Meera and Kyle have their own brother-sister bond. Their relationship is totally different than the relationship between Owen and Meera. Kyle does not like to hold Meera very often — he never has — he’s too afraid he’ll hurt her. But he has a special way of connecting with Meera that is all his own. While Owen connects with Meera so physically, Kyle connects with her verbally and emotionally. He tells her stories and “reads” her books. Since he has most books memorized, word-for-word, his “reading” to Meera is actually exactly as if he really were reading to her since he’s reciting the pages perfectly almost all the time. In the photo above he’s “reading” her The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein… Kyle’s current favorite book. My favorite Kyle-Meera thing, though, is this: At random times throughout the day Kyle will take a quick break, from whatever it is he’s doing, to run up to Meera, wherever she is. And in the briefest of a moment, he’ll quickly nuzzle his face very close to hers, squint his eyes very tight, and he’ll whisper to her. There are only two things he says and he fluctuates between them; he whispers the same two things to her each and every time. This has been going on for several weeks now. I don’t know why he says these things, or how exactly he came to fixate on these two little whispers from him to her. Sometimes he says, “Rumpelstiltskin!” The other times he says, “Magic in the treetops!” And then, just as quickly as he stopped to whisper to his sister, he’s off and running back to whatever it was he was doing. And Meera is left with a halfway-wondering-and-halfway-adoring smile on her face and a huge glittery sparkle in her eye.
Meera is teething. She cut her first tooth about a week ago. Over the past couple of days the second tooth has popped through. Two bottom teeth for our little sweet baby. I hate to see the teeth poking through, I hate to feel them breaking through her gum, because I just hate to have to see her grow up. Why can’t she stay my tiny baby forever??? Why? Why? Why? Oh, she is pure sweetness and, oh, how I wish she’d never be more than 5 months old. Ba ha waaaa. Anyhoo… enough about that. The poor baby is teething. And if she can get her hands on it, it is in her mouth rubbing up against her sore little gums. It really does seem like teething toys were made for this girl. As though they were invented for her. Adding insult to injury, she’s also been struggling this past week with Daylight Savings Time. We switched the clocks back a solid week ago now, but still Little Miss still insists on going to bed at her old bedtime (6:00ish which is now 5:00ish). She’s kind of cramping our style in terms of Family Dinner. Really, who goes to bed for the night at 5:00???? But what can we say? This is a girl who loves her sleep. Despite her teething and her excessive sleeping, she’s a bundle of baby love. Gurgling, squealing, drooling, everything-in-the-mouth, cuddly-baby-bundle-of-love. Even as she’s been cutting these two teeth and revolting against Daylight Savings, Little Miss Meera remains the happiest, most mellow, most happy-go-lucky baby I’ve ever encountered. For real. What I really want to post about, though, is the special bond that is in full swing right now between Meera and Owen. This is a girl who loves her Owen almost as much as she loves her sleep and her teething toys. She loves Kyle too, don’t get me wrong. But there’s something special right now between M & O. Owen spends a lot of time holding Meera. He asks to hold her multiple times a day. And when he holds her he’ll sit and cuddle with her for long extended periods (that is, long for an active 4-year-old boy). They hang out together a lot. And that is what it is with them — they hang out. They just hang out together in a way that I have to think must be unusual for a 4.5 year old and a 5 month old. They are pretty interesting to watch. Oh, and there is no one– no one– who can make Meera laugh like Owen can.
Today the boys and Braydon went to Kavya’s Birthday Party at J.W. Tumbles. According to K & O it was “great!” (K) and “perfect!” (O). Unfortunately I had to stay home with Little Miss M, who needed to not miss her afternoon nap today.
