Aaron

Aaron continually amazes me.  Yesterday at breakfast, Audrey was eating 3 kinds of cereal mixed together (Heart 2 Heart, a cereal we call hexagons, and Puffins).  Aaron told her "You have 2 squared minus 1 kinds!"

Today at breakfast, out of the blue, Aaron asked, "Are there 3 kinds of 2's?"  I thought he meant ways to draw 2 because we'd been learning about Roman numerals and looking at two ways to write an Arabic 2.  But when I asked what he meant, he said "There's the number two, T-O and T-O-O."  I was surprised he'd noticed, but also surpised he brought it up when he wasn't looking at books.

Math brain

I've mentioned before that Aaron likes math.  He loves numbers.  This extends to an obsession with time, including clocks, timers and calendars.  He's known the days of the week and the months of the year for awhile now.  He's been able to read an analog clock since he was 3 1/2.  He can even convert 24h time to 12h time.

For a long time, he's been pointing out when the digital clock on the cable box shows a pattern.  At 1:41 or 3:23 or 7:47 he'll shout the time followed by "It's a pattern!"  (And then wait for me to acknowledge this all important fact.)

More recently, he pointed out when it was 6:36 that it was a pattern and a square.  I thought he meant that 636 was a square number, but he meant that 36 is 6 squared.  A few days ago, he pointed out that 5:25 and 1:01 were similar.  I said, what about 4:16?  He said, it's not a pattern. 

So he decided that times that represent a number and that numbered squared, like 4:16, are called ki-NAY-zures.  (I'm not sure on the spelling, but that's how he pronounced it.)  But times that represent a number and the number squared that are also patterns, like 6:36 and 5:25, are called CUL-i-nay-zures.

He also pointed out that 8:64 would be a ki-NAY-zure, but that it is really 9:04. 

I love how his mind works.  Now I just wish he didn't melt down every time his sister touched the calculator.  He's been squentially squaring numbers starting with 1 and he's into the 1000s now.  He doesn't like her to mess it up (since it remembers where he left off).

Pumpkin Patch

Thom and Aaron planted heirloom pumpkin seeds this summer and put the seedlings down in the orchard.  In no time at all, we had a large pumpkin patch.  The kids loved to go see their pumpkins.  This weekend, some of the pumpkins were ready to harvest.



On the way to harvest pumpkins



These pumpkins are now sitting outside our front door

The pumpkin patch mid-September

Also mid-September

It was amazing how quickly the little pumpkin seedlings turned into what you see in the last two photos.  This was about 6 pumpkin plants.  Altogether we got 11 mature pumpkins.  We lost one big one and another small one to some kind of fungus, but the rest avoided it.  We'll save some seeds from this year's crop and do it again next year. 

Raise your hand

Kim has been working with Audrey on raising her hand.  It's something that the kids do at some of the preschool groups they go to.  So for example, when they are playing storytime at home, she'll say "Raise your hand if you want Aaron to read another story."  And Audrey will raise her hand.  This is something new just in the last couple of weeks.  Kim worked hard to get her to this point.

Today when they were out, Kim said "Raise your hand if you want a sandwich."  And Audrey raised two hands and said "I raised two hands.  I want two sandwiches!"

Later, when they came home, I was eating chips and 5 layer dip.  Audrey kept asking for a chip and I kept giving little chips to her.  But one time, she came over and said "Raise your hand if you want another chip." And then she raised her hand high and kept telling me that she wanted a chip.  It took me a minute to give her one because I was laughing so hard.

Audrey turns 2!

Here's Audrey at her 2 year checkup.  She loved her little gown.  At 23 lbs she has stayed at 8th percentile for weight.  She's around 15th percentile for height at 32.25".  She got her last Hep B shot that day and a flu shot.  She didn't cry for the first shot, but she did for the second one.  She quieted down pretty quick, though. 

Aaron came along to get his 4 year booster shots that we didn't get at his checkup because he'd had a fever close enough to the appointment that they wanted to wait.  And eventually I had waited so long, I just took him in with Audrey.  He also got his flu shot.  So those are out of the way.  This was the first time Aaron got shots in his arm.  The arm with the TDap swelled up and was sore, which is common on the 4th and 5th doses.  I remember getting one after Audrey was born since whooping cough is making a come back in California and my arm was sore for several days.  Aaron complained about it, but without as much drama as I might have expected.  He just didn't want me to touch his arm or to hug him because he said it was sore.  But he hugged me carefully instead.  Unfortunately, I'm reading that whooping cough immunity seems to wane after only 3 years, so unless they come out with a new vaccine, I'm wondering if boosters will become a regular event.  It is combined with the tetanus, which is supposed to be every 5-10 years anyway.

Audrey's birthday turned into birthday week.  She got a present from her nanny the Thursday before (bean bags and a board to throw then through).  Then a present from us on her birthday (a wooden tea set).  A present from her sitter on Sunday (a doll stroller), followed in a few days by a present from Aunt Janine (a bouncy horse) and finally a delayed present from us (a parking garage) which arrived late.  She loves all her gifts and she and Aaron fight over them.  Except the bouncy horse which Aaron is afraid he will pop.  Here is a video of Audrey the first time she got on her "bouncy".  I took it with my phone and can't figure out how to rotate it 90 degrees, but you can still get the idea.

