Day 2196

When I told Lizard it was too cold to swim in a kiddie pool in the yard, she said “I thought we could maybe go to the zoo in sweaters.”

Chinchilla, in an effort to do like his big sister do, has taken up twirling on the “ballet mat”. And when he upped his yoga game to include a three legged dog, she started doing tree pose... and he started lifting one foot high in the air and stomping it down. Perfect.

Chinchilla has warmed up enough to the vacuum cleaner that he doesn’t cry whenever he sees me using it... but he prefers to get snuggled the whole time the infernal machine is on...

Day 2195

Well, the shyness seems to be wearing off. Lizard shared her rendition of Let It Go at dinner in front of the extended family.

Also, conversational Lizard is one of my favourite Lizards.

Day 2194

Rapid acquisition of language crossed with inability to pronounce words is one of my favourite things. Yup, that squirrel is definitely a dirrel.

Chinchilla also got fed up with Lizard’s bedtime story taking too long. “Up! Bed! Bed!” And then he tried to climb into his crib himself so he could hug his book and go to sleep.

Day 2193

Lizard expressed a strong wish for a toy salad and a toy salad bowl to play with. “It’s too bad they don’t sell them in stores... do you think you can look for one? Mommy, will you try your best for me?”

Well, GOSH. I will NOW...

Day 2192

I love this phase where new words seem to be appearing in his repertoire regularly. This phase seems to be ongoing for Lizard. She still astonishes us with new words she suddenly cracks out. How many words could possibly fit in such a tiny human?!

Day 2191

You know you’re raising a contrarian little weirdo when they cry when getting their head measured, and shrug off getting a shot.

The fact that he was clutching his comb when we went to the doctor’s office might also be an indicator.

Day 2190

You’d think I’d be used to evidence of Lizard’s steadily growing vocabulary by now, but she continues to astonish.

Chinchilla is working hard on new words too. Including, maybe... DINOSAUR! ROAR! ROAR!

Day 2189

Yesterday the kids slept in and woke up healthier and sillier and more cheerful than they had for a few days. Today they slept in and woke up grumpy and in Lizard’s case, totally bananas.

Although we did get to hear one of her original songs, which was about waking up and how you can keep dreams if you want to, and if you don’t you can throw them out the window and that’s fine too.

And when I told her that I didn’t want her help sweeping up the coffee grounds Charlie dumped on the floor, she said “I understand you want to do it by yourself, but I’m trying to help you!”

So I guess we’re all getting parented here.

Day 2188

Having the toddler wanting to sit and snuggle and read books together again is one of my favourite stages.

Day 2187

When the adults in the room are laughing way harder at the kids movie than the kids...

Day 2186

Is there some kind of runner’s street cred for your first run in the rain? Maybe a merit badge? Anyone? Bueller?

Day 2185

Today I explained municipal elections, what “delivering” babies means, and that swords are for vanquishing foes.

Crushing it!

Day 2184

When you let your one and a half year old go up on the play structure and they respond to this privilege by running straight off a platform...

...fortunately straight into my arms. Unfortunately, he thought it was fricking hilarious, so whoever’s on duty is going to be spending a lot of time sprinting around the play structure.

Day 2183

Chinchilla went to bed without his mommy for the first time tonight. When Lizard found out I wouldn’t be home, her first concern was that her brother would miss me, and then she promised to help keep him happy and said she’d hug him and kiss him and draw with him...

Day 2182

If you want to warm the cockles of your heart, take a toddler to IKEA and let them climb on the “big” kid beds. It makes them glow with happiness.

Day 2181

That feeling when your kid mentions the snappy crab dance to other people, and then tries to get you to demonstrate it to them.

Ha ha, no.

Day 2180

Lizard has developed an intense interest in helping make dinner. So far Chinchilla is happy to have the time to scribble in Lizard’s pre-k workbooks without having his pencil snatched away. However, I suspect it might be a good idea to start thinking up kitchen tasks that eighteen month old hands can do...

Day 2179

That feeling when your kid tells you that you are making her life much worse when you make her eat dinner.

Day 2178

When you’re getting annoyed with your kids for banging around when they should be sleeping... and then finally realizing the banging is actually from the thunderstorm outside...

Day 2178

Early speech is so delightful. Especially how exciting it is for the little one when they realize that you can understand what they’re trying to tell you.

But also when they start being able to tell you what noises animals make, and they sometimes get it wrong. Yup, owls definitely roar, buddy. It’s not terrifying at all.

Day 2177

After years of thinking my husband is a crazy person, I think I am starting to like running.

Bollocks.

Day 2176

Lizard has discovered a passion for writing letters, and it turns out Chinchilla is very happy to sit and draw beside his big sister, especially if he can clutch the colour she wants and have her try to woo it away from him. (“Mommy, can you help me interest Charlie? He won’t take the green pencil.”)

Chinchilla has also discovered that he can boop his own nose.

Day 2175

Chinchilla has developed the habit of bringing his sister toys or sitting with her while she’s in timeout for being mean to her brother.

Day 2174

According to Chinchilla, cows and cats say moo (or maybe more), sheep say baa, and all the other animals say roar.

Except roosters, which allegedly he is sometimes willing to concede say cockadoodledoo.

Day 2173

They finally re-opened the playground after an extensive overhaul; the kids wanted to play on the same old play structure that was there before, and I just wanted to explore all the new nature elements...

Day 2172

I asked Lizard to put her shoes away and Chinchilla did it for her. And so begins what I expect will be a looooong run of Lizard convincing her little brother to do her chores for her.

Day 2171

One of my favourite things about doing yoga with Lizard is her drive to invent (or get me to invent) new yoga poses. If anyone is interested in stop sign pose or van pose (a variation of car pose), let me know!

Day 2170

Lizard was desperate to participate in dinner-making, so it ended up being another one of those days where I was teaching a three year old technique for chopping, and then Husband joined in to tell her about browning.

Sometimes I wonder what on earth we are creating. I’m pretty excited to find out.

Day 2169

Lizard had one of her best possible days: running around outside, playing with friends, having a picnic, and eating chocolate cake.

Chinchilla discovered that the more kids that are around, the more likely it is that someone will steal his precious ball. He adopted a security ball, and just hugged it for much of the afternoon.

Day 2168

Apparently we need to work on rolling R’s. Lizard managed to turn sacré bleu into ‘Sac Des Bleux!’

I’m not really sure how hard I want to work to correct it though...