Drum Bot Not Word

Joshua is the household source of profound information such as "Drum bot not word, gum drrrop". As he used to get chocolate chips or gum drops when he successfully used the potty during training, he would frequently ask for drum bots afterward until we informed him that drum bot was not a word. I think we actually ran out of gum drops before he decided to correct his pronunciation though. Now, after he goes potty he often says "Proud of me. Chocolate chips alllll gone. Gum drops allllll gone." I think he does this just to "check", probably hoping one day we'll say...."you know, we actually have a chocolate chip for you today!"

Now Joshua uses a "potty chart." The original purpose of the potty chart was to award various types of stickers for various types of potty progress. This, apparently, was much too organized an approach for Joshua. He just likes to collect the stickers. And then move them around. In the early days of potty training, he even created potty art...by relocating the stickers from his chart to the potty itself. You can see the oh-so-organized potty chart to the right of Joshua's head in this picture.

One of the other things Joshua says multiple times a day is "Hey mommy, say question!" To which we reply, "Yes, Joshua, what is your question." "Bob-Larry!" Right. Caleb can then be heard chiming in "Joshua, that's not a question. That's a random comment!"

Joshua is also a stickler for the person he addresses being the one who replies. Anyone with kids knows that kids talk all the time, and frequently someone just responds "uh-huh...that's nice", or whatever. This doesn't fly with Josh. If he was "talking to" Caleb and I answer, he'll tell me, "Hey mommy, talking Caleb". Ok.

It's really funny to watch the guys interact sometimes. They have their own set of games they like to play with each other. For example, after reading a particular Pooh book a few months ago in which Pooh is trying to fool some honey bees into thinking he is a rain cloud by having Christopher Robin walk around with an umbrella saying "Tut-tut, it looks like rain", the boys like to play "tut-tut rain". This invigorating exercise consists of putting a "tut-tut rain" (aka couch pillow) on one's head and walking around saying "tut-tut rain" multiple times. Fascinating. They also like to play Jonah. But apparently only the part where he gets thrown off the ship. They build up a pile of pillows next to the couch and then take turns "walking the plank" and sinking. When another participant is available, Jonah gets swallowed by the whale as well.

What adventure will tomorrow bring? Guess we'll have to wait and see. :)

A Day on the Town

Since the boys are finally at an age where they are semi-interested in looking at things and fairly good troopers, yesterday after church we decided to take the boys into DC to visit the Air and Space Museum. It was kind of funny watching them react to all the planes. Caleb was fascinated, especially by all of the space displays. He has an Astronauts book (from like 1975...thanks mom!) which has pictures of early space exploration and he was very excited to see some of those things in person. He saw the Apollo Command Module and the Lunar rover, and of course space shuttles and rockets.

Joshua was interested....but only if he was moving quickly! You can see from the pictures he has a monkey attached to his back. This is because he wandered off and got lost for 7 minutes at the National Zoo a few weeks ago and we're not taking that chance again! This cute little backpack has a 4' leash attached to it and was perfect for our trip. And since Josh loves monkeys, he didn't even seems to be bothered by the fact he was restrained. Anyway, Joshua and I just kind of ran through the museum!

An interesting note about this picture is that the plane to the left of my head is the first privately owned plane that was flown into space. Part of the Paul G. Allen Project. Anyway, when Philip was working in Washington State, he helped create one of the electronic devices that went in this plane!

After being at the Air and Space Museum for about 10 minutes, I observed to Philip this was going to be a pretty short stop, so after the boys were airplaned-out, we decided to walk over to the Natural History Museum to see the Dinosaurs. This was a much more interesting place for Joshua, the animal lover. He was fascinated by all the real stuffed mammals and dinosaur bones.

We had a fun day and were glad we went. Then we came home and all collapsed in bed...

The Puzzle is Done!

Caleb completed the 550 piece puzzle this morning. :) Not bad for an almost 4 year old. Five minutes after finishing it, he tore it apart and started again. But, not before I got the photographic evidence...and he's even smiling...a true rarity in photos!

So how, you may ask, did this love affair with puzzles begin? I guess it all began last fall when he found a 12 piece puzzle and started putting it together over and over...and over. Boy was it nice when he could do it alone. Although, he was very specific about his method. He always did it exactly the same way. He stayed at this level until June when I found a 25 piece puzzle at a yard sale. I didn't really think he'd be able to do it, but gave it to him to try, and on the first try, he had it. I asked my parents for some of their old kid puzzles and a few weeks later we had a 60 piece and 100 piece. We did them together and I thought it would be left at that, but he immediately wanted to try them alone. Amazingly, he was able to do them. Huh, I thought. So, then I found a 200 piece one at a yard sale and didn't even want to show it to him because I knew it would be too hard and didn't want to get him frustrated. Alas, he saw the puzzle and wanted to try it. In two days, he had it together. Next, came a 250 piece that was a challenge even for me. No problem for Caleb! So, all summer I have been looking for a 500 piece puzzle he could do (needs to have a busy enough pattern that the pieces can be reasonably differentiated) and 2 weeks ago I found it. We did it together one time, then he was off to the races. He probably would have finished at least a week ago, but he kept losing his "puzzle privilege." A discipline tactic imposed once we realized that was the most valuable commodity around here!

I guess I was holding Caleb back, though, because Joshua, at just over 2, is easily working the 25 piece puzzles and helping Caleb with some of the larger ones. He also loves to help with the big 500-1000 piece ones and periodically gets a piece in, which is always followed by jumping, bouncing and an excited proclamation of "Joshua got a piece in!" Joshua requires much more acknowledgement of accomplishment than Caleb does. It's quite amusing at times. This morning he completed a new yard sale find Nemo puzzle and requested a "standing" ovation...not a sitting one. :)

Caleb teaching Joshua how to put the cat puzzle together

The Cheese-Meister and the Puzzle Master

For those of you who may not have heard, though the boys are commonly mistaken for twins, they are polar opposites of each other. One's like a brick, the other like a ripe peach...easily wounded. One loves to be upside down, the other hates it. I have a carnivore and a starch-i-vore. One sandcastle builder, one smasher.

Folly Beach, August 2007

So, to add to the opposites, Joshua is a very silly, giggly, crazy boy, who walks around saying things like "you guys are crazy". Wonder where he might have heard that? He loves VeggieTales and silly songs, imaginative games and being tickled. When he gets excited...he jumps. And bounces. And runs. You might say, he's a little like Tigger. No surprise, perhaps then, that he also walks around saying "I'm Tigger!" He is also a self-proclaimed expert on many topics and can frequently be heard saying, "that's the way it works!" in response to any type of explanation from me. He is also very independent and wants to do EVERYTHING himself. He'll let you know, too, with an adamant exclamation of "my do!" And he does. :)

Caleb, on the other hand, is very serious (in general) and loves to spend hours focusing on single projects like puzzles and block buildings. He has been in love with puzzles for about 3 months now when I accidently discovered his ability. At this moment, he is in the basement working on a 550 piece puzzle. Yes, 550 pieces. Yes, by himself. Huh. I figure if he gets it, I'll call Oprah. Currently the largest he has mastered is 250, but it's a breeze for him, and he loves to work on "adult" (500-1000 pc) puzzles with us, so we figured, "why not?" We'll let you know how that goes.

We're Here!

I guess it's finally time to join the world of blogging! First real post coming soon!