Any Child Psychologists out there?!

So as many of you know, Eleanor has an imaginary friend named "Dirty Baby". She's not so much an imaginary friend as a personified doll. The name was her choosing, not ours. Paul and I always refer to her as Typhoid Mary for obvious reasons, see the second photo.

Elle loves this "doll". I can't stress that enough. She drags her around everywhere, or she would if we didn't set some limits for Dirty Baby. No bathtubs, no swimming pools, she doesn't go to school or day camp, she doesn't go on playdates with REAL friends. But other than that they are inseparable.

We are naturally disgusted by this revolting, flattened, filthy creature. And yes, she does get washed, frequently. In fact, this photo is 24 hours after a thorough bleaching. She really doesn't get clean anymore. I know it's natural and normal for preschoolers to have these imaginary relationships. Every study I have read states that these children are usually very bright and (obviously) extremely creative. And that there is no reason to be concerned about this phase of life. That's what Paul and I have been reassuring ourselves with for the last 2 years of this phase.



But I have to say that lately, Dirty Baby seems to be getting into an enormous amount of trouble. She spills drinks, and colors on the walls, breaks toys, jumps on the bed, has potty accidents, fights with Nick, takes toys away from William, plays with my makeup, and leaves the taps running, and so on and so forth. I am starting to get a little frustrated with this imaginary friend. And I'm not so sure how to discipline her. And the kicker came tonight, when our daughter enlightened us that Dirty Baby is in fact an ex-con. Great. My three year olds' best, imaginary friend has done time in the big house. Three whole minutes in there. (Isn't that about how long Nicole Richie did in jail?) For stealing crayons I'm told.

Where does she get this stuff?! And as I have said before, how do you respond to that!! Ban her from playing with the imaginary friend who is quite clearly a bad influence?!


So this comparison dawned on me tonight as I ponder how to handle the situation. Anyone out there remember the movie Drop Dead Fred (1991)?! I think we have a Fred in our house!!


Oy Vay!! Honestly, I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry!

Sick Baby (oops, toddler)

Poor William has had a fever and a rash for a couple of days. He's pretty miserable, not even his usual water high jinx were not enough to bring a smile to his face. He's about 8 days out from his MMR vaccine and I'm wondering if that is the cause of this malady. The timing is certainly right for it. That cause would be fine by me- one less virus to spread amongst the rest of the kids!

William Tries His First Popsicle

I have offered William frozen desserts before, but in the past he has hated to touch anything cold. Apparently he has outgrown that reticence, as evidenced by his after dinner treat tonight! I was handing out popsicles to the big kids, and he held out his little hand for one too. He did really well actually, I was very impressed. He ate almost the entire Bomb Pop before he dropped it in the grass and the dog had her way with the remainder.

William at 15 months

Will had his 15 month check up yesterday and is doing great. He weighed in at only 17 pounds 2 ounces, but the fact that he had actually put on some weight since his one year appointment is apparently good. I wasn't so thrilled as we still cannot turn his car seat around until we hit that magic 20 pound mark, but at least someone is happy about it! Developmentally he is right on track, not quite as verbal as his siblings, but still slightly ahead of the norm.

He managed to charm the entire office while waiting for his turn to see Dr. Barbe. Running around the nurses' station and front desk in search of his audience, flirting with the ladies. He was waving and blowing kisses to everyone. And he tried really hard to rearrange the contents of all of the cupboards in reach. I did have two staff members offer to take him home with them; I said I just might take them up on that offer the next time he's up in the wee hours of the morn!

We did do a whole slew of blood tests just to rule out any medical causes for his slow weight gain. But even the Dr. admitted that they will more than likely come back completely normal. And then we can all relax, and admit that he's just going to be a little guy. Just like our other little guy, and our petite princess!

I just couldn't resist a few shots of William in his "euro-baby" swim suit. He He He...

Surfing in the Paddling Pool

Since there aren't any waves in the paddling pool, surfing can be best accomplished by having your sibling pull you through the water in a wagon.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat (or chair)

Ellie decided she wanted to row in the pool today. So she improvised with a plastic golf club, and the little chair from their playhouse. Surprisingly, it seemed to work fairly well for her. I think she's practicing for some white water rafting sometime in the future.

