Play room and cafe

We went with Sarah, Tyler and Baby Noah, to a cafe and playroom on Saturday. We ate and then the boys played for an hour in a sort of a scaled down version of a Monkey's Playroom. In fact we had to wait nearly 2 hours just to get in, so by the time we finally sat down and ate, both boys were tired. Kellan had slept a little in the car so he was holding up pretty well, but Jolon had been up since 6:00 and he didn't get into the playroom until nearly 2:00. He did great though until just before we left. I could see how tired he was in his eyes and was already picking up the bags for the swift exit. But when I turned around he had Kellan in his arms and was walking towards the ball pit where he didn't just drop Kellan in, he actually swung him back and tossed him! The whole room went silent. I knew Kellan wasn't hurt (just scared!) but I had to leave him for a minute while I picked up Jolon and set him down on the bench without saying a word. He was compliant, didn't say a word either, just looked repentant and sat there until I told him he could get up. Kellan was fine. Poor Jolon had just about reached a point of exhaustion. I think the idea of tossing Kellan into the ball pit came into his head and before he knew what was happening, he was doing it. He looked as surprised as Kellan did.

(Sort of) Self-portraits by Jan and Jolon

Jolon drew this picture of himself and wrote his own name. He also wanted Jan to draw a picture of himself but every time Jan went to draw, Jolon corrected him and told him what to draw and where to put it. ("No, first you draw a circle. No, not that way....like this. Next you draw the eyes......and draw a beard here.." etc.)

Climbing

One of Kellan's favorite things to do is climb up onto chairs and tables. Once he gets up there he usually proceeds to stand up and then grin and raise both arms in the air. He somehow manages to look proud and a little sheepish at the same time as he knows he's doing something he shouldn't be.

Swimming pool opens tomorrow!

The pool at hoikuen opens tomorrow, July 1st, and Jolon is super excited. Today he came home talking nonstop about how they practiced getting dressed for the pool today. They talked about where to hang their pool bags, where to put their clothes after they change into swimsuits, where to hang their towels, when to put on their swim caps, how to do the warm-up exercises, etc. Last week I bought him a new set of swim trunks and when he tried the whole outfit on, we couldn't get him to change back into his clothes. Finally persuaded him not to sleep in his swim gear by telling him his head might explode under the tight swim cap.

Brushing teeth

Jolon got a dental check-up at school last week and a good report of no cavities. (no lice either, but that was a different check on another day). He's getting better and better at brushing his teeth by himself, although we never seem to be able to brush the standard 3 minutes...lucky if we can for a minute. Kellan, who loves to copy Jolon of course, is fascinated with toothbrushes, and although it's hard to actually get a brush into his mouth, he happily walks around holding one for awhile every morning. (I have about 6 that they both share because we couldn't keep track of only 2). In fact, all we have to do is say "toothbrush," and Kellan runs for the bathroom, clapping his hands until one of us gets there and hands him a brush. Nowadays a dry toothbrush is not enough. He even wants to hold the toothpaste and put it on himself.

Kellan

loves to kiss these days with a great, big smacking noise. So cute. His teachers wrote yesterday that he is very interested in other kids who are crying; enjoys going over and rubbing their heads, whether they like it or not.

Ji Ji is still one of his favorite expressions. Anytime he sees a crayon or even just a picture of a crayon, he'll start saying "ji ji" over and over again. all animals are still "wan wan," but if he sees pictures of a sheep or horse, he'll start making odd, coughing-like noises, trying to copy my "baas" and "neighs." He puts his hands in the air and starts spinning when he hears music. Had a few rough nights last week when he woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep, but this week has been better. I talked to his teachers about it, thinking it might be something going on at school...maybe he was really anxious about something. They said it's possible he was replaying something that happened at school in his dreams and that was upsetting him. Children this age are very easily frustrated since there is so much they are physically unable to do and can't communicate very well either. They also blamed it on the weather as it's just become much more humid. The new issue is how to get him to sleep at 8:00. If he's super tired he'll go right to sleep after I nurse him, but if not, he wants to crawl around the bed and get out of the room. We put the cot away last week because he was protesting so much about it. Really hates it. Now we're considering getting it back out and training him to start off in there like we did with Jolon. Not an attractive option. Actually last night wasn't too bad....took about 20 minutes (and lots of crying) once I stopped nursing him to calm him down enough to get him to lie down on the bed and let me rub his back until he fell asleep. I can live with that. We'll see what happens tonight.

Dancing

Click to Play

Stuck inside on a rainy day. Jan got the boys a little cd player for their room, so we decided to play some music and dance. You can see Kellan doing his best to copy Jolon and also see his new trick: biting! This is also proof that he's not a baby anymore---he takes quite a beating from Jolon and keeps on dancing.