Nikki left a comment on the post below asking for tips for fun Haiti-related stuff for young kids. My favorite is a Haiti Coloring Book called Bel Peyi Mwen: A Children’s Coloring Book of Haiti. Click here for the amazon.com link
There are some good children’s books out there that pay tribute to Haiti. I have found, however, that they aren’t generally geared to very young children. And the truth is that the ones we have are still sitting on the upper shelf waiting for when K & O are a bit older. We have a great book that they love, though, that is not focused on Haiti per se, but is still terrific for Haitian kids. It is Caribbean Dream by Rachel Isadora. Awesome illustrations! Click here for the amazon link
Another great tip from us to you is Haitian musical instruments, art (paintings, crafts, etc.), and jewelry. Some of this can be great for young kids. We have a bunch of instruments from Haiti that K & O love. And they like to look at jewelry, etc. that we have from Haiti. And we have art/crafts from Haiti on the walls and shelves all over our house. Look for places online that sell Haitian-made stuff. Just start googling and searching and you’ll eventually start finding things. One site I love is “Konny’s Korner” — Click here for the link
Let us know if you find great Haitian stuff for young kids too!!! HBJ
I put ‘cleaning’ in “QUOTES” because the cleaning (not in quotes) required to clean up their “cleaning” is a lot more cleaning than the “cleaning” itself. But man, do they love “cleaning”! Leave ’em alone unoccupied for a few minutes and next thing you know they’re “cleaning” — they’ve gotten themselves into the Cleaning Closet in the laundry room… and all *heck* has broken loose! “Cleaning” “cleaning” craze craze craze. A tornado-like frenzy of frenetic “cleaning”-spraying-squirting-swooshing-mopping-scrubbing-“cleaning.” Usually it starts in the bathroom and then gradually moves into the kitchen. “Real men clean boys! Real men clean!” I cheer, as I dart back and forth re-directing a spray nozzle here (so it doesn’t go straight into an eye) and re-positioning a mop there (so it doesn’t slam-dent the baseboard). If it is left to go on long enough they’ll move through the whole house, with me gently guiding them (until I lose my patience and it turns into not-so-gentle-guidance at which point the fun of it usually ceases for them pretty quickly and they run off to other things leaving me in peace to clean up the “clean up.”) I’ve been trying to roll with it, though, calling up all the patience I have within me, and just grinning-and-bearing the follow-up cleaning required, because I figure that what I’m going through now is well worth it for the THANKS AND PRAISE I’ll be receiving someday down the road from their future life-partners. I imagine it now: proud me, as a sixty-something-year-old, my cup runneth over with gratitude from my lovely daughters-or-sons-in-laws (I just have to believe –or else I’ll cry– that we’ll have legalized marriage for all consenting adult partners by then). Anyway, I can deal with delayed gratification. Oh, yes I can. They’ll be thanking me someday for these modern men. And I’m putting it out there to the universe now: whoever you are, you out there, you who will be my boys’ life-partners someday…. YOU OWE ME BIG TIME FOR THIS!!!!!!! BIG TIME!!!! đŸ˜‰
Owen and Kyle love mazes. Owen was really the first to start this love-affair, but Kyle quickly caught on to it too. And now they are equally enamored. They’ve been loving doing mazes for about a year now. They’ve gone through many books of mazes– some simple and some more complex. We are currently in a phase where the boys do mazes almost every morning before school. My mind sometimes wanders while I’m watching them do mazes. The symbolism of mazes– as an analogy to life– captures my thinking and I find myself pondering where we’ve been, and wondering where we’re going.
Meera and Kyle have their own brother-sister bond. Their relationship is totally different than the relationship between Owen and Meera. Kyle does not like to hold Meera very often — he never has — he’s too afraid he’ll hurt her. But he has a special way of connecting with Meera that is all his own. While Owen connects with Meera so physically, Kyle connects with her verbally and emotionally. He tells her stories and “reads” her books. Since he has most books memorized, word-for-word, his “reading” to Meera is actually exactly as if he really were reading to her since he’s reciting the pages perfectly almost all the time. In the photo above he’s “reading” her The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein… Kyle’s current favorite book. My favorite Kyle-Meera thing, though, is this: At random times throughout the day Kyle will take a quick break, from whatever it is he’s doing, to run up to Meera, wherever she is. And in the briefest of a moment, he’ll quickly nuzzle his face very close to hers, squint his eyes very tight, and he’ll whisper to her. There are only two things he says and he fluctuates between them; he whispers the same two things to her each and every time. This has been going on for several weeks now. I don’t know why he