Tantrums that make me laugh

Aaron's tantrums get more sophisticated as he gets older.  Don't get me wrong, he does still scream, throw and hit when he's mad, but he is getting better about using words. 

Last weekend, I took Aaron to a Health and Safety Expo at the park.  (Sounds boring, I know, but there was a bouncy house and the various booths on health and safety had lots of fun stuff for kids.)  Aaron was in a mood.  He didn't want to do anything, especially not walk.  I carried him a little bit but then put him down.  He whined and cried.  He said he was scared.  Worried that he might be scared by the loud music or the crowd, I asked "What are you afraid of?"  He answered "Walking."  I laughed, but I did pick him up for a bit. 

Finally, he was being so obnoxious while I was trying to check out the booths, I decided it was time to go.  As we passed a police car that was parked at the event, I tried to get him out of his funk by calling his attention to it.  "Look at the police car, Aaron!"  He was uninterested.  He said "That's not a police car."  I said, "Yes it is.  It's a police car."  His grumpy response?  "No it's not!  It's not even a car!" 

Joking 101

Aaron learned his first joke at preschool last week.

How do you fix a broken pumpkin?
With a pumpkin patch!

The teacher, Elenah, didn't expect the kids to get it since they are still young, but Kim thinks Aaron did get it.  They made up jokes during bath time that day that went like this:

How do you fix a broken house?
With a house patch!

A few days later, he and his Papa made up a joke while getting ready for bed:

What do you call an antelope who can't do anything?
A cantelope!

This morning, I told him the following joke, which plays to his love of numbers:

Why was 6 afraid of 7?
Because 7 8 9.

I explained how 8 can mean ate.  He laughed, and then made up the following two jokes:

Whey was 16 afraid of 17?
Because 17 18 19.

Why was negative 6 afraid of negative 7?
Because negative 7 negative 8 negative 9!

I thought those were almost funnier than the original. 

Do you know a joke I can share with Aaron?  Post it here!

Preschool

We can't afford preschool for Aaron on top of child care, which I still need for Audrey, so we weren't planning to send Aaron to preschool.  But on Thursdays, a wonderful woman named Elenah does a sing-along at a park in the town adjacent to us.  She plays guitar, brings song lists for everyone, and a big box of instruments for the kids. 

Her younger daughter is Aaron's age and she can't afford preschool for her either.  So she organized a one hour preschool in the park and invited the kids from the sing-along.  Kim was interested in taking Aaron (it is the hour before the sing-along, on a morning that Kim works), so I signed Aaron up.  It is free and siblings are welcome, so it works great for us.  She brings all the supplies with her, including the easel, the floor mats for the kids to sit on, and art supplies (to which we all contributed).  She does lessons on numbers, letters, parts of the body and there seems to be a craft project every week. 

The first week I went with Aaron to check it out.  But Kim has taken him every week since then.  When he comes home, he runs back to my office to show me his craft project.  I'm grateful for this experience.  He's learning to participate in a group, sit still, follow directions, take turns, and all those other useful life skills that can best be taught in a group setting.

Pumpkin Patch

Kim took the kids to a pumpkin patch last Monday.  It was just before we had a big rain and it's been wet ever since, so it was good timing.  Here are some photos she took with our camera and some from her phone that Thom and I received throughout the morning via e-mail.

  

My little helper

I can't sweep up cereal off the floor without Aaron wanting to help.  He's even getting good at it and often gets started without any prompting.

Lunchtime with Audrey

Audrey wanted my quesadilla so I broke off a piece and she proceeded to suck on it for several minutes.  She then pulled it out of her mouth and picked it apart without eating any of it.  It's a start.

Later, while I was sending this picture (which is from my phone) to Kim, Audrey hammed it up to get my attention.

Driving lessons

These were taken with my phone while Aaron was playing in my friend's car with her daughter Alara.  Alara had been in the driver's seat at first and I encouraged Aaron to get in the back and be the passenger.  This was great fun for him and allowed me to talk to my friend for a few more minutes.  But when Alara got into the back seat, he wanted her to keep being the driver.  I suggested that he get in front and be the driver.  He was reluctant at first, saying very earnestly "No, I can't.  Not until I'm 16."  But we persuaded him that it was OK since it was just pretend (the key was not even in the ignition).

Audrey turns 1!

Just as we didn't for Aaron's first, we didn't have a party for Audrey's birthday.  We actually didn't even get her a birthday present since she plays with all of Aaron's baby toys, of which we have plenty.  We did celebrate with my parents on my mom's birthday and Audrey did not hesitate to open her mouth for her first bite of cake, despite being a picky eater and rarely trying anything new on the first attempt.  Somehow she knew that cake was cake and she wanted her share.

These photos were taken on Audrey's actual birthday.  13 days later, we had her 1 year checkup.  She weighed 18 lbs 12 oz (which is the 15th percentile for her age), was 29 inches long (48th percentile) and had a head circumference of 17 1/2 inches (33%).  So she is still small for her age, but she is inching up percentile-wise.  She used to be in the single-digits.

At 13 months, Audrey has 4 teeth, two on top and two on bottom.  She says a handful of words, but most are indecipherable, so we don't know how many she really knows.  This morning she was pointing to her shoes (which she is quite fascinated with) and saying "sh.  sh."  Sometimes she says something consistent that sounds vaguely like "brother" but then she won't repeat it for us.

She is a mischievous girl.  She gets into things she shouldn't and when I say "Audrey!" she knows she's in trouble and quickly tries to crawl away from whatever she was doing, with a big smile on her face.  She loves her big brother and can be happy just watching him do something.  Although more often she wants to play with whatever he's playing with and this invariable leads to Aaron getting in a time out for not sharing (and often pushing or hitting his sister).  But they also get along at times and Aaron can be very sweet.  As long as she's not touching "his" toys.

These following pictures were taken at the same time as the ones above.  Aaron just looked so pensive and serious, I had to take some photos.