3/1 - Timmy woke up screaming from his nap. Often he does that and sometimes he goes back to sleep after some patting. This time he was crying and Frank asked why. I told him maybe Timmy had a bad dream. Frank said “maybe he dreamed he had chocolate cake but he can’t have it for breakfast.” I gave him a quizzical look and asked if that is what he dreams. Frank answered “sometime I dream that but I don’t know how to dream.”
3/3 - Timmy says “not yet”. Frank is frequently giving Timmy choices. Frank says “Timmy, give me the ball or the phone” Timmy says “nothing”. Makes Frank really mad.
3/5 - At the dock house Timmy finds a penny. “mommy, penny, get it, mommy get it.” Finally I humor him and pretend like I can’t reach it behind the harpsichord. He shows me to go around the chair. I tell him I can’t fit. He says “come here, grab.” Finally he gave up on me and went for it himself. He hit some spider webs and told me “dirty! mommy get it.” The penny is still there.
Undated - Frank managed to wake up and come down without waking Timmy this morning. Later Timmy woke up screaming and crying. So Frank concluded that Timmy misses him and next time he should wake Timmy up and they can both come down together to wake me up. Sigh.
3/9 - Dinner is pot roast. We often tell Frank dinner is steak when it is beef cuz he loves steak. Well the serving plate came and I sliced up chunks for him and he said “steak is suppose to be pink.” Nat was very proud.
3/10 - We played pretend camping under blankets the day before and had lots of fun. Today in the morning Frank wanted more before school. So I did but he said “It’s not fun without Timmy”
3/11 - The boys left plastic chairs outside yesterday and there was big winds this morning. So the chairs got blown away. Timmy said “where are the chairs? huh?” Frank told me “That’s the first time Timmy said ‘huh”. He must be growing big.
Over lunch Frank bit his lip. Nat said poor little Frank. Timmy said “no, big Frank”. Then Timmy and Frank argued over “big Frank” “little Frank” Finally Timmy said “big Frank. Little Timmy.”
3/12 - Phonics is Frank’s new thing. He tries to sound out every word to see what letter it starts with. And he ofter says, “I’m thinking of a word that starts with …” And I have to guess. If the letter is ‘P’ half the time it is princess. Anyways, today he came to me as usual with “Do you know what starts with bababa B? Boat” After a few regular ones I decided to throw him a new letter: J. Right away he said “jajajaja jellybean.” I thought ok, it is almost Easter. Then he said “wuwuwu” and I thought now he is changing to anther letter. But then he said to my surprise “Joaquin”. I think it also surprised him cuz he had this confused look on his face.
3/12 - Frank continues to play princess. This time both Frank and Timmy requested blankets to be wrapped around them like skirts. Then they walked around the room and climb on the bed and jump around until the blanket comes off and we do it again. Mommy fix Timmy would say. Frank asked me do you want me to be a fairy, or a princess or a ballerina? I said how about a bird? He told me that was not a choice. And if I tell him anything he wants, he makes me choose. Finally I said fairy. So then he leaped off his bed with a pinwheel (that is his princess wand). He said, “I can’t really fly since I don’t have wings.” Then he wanted to dance with the king. I refused. Daddy was working. So he said, “Timmy, you want to hold my hand?” Timmy did and they walked together hand in hand to Timmy’s bed and climbed in to jump off again.
3/13 - Timmy after getting out of his chair and climbing into Nat’s usual seat at the dinner table said “Sit in daddy chair. Ha ha.”
3/14 - Chinese HW continues. And Frank always asks why he needs to trace his name every time. Well out of nowhere today he said “hao” means enormous, fat. Well, it means vast, not fat, but I guess the subtle difference is hard for a 4 year old.
3/14 - Nat takes the kids to grocery store and in the process they get free cookies at the bakery section. At checkout Nat asked Timmy what he wanted for lunch. Timmy said “this” holding up his cookie.
3/14 - Grandma is here playing….princess. Except this version has Frank wearing the blanket like a cape rather than dress. He has the wand for a bit then he switched to a squirt gun. Next thing I know he comes down and says mommy I have to show you something. He has a t-shirt and underpants on with a flowery blanket as a cape. He says “mommy I can pee through the hole.” I was like “what?” Then he showed me the hole in his underwear and how he can get his thing out to pee. Nice. “Come mommy I’ll show you” as we headed to the bathroom. It was a milestone moment I couldn’t miss.
