Kidnapping, coercion and brotherly love

I got my first true glimpse of what I thought was a moment of brotherly love and enjoyment, but turns out to be much less ... pure. A and Z had been playing in A's room for awhile. Since A is the only child who can reach the door knob and knows how to open the door, I kept listening for more persistent knocking or at least a decent, blood-curdling scream. Occasionally there would be a knocking on the door, but it was temporary, and I'd heard only the occasional squeak, so I assumed (and hoped) that a) no one was dead and b) they might actually be getting along.

After 30 minutes, I went up to make sure all was well, and lo and behold, it was fine! No blood and all body parts appeared to be in working order.

I left them playing and proceeded to walk down the hall. Halfway down the hall, I turned to look back and admire my beautifully behaved children, and realized Z had followed me, and was about midway between me and A. A rushed up to Z, took the stuffed basketball toy from Z's hand and threw it back into A's room, and A then tackled Z to the ground and proceeded to drag him bodily into A's room.

When I asked A what he was doing, he simply replied "I don't want Z to go with you. He's playing with me!" I told A to let Z up. Z jumped up and happily toddled back into A's room in an effort to play with the toy A had taken from him. A smoothly slid into the room behind his brother and said "We playing now," and promptly shut the door.

I guess it's better that A wants to play with Z than push him away all the time, but one has to wonder where the line is drawn between wanting to hang out because you love someone and, ahem, forcing others to your will because they're smaller than you.

At least no one's bleeding.

Overcoming sickness

Well, the kiddos have both had colds for the last week. A is finally well enough to go back to school, but Z is still harboring a runny nose and grumpy demeanor. I'll be happy when the little guy starts to get happy again. We've finally had some decent weather which resulted in a glorious leaf jumping event at Grandma and Grandpa's yesterday. I didn't get pics, but see if this paints one for you:

70 degree weather, slight breeze
sun shining through the swirl of drifting leaves
the 3-year old boy runs, leaps, and lands on his knees in the midst of yellow, orange and brown softly crunching leaves
the 1-year old boy toddles on tip toe, listing from side to side on the uneven grassy and tree-root gnarled ground
bursts of laughter punctuate the air like the occasional red leaf fluttering to the ground

It's raining tonight, but at least we got a bit of warmth this fall before the cold of winter. To all who read this, be healthy. Love, Chris

Kitchen, cooking, eating

It's getting cooler outside, so I've been cooking up yummy fall foods - chili, mulligatawny, etc. - and the children have wanted to spend more and more time under my feet in the kitchen. To soothe a cranky Z the other day, I pulled out various plastic spoons and other kitchen gadgets to keep him, and A, happy and busy.

G and I have decided to try to eat less meat, and thus when I forgot to defrost the chicken for the mulligatawny, we were both game to try it without meat. Amazingly, the absence of chicken wasn't very noticeable, so this happy accident may be repeated in future incarnations of this recipe. During this meal, A told us "my mouth hurts" when he ate a bite, but then he powered through the rest of it and even asked for more. It was a bit on the spicy side for my taste, although G thought it was fine (he breathes fire when possible, so he's not the best judge). So, I guess now we know that A likes spicy food. Z was given a few bites too, and he seemed to think it was good. I guess we'll have a family full of spicy food lovers shortly. Woo Hoo!

Zoo days

I took the big boys to the Zoo this week. Here's a few pics.

Strong-willed child

Z is a great kid, but he's very strong-willed. If I tell him "no touch" when he's touching an electrical socket (don't worry, they're all child proofed), he'll touch it more and smile while doing so. Or, if I tell him to be gentle with the animals, he's more likely to grab a fist full of fur and pull, even when I'm sitting next to him and showing him the right way. (Yes, I know these are typical behaviors of children Z's age, but he's very persistent about "breaking the rules".)

His latest, and most confusing, strong-willed action can happen at various times during the day, and it goes a bit like this: I put Z on the floor to go play after nap or something else, and instead he wants something else (not sure what he wants exactly - probably to be held for the rest of the day - but it certainly not to be on the floor). He stands stock still and board straight and cries, and cries, and cries with tearless eyes. He truly doesn't stop unless, by some miracle, A is able to distract him from his crying, or Mommy picks him up. So far, I've let him go on like this for up to 10 minutes and he doesn't waiver. It's a bit frightening, frankly.

What will I be up against with this child in the future? Oy.

Messy days

Z is learning to feed himself. This started a few weeks ago when he wouldn't allow me to put the spoon in his mouth without him grabbing it and "helping" me. This week I finally decided to give in to the developmental milestone and gave Z a bowl with about 2 tablespoons of yogurt in it, and a spoon. You can see how that went.

Baby steps and great photo ops. :-)