William LOVES to play outside. Now that he can tolerate the feel of grass on his feet. Just like the big kids!

How To Give Yourself An Outdoor Enema (In case you ever wanted to know...)

1. Sit on the "Mount Tiki Soki" sprinkler.


2. Wonder what is going to happen next....
3. Uh Oh! What's that?!


4. The close up shot of that expressionWhy an enema you may ask? Scroll down to see why....




















Yikes! And yes, Nick did high tail it for the bathroom directly afterwards. It does beg the question, why would you do that?! And the standard kid answer: "I don't know"! He assured me that "DAD lets (me) do it ALL the time Mom". Figures. Apparently when the neighborhood kids come over to our house to run through the sprinklers, this is what the boys are doing. Now I'm not so sure I want the whole gang in our yard!

Yum, Popsicles!

Ellie was actually enjoying this rocket pop, honest! (She is watching her older brother interacting with the sprinkler. See that post for details. I sympathize with her confusion.)




Aaaaaggghhh! Brain Freeze!!

Bye Bye Birdie, Part II

Some of you "old time" blog readers may remember a posting from way back when we first moved here:

Summer 2006
The kids and I were out in the back yard gardening, when I noticed a baby sparrow sitting on a shrub. We had just enough time to Ooh and Aah over the cute little bird when SNAP! A ball of blonde fur went streaking past us and the jaws clamped down over the little guy. Nick and I stood in shock, horrified and speechless as the dog swallowed the poor little creature whole. But our sweet little daughter, who was only 20 months at the time, summed up the event very matter of factly with "Bye Bye Birdie"!




Summer 2008
So tonight I was outside with the kids when a ruckus erupted on the neighbor's lawn. One of the neighborhood cats had caught a baby robin and was making a run for it. The neighborhood kids noticed this and descended on the feline as if they were storming the beaches at Normandy. They did manage to wrestle the little robin away without any injuries to humans or the cat. This is Thea (one of the neighbor children) proudly displaying the rescued bird. Now I use the term "rescued" loosely. She was squeezing that little bird pretty tight, and it was none to thrilled about it's new captor. The poor thing was peeping in terror as the kiddos sternly lectured it on staying away from cats and each one tried to pat it on the head. Needless to say there were a lot of pecked fingers. I was having a hard time not laughing, but I did step in when they started looking for somewhere to give it a bath.

Anyway, true to form our daughter frankly summed up the situation. She announced to the crowd of much older children that "You are going to have to put that bird down sometime. Then the cat is going to get it for real. And then it's Auf Wiedersehen bird!!"

I think that Eleanor's use of German to illustrate her point clearly demonstrates how much she has matured in the last two years.

I really wasn't aware that she knew that particular phrase. Perhaps she is channeling her German ancestors?!

Summer Nights

It has been so super hot here during the day that the kids are relegated to the safety of the air conditioned house after lunch. However, come evening time they are free! The whole neighborhood seems to magically appear after dinnertime as the day's heat starts to dwindle. It is surely Nick and Ellie's favorite time of the day. And of course like all children, they LOVE that it is light out until almost 9pm. Now if they can only figure out a way to convince Mom to let them stay out that late....

July 4, 2008

It was a quiet day around here. Not very much going on in the way of daytime, patriotic celebrations. We do miss the East Grand Rapids festivities! The kids did lots of water balloon fights, sprinkler leaping, and paddling in the swimming pool. At 97 degrees, it was the perfect weather for water fun!

Ellie singing her own unique version of the National Anthem.

William had already passed out for the night when I took these photos of the big kids. Maybe I'll try to catch a photo of him in his patriotic t-shirt tomorrow.

We drove over to the Fireworks and decided not to park in the "sardine can" type parking with the rest of the city. We had hauled William out of bed and plunked him into his car seat, and weren't sure how long we would have before he completely lost it. Plus, Ellie has ear tubes now and you never know how she is going to react to loud noises. We fortunately found a parking lot close by with a fabulous view of the spectacle. Even that far away the kids were complaining it was too loud. And William slept through the entire show. So we were very glad that we didn't invest the time and energy in going to the actual festivities on site! Maybe next year....

Happy 4th of July!!

Happy Independence Day!

William

William at 14.5 months.