we have to bid a tearful farewell to the pool for now, we are enjoying the cooler-yet-still-awesomely-nice-like-sunny-and-80 weather that fall brings! (Did I mention that fall in Charlotte rocks?)

Eilat Sweepers Vs. Golan Heat

Game two of the soccer season... still hot as hell out on the field, but very entertaining...



A shot on goal... sort of...

A Long Week

It has been a long week for everyone, and we are all ready for a three day weekend! (Hopefully a relaxing one!)

Ben's first week of school has gone very well, except that yesterday he started saying "school is boring!" and that he didn't want to go. I was able to tell him (truthfully) that he was going to have gym class, so that cheered him up some. This morning he seemed very tired at the bus stop. He told me he didn't want his alarm to wake him up tomorrow, and I reassured him that since tomorrow is Saturday he could sleep as late as he wants.

Rebecca is fighting off a cold, and on the way to preschool she kept telling me "I go bed! I go bed!" I guess she is tired too :(

I, having worked ten hours yesterday plus spent two hours at a PTA meeting followed by Curriculum Night at Ben's school, am also exhausted.

Is it the weekend yet????

He Can Sleep Anywhere

I found Ben sleeping on the floor in the upstairs hallway last night, being gaurded by the cat. Before I woke him up to put him back in bed, I grabbed the camera. No explanation as to why he was out of bed in the first place.