Big Brother

When I was a kid, I remember wanting to be included by my big brothers. I suppose I probably tried to copy them at times, though I don't really remember anything in particular. I do, however, remember my little sisters trying to be like me sometimes. For example, when I was in high school, one of my favorite bands was Reel Big Fish. We had a music store in town that had a kiosk in the center for trying out music. You could bring them any CD in the store and they would open it and play it for you. It was such a novel idea at the time, that you could actually listen to the tracks before you bought the CD to make sure you liked it! This was before the days of Napster and iTunes and every song being on YouTube. One day we were in the store, and my little sister Beez had picked up the same Reel Big Fish CD I had at home and taken it to the kiosk. I got mad at her, not because she was trying to copy me but because I realized how inappropriate the lyrics were on that CD when I saw my innocent little sister listening.

Anyway, a bit of a random story, so back to the reason I'm blogging. I'm starting to notice how much siblings try to copy each other. D tries so hard to be like his big brother. When I ask D if he wants to invite a friend over while B2 is at school, he gets so excited and starts naming off his brother's friends. When I try to suggest a friend his age, he'll often insist on the other boys. D is also wanting to do homework like his big brother. We bought him his own homework book, and while most of the time he just scribbles on it, he is insistent that he is doing important homework, like B2. This morning, he brought me a Sunday quiet book with a world map at the end. Holding it upside down, he started pointing out the geography to me like we have tried to do with B2. "This is us. [Pointing down and to the right] This is California." Close honey--"us" is South America and "California" is North America.

I'm sure it drives B2 crazy that D tries so hard to be like him. He is always wanting to tag along when B2 plays with his friends and divides my attention when I'm trying to help B2 with his homework. He doesn't let it show too much though. B2 really is an excellent big brother.

Funny Things D Says

D: "I got on shoes and socks!"
Me: "Good job!"
D: "But no jacket."
Me: "Okay. What jacket do you want?"
D: "Police jacket."
Me: [thinking hard about what jacket he could possibly mean]
D: "Sometimes police are blue."
Me: "You want a blue jacket?"
D: "Yes! Sometimes police are blue."

Passive Aggressive Child

Tonight, I was having B2 do a numbers chart, where he adds up the column and row headers, to practice his addition. He really does not like math, and wasn't very happy when I told him this is what he was doing for homework. After some time complaining, and some time re-doing number he got wrong, he gave up entirely and chose to go to his room instead of finish his homework. So, when I walked by while cleaning up the kitchen, I saw this and almost died laughing.

In case you can't read his writing, he wrote "I don't like this." Awesome!

Christmas, and a new visit

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas. Surprisingly, there's no snow on the ground, which I'm actually kinda sad about this year. It would really help hide the fact that we have a pretty poorly decorated house. Apparently, the three strands of Christmas lights which so fully light our condo porch look pretty sad on a house. Sorry neighbors--our plan is to buy a bunch of Christmas stuff on the 26th when it goes 50% off.

But, lack of Christmas lights or otherwise, we are getting in the Christmas spirit around here. The inside of our house has our tree, and a new little visitor. His name is Legolas (because yes, we are awesome like that), and he's Santa's nark...er, helper. He came to visit this year and reports back to Santa each night about all the good, or not-so-good, things my kids do each day. And, since you wouldn't expect anything less from a person who eats from the four major food groups each day (candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup), he also gets into some mischief. His first night here, he missed the snow so much that he made snow angels in (what else?) sugar!

Not terribly mischievous, except for the fact that I didn't clean it up right away and D decided to play as well, thereby getting sugar all over my floor. Unfortunately, D also touched Legolas to move him off the oven, and that's a big no-no. Elf magic can't be tainted by human hands, so Legolas only had enough magic to get back to Santa the next night, and had to "lay over" a day in the North Pole and get his magic recharged. He loved his overnight stay in my luxurious sock drawer, with a view of nothing.

The next night he came back--he couldn't miss the BYU basketball game! Not only is Legolas an orc-butt-kicker, but he also supports the Cougars!

Tonight, Legolas has decided he liked spending the day way out of reach, so he caught an updraft and has a birdsnest perch in a chandelier. He'll be fine--he brought along a snack.

B1 and I are having fun with Legolas. It's worked well on B2--he keeps reminding D that the elf is watching, so they better be good or Santa will give them coal. D doesn't quite get it. He can't seem to understand why it's funny when the elf gets into things, but when he does he gets time out.

I love Christmas! One of these days we'll start buying real trees again, but until then this one does nicely.

Funny Things B2 Says

B2: "Alright everyone, who here likes.Thanksgiving?"
Cousin L: "I don't know what that is."
B2: "It's when you go to school and eat FOOD. And make leprechauns."
Cousin L: "I don't know how to make a leprechaun."
B2: "It's easy. You just cut on the black line."

A the Midget

Yesterday we took A in for his four month check-up, and he's completely fallen off the charts. He's offiically in the zero percentile for his weight. It still weirds me out to have a child that's so skinny. Not that D or B2 was terrible chunky, but they were just big all around -- tall and appropriately heavy. So, to have this kid that's short and skinny is odd. Don't get me wrong--I love having a baby that stayed a baby for more than a week (I swear B2 could officially pass as a toddler at 2 months old), but I can't help but worry about A constantly. The pediatrician isn't terribly worried--developmentally he is on track or even advanced; for example, he's been rolling front-to-back and back-to-front since shortly after he turned two months old. However, the dr did recommend that we try to fatten him up by introducing rice cereal now. So far, A loves it! Today was his second day, and he's already discovered that if he removes his hands from his mouth (which he rarely does at any time of the day, but especially when feeding as he uses his hands to create suction so the food can go down), Mommy will put in the spoon with more food! I was so proud of him to discover this fact so quickly!

So, the pediatrician's plan is for us to try and fatten A up with some rice cereal. In 4 weeks we will take him back to the doctor's office and re-weigh him. If A has gained at least a pound, that will put him back on track (I think that will bump him back to the 5th percentile). If not, the doctor said there are a few tests he'd like to run, just to make sure we don't have anything to worry about. He said that 90% of the time, skinny kids are just skinny because they burn more calories than they consume. And since my brother's kids are also skinny kids, our pediatrician is fairly sure that A just got that high metabolism. Here's hoping we see a whopping 11 pounds, 4 ounces on that scale come mid-November!

Incidentally, shortly before the doctor's appointment, D decided to give A a nickname--"A the Midget!" Quite apropos, D!

Funny Things D Says

Mom: "Hey, can you run upstairs and get Mommy's iPod?"
D: "Sure, just a minute."
A few minutes pass...
Mom: "Can you go get my iPod now?"
D: "I can't! It's invisible!"