The New Family

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving

EJ decided he was going to prepare Thanksgiving dinner this year.







 Happy Thanksgiving from the New Family!

Buggy in Blue

SO Dad was a bit lax in keeping up with the wash. Liesel ran out of clothes to wear so Dad put one of EJ's outfits on her. She looked really good in it, so he left her in it long after the laundry was completed.






Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Reading Skills

DAD now makes time every day to read with the Twins, or tries to anyway.

Buggy does very well at it. She will get comfortable in Dad's lap and watch as he turns the pages, points to the words, and reads them. At the end of the book she will take it from Dad and sit there by herself flipping through the pages pointing to the pages and babble.

EJ, on the other hand, does not like to sit calmly in Dad's lap. He tries to disrupt when Dad reads to Liesel. He will attempt to close the book, or push her out of Dad's lap. He does take a book sometimes and flips through it pointing at the pages, but all too soon the book becomes just another toy to be thrown or chewed.

Boys it seems lag their female peers in literacy by 9 to 12 months. So Dad is not too worried about it now. It seems that they also lag girls in writing too, which seems reasonable given that reading is a precursor to writing.

What does concern Dad is Common Core standards. Standardized tests are written with the implicit view that boys and girls are the same. However, if boys consistently lag girls in reading, should not the test's designers take that into account? We segregate by sex in physical pursuits (e.g. football teams) in recognition of biological differences, why should we not do so for academic measurements (and instruction for that matter).

Spelunking

BUGGY decided to do a little exploring.
She found the side table to be a neat little "cave."

Of course Dad found her in there when he looked around to survey the area to ensure they were safe. When he didn't see her at first, he felt a little panicky since it had been several minutes since he had last laid eyes on her. Once found safe and sound, he had to get the camera.

Friday, November 15, 2013

The Expanded Kitchen Playspace

THE Twins so loved the Little Tykes kitchen that Mom and Dad decided to splurge a little on a bigger one so that they can play together (without fighting over the same space).






The new one captivated them for a long time. That has sense tapered off. They now play with both of them with equal interest. But they have not stopped squabbling over space.

Dad attacked for His Broccoli

DAD made the mistake of sitting down on the floor to eat his plate of broccoli. He was immediately mobbed by the Twins who stole his broccoli fistful by fistful.
He feels blessed they love the stuff and eat it like candy. But he would like some of it too without having to hide behind a baby gate to enjoy it.

Lunch

"NOBODY cares about that salad." says Mom.
Someone does. Dad knows who. Hi Vince! He is the newest friend of the New Family Blog is someone interested in taking control over their diet. Yes this is really what we eat and in the proportion of protein, to vegetable, to carbohydrate. The carb is there but in low density form.

She convinced Him to wear a Hat

LOYAL readers know that Buggy likes to make hats out of anything and that she can be, um, insistent in her opinion about what EJ should do, or in this case wear. She likes to wear hats, so she thinks everyone should wear hats. Most of the time, her brother is not too keen on the idea. But this time he relented.

That is fine with Dad. But she better not start pushing him to wear make up, nail polish, and girl clothes!

Ha! Just kidding. Dad doesn't care if he does. Dad heard a bit of wisdom years ago that gives him comfort. When boys play/pretend dress up there are generally no broader gender confusion issues about it at a young age. So parents shouldn't freak out about it if boys don girl things. It is just normal youthful curiosity and imagination.

However, if they want to play/pretend dress up when they are in double digits or older, there might be issues there needing professional intervention.
"I made him wear a hat!"

Friday, November 8, 2013

Emulation

THE Twins decided to mimic Daddy today and forestall his workout for a time.


They have seen Dad haul out the weights for his workout countless times by now in their nearly 17 months. But now that they are growing older, they want to do what he does. Although too heavy for them to lift, they grasped the dumbbells in a similar manner as Dad does, and they tried their mightiest to lift them. They, together, actually managed to roll the 50 lbs. Weider plates a few inches. That's collaboration.

Their imitation behavior is so endearing. And scary. They will do everything the Parents show them - both the good and bad, intentional and unintentional.

But for now, they have some big shoes to fill, and try they do.
EJ tries on Dad's left shoe for fit.
Dad knows the volume of sweat that these shoes have endured. They have been drenched many times before. They persisted through three marathon equivalents on an elliptical together during five days the August 2008. Even though they have been washed many times since then, they retain a certain, uh, odor of accomplishment that he would rather his kids not get so close to or put their own young, perfect feet into. 
EJ contemplates the shoe while holding the timer.

Buggy tries Dad's other shoe.

Dad turns it toward the camera.
They do what they see done. After today's workout and a brief morning nap, Buggy saw Dad putting EJ's shoe on the Boy in anticipation of letting both toddle around (previous post here) when she noticed EJ's other shoe was by her side. Both she and shoe were some distance away. She made the connection, Daddy is shoeing him up; she must bring it over to Dad so he could put it on son. Aww, thanks Buggy! She has in recent times tried to put her own shoes on herself, but lacking the skill, hasn't quite done it yet.

However, she has a bit of tyrant (more here) in her about practicing what she learns.

That evening, Dad got into the playspace with them to show them how to put blocks into the correctly shaped hole in the box.
The letter "B" goes into the "B" slot.
They were thrilled and fascinated for brief time trying to puzzle it out. Dad would demonstrate, they would try. Dad gave instructions, encouragement and assistance, they tried some more.