Undated - Timmy now says “A-B-C-D-E” which is a progression from just ABC awhile ago. He also counts lots. Mostly he is reciting numbers he has heard Frank or me do. But this time he took one out and said “One” and then took another one putting it next to the first and said “two” and then one more and said “three”. Another frequent phrase from Timmy is “scuse me. my way”
3/15 - For the very first time Timmy said “daddy you in jail”. I was wondering when he was going to pick that up from Frank. Every time Frank is mad at Nat he sends him in jail.
3/15 - Frank got avocados that was in the fridge. I heard him say “this is freakin cold” I had this expression on my face and in my head tried to think where he could have picked up that word and Nat looked at me as if reading my mind and told me hhh”he said freezing cold. I thought that too.”
3/16 - Again we are playing princess. After bath no one wanted to be dressed. Frank says he like Jasmine the best because she shows her bellybutton. Well I convinced him she still wears a shirt and got a T-shirt on him and twisted the bottom up so his belly was showing. Then I insisted she wore pants. That lead to proving it with pictures of her on the computer. Which led to a video of the song “A Whole New World”. Which led to the need for more. It was denied and Frank screamed and kicked and disaster. He did put his pants on before all this. Even Timmy wanted more but I managed to distract him with a rice cake. Timmy kept saying “Frank cry” and “where is Frank?” Thrown in his room is where.
3/17 - Timmy said “I do it” for the very first time. Still saying “do di” but three times today he said “I do it”. And he counted “one, two, three, five, six, eight, nine”. After dinner he was pointing at stuff in the air saying “w” “w” “w”. No idea what he meant.
3/18 - Another dock house visit. As we wait for the ferry we explore the beach. There are little crabs. Frank holds one in his hand for the first time. Later he picks one up by himself. Timmy is fascinated but will not touch. He watches the crab crawl under the rock. “Mommy, see crab. Come here.”
At the dock house Frank is doing the new rain forest puzzle. Grandpa asks “Do you know how to do it? I can’t believe you can do it by yourself.” Frank replies “you know! You seen me do it.”
Timmy says “Cousin Linda”. But Cousin John is referred to as “this”
3/21 - Frank asks “Grandpa, when are you going home?” Hmm, already tired of grandpa? Grandpa says “You want me to go home?” Frank says “No. I want you to stay forever.”
3/22 - In the morning Timmy wakes up and climb into my bed. He goes under the covers and then says “it’s hot” and climbed out.
3/23 - Bath time Frank is playing with his jiji. He has discovered that he can make it disappear. He tells me, “mommy, look, jiji gone. just skin left.” I smile and nod. Timmy imitated Frank but not sure so he puts a wash rag over his jiji and plays peek-a-boo. “jiji gone. there it is.” All fine until Frank says, “Timmy you want to touch it?” Timmy says enthusiastically, “yeah”. Ok, time for intervention. “Keep your hands to yourself!” “Why, how come?” oh boy!
3/25 - Timmy says how come lots now. Today he asked “how come go this way?” as I drove the car. He is also a big big tattle tale. Frank will have barely touched him and Timmy says “Frank pinched me” Today he said “Frank stole my side” referring to the side of the shower door they both stand at while I’m showering.
At school, the Easter Bunny visits and Frank got two eggs. But he lost one and is sad because one is for grandma and the other for Akamai. Then he decided the Easter Bunny will also visit Akamai’s school. We discussed if it will also visit Grandma in Kenya. Frank said no because the Easter Bunny might crash into an elephant. Two days ago grandpa explained to Frank they have to pack flashlights because it is so dark there they might crash into an elephant without a flashlight.
3/26 - Frank blows up a balloon for the first time. He kept trying and trying and has now learned to pinch the balloon while getting another breathe.
Timmy said “pick nose” in the car. I had to turn around to see if he had some snot on his finger. Instead I see him holding his hand in the fashion that grandpa has done when playing a game of stealing Timmy’s nose. The thumb sticking out of the fist. Timmy said “there’s nose. eat it.” which is what grandpa says during this game.
Timmy points to the LEGO catalog and says “should we build this?” Frank says “No Timmy, we don’t have all the pieces.” Usually Frank asks me to build from the catalog and I tell him I can’t.
Timmy says “dangerous”, “daddy read this ladybug book”, “Frank are you done?”, “Frank pinched me” (my little tattle tail)
3/28 - Timmy is not eating his lunch so daddy gives him a choice. “Timmy you eat the hot dog or give it to Frank” Timmy says “leave it on plate” Frank says “Timmy, that is not a choice”
3/29 - Frank eating his vitamin… “Mommy, do you know why I suck on my vitamin?” “I need some juice to get going. Juice is my oil.”
3/31 - Frank wanted something and I said no. Then he won’t stop asking so I said I think about it. He told me “I’ll think about it means No!” I guess I’ve overused that trick.