A fun (sic) weekend

As the severity of the economic downturn facing our new president becomes more and more apparent (6% annualized declines in GDP for the U.K. and Germany announced for the 4th quarter of '08 - that's unbelievable), a weekend at home has made me really appreciate the fact that Abby and I both have jobs (knock on wood.) As I think that I've noted before, if I couldn't get away from the kids by going to work on Monday, I think I'd go crazy (as would Abby, I suspect.)

Now, I love my kids, let's get that straight. Margaret is becoming a really interesting little person, with all sorts of fascinating opinions and thoughts that she wants to share. Teddy has been working on his communication skills as well. He babbles in a very earnest and demonstrative way, using apparently complex sentence structures with sounds that don't mean anything. But he's also starting to toss out more actual words. For example, "nose" is a new word (with him grabbing his ears followed by pointing to his nose). Most exciting, he's started to work on his sister's name: "Mah-get." While his sister's name pops up in a variety of setting, he tends to scream after most interactions with her.

Margaret and Teddy have a very contentious relationship. He wants what she has, and he'll chase her around because she's so interesting. For her part, she either doesn't want to share or she wants what he has, and she usually gets her way (often by pushing him) leading him to howl. In the end, it's a roller coaster ride as brief quiet spells are broken by Teddy screaming at Margaret, Margaret howling at Teddy, or one (or both) of them bellowing about some affront attributable to us. In the latter case, Margaret's complaints tend to be more sophisticated ("I want a sippy cup, not a big girl cup!"), but are no less pointless. After a weekend of the kids' drama, I can understand why Maddie gets so stressed out around them.

To the boy's credit, he managed to do his business (both kinds!!) on the potty multiple times this weekend. I'm pretty sure that he doesn't really understand why he's doing what he's doing on the potty, but he seems to have the drill down. In contrast, his sister refuses to use the potty at home, although she doesn't wear a diaper at school anymore. If only we could combine the "reasoning" skills of Margaret with the mindless skills of the boy, we'd have the perfect toddler.