DJ and the moon

Last night, when Steve brought the kids home, DJ saw my car parked in the garage.

"Go see Mommy??" 

"Mommy's not here.  Remember?  She went on an airplane."

"Get on airplane?  Go see the moon??"

Wow.  That's my smart boy right there.

In other DJ news, DJ helped Daddy get ready to leave to go to Eleanor's. 

He put his hat on all by himself... it just so happens to be inside out, but that's OK!  He wore it that way all the way to Eleanor's!!

Stormy

For once, Steve actually heard our child crying before I did.  I must've been really tired to miss it because DJ was wailing. 

Steve came back about 10 minutes later with DJ in his arms and with Tiger in DJ's arms.  DJ snuggled in between us in our bed (can I say, again, how thankful I am to have a king sized bed?!), and I asked him if he could hear the wind and the rain.  That's when DJ started talking about what he was hearing.  It was clear he was very scared by it all and understandably so because the winds were really violent this morning and it whipped the rain against the house.  It was very loud.  I can just imagine it waking up DJ and with his already being hypersensitive about storms, it was really scaring him. 

Steve said that while he was in DJ's room, DJ wanted Steve to hold his hand, and DJ asked if Daddy could "open the blind to see the wind".  For as scared as he was, he was brave enough to want to see the storm, too.

After about an hour, Steve took DJ back to his room.  Within 5 minutes of Steve getting back, the power went off in the house.  Uh-oh.  Thankfully it didn't stay off and flickered a few more times.  In the process of flickering, though, it turned on the overhead light in Elektra's room and she started wailing.  So we went in her room to soothe her (and turned off her light via her pull chain, too).  After a glass of "mook", we put her back down into her crib.  She protested about 5 minutes, but then she must've soothed herself back to sleep. 

Steve says he didn't hear from the kids until 8:45 this morning!  Wow!  DJ was awake and playing in his room, but we think that he must've fallen back to sleep for at least a little while.  Elektra definitely went back to sleep.  Hopefully the power stays on at the house since Steve is home with the kids since they both still have fevers.

Touchdown!

We're watching the Indianapolis Colts vs. New York Jets NFL football game, and the Colts just scored a touchdown. 

Elektra raised her arms up over her head and said "Ta-down!" while looking right at me, grinning happily. 

That's my girl! 

Welcome

Elektra is refusing to nap today.  NO matter what we have done, nap has been violently protested.

So I am currently on Elektra duty as she is playing in the living room instead of napping.  Even Daddy and DJ are napping.  When I brought her into the living room, she asked me for her "Mook..." (milk) and walked over to the gate closest to the kitchen.

When I handed her cup to her, I said, "What do you say?  Thank you!" intending for her to repeat "thank you" but instead to my complete surprise she said, "cacom" (welcome).  I nearly fell over.

Of course I had to test it some more.  "Elektra, thank you!"  "Cacom."  I did it again.  She said it again.  I am impressed!

And now she's just saying it because she can.  :-)

Weekend Update

Not with Kevin Nealy.

Sonny and Eleanor had a short in their house which finally blew a circuit.  On Tuesday, an electrician came to the house, and DJ was nothing less than completely engrossed with what he was doing.  Along those lines, DJ loves it when Sonny or Daddy pull out tools to fix something.  He want to see exactly how the tool is fixing something.

On Thursday, as I was putting Elektra in her carseat to leave Eleanor's DJ ran back to Eleanor and gave her an unsolicited "I love you, Nory!"  AWESOME!!!

Elektra played with playdough with the big kids during the week.  Eleanor sent a picture (thanks Eleanor!):

Apparently, she wants to do everything that the big kids (DJ and Grace) do, and gets really upset when she can't.  For example, Sonny took the kids to the grocery and Elektra wailed that she couldn't go with them.  She expected to go with them!!


Friday night, the kids came down with colds.  Elektra had effectively no afternoon nap, so she melted down at 6:45 and was in bed and waving and SAYING bye-bye to Daddy before 7.  Around 1 AM, she started wailing.  I went in to find her with a 101 fever, so I gave her some Tylenol, settled her down, and she went back to sleep.  At 6AM, DJ woke up wailing, he had 100 temperature, so Daddy gave him Tylenol.  We got to sleep until near 8AM, and then the craziness really started.

Both kids have runny noses, coughs, and fevers.  We were planning to take the kids to my parents' house so that we could test nap time there, but decided to cancel that to avoid getting my parents sick.  Instead, I took DJ when I went to get my car's oil changed at the Jiffy Lube ("Close those garages, Mommy!" "No, the workers need them open today, DJ."), we went to the bank to make a deposit, we went to Target to get a birthday gift, and then to the grocery store for our weekly run.  He's such a good companion that way!

Both kids in bed for naps by 2pm, and I left the house to go out quickly while the kids were napping.  I hadn't gotten 10 minutes from the house when Steve called me that DJ had vomited all over the bed and himself.  Yuck.  When I got home, I had to rinse all that stuff before I could put it in the washer.

