April and May 2011

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Love, love, love

Somewhere in spring's bloom, we lost a whole month in the blogosphere. I apologize to my one reader for any inconvenience this may have caused. Annie, Oscar and I headed north for a couple weeks to be with my mom during a hospital stay (she's doing great now, thanks for asking), and somehow this break from our usual routine and some really awesome weather made updating the blog a little low on the priority list... but now we're back!

Since our last chat, Annie has had quite the social calendar. I feel a little unpopular around her, frankly. She has had many playdates and wishes they were as frequent as, say, breakfast. She also finished off her semester in ballet and had a performance with the other kid classes at the school. In honor of it, I brought in our neighbor Beverly to secure a bun to that child's head come hell or high water. In the end it just needed a few gallons of hair gel, mousse, bobby pins, and a sacrificial chicken (not really, but I was ready). She sadly inherited her mother's thick yet extremely slippery hair. I still mourn my inability to enjoy French braids as a child. But, we worked through it and she was precious. Papa, Oscar, Beverly and her husband Al (Annie's grandparent understudies) were there cheering her on. Oscar had a snack trap of raisins to help him through the long periods of sitting still. It worked because it's about the only thing he'll eat one at a time. She received two bouquets in honor of her debut and couldn't have been more over the moon about it. She was over Pluto.

Oscar, we've discovered lately, is, how do I put this lightly, a full-on Mama's boy. When we were in Connecticut I left him and his sister with Oma and Papa Joe while I was at the hospital during the day. They both loved it, but wouldn't you know it, as soon as he started having to be away from me for extended lengths of time he started to say "Mama" and actually mean me... and boy, he did so with a vengance. Oscar is also much more of a snuggler than his big sister ever was as a baby (though now, it's her favorite morning activity next to watching Curious George). He actively seeks affection from me, Jay, Annie, even our cat, Roscoe. I am relishing it. It's only a matter of time until he won't even look at me in public for fear of mortal embarrassment, so I'm going to take all that I can get. He's big on saying "Bye, bye" to his Papa in the morning when he leaves for work, and pretty much anyone you ask him to say it to. He does a cute little crunching fist wave to accompany it. His vocabulary is growing though he still talks to us in complete gibberish at times, fully expecting us to know exactly what he's saying. He is quite the ham and has a great sense of humor. He also NEVER LISTENS no matter how many warnings and threats are aimed his way. We hope this will end soon. Did you hear me, Oscar? No, of course not.

To sum up the love fest, Annie is also expanding her vocabulary and her use of metaphors when professing her love for people. However, her enthusiasm sometimes surfaces in odd word combinations like "Mama, I love you to bits of chandelier," my personal favorite.

Summer is just around the corner. Annie's last day of school is in a few days then it's on to camp fest 2011. We have her enrolled in about 4 week-long day camps ranging from dinosaurs to ballerinas. And though I want her to have a great time, I'll tell you, my biggest fear is that she'll make more friends and I'll have to plan that many more playdates. Selfish, I know, but have you seen gas prices lately?

Just say "Yes"

Oscar seems to be a bit behind his sister in his development of language. Don't get me wrong, the kid never stops blabbing. We just have no idea what he's saying. For the longest time he has answered "No" to every question thrown at him. It got to the point where Jay and I knew which "no" meant yes and which "no" meant indeed no. When he wanted something, he would often answer with an emphatic "No!" with a tilt at the end to convey his excitement. Or, he would answer with a "nah-uh," meaning, "Of course, I would LOVE some banana." It was getting out of control. So finally, over the course of four days, evil mom took over and I held whatever object of desire about a foot away from him and would stand there saying, "Do you want this, yes? Yes? Do you want this? Yes, yes? Yes!? YES!!??" Finally, he got the picture. His mother was crazy. Also, he learned to say yes. It sounds more like "sess," but I'll take it. I may have gone a little overboard, however, because I think my Pavlovian training was so strong that now he's answering yes for things he doesn't want. So I guess you can lead a horse to water but you can't understand whether or not he wants to drink.

On a lighter, more spring-driven note, Annie loves her ballet classes and we are often treated to bedazzled performances. I caught the most recent one on tape. It's dedicated to my mom, we all hope she makes a speedy recovery. We love you, Nana.