The stroller is one of the most contentious toys.  We have two wagons which I always thought could be strollers with a bit of imagination.  But nothing compares to a real doll stroller and they both want to push it around.  Aaron usually crashes it or gets in the way when Audrey wants to push it.  It's a constant battle. 

At 2, Audrey is quite a character.  She is a very happy, mischievous little being and full of drama if she doesn't get what she wants.  She seems to have mastered making her eyes well up with tears with her lips pouting if she hears the word "no".  Or "not now", or "after you eat your breakfast".  But she is so happy and excited when she announces she wants Autumn Wheat for breakfast.  In a bowl.  With milk on it.  And a spoon!  Oh the joys of breakfast.  Unless she sees her blue kitty sitting around and wants her blue kitty and you tell her "after you eat your breakfast."  (And you have to say "after you eat your breakfast" rather than "when you are finished" because with the latter, she will immediately announce "All done!" with a bowl nearly full of breakfast.)

Speaking of which, her blue kitty is currently her favorite "buddy" (as we call the kids stuffed animals).  She gets it up with her every day and carries it around and puts it in the doll stroller with Pink Rosie.  Sometimes she loves Mouse more (which is really a bunny), but usually it is kitty these days.  She'll be playing Duplos one handed with her other arm wrapped firmly around blue kitty's neck.  It's interesting to see because Aaron never had that kind of attachment to a toy.  With Audrey, it's not that specific toy so much as it's the fact that she wants to be holding something close most of the time.  It's only been blue kitty for a couple of weeks, but before that it was something else.

She has quite a vocabulary. She is stringing words into longer and longer sentences and getting more specific about things.  Yesterday it was not just raining.  It was "The rain drops on the patio."  I don't remember the sentence, but the other day she said something at least 7 words long.  I wrote before that at 18 months she had about as many words as Aaron did at 2 years and she has continued to improve her vocabulary every day.

Like Aaron (and their mom), she loves books.  She likes to page through them.  Both at home and at the library.  Below, I had started to stack books we might take home on a table.  Audrey sat down and starting paging through them.  She pretends to read them.  If she knows the title of the book, she'll repeat that for each page.  It's adorable.

She is continuing to improve in the potty training department.  More and more often she poops on the potty, but 40% of the time it's still in her diaper.  Since she turned 2, I've been making more of an effort to put her on the potty periodically and soon plan to switch over to pull-ups more consistently since I think that will encourage her to go.  And because diapers are a hassle on someone who wants to use the potty more often.

And now she is awake from nap.  She usually naps from 1-3pm every day.  Sometimes longer, sometimes a little shorter.  But I'd better go get her.

Naptime

So I guess Aaron has hit that inevitable stage of not taking naps every day.  I'm determined that he has at least quiet time in his room at naptime until he starts Kindergarten.  But since he tends to melt down more on days he doesn't nap, I'm not ready to give up naps completely.  So I've been experimenting to see what works.

He had gotten to the point where he was only going to sleep at naptime 2-3 times a week.  On days he didn't sleep, he would be noisy enough I'd have to go in a few times.  I tried rewarding him when I didn't have to go in (with an unspecified "special treat" after naptime).  I tried punishing him if I did have to go in (taking away buddies and losing bedtime stories).  But it wasn't working.  He was also starting to have to go #2 during naptime, so he'd make noise until I came down to his room and then he'd tell me he had to go.  He used to go before naptime like clockwork, but before naptime, he'd say he didn't have to go and wouldn't go despite sitting on the potty before naptime.  Since I work while the kids nap, his interruptions were becoming a problem. 

First, we tried allowing him quiet time in his room until 1:30pm.  At 1:30, he needed to stop playing and get in bed.  This worked well for a couple of days.  But then he started getting too many toys out and couldn't relax in bed at 1:30 because he felt like he had to clean up.  After catching him out of bed on two occasions after 1:30, we cut out the quiet time privilege.  But we went back to the same problems as before.

So starting last week, I implemented a suggestion from our nanny.  If he takes a good nap one day, meaning even if he doesn't actually sleep, he is quiet and doesn't have to come out to go potty, then he earns quiet time the next day.  But quiet time now is from 1-3pm.  This way he doesn't have to worry about cleaning up and getting into bed.  If he's not quiet during quiet time and I have to come in, he's done with quiet time and has to get in bed.  Even if he has a good quiet time (and so far he always has), the next day is still a nap day.  So at most he can have quiet time every other day.  That hasn't happened yet.  In the 10 days since we've started this, he's had 2 bad nap days where he didn't earn quiet time the next day.  In fact, one day he even woke Audrey up an hour early.  But the days after a bad nap day, he had good naps, even if he didn't sleep.  So I know he can be quiet. 

On quiet time days, he can take books into his room and I leave his closet doors unlocked and open.  He usually takes beginner reader books with him and I'll hear him reading them at the start of nap time (talking quietly is OK, just not loud banging or yelling).  At 3pm when he opens his door, I can see what he's done during nap time.  Typically, he'll have gotten out all the wooden letter blocks and organized them by letter.  He has some sight words in a little box and he'll have those out and lined up on the floor.  He has fraction cards with little fraction pie pieces from 1 whole to twelfths (excluding 7ths 9ths and 11ths) and he'll have those out.  He has cuisinaire rods which he'll have out and sorted by color, lined up on the ground.  So there is a lot of stuff out on the floor, but it is all sorted and organized.  He's in an organizational phase lately.

The whole band

Aaron and Audrey perform a duet.  Sort of.