"I want my Mom"

Discover Pink Floyd!

The life of a two-year-old involves lots of drama. Sometimes, Margaret deals with that drama by moaning loudly and repeatedly on our way home after work. After a few blocks, I'll stop and try to console her. If that doesn't work, I'll try to reason with her about how we're almost home and she doesn't want to make Maddie sad. If she still insists on groaning, I threaten that she's making Papa angry, something that she probably should avoid. Usually, one of those three approaches works, but we occasionally have a very unpleasant walk home, with Margaret moaning, to the amusement of passersby, while Papa steams.

Lately, she's started using a new phrase to express her displeasure. "I want my Mom," she'll whine. Not Mama, which is her usual phrase for referring to Abby, nor Abby, which is the other common reference to her Mom. Instead, she plaintively intones, "I want my Mom."

This phrase has been popping up more and more frequently. On one extreme, it pops up when she's feeling a little bit cranky and wants some consolation. Now, Papa can provide that consolation as well as Mama, but she still insists, "I want my Mom." On the other extreme, when Papa is irritated or is trying to correct some misbehavior, she'll start to bawl. In between heaving sobs, she'll blubber, "I want my Mom."

We're not sure where she picked up this phrase, but she probably learned it from someone in the preschool at daycare. After all, she never uses "Mom" in everyday speech, it's just when she's feeling needy, for one reason or another. But we've been trying to quash it, because it either arises in stupid settings (e.g. when Abby's in the shower in the morning) or when Abby isn't available and there's nothing to be done.

The biggest problem arises when Teddy elicits howls from Margaret when we're at home before Abby gets home. As I discussed in an earlier post, Margaret has become quite busy which often involves putting things in bags and containers that she then carries around. Teddy, being a curious little bugger, wants to get in on the action. But when he tries to grab something, Margaret resists and often starts to scream at him. "Teddddddyyyyy," she'll howl, tugging on her bag and occasionally pushing him in the process. Until recently, Teddy has responded with a quizzical expression, but lately he has also started to howl when Margaret thwarts him. Because Margaret is the more "rational" of the two, I often try to reason with her that she needs to move her toys away from the boy in order to avoid these confrontations. Often, this doesn't work as Margaret will start to sob. The frequent end to these episodes? "I want my Mom."

(BTW, the song at the beginning of this post isn't really "pro-Mom." But I like it because I've always liked Pink Floyd, and less motivated readers won't realize why it's not pro-Mom.)

Additional random thoughts

John McCain was on Imus In the Morning today for the first time in a while. We tend to flip between Imus and NPR (how's that for a juxtaposition) on our shower radio, and I happened to catch part of his interview with McCain. Needless to say, McCain bashed Georgetown cocktail parties again during his interview. Darnit, where are these cocktail parties in my neighborhood? And why are we not invited?

At Teddy's one year checkup, we found out that he is in the 95th percentile for height and head size, and the 75th percentile for weight. All of which is expected except for, I suppose, the weight given that they marvel at how he eats at school. Mr. Ty told me, with some wonder, that he ate six muffins in one sitting today.

Speaking of Mr. Ty, Teddy has officially moved up to the toddler room, specifically to Toddler I. For a variety of reasons, including pressure in the infant room and an outflow of kids from this Pre-K room, they appear to be shifting kids up a bit sooner than they did in the past. Initially, Abby and I were a bit concerned that Teddy wasn't ready for the toddler room, unlike some other parents who seem very concerned that their kids aren't moving up soon enough (doggonit, gotta keep my kid ahead of the curve, they seem to think.) After all, he couldn't really walk until recently. But he seems to be doing well. And his walking has gotten much better over the last few weeks.

At the same time that Teddy is moving to the toddler room, Margaret is moving to the pre-K room. Given that she's not even three yet, I'm not sure if that's a good move, but I'm not sure that there's a big difference between Toddler II and the pre-K room. And the latter is a helluva lot cheaper, so I suppose I'm all for it. And, at the end of the day, Margaret seems happy.

