A Doctor Who Pushes

I know it's silly to try and write down all the funny things the kids say each day, but I can't help but want to catalogue some of their best quotes, especially those that illustrate their personalities so well.  And so without further ado...

ARTHUR

Arthur asked me for some cookies and I told him there weren't any.

Arthur: Check the cookie jar.
Summer: I did, there aren't any cookies.
Arthur: Then why don't you make me some?
Summer: Mommy is sick, she doesn't feel like baking right now.
Arthur: Is Daddy sick?
Summer: No.
Arthur: Then Daddy can make me some cookies.

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Arthur, getting ready to go to an event at the public library: "Will everyone like me? Will they think I'm beautiful?"

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Arthur has started using "pretending" as an excuse to do things he isn't allowed to do - for instance, I'll tell him he's not allowed to stand on the furniture and he'll say, "But I'm pretending to be a bird!"

The other day I told him not to pull on Beatrice's arm: "But I'm a pulling bear!"
And after pushing his sister: "I'm a doctor who pushes."

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"I want a monkey as my pet, I want to buy a wife, I want to drink paint."

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"When I grow up I want to be a daddy, a mommy, a paleontologist, and a baby."

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Arthur is such a good liar he sometimes fools me.  For example, the other day he was complaining that he had dropped his stick while sitting in the backseat.

Summer: I'm sorry, Arthur, I can't reach it while I'm driving, I'll get it for you at our destination.
Arthur: Okay, Mommy. [A minute later] Mommy, I had a potty accident!
Summer: You did?
Arthur: I did, Mommy! I had an accident! Stop the car!

Summer pulls over and discovers he's perfectly clean.

Summer: You didn't have an accident.
Arthur: Oh, that's right, I guess. But since you're not driving, you can hand me my stick.

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Beatrice was looking at a book Arthur wanted, so he turned to me and said loudly, "Mommy, I love Beatrice. She is so nice, she always shares, even books..."

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Arthur is still the most charming, smoothest talker you'll ever meet, always telling me that I'm beautiful, etc. He likes to say to me, "I'm through and through for you, Mommy."
And at Christmas, "Mommy, you are my present."

No wonder no one can say no to him...

BEATRICE

Looking at an early ultrasound of William as a tiny white dot: "It looks like you swallowed a star."

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One of Beatrice's jobs is keeping an eye on William in the backseat when I'm driving.

Beatrice: Mommy, William spit up!
Summer: What does it look like?
Beatrice: It looks like a snowstorm.
Summer: I mean, is it clear, or bubbly, or what?
Beatrice: It looks like snow fall.  It looks like sick clouds.

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Explaining the game "Waterfish Tag" to Arthur: "No, no, it's not Tag, it's different! In Tag you say, 'You're it!' In Waterfish Tag you say 'You're waterfish!'"

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After sneezing: "Excuse me! My white blood cells don't like to work."

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I held out a box and told Beatrice, "I have a present for you!"
Beatrice (delightedly): It's a box!

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I told the kids they could each bring one plastic dinosaur to the park. Beatrice emerged from her bedroom with two: "This one is for me, and this one is in case I meet a friend."

Then she decided she would hold the dinosaur behind her back, introduce herself to the friend first, and then whip the dinosaur out from behind her back and present it as a surprise. On the drive to the park she practiced the long introductory speech she was going to make to her new friend. 

Once we got to the park, she went up to another little girl, stood in front of her with the dinosaur behind her back, launched into her speech, and then thrust the dinosaur in the little girl's face. The little girl took the dinosaur and walked away without saying a word. Poor Beatrice.

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Drawing a picture of unicorns running: "These unicorns are not running away from predators; they are running for exercise."

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Discussing one of Dr. Seuss' fictitious animals: "I wouldn't want a Yink for a pet because he would drink all our ink.  On the other hand, they are imaginary."

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Leaning over William, she shouts loudly, "Dinosaurs don't have tummy time!"

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Beatrice also wrote a long (long) Christmas carol this year called "Christmas Jellyfish Sleepover."

LACMA NexGen

One of the kids' favorite things to do is go to LACMA, particularly on Sundays when they have their special children's programming from 12:30 to 3:30pm.  Every week there are art projects set up in the courtyard where the kids can learn about works inside and practice everything from pottery to pen and ink drawings (and with real artist-quality materials, too).  There's even a "Toddler Tarp" for the youngest kids.  And thanks to the museum's NexGen program admission is free, too.

 

Beatrice has extremely traditional tastes when it comes to art - she loves Renaissance, Baroque, and Neo-Classical styles, and she labels anything contemporary "not art."  Arthur prefers non-Western art, especially Indian and Chinese.  And William? Well, yesterday we took him into James Turrell's Ganzfeld APANI where he relieved himself mightily, though whether that means he liked it or not, I can't say.

 

Chris Burden's Metropolis II is not, in Beatrice's opinion, art.

This is art.

Beatrice's favorite artwork: Psyche Obtaining the Elixir of Beauty from Proserpine, Charles-Joseph Natoire, circa 1735

Arthur's favorite artwork: Elephant Combat, from Rajasthan, circa 1725

Arthur spends a lot of time speculating as to why the elephants would be fighting.  His current theory is that one spit water on the other.

