Summer and Company: Hanging Out With Arthur

Singing along with Helio Sequence on the radio

Arthur is almost two years old, and that means he's almost ready to start preschool. As excited as I am to have three mornings a week to myself - I am very excited - I'm sad, too, to say goodbye to our regular routine of spending every Monday and Wednesday morning together just the two of us.

Arthur hanging from the rings.

At PLAY, a kid's art studio

So this spring, the sky's the limit! I've been taking Arthur to all the best kids' places in L.A., from the zoo to the aquarium to the children's museum.

Picking strawberries at Underwood Family Farm:

Riding the tractor while repeating, "I on a farm."

At Peekaboo Playland, an indoor playground in Eagle Rock:

Performing "The Wheels on the Bus"

Arthur is a smart, friendly, enthusiastic guy. Some of his favorite things include singing (and his favorite song is "The Wheels on the Bus"), books, puzzles, hot dogs, apples, bananas, birds, airplanes, dinosaurs, puddles, slides, the zoo... well, it's a long list. He's very affectionate and loves nothing more than hugging, being held, or sitting in laps.

Arthur's favorite thing to do in "baby school" is sit on the reading rug with a good book.

Oatmeal

Drawing at LACMA

"I hiding!"

The past few months have been big ones for Arthur. In January we discovered he could escape from his crib in under 10 seconds:

So that day we converted his crib into a toddler bed. Now, you may remember that we moved Beatrice to a toddler bed at about the same age, and it was no problem at all. We simply switched one bed for another and she hardly seemed to notice.

Alas, this was not true for Arthur. He didn't sleep for weeks. We'd find him up at three or four in the morning, playing with toys, until finally he'd fall asleep, exhausted, in the middle of playing.

We found him like this in the morning.

He was so tired the next day that at one point he put his face down on his plate and fell asleep in the middle of eating dinner. We had to remove all the toys and books from his room and even lock his clothing drawers so that there was nothing to distract him from sleeping.


Playing the bongos and singing.

Two months have passed and at last the novelty of having access to his toys all night has worn off and he's back to sleeping normally. But the saga of the toddler bed points to the fact that in general, Arthur is a little less flexible than Beatrice.


Arthur in the backseat singing his heart out to "Glass Onion."

And sometimes this leads to tantrums. Even when Beatrice was Arthur's age, you could usually reason with her to some extent, or bargain with her, or distract her, or bribe her, but not Arthur. If Beatrice asked for a whole cupcake and you offered her half a cupcake instead, she'd still happily eat half. If Arthur asks for a whole cupcake and you offer him half, he'll throw that half on the ground and keep screaming until you give him a whole one. (I know, I shouldn't compare them, but I can't help it. To compare them further, check this out.) Basically, Arthur wants what he wants, when he wants it, and he is not interested in compromising.


Sobbing at IKEA even after being given an ice cream cone. A passing stranger commented, "That is one angry little dude!"

As you can imagine, Arthur can be a trying toddler to be around, but he makes up for it by being so charming. It's not uncommon for him to do some incredibly annoying thing, like purposefully overturning an entire cup of milk onto the kitchen floor, and then just when you're angry at him, he flashes you a huge grin and says, "Mommy, it a funny joke. Be happy, I love you!" and then you just don't have the heart to be mad at him.

Arthur has grown up in so many ways, but at least one thing is the same.