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September 29, 2008

Cute things

Ethan currently loves to play rock-paper-scissors. At school, there's a toy that plays it with you, and says the "Jan, Ken, Poi!" variation of jan-ken-pon. We were playing it one day, and Linna got in on the action - he more or less taught her how to play, except that she says, "Jan, ken, point!" and also that she usually makes her choice out of sync with the other player. But that doesn't matter too much. Ethan's happy that she's now able to play certain games with him. She can almost do Cariboo, and Candyland, and Silly Faces, and Go Fish, and she likes to try!

I'm sure I've mentioned the soporific (they put me magically to sleep, only to wake up at the very end) Robbie the Robot stories that Jeff used to tell Ethan. Linna gets Rosie the Robot stories, but she's much more dictatorial about what happens in the story. Actually, she doesn't much care about the robot part. As soon as you start, "Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Linna...." she pipes in, "And Mika and Ethan! And three kitties get stuck up a tree! And they hop on a train, and Totoro's tummy says, 'bubbly, bubbly, boop!'" or whatever, and there's your story.

She also started telling Jeff stories about some crickets who live up in the clouds. There's a mommy cricket, a daddy cricket, and some baby crickets. They sleep on the clouds, but sometimes they fall down and do things on the ground. I don't really know all the details.

Posted by ktingey at 07:13 PM | Comments (0)

September 09, 2008

First day of school

The day finally arrived - Linna started at Harmony today. She had really wanted to go on Sunday, after I brought home this cute little lunchbox from Goodwill (not that she's taking lunch, but she REALLY wanted a lunchbox). She was very excited to start.

Jeff's in Seattle, so I biked Ethan to school with both kids in the trailer. Nice going there, but I was kinda sorry on the way home - my legs are tired after our long bike ride on Sunday (12.71 miles, me with Linna in the trailer). Linna carried her lunchbox up the stairs to Ethan's school, then back down again. Then we drove to Harmony (maybe someday I'll bike there too).

She was definitely a little nervous - she was sucking her thumb as we went in, and insisted on washing her hands in the boys' bathroom instead of the girls, I think because there were a bunch of kids in the girls' bathroom. But when we got to the classroom she was so happy. She opened her lunchbox, took out her cup, and went over to get some water with Kristin's help. As she was drinking her water, I went over to say goodbye, and she just gave me a little wave - that was it. A girl who remembers Ethan from last year (Linna's in the same room he was in) came over to talk to Linna, and I slipped out.

When I peeked back in the window, she had gotten a mat out and put it on the table, and was going back to get a puzzle. She looked so cute, and so happy. And so little!

It was very odd to come home to an empty house.

Posted by ktingey at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)

September 06, 2008

Fashion statements

While I was making dinner today, Linna was mysteriously quiet in the bedroom for a long time. When she came out, she'd removed her pants and underwear, and wanted help putting on a pair of Ethan's Nemo underwear. At least she wanted them where they belong - this morning she wanted her striped underpants on her head, and her Hello Kitty underwear on her batoom. So I helped. Then I turned around, and the carrot I had just cut the top and bottom off of for dinner had disappeared. The Carrot Thief had taken it, so she could chew it up and spit out the pieces in random locations.

So for most of dinner she wore Ethan's underwear and some flowered shorts. Then the shorts came off, and she put on a pair of big fuzzy green socks from my drawer. They go up to her knees, like leg-warmers. Later, it was Jeff's immense black hightops. And the Nemo underwear.

Posted by ktingey at 03:35 AM | Comments (0)

September 04, 2008

Vampire baby

I know, I haven't posted anything about Linna in a long time. We've had a bit of a hard month - after our visit to California, during which she pushed Dylan over repeatedly, she returned ready to push bigger kids too. Mika was coming over three days a week, and Linna really liked to push her. It culminated in a bite, one Sunday dinner. With toothmarks the next day. Yikes.

So Ann wisely cooled it on the Mika visits, and Linna is transformed back into her mostly non-pushing, non-biting self. I felt terrible, though, that I didn't do a little more get-off-your-butt parenting and prevent it from happening - she clearly knew she wasn't supposed to, but I don't exactly expect a 2-year-old to have impulse control. Heck, Ethan doesn't have impulse control all the time either, and he's 6.

The whole thing caused tension and aggression for all - Ethan was more difficult during this time too. So I haven't been the happiest mommy.

But Linna's also insanely cute. They've both gotten way into Totoro again since Mika's back, and Linna in particular loves to pretend that she and Ethan are Mei and Satsuki. One morning they repeatedly said to each other, "I love you, Mei!" "I love you, Satsuki!" There's something really precise about the way Linna says "Satsuki."

She also pretends to read to herself a lot these days, telling the story of the book as well as she remembers it. And she gets that the words on the page say certain things! It's exciting for her.

We visited Harmony last week - she'll be in the same room Ethan was in, with the same teacher. For days before the visit, she wanted to pretend to bring a lunchbox (birdhouse, really) to Harmony. She seems so little to me sometimes, but boy, did she have a good time on our visit. Kristin let her feed the fish, showed her her own hook, and then Linna wanted to do the world puzzle map (the puzzle maps were always among Ethan's favorites too). So Kristin showed her how to get a mat, they did the puzzle, and then Kristin said she was going to show Linna how to roll the mat up, but Linna did it all on her own, and proudly carried it back to its holder. She did several smaller puzzles, as well, and did not want to leave. She starts next week.

Posted by ktingey at 06:32 AM | Comments (0)