puredanger.com Blog

Ella update July 31, 2007

Ella is all grown up now, or at least that’s how it seems sometimes. She’s ever the first born – her room is kept immaculate with everything in its place. If Truman or Beck dare to touch something, she’ll freak out and immediately return things to their proper place.

As always, she loves to wear dresses and jewelry. She has gotten a little better about wearing shorts when that’s necessary to play at the park or gym, but only if you promise that she can change back into a dress as soon as she gets home. She loves to play dress up in shimmery dresses, high heels, etc.

Ella’s went through a period recently where she was very interested in drawing and making books (blank pages stapled together). Her favorite subjects are people, flowers, etc. The people are often girls and have elaborate and enormous bows on their head. Sometimes the people are holding hands or jumping rope. She is very good at writing her name and sometimes can write other words like “mom” if you help her.

Lately, though, the focus has been reading. She is really, really interested in reading and loves to read books to us that she has memorized. Just tonight she told me the whole story of the three billy goats gruff. We have some easy reader books and she loves to work through them with Mary or I figuring out the words. I think at this rate she’ll almost certainly be reading before she reaches kindergarten.

Ella loves to play pretend games and this summer Truman has really reached the point where he can fully participate. Lately, they have really been playing very closely together with all sorts of pretend games for hours at a time. Settings typically include the beach, camping, wedding, house, doctor, etc.

And I can’t forget the dancing. Ella took her first ballet class this year and had her first recital. She loves to dance and still does her rountine for us regularly. Recently we got the video from her recital (which is hours of performances) and she loves to sit and watch it. She’ll get up and dance along with it and she does pretty well. Beck’s often dancing along with her.

Truman update

Truman is heart-breakingly cute when he wants to be and drives us insane the rest of the time. He’s a curious, curious boy and wants to know what it’s in every nook and cranny of the house, take it apart, put it in his mouth, break it into tiny pieces, hide it in his room, etc.

For example, a couple weeks ago I came home and Mary said “Truman, show your father what you did this afternoon!” He took me in the living room and showed me the drapes that he had cut up with his child scissors. Doh!

Last week he was supposed to be in bed when he called out to us. I went up there and he was standing in the bathroom holding a bottle of children’s hairspray, which he apparently was drinking (and spilled all over himself and the bathroom). So I made my virgin call to poison control. Apparently the main danger was that this stuff is about 50% alcohol so there is a chance of symptoms of drunkenness. However, he had not had much and we gave him some apple juice to raise his blood sugar.

Truman’s favorite game lately is “Robot”, which involves me pretending to be a robot and talking in a robot voice. I chase him (and Ella) and catch them, then put them in a variety of robot machines: the tickle machine, the spinning machine, the rolling machine, etc. Sometimes I make them eat bolts and oil. Also, if you press the robot’s nose, it turns off and on.

We’ve been doing a lot of counting with Truman lately and he’s gotten really good. He’s especially proud of counting on his fingers all the way up to 10.

Truman and I clash a lot. I think he really wants my attention right now and that tends to come out in aggression or acting out rather than in vocalizing or showing me that. So I’ve been trying to be more understanding and ask him if he wants my attention when the aggression comes out. That helps but he’s still amazingly good at pressing my buttons.

Oh, another thing Truman has recently gotten really good at is riding his bike. He can now pretty much do it all by himself (training wheels of course) if he’s in a flat area. Our street is a little hilly, just enough that it makes it challenging so it’s better if we go someplace a little flatter.

Beck update

Beck has been growing up in many ways but probably the biggest change lately is that he has started walking! About two weeks ago he decided he was ready and walked across a whole room on his first try. He was definitely ready to go. Since then he’s been rapidly getting more stable. When he first started he would punch his fists in the air as he walked, presumably for balance but it looked like he making victory signs or something.

Beck has also been fascinated as usual by music lately. He’s discovered how to dance (mostly bending his knees in time to the music) and will stand at the TV and dance whenever music is on. Actually, anytime anything vaguely music-like comes on he will do the dancing. He also loves any kind of music – rock or kids music is fine. And he loves to play with musical instruments. Recently at music class he walked up to a girl playing an Irish drum and stared intently at her for a long time.

He’s totally off bottles and formula (yeah!!! we’re done!!) and eats lots of different stuff. He loves his milk and also likes meat of any kind, cheese, yogurt, apples, bananas, rice, etc. Generally he’s willing to just about anything. When he’s done he will start throwing it on the floor or grabbing it from you. Then he’ll say “done”.

He’s doing a little bit of early talking. He loves to say “no” and shake his head but that’s mostly a game. He says “dog”, “door”, “up”, “out”, “Ella”.

Beck loves to get up on the couch and the rocking chair and pretty much anything that lets him get in the middle of Ella and Truman’s play. He loves to be outside and crawl all over the yard. Lately he’s been fascinated with crawling up to the top of the hill.

Cool photo exhibition July 1, 2007

Check out Living in Three Centuries, a really cool photography exhibit with pictures of mostly very old people. I’m a sucker for black & white photography anyways, but these are beautiful.