- We have learned that Abuela from Venezuela (say that five times fast!) will be visiting us sometime around the Christmas holidays. The kids are really excited, with Reni calling out "hola! map and swiper take my treasure!" while Anika tells me she knows how to speak Spanish and will communicate with Abuela just fine, thank you very much and graciasunodostrescuatro. Our plan is to leave the kids with her for about four hours. That should take care of the language barrier.
- Grandma and Grandpa will also be here for a week in early December, and Anika is uber-psyched to make a birthday cake for her and grandpa to share. It will be chocolate with pink icing, in case any one is wondering.
- Reni still cries at drop-off time, but school days are a whole lot of quiet for me and a whole lot of fun for the kids. Anika is still mum on most things, but today she started whimpering a bit because, "I miss my friends!" so she must be having an ok time. The teachers have a much bigger student roster in the 3 year-old room, and I had been worried that Ani wasn't getting enough one-on-one attention like she got last year. Then last Thursday, I saw the teacher give Anika a huge bear hug when it was time to say goodbye. Today, Reni's teacher told me that he's doing great, and "he's a real sweetheart, isn't he?" His second day of class, one of the assistants took him for a walk to calm him down, and now it has become a sort of routine that two other separation-anxiety-riddled boys join in on. They walk for three minutes up and down the hallway, check out the playground, pay a visit to Anika (who gives him a reassuring hug) and go back into the classroom, sniffle-free. With 11 two-year-old boys in the classroom, there is a LOT of crying at drop-off, still, and it makes me realize how much more sensitive boys can be than girls.
- I'm trying to look for some sort of part-time employment. Not as easy as one might think, as part-time doesn't exist much around here unless you're talking the pay-by-the-hour variety.
- We had been looking to move from our current home to one up in the mountains, but budgets didn't meet expectations, so we are now planning to build a balcony so that we can at least enjoy the mountain view from here. We will put a guest room upstairs as well, so if any of you are thinking to come visit, we will no longer force you to either a) sleep on our couch/air mattress/floor; or b) take our bedroom and have us all tip-toeing around each other.
- Both kids are in that growing phase where they eat an enormous amount of cheese and yogurt and trip over their own two feet apropos of nothing. Reni has grown out of all of his shoes. Again. He is also, mercifully, outgrowing his nap. It's such a fight to get him down anyway, and on school days he is so wired from all the excitement that he doesn't nap at all.
- A new sartorial twist: after being in regular clothes (i.e. a dress with flounce and/or an outfit with a tutu on top), at around 3 p.m. or so, Anika changes into one of her princess dress-up dresses. Then, at bed time, she wails and puts up an enormous fight because she HATES ALL of the new pajamas we bought for fall. NONE of them have skirts, mama!! So we now have to place a tutu on top of her pajamas, and most of them she refuses to wear the pants portion. She wakes up itchy, and cold, but happy, so who am I to judge?
- Reni's sartorial obsession is sunglasses. They have toy story characters on them, and although he has never seen the movie nor, to my knowledge, any of the toys that came out of marketing said movies, he calls them his "Buzz glasses" and likes to sleep with them. And wear them everywhere. Mostly he wears them right-side-up, and he puts them on his head like I do when we go inside. He is so particular....whereas Anika will bound inside, take off her jacket ("It's hot outside!") and throw it on the floor without a second glance, Reni will either hand it to me ("thank you, mama!") or cram it into one of his dresser drawers before going back outside.
- Another new obsession: clubhouses. One evening, my creative husband built an elaborate club house in Anika's room using the two pop-up tents we have for the kids, their kid-sized arm chairs, a stack of blankets, and the space between her dresser and bed. Anika set up dioramas inside with nearly every toy she owns and built a cozy little nest. She and Reni played in there for a long time, and then she wanted to sleep there. This didn't last, of course, but the next night she built her own club house (with a small amount of help) and lasted about 20 minutes before crawling out to proclaim that it was too uncomfortable to sleep. I am pretty sure we haven't had a clubhouse-free day since. She's getting really good at building them.
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