kid stuff

Elliot is still army crawling around the house. The other day she battled her way through the living room, around the corner (where she stopped to lick the leg of the baby swing and roll around for a bit) and into the kitchen where she managed to shove a hunk of toast crust into her mouth. It still amazes me that she does any of this, never mind all of it at once. She is also big into solid foods right now. Eating is her favorite pastime. She has no problem with lumpy food, fruit, veggies, cereal, meat mixtures, cheerios, mum mums, cake or cookies. Break her a little piece of something and she'll hoover it right up. She reminds me of Tennyson in this way. He refused anything resembling baby food once he hit 9 months. He just ate off my plate. Elliot is well on her way, already nibbling at the stuff I'm eating.

Mitchell has been registered for nursery school in September. He's so big. Okay, not literally, since he's my shrimpiest kid when you compare weights and heights at the same ages, but big considering that I've thought of him as a baby forever. That little turkey bum gets away with so much while riding on the grace that us thinking of him as a baby earns him. It's cute. He's actually my easiest 2.5 year old so far. Have I mentioned that he decided to skip the terrible two's? Although the other day my mom gave him something and as he skipped out the front door to the van he called out "Thanks PooButt" over his shoulder.

Tennyson asked me which planet was close to the sun last night as we drove home in the dark. I told him I wasn't sure. "It starts with a 'V'" he says. "Venus?" I asked. "Yeah, Venus. It's really hot there. Really really hot. It's really far away, you could get there in a rocket ship, but it would take days and days to get there. Daddy taught me all about Venus." He went on about Venus and planets for a while. He's so goofy, and such a boy the way he leaps and tumbles and rough houses. Don't even get me started on how hilarious he thinks he is when he punches himself (hard) and pretends to fall down. Then he'll sit down and have a serious conversation about stars or constellations, or how neat it is that there are giant gas tanks underneath the fuel pumps at gas stations. He likes to know things, especially when they're more along the lines of daddy things - not that he doesn't appreciate things that mommy is interested in, but he worships daddy, even if daddy doesn't always pick up on it.

Jordan lost her first tooth today. I noticed it was gone and she was super excited, until she realized that she had nothing to put under her pillow. Then she cried and cried until she was splotchy and her face was wet with tears. Even after I insisted that we could write the tooth fairy a note, the whole episode upset her. She's now sad because the other kids have a tooth to wiggle, and her wiggly one is gone. She's upset because she's going to get one giant tooth, and her teeth won't match. It bothers her that she likely swallowed her tooth and it's now going to to be in a . . . well, you know where it is. She's kind of sensitive about stuff, and flip flops between being excited about new things, and being anxious about them. Sometimes I think she worries about having to grow up and do big kid stuff, even while she's excited about those same things. I worry to know that I've created a worrier in my 5.5 year old. I suppose it was bound to happen. She wrote a note to the tooth fairy tonight, just to make sure that she knows that Jordan lost her first tooth today. It's folded up under the pillow, and will be exchanged for a toonie.

I was a little sad myself that I didn't get to keep the tooth, but unlike Jordan, I don't think that looking for it in a day or two is such a good idea.