Last thing. As you might notice in the pictures in the previous post, Teddy is a spotty little dude. He hasn't exhibited any allergic tendencies, but he's always been pretty spotty. During his last checkup, the doctor noted that some kids are sensitive to their own saliva. Given that Teddy's a drooly kid, and likes his nuk-nuk (although not as much as his sister), this seemed to be a pretty reasonable diagnosis. We've tried to cut back on his contact with his drool, and he seems to be more presentable.

Dancing princess

We went to my cousin's wedding in eastern Ohio this past weekend, and I have a few observations.

Because we were in a "battleground" state (unlike DC where the only battle is whether the Democrat breaks 90%), we paid special attention to the distribution of political signs and stickers. Interestingly, we saw about a 50-50 split of McCain-Palin and Obama-Biden signs. And while looking for a bow tie for the boy at the Eastwood Mall in Warren OH, Teddy and I saw Obama stickers on people who sure looked the McCain-Palin part. That's certainly not scientific evidence, and I'm not sure if it means anything at all, but we were in the heartland of America that is eastern Ohio. I'll just leave it at that.

When dressing for the wedding, I pulled out my tie carrier, opened it up and found. . . a yellow rubber glove. At which point, I recalled Margaret fiddling with my tie carrier while helping Rodah clean the week before. Come to think of it, I still haven't tried to locate where she put my ties. . .

At the wedding, we spent a lot of time chasing Teddy. In fact, the boy was the big problem as he didn't want to sit still. Instead, he kept walking around wearing his little bow tie with his belly sticking out from under his little oxford shirt. Luckily, a number of other toddlers, including his second (?) cousin Brady, were trundling around the reception, so he wasn't a big problem. In fact, I noted to another toddler-chaser that we should've set up, and taken bets on, a toddler race. Notably, however, the best part was when someone else, like my Mom or Lizzie or Anna, watched Teddy.

But even still, the existence of the kids has definitely changed our "status" at weddings. As Abby noted, we now have a very different role at weddings. In the past, I would note the presence of kids, register how cute they were, and perhaps note their parents, at which point I would immediately go back to my conversation or whatever else I happened to be doing. "Gosh, aren't those cute kids on the dancefloor?," I'd think, before putting them out of my mind. Now, I am the source of those cute kids. And I'm the one being ignored by the younger set at weddings.

On the one hand, I'm sure that Abby and I could still be "fun" at weddings, even with the kids, although I'm not sure that I have the enthusiasm or stamina for such a feat. On the other hand, dancing with Margaret or watching her dance with her cousins was a lot of fun. In fact, I'm not sure whether anything that I've done at previous weddings beats dancing to some silly disco song with Margaret, Alex, Lizzie and Cousin Sarah (as Margaret refers to her).

Discover ABBA!

In the end, Teddy was completely wired. At some point, he was calmly sitting on my Mom's lap, and I asked my uncle, who could see the boy's face, whether he was asleep. Nope, he indicated, making a boooiiiingggg!!!! signal with his eyes.

And Margaret had so much fun dancing. Just before we go to bed each night, we have a routine that involves a discussion based on the question: "What do you want to talk about?" In the past, her preferred topics have been "fireworks" or various kids at her daycare. Since this past weekend, she's started to request a discussion about "dancing."

Another celebrity sighting

Washington can be a very exciting city due to the political celebrities that we pass on the street. For example, George Stephanopoulos (sic?) has lived in our neighborhood for a while. We see him on the street occasionally and say hi when see him. We used to pass his house where his little dogs would bark at Maddie while he peered out of his second floor when we walked by. (BTW, he's really pretty short, and his dogs are reportedly responsible for the death of a DC cop. But that last point should be the subject of another Georgetown gossip-inspired post.)

Earlier, I posted about passing another political celeb, Ralph Nader, on the street.

