Springtime silliness

MARCH

Strider was trying to whistle like Daddy the other day.  After trying for a minute, he pointed at his mouth and proclaimed, “It’s broken!”

My list of favorite words has been growing.  (Recent additions have been “Childcare available, and “ok, Mommy.”)  Now I heard Strider walking away from me as he was going to follow through on some instruction I had just given him, saying, “Whatever you say Mommy.”  Didn’t know he even knew that phrase, but I think I’m going to encourage that one to be more common!!

Rayna is definitely more feminine than Strider was at this age.  When she bounces in her Jumpster, her little toes point down then out, just like a little ballerina. (I remember Mom and Dad saying Karin used to do that, but I never believed them – until I saw Rayna do it!)  Strider used to just hang around in the Jumpster, sometimes jump roughly a little, but saw little point in it.  Also, he used to scratch furiously with his nails – grabbing his face, or someone else’s.  Rayna likes to touch faces, but she does it nicely with the flat part of her fingers so it doesn’t hurt!  And while Strider used to like to shove both fists in his mouth when he wanted to suck on something, Rayna just daintily plugs in one little thumb and is content.  Funny how different they are!

Strider has fallen FIVE time on his chin over the last few weeks.  It currently has a massive bruise on it (looking a bit like a goatee from far away).  It bothers him to look at it, but I didn’t realize how much so until we found he had taken down the little mirror in his room because he said he didn’t like to see it!

Yesterday a few different times when Rayna was sitting on my lap on the floor, Strider came up and hugged us both and said, “My girls.”  Maybe I’ll have to add that to my list of favorite words too.

APRIL

There is a commercial on the food network (tv) that Strider likes.  It’s for worcestshire sauce or something, and the big voice says, “I made you juicy!”  So Strider plays a game where he says “I made you____” whatever (silly, happy, etc)  One time though, I responded, “I made you Strider.”  He quickly got very serious and said, “No, Mommy.  God made me Strider!”  Then after a pause, “But…. Who made God??”

Rayna apparently forgot to go to “Angry Baby Class.”  When she gets mad, she doesn’t make noise!  She just scrunches up her face, tucks her chin into her neck and strains all of her muscles.  She does this if I’m trying to feed her a food she doesn’t like, if the sun is in her eyes when we’re going for a walk, etc.  Pretty funny looking, but not annoying to listen to!

Strider is in a funny phase.  He knows when he shouldn’t do something, and he knows I shouldn’t catch him doing it, but he doesn’t know enough to not tip me off.  So sometimes he comes up to me and says, “Mommy, go over in that room.”  I ask him why, and sometimes he tells me it’s because he wants to whatever the thing is I told him not to do!

One day during naptime, I heard Rayna start fussing in her crib.  I gave her a few minutes and pretty soon I didn’t hear her anymore.  I came up about 10 minutes later, and found Strider in her crib with her!  (He had heard her crying, left his room – which is strictly forbidden, but apparently the temptation or need was too great – and climbed in with her.  The 2 of them were happy as clams just looking at each other and smiling!

The big fascination around here for the last couple of months, at least for Strider, has been our parking lot, and the cars in it.  Every morning it’s the first thing he does – immediately get out of bed and stand at the window to check and see who’s car is still here.  Then all day at approximate 5 minute intervals, he runs to the window closest and checks, and then gives us the full report.  (“Miss Joanne is at work.  Mr. Mark is home though!”)  He’s started to learn the different models of cars, but for a while he was calling 2 cars across the street “the bumps!”  They are Jeep Wranglers, and I guess he was referring to the tire on the back.  He also says a car is upside-down if it parks backwards.  So it’s so funny to hear him coming running up to us saying “The bumps are back!  And the Taurus is upside-down!”

One of Strider’s famous phrases these days when he’s mad about something is, “It’s tired around here.”  Pete and I have started using it too – must be said in a pouty voice of course.

Rayna was very sweet for her baptism.  She fell asleep right beforehand (she had a fever too) so for the first part of the ceremony she was sleeping.  But as we reached the important part, she must have sensed something, because she suddenly woke up and looked around.  The pastor took her and started to put water on her head.   She gave him a funny look that said, “What do you think you’re doing?” but then quickly followed it up with a big grin.  Then she couldn’t take her eyes off of him, playing with his hair and smiling like crazy.  So cute!