Autumn Stories

SEPTEMBER:

The other night Pete was trying to be cryptic as he was asking me whether the kids should take a bath together or if he should give Strider a shower.  He said, “Did you want both kids to take a “B" or should I take an “S” with Strider later instead?  Strider immediately piped up from the background saying, “I want to take an ‘S’ with Daddy!  I don’t want to take a ‘B!’”  We laughed at him and said “Strider you don’t even know what we’re talking about.  What’s an ‘S’?”  He answered a shower!  And then when we asked him what a “B” was he knew it was bath.  He’s getting too sharp for our own good.

Rayna, meanwhile, continues to be VERY easy-going.  We took her to the beach for the first time, which we expected to be quite a shock for her. I put her down on the sand and she happily walked along holding onto my hands, not bothered at all by the new texture.  We walked right up to the water’s edge and got her feet wet.  Then a big wave came along and water hit her up to her stomach.  And she was still nonplussed!  No big reaction at all… just a happy little smile as if that happens to her everyday!

In fact, Rayna’s only real tantrums this month have been when we won’t let her walk holding onto our hands.  She ALWAYS wants to do this, and sometimes it’s the only thing she wants to do.  If we put her down, or walk away from her, she freaks out!  She doesn’t care when she eats or sleeps or anything else… but the walking is top priority.

Speaking of freaking out, Strider recently came up to me out of the blue and said, “What the freak?”  A lovely phrase he has picked up from his daddy.  But when I tried to say it back at him later, he said, “No, Mommy.  Girls can’t say that.  Only mans and boys.”

OCTOBER:

Conversation between Strider and Me today: Strider:  I want to have a grand-daughterMe:  Well you have to have a daughter first!S:  I have a daughter – Rayna!M:  No, that’s Daddy’s and my daughter.  You have to wait until you grow up to be a man and then you can get married and then you’ll be a daddy and your wife will be a mommy and you’ll have a little baby.S:  Yeah!!!  I’ll have a little baby!!M:  And you can name her whatever you want. S:  I want to name her….  Nonna!M:  Ok.S:  I’m going to have a baby….  In a couple days… Rayna’s starting to hold her own against the big brother.  I’ve heard on a few different occasions now, “Ray-naaaa… No!”  And I walk in to see her grinning away and Strider in convulsions.  Other times Strider tries to take something from her or make her do something she doesn’t want to do, and she starts shaking her head vehemently saying no! Strider’s been walking the fine line between what’s appropriate and what’s not.  The other day he wanted me to leave him alone and he was reprimanded for telling me, “Go away.”  So he very sweetly asked, “May I have you go away please?”  Another day he was outside riding his bike and I told him to come in.  He answered with a loud “NO!”  Appalled, I reminded him that is not how he is to answer me.  He quickly thought and triumphantly responded, “NO, MA’AM!” We went shopping for a new car seat for Rayna the other day and we went to Babies R Us, having not been there before.  On the way home in the car, Strider sighed and said, “Whew.  Man.  There were too many babies in that store.  Some of those people should have stayed home!” I told Strider a couple weeks ago we were going to have a garage sale.  He thought that sounded like a good idea… but then said, “But, Mommy, it’s too big!  It’s too heavy!”  I reassured him that we were not actually selling the garage. Rayna’s getting more communicative these days…  Her new “words” are light, more, shoes, dada, and uh oh (which she does in her funny “godfather” voice).  She also still has her hilarious “funny faces” which she promptly does anytime she sees herself in the mirror – or sees someone else she wants to play with that she doesn’t know.  It’s so funny seeing her screw her little face up so seriously.