The other day, we passed another one. Abby and I were walking the kids to daycare together, an unusual arrangement that reflected the fact that she was taking a "continuing legal education" class in a building by their daycare. As we crossed Rock Creek Park on Pennsylvania Avenue, I spotted someone who appeared to be asking for directions from repairman.

"Did you see who we just walked past?," I asked.

"What? Who?," said Abby.

"That guy, over there."

"The one who passed us on the street?"

"No, that guy over there, asking for directions."

"Who are you talking about?"

"That guy over there!"

"Is that Karl Rove?"

A few blocks later, I asked my previously inobservant wife whether she thought that Rove gets heckled in the same way that I was inclined to heckle Nader during our earlier encounter.

To conclude this silly post, McCain apparently bashed those of us who live in Georgetown for a variety of reasons. I feel so abused.

Margaret's make believe world

Margaret has recently started incorporating a lot of "make believe" into her play. I don't exactly remember what her play was like before. In fact, I don't really recall how she played at all. Basically, she would pull down a container full of kiddie cups and bowls that she then scattered aimlessly around the kitchen while I cooked dinner. But in the last few weeks, she has started to exhibit substantially more focus with her playthings. She now carries the Tupperware and other food containers around the living room, putting them in bags and putting things in them with some clear objective. She pulls the little chairs from her table around, puts things on her table, on the windowsills, and in bags, and moves around her various dolls. It not clear, to me, what she's doing. And she rarely articulates her objectives, although she'll occasionally make statements like "I'm a mama!" Most of the time, she fiddles around with various stuff while I watch with bemusement trying to figure out what she's doing. As the haphazard nature of this post suggests, it's a bit difficult to explain. But basically, she's started to show a lot more concentration and focus in her manipulation of various toys. I guess that I need to ask her what she's doing while she plays.

She has also started to become much more annoyed with Teddy when he interferes with her play. Teddy isn't nearly as focused as Margaret, but he is interested in whatever his sister is doing. So, reflecting his increased mobility, he heads in her direction and grabs her bowls, shopping bag, Legos, or doll. And she hollers at him. And sometimes pushes him, yelling "No Teddy!" With the end result occasionally being a Margaret meltdown while Teddy stares at me with an innocent expression. It can be very difficult to quell the confrontations when I'm trying to cook dinner while they mill around my legs.

As for the boy, he's starting to vocalize more and more. Tonight, he tried to "sing" the Itsy Bitsy Spider, one of Margaret's favorites. He wasn't able to do much more than wave his hands in the air, sing in a off-tune kind of way, and clap at the end of the song, but he clearly had the right idea. We tried to get a video of his performance, but he mocked me by just grinning at the camera. Still, I think that he's showing an inclination for music before his sister did. Hooray, Teddy!

Teddy's big day

The boy is one year old today. And he's managed to hit a few milestones of note over the last week on his way to his first birthday. Most of these milestones were reached over our long weekend in Chicago...

Where the Cubs, once again, let us down in dramatic - or, should I say, pathetic - fashion. While I wouldn't have said it at the start of the playoffs, this Cubs team was honestly the best Cubs team I've ever seen. They had the complete combination of good starting pitching, relief pitching and hitting that it takes to win a World Series. Again, I never voiced this opinion before the start of the playoffs for fear of inducing negative karma, but goddamit, this was a good team! How could they just roll over against the Dodgers? Watching them boot the ball all over the infield in the third inning of game two, which I was so fortunate to attend, was indescribably painful. And the atmosphere at the ballpark as the events of that inning unfolded was unbelievably depressing.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, what did Teddy manage to accomplish over the weekend? First, he's started to "talk." Not in any meaningful way, although he does appear to be able to say "Mama" - he can repeat it along with Margaret and me (we had a group chant going on as we waited for her to get home tonight) and he seems able to actually identify who his Mama is. But he's also started to vocalize in interesting ways with modulations of tone associated with questions and emphatic statements. All nonsensical, but he's getting the idea. And he really started doing this vocalizing over the weekend with the grandparents.