Elektra has a fever still, but DJ seems to have kicked his.  He's still coughing and both kids have the open faucet also known as runny noses.  Elektra's been awake only 2 hours today, and she's already back down for a nap.  She's miserable today despite the Tylenol, and a lump on the back of her head isn't helping things!

Elektra is saying "sish" (goldfish, the cracker), "buckoo" (buckle), "-ck-" (sock but without the "so" part of sock, just the 'k' sound), "Nunny" (her white Bunny), "diapoor" (diaper), "fowa" (flower) and "up-pa" (up!).  Sonny says she can say her own name, but I haven't heard it yet, unfortunately.

DJ is just a magpie.  Everything he's thinking he says.  Today, he was playing "picnic" with us, serving us a delicious meal with his new picnic tray from Nouna and Nouno.  He's also been starting to put the train track for his train table together, even learning how to put the overpass pieces together.

Lots going on!

When your children don't let you go to sleep...

....it means it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay past their bedtime.

Although this post isn't exactly the converse of when DJ got up on his dresser and played with his car magnets and dry erase marker, it's similar.

Last night, Steve took DJ to bed and about half an hour later, a flustered Steve came out of DJ's room.

"He's nowhere close to being asleep," Steve declared.  Apparently, DJ was running on his second wind and was doing everything BUT calm down to go to sleep.  That's when Steve told him, "Ok, DJ, then you're going to sleep by yourself!" and left the room.

Usually, if DJ is still awake when we leave his room, he gets out of bed (despite numerous repetitions of "when it's dark in your room, you don't get out of your car bed") and knocks incessantly on his door.  Of course we can't break that habit by ignoring it because we're afraid he'll wake up Elektra doing it. 

So since Steve had left his room with DJ clearly still awake, I expected to hear knocking any minute.

Half an hour goes by, no knocking.  At this point, I'm suspicious.  As I walk down the hall, his room his quiet, but the overhead light in his room is definitely on as I can see it from under the door.  Ah-ha... that's why we didn't hear any knocking; Steve didn't turn the light off by the pull chain so DJ used the button and turned it on.  DJ was contendly and quietly playing on his bed.

I considered leaving him be, but it was 10PM already since we've moved his bedtime back to 8:30 from 7:30.  I tucked him in, told him to say "ni-ta-ta" to all of his toys and the car bed and his stuff tiger, turned off the light via the pull chain, and left his room. 

15 seconds later, KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.....

Back into his room I go, tell him that it's time to close his eyes and go to sleep.  I tucked him in, told him to say "ni-ta-ta" to all of his toys and the car bed and his stuff tiger, turned off the light via the pull chain, and left his room, again.

When I went in an hour later, he was asleep, the way I left him.  He didn't get a car magnet this morning because of his antics, but I am pleased he did finally go to sleep on his own.

When your children let you sleep in...

... that means it's too quiet.

And when it's too quiet, that means they're into something, likely something you don't want them to be doing.

When I opened the door to DJ's room, I saw...

...DJ sitting on his changing pad (which is on top of his dresser), playing with his car magnets and the dry erase marker on the dry erase board. 

So I surveyed the room and discovered how he did it.

 He had pulled the chair that we use to read books before bed over to the dresser, piled all of his blankets on it, and climbed from there.  Obviously, this was the last thing he had done because the rest of the room looked like this:

That picture doesn't really do the toy-pocolypse any justice.  The room was trashed.  There are toys in his closet, in his bed, on the floor...

Surprisingly, he left the wipes alone (notice the container on the end of the dresser next to his humidifier) as he's usually a wipe fiend. 

Obviously, I called Daddy to get the camera and before we got the picture (and therefore I could take away the dry erase marker), he got some on his pajamas.  Oh well.  The whole situation was enormously amusing, though, even if only because DJ wasn't hurt.

Is there a parrot in the house?

Steve was in the midst of changing Elektra's poopy diaper when he decided to tell me about his Poopy Diaper Creation Theory (dissertation coming soon!).  I was in the kitchen preparing a chicken for tomorrow night's dinner when I heard,

"Honey!"

And then not 2 seconds later, a little, higher pitched voice...

"HONEY!"

I hear Steve laugh and then say,

"I have a Poopy Diaper Creation Theory!"

Again, not 2 seconds later, the little, higher pitched voice...

"Poopy Diaper Crayshun Tee!"

And when I yelled back that I couldn't hear him, I heard that little, higher pitched voice yell progressively louder,

"HONEY!  HONEY!!  HONEY!!!"

At that point, we knew that the DJ Parrot has officially made his roost in the house.

Weekend Update on the kids

Elektra busted out a couple of words this weekend:  Cracker, Vroom (as in what a race car does when it goes down our toy track), thank you (tha-oo), and peas (please).

DJ promptly told Daddy yesterday morning while I was gone that I was not only to go to the grocery store, but I was to buy "groceries" and "pumpkin bread". 

