Tidal Wave

When it rains it pours, right?  After a long "update drought," here's something to hopefully quench your thirst for a while.  Since I still don't have photos to keep me visually organized, and since there's a lot to say, I'm not promising any sort of cohesive post here, but what the heck...here goes!

So Rose still loves to do "zumba" and always wants me to turn on zumba music.  The other day I was playing some in the car and she remarked that the song was like "Dora" because "it said hola."  Whenever a genre other than "zumba" comes on (because that's a genre, right?), Rose always asks how to dance to it.  And, because my iTunes library is so incredibly diverse (including either "zumba" or new age/yoga music), I either show her yoga moves or tell her to do interpretive dance.  She can put on quite a show.  Simon joins in, of course, but he pretty much only has one dance move in his repertoire: running around in a circle.

The kids are also constantly asking to watch DVDs, but I try not to cave in all the time.  Thankfully, we don't have cable, so I am able to exercise a lot of influence in what they view.  When Rose wanted to check out a Paddington Bear DVD, I was very amenable to her choice.  We had read and enjoyed some Paddington books in the past.  However, her continual desire to watch the DVD perplexes me.  It's from a British-produced series, and it's totally not flashy...it actually looks like it was directly copied onto a DVD from VHS.  The narrator's accent is super polished, but nonetheless even indecipherable to me at times.  And then there's the constant use of British terminology.  I still love having it on in the background, though.  I feel the same way about Beatrix Potter DVDs.  There's that tricky British terminology--and we're talking old school terminology (think patty pans and perambulators)--but there's something comforting about little creatures who look and talk like they stepped right out of a Jane Austen novel (slight anachronism, but I always think Pride and Prejudice when anyone wearing a bonnet addresses people as "sir" or "madam").  One of my favorite lines from Potter's work is when Tabitha Twitchit tells her naughty children that she is "affronted."  Yes, next time my kids misbehave I will definitely endeavor to bring my language in line with Tabitha Twitchit's.  "Rose!  Simon!  Stop hitting each other--I am affronted!"

Moving on to another tropic.  Rose loves it when there are "friends" (a.k.a. complete strangers who happen to be close in age to her) at the playground.  She is very sociable in an awkward sort of way (e.g. she'll run right up to someone and then sort of flop onto the ground or make a weird face and scratch the air with her "kitty paws").  I mean, if someone introduced themselves to you in that manner, wouldn't you automatically think, "hey--this person would make a cool friend!"? 

Let's see what I can say about Simon.  Lately he's been talking a lot about ghosts, thanks to the Halloween season and certain ghost-centric crafts he's made or books he's read.  However, the other day he was playing hide-and-seek with Sevak, and Sevak fairly scared him by saying "boo" when he hid behind the shower curtain.  Now if you ask Simon about ghosts he might say, "I no like big ghosts" (he still likes little ones, though). 

It seems like it's been only a month or so that Simon's been addressing Rose by her name.  He calls her "Duhz" or "Duhzie."  It seems like he also remarks on the humor of things quite often.  He is quite quick to tell me, "that's funny, "Mommy."  Here's a vague recollection from a few days ago: I was giving Simon a bath and our exact dialogue escapes me, but it had to do with him showing me his bum crack, laughing, and remarking that it was "funny."  He also uses this phrase quite a bit: "I love ____ (octopuses, airplanes, etc.), Mommy."  He is also still a big eater.  He has been known to finish his food, ask for seconds, and then finish Rose's leftovers.  This morning he had two helpings of cereal before Rose even started eating, and when I offered her something to eat, she declined, but Simon came hungrily running up to me. :)

Rose does have a big sweet tooth, though.  This Halloween thing has been a surreal experience for her.  Luckily her sweet tooth also goes for fruit (which isn't always one of Simon's faves), and she just discovered that she likes pomegranate.  Simon, however, surprised us by gobbling up some fish the other day; I don't think Rose had one bite.

Lately Rose has been covering her eyes when she anticipates something scary or nerve-wracking coming up in a book (e.g. when Curious George gets into his horrible mischief).  I don't blame her; I cringe when stressful things happen in movies.  She also loves playing in the car, which I still don't understand.  The other day she and Simon sat out there for a good long while just playing pretend.  I kind of love that the oldest sibling in our family is a girl, because I think Rose has helped mellow any potential rough behavior of Simon's and has also helped lengthen his attention span.  I couldn't believe that he was content to just pretend to feed kitties in the trunk of our car with Rose (for a really long time).  By the same token, I am grateful that Rose has a brother to play with and is able to round-out the types of activities that she engages in rather than playing tea party day in and day out.

A few days ago I let the kids play with some colorful bubbles while I made potato salad.  They had fun, but they sure made a mess.  The bubbles are made by Crayola and basically behave like (semi-) washable paint once they land and pop somewhere.  Simon thought it would be fun to pour some onto the cement...Rose thought it would be fun to dip her hands in it and make hand prints everywhere.  And consequently, Simon also thought that was a good idea (of course).  Luckily I have been able to clean most of it up, except the prints that were made on our wooden fence.  Hope the landlord doesn't mind too much about that one...

While I was cleaning, a lot of the blue paint rubbed off onto my hands and clothes.  Simon also sat on a couch when he came in and I had to clean that all up.  He refused to let me remove his clothes, but I finally convinced him to hop into the tub because his painted body might "turn the water blue."  It did, sure enough.  So then I had to clean the bathtub.  The whole experience was somewhat reminiscent of The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, in which a pink spot gets transferred from one thing to another as the cat and his "things" attempt to clean it up.

Anyway, that's all I care to type for now.  Hope you were able to stay tuned through all the hopping around.  I'll try not to go too long without another post. :)