He's also walking. Over the last few weeks, he's gotten better at taking a few steps, but he managed to put it all together this past weekend. When I last saw him on Thursday, he was walking a few steps before taking a seat. By the time I saw him on Sunday, he was stringing together dozens of steps before eventually losing his balance. When I first saw him again at our friends' house on Sunday, I watched with bemused amazement as he went step -- step, step -- step -- step, step, step -- step and so on, before he finally collapsed. I don't think that I had ever seen him take more than two steps in succession, and all of a sudden, he's trundling around the room.

I'm not sure what magic occurred at the grandparents' house, but I do know that both of the kids slept in until around 8:00 on Saturday and Sunday morning. That's 8:00 CST!!!! What the hell! We can't get the boy to sleep past 5:00 EST. And then today when Abby was admonishing Margaret for some sort of misbehavior, she whined, "I wish I was at Grandma Mary's house."

Hmmpphhh.

We have other news associated with Teddy's (possibly premature) graduation to the toddler room at daycare. But I'll save that for another time. Instead, I'll close this post with a variety of pictures, including some from his birthday party at school and at home.



And some videos of the boy (with the girl always in the background - something that is likely to become a common theme in Teddy's life.)

Ombama, part II

Margaret and I were lying in bed yesterday night. I was reading the paper as Margaret got comfortable for her evening books. I turned the page, reading something about the failed bailout package in the House, when Margaret reached up, pointed at a picture on the other page of the paper, and said, "Ombama." I glanced at the picture and said, "Yep, you're right."

"But who's that?," I asked, pointing at a picture of McCain that was immediately next to Obama's picture.

For full disclosure, despite the impression that dedicated readers may have gotten from my last post, I don't consider myself to be a real partisan, unlike Abby, as I liked McCain ok pre-2006, pre-McCain-Feingold, pre-pandering to his base, and, most of all, pre-his VP selection. While I'm inclined to favor Obama at this point, I've really just pointed him out to Maggie because his image is everywhere, especially online. Her ability to identify him is cute, in the same way that her ability identify Dora is cute. But if it happens to make Abby happy, then I'm fine with it.

Returning to my question for Margaret, she responded in the way that she often does when she doesn't know the answer, by repeating the question. "Who's that?," she asked. "McCain," I said. Got no reaction.

Then tonight, we were watching the Cubs and surfing the web while waiting for Mama to get home from work. Margaret was very excited about watching the game. She always refers to the Cubs as "Go Cubs!", and she was very adamant: "I want to watch Go Cubs!" At some point, Margaret spotted a picture on the computer that she correctly identified as Ombama. "But who's that?," I asked, again pointing to McCain. And again, no response. But she doesn't really have it down as she saw another picture of someone with his back partially turned to the camera and proudly said, "Ombama." "Nope," I said, "That's Bush."

Speaking of the Cubs, they're currently down 5-2 to the Dodgers. I haven't posted any pics of the kids in their Cubs regalia because I didn't want to jinx anything. Hopefully, the Cubs will be able to pull this one out. Regardless, we're heading to Chicago this weekend for Abby's 10th year law school reunion. We're kicking the kids to the grandparents' house for Friday and Saturday nights while we'll stay with friends in the city. Needless to say, we're pretty excited. Even better, I got a call yesterday from some friends who told me that one of them had a ticket for tomorrow night's game that he can't use. Could I take it? If I do, Abby and the kids will head to the 'burbs while I go to the game and stay in the city. I said that I had to check with Abby first. Her response: "Of course, you should go. If you don't take the ticket, I will!" So tomorrow night at 8:30 PM CST, Abby and the kids will be in the 'burbs watching the VP debate with my parents while I'm at Wrigley. Go Cubs!