Quizzes

The kids' favorite thing to do is have me give them quizzes, especially in the car.  It's become a tradition that every morning when I drive them to school I give them quiz questions.  Usually I pick one topic, like ocean animals, and then pose easier questions to Arthur (what do dolphins eat?) and harder ones to Beatrice* (are sharks vertebrates?)

After doing this for a few months, Beatrice asked if she could give me quizzes.  She asks me questions that are simple, of course, but meaningful and with specific, objective answers.  For example,

B: Are whales fish or mammals?
Summer: Mammals.
B: That's right!

Of course Arthur wanted to get in on this, so he started asking me quiz questions, too, only his go something more like this:

Arthur: Dolphins or porpoises?
Summer: Porpoises.
Arthur (smugly): No, sorry, actually, it's dolphins.

And that's the trick - no matter what you answer, you are never, ever right.  I think he sets up the entire game just so he can shake his head and say, "No, actually..."

* I was very proud of Beatrice for getting the answer to this question: If you were to start swimming at the ocean's surface and then swim down, down, deep under the water, what three changes would you notice the deeper you go? The pressure increases, it gets darker, and it gets colder, she said.

Grandparent Visits

This winter we welcomed all four grandparents (and one aunt).

Suzan and Naresh (Nani and Nana) arrived in mid-December.  We were disappointed that William didn't arrive during their stay, but on the plus side, they got to enjoy one last visit with just Beatrice and Arthur before a new baby was added to the mix.  We did a lot of Christmas activities, including making gingerbread houses and touring the winners of Burbank's annual Christmas lighting contest. We also took a boat cruise around Long Beach harbor, and of course ate many wonderful meals.

In early January my parents (Grandma and Grandpa) arrived with Aunt Gillian for a late Christmas celebration and a chance to meet the new baby. My mother and sister also took Beatrice on a special trip to the American Girls store ("I never thought it would be this beautiful!" she exclaimed as soon as she walked inside) and to the Farmer's Market.

Beatrice with her American Girls shopping bag

Now we're eagerly awaiting Mina, James, Rosemary, and Louis coming in March . . .

Snow Day!

This weekend we took the kids up to see snow at Snowdrift Tubing Park in Running Springs, near Big Bear.  Due to this year's terrible drought, the snow was pretty pathetic (the snow layer was so thin you could see the dirt underneath in some places) but the kids have as much fun in three inches of snow as three feet, so they were perfectly happy.

On the way to the snow:

 

They loved building a (tiny) snowman that they named Olaf after the snowman character from their new favorite movie, Frozen.

 

Olaf

But they spent most of their time tubing with Dev while William and I watched and cheered them on.

Dev and Arthur shared a tube while Beatrice went down by herself - and I was so proud of her! That was a tall, tall hill for a little girl and she was so brave!



Beatrice on her way down

Unlike last year, when the kids whined about the cold after only a few minutes outside, this year they played all afternoon. Partly that was because we came much better prepared this year with snow clothing we borrowed from Amy and Lesley (thanks, guys!) - but also they were just having so much fun.


Feeling pretty proud of himself

I can't wait for William to join in next year ...

New Column in Trop

I have a new monthly column in Trop, starting this month with a discussion of broken gingerbread men, voluptuous sadness, and why I can never shop in thrift stores.

William, Month One

 

 

 

William is one month old! 

So far, he's a quiet, happy baby and a good sleeper.  He is awake quite a bit for a newborn, but mostly in a relaxed "quiet alert" phase where he's simply looking around and taking things in.  He only cries when he's hungry and then fusses a little bit after he eats until his digestion settles down.

Unlike his siblings, he doesn't like pacifiers, but usually he's calm and cheerful enough that there isn't much need to pacify him anyway.  He's happy to use bottles, though (luckily, since I had to leave him for two nights this month to go to Palm Springs).

He seems to already differentiate day from night - during the day he's mostly awake and eats every hour or two.  At night he usually sleeps in three hour stretches, but occasionally he'll do four or even five hours at a time, and after eating he goes immediately back to sleep again.

Poor William already had his first cold - at only three weeks old - and has had some problems with gas and spitting up, but he seems to be improving on all those fronts now.

Tummy time:

 

    

 

William is slowly coming to accept baths - he FREAKED OUT the first time but now he's just edgy about it.

 

First bath:



Third bath:

 

  

Dressed up for his one month birthday (thank you Amy Must for the amazing outfit, including baby's first sweater vest!)

 

Crying while wearing a sweater vest

William makes the funniest facial expressions I've ever seen, and I've been enjoying documenting them.  Here are just a few examples:

 

 

So far both Beatrice and Arthur have been great with him.  Beatrice is a little disappointed that she can't have a more active role in taking care of him, but I've given her some assigned tasks that make her feel more included, like letting her pick out his outfits and help with diapering.  Arthur doesn't pay William that much attention, but when he does spend time with him he's gentle and affectionate.  I think it also really helps that Beatrice and Arthur have one another, especially when I'm busy with the baby and can't pay attention to them, and I'd say William's arrival has brought them even closer together.

 

Brothers in sweater vests

Beatrice demonstrates crawling for William:

 

 

 

Also, William LOVES Dev - I think Dev is his favorite person.

 

Next month, more adventures!