After a spell, Dad left them to their "homework" and went to finish up some other chore.

A few minutes later Dad noticed Buggy "talking" animatedly to EJ. She was doing exactly what Dad had done with them both earlier, only now she was the "Parent" teaching an unwilling pupil (EJ). She was trying to show him how to put the block into the box - before she had accomplished it herself. She was grasping both the block and his hand like Daddy had done with them, and was trying to convince him to put it into the hole, i.e. the wrong hole and the wrong way. Even the cadence of her vocalizations matched Dad's earlier brief and simple verbal directions.

Dad thought the lesson was lost on her. She had not learned to put the right shaped block into the right shaped hole, she had learned how to lecture, and apparently bully, her brother! Dad gave serious pause to this thought.

"What did I teach her?" Dad reflected.

Meanwhile, EJ wanted none of it. He hasn't yet even been persuaded that there is value putting some block into some hole.

"Why bother?" he must think. "There is no food reward involved. I get no huggy-lovey like during reading time. This is a waste of time. Let me go burn off energy somewhere else."

And when EJ voiced his opposition to Buggy's tutelage and wandered away, she too cried in frustration. Dad imagines he could almost here her saying, "But Daddy, I was just trying to show him how to do what you showed me what to do, teach toddlers to put the block into the hole!"

Palm, meet forehead.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Little Tikes Play Kitchen

UNCLE Dave and Aunt Heather blessed the Twins with their own three girls no-longer-used Little Tikes kitchen. Dad hauled it home, cleaned it up and let the Twins go at it. Anything new is a hit with them. Dad wondered if it would captivate them for longer than a few minutes.
Liesel, first one up from the afternoon nap, had it to herself for a short time.

She clearly doesn't like it.
EJ soon joined.




They both loved opening the doors and discovering the stuff inside. They loved exploring the new stuff, and putting it away only to pull it out again. They are a little too young yet to play with it as it is intended to be played with, but that'll come with time.

Dad let them discover it when they rose from their afternoon naps, a time while Mom worked from home. Suddenly, disjointedly from the character of the moment, Mom jumped up and ran to the bedroom. She had had an idea. What could it be? She did not want any accompaniment.
Adorable!
Mom bought this apron for herself in the early years of the New Family's marriage. Dad just adores it. Ruffles and lace are just so feminine. Mom had to put it on Buggy. Dad thought it was a great idea.

Their kitchen is set up right outside the Parent's kitchen so that Mom and Dad can keep an eye on them while they play pretend to do the things Mom and Dad are actually doing.

It went up yesterday, and today the Twins still seemed to enjoy it, though having explored everything about it, EJ decided to test its strength by climbing up it.

Boys; they just aren't girls.

One day though Dad hopes he and son will share time in the real kitchen making meals. He could be the next Charlie Trotter (who passed away today incidentally). He hopes Buggy will too, but he has a feeling that that will happen without any effort on his part.

So, now the parents are looking to expand the kitchen. Perhaps the Twins can even have the dream kitchen the Parents hope for!

Sunday, November 3, 2013

EJ Reads

DAD is passionate about teaching the Twins to love to read. There is much research that correlates good reading habits and high academic achievement as well as one study that links well-read adults to higher than average life satisfaction scores. But, he has spent too much time (in his opinion) on the basics to too little reward. And, he has spent more time with the Boy since in general girls seem to enjoy reading more than boys.

He has demonstrated how to page through a book from front to back.

He has demonstrated how to follow the words from left to right by pointing to them with his index finger as he reads them aloud.

He has pointed to the pictures to get their reactions.

And every time, they squirmed, wiggled, chewed the book, and otherwise disrupted the entire event.

Dad thought that it was getting nowhere. Perhaps, he thought, they were too young.

But then, for the first time tonight, EJ demonstrated remarkable "reading" skills.

Mom had given them an advertising flyer to occupy them for a time while she finished up in the kitchen. Dad was occupied on another task at the computer. Buggy, true to form, tore it apart and 'tasted' her copy. EJ, however, carefully placed the flyer on the floor, and squatted above it. He examined the colorful photos on the front and then he...

Turned the page!

He examined more photos and then, yep you guessed it, turned the page!

While on each page, he pointed to pictures and moved his hand from side to side. It was random, back and forth, but still more than anything he has done previously.

Mom was excited and pointed it out to Dad. Dad pretended it was trivial. He explained that he had been working with them on reading skills and knew that they would eventually pick up on the behavior. Inside though, he was beaming at his boy.

Autumn Foiliage

FALL has been a disappointment this year due to the weather, but it only takes one nice day and some willing trees to get some pictures.





THIS BAG IS NOT A TOY!

SO says the informational alert on the acrylic bag the Twin's Mega Block came in. Unfortunately, Buggy cannot read. And since she is in a "everything is a hat" phase, the bag became a hat.
Dad got to be the meanie and take it away from her. It was thoughtlessly left in the playspace when someone reintroduced them after a period of absence. They grew bored quickly with the blocks and sought out other distractions.

Speaking of hats, Buggy is a little tyrant with her brother by placing everything on his head as a hat. When he removes it, she gets upset and tries to put it back on him.

So Yeah, Chocolate Chips were on Sale

TERRIBLY irresponsible.

They were each given two morsels. They have never had chocolate before. They stuck them into their mouths and removed them, and stuck them in again. They repeated that several times before finally leaving it in to dissolve.