says these things, or how exactly he came to fixate on these two little whispers from him to her. Sometimes he says, “Rumpelstiltskin!” The other times he says, “Magic in the treetops!” And then, just as quickly as he stopped to whisper to his sister, he’s off and running back to whatever it was he was doing. And Meera is left with a halfway-wondering-and-halfway-adoring smile on her face and a huge glittery sparkle in her eye.Meera is teething. She cut her first tooth about a week ago. Over the past couple of days the second tooth has popped through. Two bottom teeth for our little sweet baby. I hate to see the teeth poking through, I hate to feel them breaking through her gum, because I just hate to have to see her grow up. Why can’t she stay my tiny baby forever??? Why? Why? Why? Oh, she is pure sweetness and, oh, how I wish she’d never be more than 5 months old. Ba ha waaaa. Anyhoo… enough about that. The poor baby is teething. And if she can get her hands on it, it is in her mouth rubbing up against her sore little gums. It really does seem like teething toys were made for this girl. As though they were invented for her. Adding insult to injury, she’s also been struggling this past week with Daylight Savings Time. We switched the clocks back a solid week ago now, but still Little Miss still insists on going to bed at her old bedtime (6:00ish which is now 5:00ish). She’s kind of cramping our style in terms of Family Dinner. Really, who goes to bed for the night at 5:00???? But what can we say? This is a girl who loves her sleep. Despite her teething and her excessive sleeping, she’s a bundle of baby love. Gurgling, squealing, drooling, everything-in-the-mouth, cuddly-baby-bundle-of-love. Even as she’s been cutting these two teeth and revolting against Daylight Savings, Little Miss Meera remains the happiest, most mellow, most happy-go-lucky baby I’ve ever encountered. For real. What I really want to post about, though, is the special bond that is in full swing right now between Meera and Owen. This is a girl who loves her Owen almost as much as she loves her sleep and her teething toys. She loves Kyle too, don’t get me wrong. But there’s something special right now between M & O. Owen spends a lot of time holding Meera. He asks to hold her multiple times a day. And when he holds her he’ll sit and cuddle with her for long extended periods (that is, long for an active 4-year-old boy). They hang out together a lot. And that is what it is with them — they hang out. They just hang out together in a way that I have to think must be unusual for a 4.5 year old and a 5 month old. They are pretty interesting to watch. Oh, and there is no one– no one– who can make Meera laugh like Owen can.
Today the boys and Braydon went to Kavya’s Birthday Party at J.W. Tumbles. According to K & O it was “great!” (K) and “perfect!” (O). Unfortunately I had to stay home with Little Miss M, who needed to not miss her afternoon nap today.
HBJ
I put ‘cleaning’ in “QUOTES” because the cleaning (not in quotes) required to clean up their “cleaning” is a lot more cleaning than the “cleaning” itself. But man, do they love “cleaning”! Leave ’em alone unoccupied for a few minutes and next thing you know they’re “cleaning” — they’ve gotten themselves into the Cleaning Closet in the laundry room… and all *heck* has broken loose! “Cleaning” “cleaning” craze craze craze. A tornado-like frenzy of frenetic “cleaning”-spraying-squirting-swooshing-mopping-scrubbing-“cleaning.” Usually it starts in the bathroom and then gradually moves into the kitchen. “Real men clean boys! Real men clean!” I cheer, as I dart back and forth re-directing a spray nozzle here (so it doesn’t go straight into an eye) and re-positioning a mop there (so it doesn’t slam-dent the baseboard). If it is left to go on long enough they’ll move through the whole house, with me gently guiding them (until I lose my patience and it turns into not-so-gentle-guidance at which point the fun of it usually ceases for them pretty quickly and they run off to other things leaving me in peace to clean up the “clean up.”) I’ve been trying to roll with it, though, calling up all the patience I have within me, and just grinning-and-bearing the follow-up cleaning required, because I figure that what I’m going through now is well worth it for the THANKS AND PRAISE I’ll be receiving someday down the road from their future life-partners. I imagine it now: proud me, as a sixty-something-year-old, my cup runneth over with gratitude from my lovely daughters-or-sons-in-laws (I just have to believe –or else I’ll cry– that we’ll have legalized marriage for all consenting adult partners by then). Anyway, I can deal with delayed gratification. Oh, yes I can. They’ll be thanking me someday for these modern men. And I’m putting it out there to the universe now: whoever you are, you out there, you who will be my boys’ life-partners someday…. YOU OWE ME BIG TIME FOR THIS!!!!!!! BIG TIME!!!! đŸ˜‰
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Meera had pureed prunes for the first time last night. She loved it!
(as always, click on photo to enlarge)
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