Boo Goes Missing (Again)

Happily reunited with his "kid"

Today Arthur and I went to Target to pick up a few things, then walked across a large parking lot to Lowe's.  I was trying to pick the right floor wax when Arthur said, "Where is Boo?"

Of course, he had left Boo at Target. 

"I'm scared," Arthur said quietly.

I picked him up so we could walk faster and we rushed back to Target.  He clung to me like an infant and whispered, "I love Boo."

And then, after a few moments, "I need Boo, I guess*."

After a worried search Arthur found Boo himself, sitting on the magazine rack where Arthur had left him. 

Usually Arthur pretends to be Boo's "daddy" but when we got back to the car he started breastfeeding him.  "I am also sometimes his mommy," he explained.

Arthur always seems so mature and smart and self-assured, it's hard to forget he's only two and a half . . .

* Arthur always affixes "I guess" to the end of statements of strong feeling.  "I am angry, I guess," or "I'm scared, I guess," or "I missed you, I guess."

Best of Winter

Personally I can't wait for winter to end.  We've been sick since January with a series of colds, flus, fevers, ear and eye infections. 

But it hasn't been all bad.  We also had a lot of fun this winter, including family visits, trips to go tubing in the snow, Christmas, and of course, William.

Outside at a street fair on Magnolia Boulevard

Eating dinner at Century Dragon

Helping out at Target



Arthur insisted on wearing a tie to the indoor playground.

 Science experiments:

 Like always, the kids played a lot of dress-up:

Beatrice wants to get married in this outfit.

Beatrice performing her variety show, which included songs, skits, dancing, and crowd work. She rehearsed it for five hours.

Arthur dancing in the show

 

Showing me his ring

This winter we also took the kids to see Frozen in the theater twice (the second time for a special sing-along edition) and it made a huge impression on them both, especially Arthur.  The kids enact scenes from the movie all the time - usually Beatrice is Elsa and Arthur is Ana.  Arthur wants to be a princess (mostly because they have "so many outfits") and he loves belting out the song's two dramatic ballads, "For the First Time in Forever" and "Let It Go."  (He also asks me to forward the movie to specific outfits in specific scenes.)


Singing "Let It Go"

And again.

I can't wait for this spring: a visit from the Spindlers, camping, girls' weekend, Easter activities, and several major renovation projects.

Happy Valentine's Day!



Valentines for Aunt Gillian and for Rosemary and Louis

At least one person in our family has been sick every day this month, and so Valentine's Day passed this year without a lot of celebrating.  But we did host a little valentine-making party at our house on Thursday for Milo, Genevieve, Celestine, David, Alexis, Miller, and Ivy. The kids ate pizza and cupcakes and made valentines with stickers, puff balls, washi tape, stick-on jewels, doilies, and more.

 

Alexis adds the finishing touches to her valentine for Beatrice

Megan in our empty living room*

    

And of course the kids passed out valentines in school on Friday during their class party.

Stuffing Valentine's treat bags

Valentines for the Red and Yellow rooms at school

 

Surveying the haul after school

And Dev gave me my favorite valentine ever.

On my bathroom mirror

Happy Valentine's Day!

* Why is our living room empty? Because of exciting renovations, of course! which I will post about next week ...

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.

-----

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

-----

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."

-----

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

-----

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

-----

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.

-----

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..."

-----

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."

-----

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.

-----

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!'"

-----

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

-----

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

-----

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.

-----

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

-----

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."

-----

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

-----

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 . . .