We also made sure that DJ could say "TOUCHDOWN!" and "Go Ravens!"  While the game was on, he would spontaneously say, "Go Ravens!" 

We're so proud.  :-)

Puppy!

Isn't she adorable?!

No, she's not ours.  We aren't that insane to get a puppy.  We are puppy sitting for Carole (Steve's mom) while she's away at a funeral in Georgia.

This dog is VERY sweet and a smart little girl.  She's learned very quickly where to go potty (pee pads).  She has made very small some potty mistakes on the kitchen floor, but those are our fault, of course. 

She slept 6 hours last night, and wailed this morning to be let out of her little area to play.  We gated her into a small area with her crate and pee pads.  After I fed her breakfast and let her play with our two doggies, I put her back in the gated area so that I could go back to bed.  She WAILED.  That's when I kicked Steve out of bed to go get her. 

Naturally, he brought her back to bed with us.  She crawled around, let us pet her, we cuddled her, rubbed her belly, and then she found a spot at the foot of the bed where she settled down until the kids made it well known that it was time to pay attention to them!

The kids have loved her presence.  DJ, in particular, loved watching Napoleon and Cocoa play (read: establish dominance... more on that in a minute).  He would squeal and screech in delight as the dogs would chase each other and bark.  He wanted to chase with the dogs, but we didn't let him.  I sat him in my lap so that we could watch but let the dogs play safely.  Meanwhile, Elektra would stand in one spot and turn in circles watching the dogs run around her.  She loved petting Cocoa's soft curly hair.

As for who won pack leader position (dominance): We think Napoleon won, but it took over 24 hours!  She put up a good fight and gave Napoleon fits!  Napoleon would chase Cocoa around the train table, and although Napoleon is faster, Cocoa turned the corners like a a little go-kart (then hide under the table) and Napoleon would continue going straight.  Napoleon barked and barked and barked, and we were happy to see him get some exercise. 

After a round of that kind of play, Cocoa was wiped out.  We'd put her back her in her area, and she crashed out in her crate for a couple of hours.  Rinse, repeat.  :)

 IO, well, he is still low dog on the totem pole, and we think he knew it.  He never re-challenged for pack leader.

Meanwhile, Aunt Sue picked up the little sweetheart to care for her while we're at work tomorrow until her Mommy gets home.

Movies

Most of you probably read this blog via emails that you receive. Unlike pictures, the videos that I've posted with the blog don't come across in email, so you have to go to the blog's site to see the videos!

At the bottom of the email, you'll see something that says:

--
Posted By Verve to The Steaks at 1/02/2010 07:49:00 PM

or something along those lines.  Click on "The Steaks" in that email, and it should take you to the blog.  If it doesn't, the link is:  http://faststeak.blogspot.com/.

From there, you should see the video embedded in the blog post.  Click and enjoy!  Let me know if you still have trouble viewing them!

The Strider Bike

DJ received an orange Strider Running Bike for Christmas.  For those of you who don't know what a running bike is, it's a bike without pedals.  Basically, a kid will Fred Flinstone it, if you will... pedaling with his feet.

We had been considering a running bike since Steve (with DJ in toe) had ventured to REI for something, and another customer (a father, who's boy was looking at a pedal bike) suggested a running bike to Steve for DJ.  The running bike at REI was made of wood, and reviews weren't favorable in terms of its durability.  So Steve looked into finding a more durable (read: metal) version and thus, the Strider Bike.

We hadn't decided to buy it, though, because we weren't sure if DJ would be interested in it.  We saw a great opportunity to gauge his interest when we went to the Kennedy Kriegar Festival of Trees on Thanksgiving Weekend.  There was a local Strider vendor there, and had bikes onsite for kids to try.  DJ, however, showed zero interest.  In fact, he pushed away from me and said "No!"  Apparently, he wanted to go on the carousel more...  Even though DJ wasn't interested in trying it at the time, I was glad to be able to see it in person.

About a week later, DJ asked Daddy where the bicycle was.  He mentioned it 2 or 3 times, and that's what convinced us to get the Strider Running Bike for Christmas.

DJ effectively ignored the Strider bike (and his dinosaur-covered blue Bell helmet) from the day he saw it.  So we let him ignore it.

About 2 days after Christmas, he picked it up long enough to move it. 

About 4 days after Christmas, he turned it over to play with the wheels.

About 7 days after Christmas, he walked along side with it for about 2 minutes.

Then yesterday, he picked it up and really started riding it (via walking, of course).  And Daddy caught it all on film.  As always, this can be watched in HD!




For the record, this is my first attempt at using iMovie in iLife '09 (Steve gave me it for Christmas).  Admittingly, this isn't a quality production but for something homemade, this was absurdly easy to do.  I used GarageBand '09 to edit the song so that it would fade out at the end of the movie but if I'd had 4 minutes of video, I wouldn't have had to use GarageBand at all.  Then, from inside iMovie, I uploaded the finished product to YouTube and voila!  Enjoy!