Clever as a fox

Yesterday, Meredith was having some trouble following directions. Mostly she was doing things to her sister that weren't quite safe. I'd remind her not to wrap her legs around her sister, and then seconds later she'd be doing it again. This happened several times; sometimes because she was being careless and forgetful, sometimes because she was being defiant. (And sometimes it is hard to tell.)

As the pattern continued, I warned her that she needed to do a better job listening and following instructions and not misbehaving. If she defied a warning again, she would be unable to watch television for the rest of the day. Meredith treasures being able to watch Curiouis George or Super Why on PBS on some evenings, so this is often a strong incentive.

It didn't take long for me to be true to my promise. It was followed by some low-level pleading for another chance, but she had already gotten a couple of second chances.

About a half hour later Meredith asked if she could watch television. I said no and reminded her why. She pouted. A little later, she asked me again. The response was the same. I asked her to stop asking me questions she already knows the answer to. When she went ahead and asked later in the afternoon, I said, "Why are you keep asking me that question? I've already answered it several times." Meredith responded, mostly under her breath to herself, "I'm hoping he'll forgot." Because she was mumbling, I asked her to repeat. "I said I hoped you'll forget and let me watch television."

It's not a surprise that Meredith is employing the hopeful method of repeated asking. I was a little surprised that she so clearly verbalized her strategy; and that she actually coolly admitted her strategy to me.

I told Meredith that it was very impolite to ask someone a question that they have already clearly answered. She took this to heart and proceeded to fall back on the pleading method: "Please? I'll be good from now on?"

Meredith has already tried the method of going to another parent, hoping for ignorance, when some policy has been handed down. This has been met with little success so far. But the scheming is worrisome. At some point she is going to be more clever and able to navigate around us. Already, when denied sugary treats she knows to go to the neighbors to get a popsicle. I'm thinking we're getting a little preview to what we're dealing with 5 or 10 years down the road.

Props!

Meredith wants to congratulate her cousin, Kayla, on being student of the month. "Good job Kayla!" Meredith says.

West De Pere High School Students of the Month - January 2008

Art

Below are a handful of selections of Meredith's works of art the last several months. Meredith loves art projects and has just started a weekly art class in our neighborhood. Last week they got to learn how to mix colors to form new ones as they painted life-sized pictures of themselves.

Drool and Birthdays

It's begun. With Elaine's second bottom tooth poking through, the girl has begun to drool. Each morning I greet her in her crib and she has a big "drool goatee" hanging down. It's precious. The new teeth also mean that food is getting more messy for now. She spits out her formula and dribbles out her pureed baby food. Glorious.

On Saturday, we had a little celebration to mark my 30th birthday. It feels like a milestone. We had a wine and cheese theme and friends generously brought great wine and cheese selections. The party included a fair amount of crazy four year-olds loudly chasing each other through the house. Eventually, they were largely relegated to the upstairs, where a suspicious spot appeared in the carpet. Meredith, after cleverly covering it up with a piece of paper, admitted its cause to be "moon sand" and water that "accidentally" spilled on it. "Moon sand" is this particularly treacherous substance. It's like sandy, foamy play-do--but messier.

Several days into my 30th year, I do feel older. Still, the moments I truly feel old is when I awake to crying at 5-something AM to deal with a messy diaper. Birthdays or no, I'm hunched over and stumbling as a I drag my aching body around the house, eyes open just enough to navigate around physical hazards. I don't, however, feel wiser quite yet. It's hard to feel wise when a four year-old is beginning to out-clever you.

Stuck inside

With the cold outside and the cold viruses in our bodies, we've spent a lot of time inside in the last week. In between getting healthy and watching the Packers miss their chance to go to the Super Bowl, we've had to find some entertainment.

The girls and I decided to do a dance concert. A clip of the performance is below for your viewing pleasure.

VIDEO: Meredith is a dancing queen



PICTURES

We got teeth!

January 16 will hereafter be known as the day Elaine got her first tooth. After months of slowly working on them, today her bottom, center right tooth popped through. She has a sharp edge to contend with now. It appears that the tooth's center partners on the left and top won't be that far behind. She'll be chewing before we know it!

Video: Elaine sounds

Here is the promised video of Elaine's newest sound. She liked having me pat her mouth while she did this. In the days since, she prefers to run her fist or the back of her hand over her mouth herself.

aw-aw-aw-aw-aw

We're back to the old grindstone. This has been an up and down week. It's hard to go back to old routines after the holidays and traveling. Jen went back to work, Meredith back to school, and Elaine and I were just the two of us in the mornings. We're kind of tired, but at least healthier (so far) than we were last month.

Elaine has taken off this week. All of a sudden she is doing real crawling, instead of her "comando scooting." Elaine can pull up to standing position. She can stand with minimal balance support for a long time, even going one-handed already. She can kind-of do an assisted walk--but the walking thing is still a little bit in the future.

Elaine's favorite sounds she learned while we were in Florida. She takes her fist or back of her open hand and runs it over her mouth while she makes a long vowel sound. We hope to get one of these frequent incidents on video soon. She gets a kick out of it every time she does it.

Florida pictures

We just returned from our trip to the Gulf coast of Florida with the Randolph clan. We had a couple adjoining rooms at a beach-side, family-owned, family-friendly hotel-resort. We swam in the pools and hot tubes, hiked and played in the sand on the beach, had some coconut rum, went to the aquarium, and generally hung out and had a relaxing time.

Half our time there comprised of cold, windy weather. Even us hardy Minnesotans were bummed by the below 50 degree nights with the frigid winds. It made the run from the pool and hot tub to the room a fast one. We appreciated near-perfect weather the last couple of days. Jen even got a little sun. Meredith, Elaine, and I seemed to protect ourselves with enough sun block to hide any evidence we were in Florida for nearly a week.

Some pictures from our time below...