April Growth
4/2 - We are selling raffle tickets for the preschool fundraiser. After doing this twice Frank is getting more vocal. He told one lady who said no “You need to buy one!” She turned around and said “maybe I will” and did. One lady brought one and came back to buy another for her husband. Frank said “and one for your grandma” She told him her grandma is long gone. Frank said “no, she’s at home.” A guy asks Frank “what’s your name?” Frank replied “Franklin Hao Tian. But I’m tired of that name.” I tired to explain he is tired of tracing his Chinese name but Frank stood up for himself and said “no, I’m tired of Franklin. I want to be princess motorboat planet earth.”
4/15 - Half way in the month already. Some highlights:
Timmy jumps both feet off the ground and pretty high. He likes to jump on the trampoline, off the stairs, off his bed. Sometimes he will motion to jump and then decide it is too dangerous and ask to hold his hand. He likes it when you hold both hands and lift him up high in the jump.
Frank’s new name is contrarian. He denies it and says his name is princess. That just further establishes his contrarian-ness (if that is a word). He says the negative all the time and even when given a choice he chooses “nothing” This is rubbing off on Timmy too. Now Timmy says “nothing”. Even when you say “I’m going to do … ” He will say “no you are not”. It is getting quite annoying. We’ve said it enough now with Frank denying it and claiming to be princess that Timmy responds, “I’m contrarian, Frank is princess.”
Aside from the usual obsession with princesses, Frank’s new topic is scorpions. He was coloring one from his book and asked what it is. I started to explain without much thought. And as I described the stinger and the poison, his face turned white and was about to cry. It was too late to take back what was said so I emphasized that they don’t like here and mommy has never seen a real one, etc, etc. Every day he would ask about scorpions. Why do they have a stinger? How come they sting you? Why do they not live here? Where do they live? In the forest? What is a desert? Several days later during a playdate I hear Frank saying this gun is loaded with one thousand poisons. And they are doing around shooting at things. The questions continued… Does the sting hurt more than bees? Can baby scorpions sting? Finally I got 2 books from the library for him. We started to read one and he ran off. Told me to return it. But the questions didn’t stop so I said I will read the book to learn. He agreed I can read silently. Although Timmy insists “mommy, talk?” Frank runs back and forth to stay away from the book but also to see what page I’m on. The second book was slightly more successful. Not sure why. But we managed to read it aloud. We discovered that scorpions live in Africa. Well, is there a scorpion where grandma is in Kenya? Is desert hot like Mexico? Does scorpions live in Mexico? So I told him desert has no water and only cactus live there. So this week we are at the dock house to help water the plants. Frank says “I don’t want to water the cactus. They live in the desert where scorpions are.”
Timmy says “abcdefghijklmnopqrstuv” “How about this one?” “maybe” “I forgot” “I’m contrarian” “I do it myself.” Or “I do it” No more “do di” “Was good?” “That not good.” He counts more or less randomly. But for awhile it was “one, two, five, six, nine, ten” Then five was lost but he continues to eleven, twelve, thirteen. Now if you count “one two three four” he would repeat rather than doing “one two five six” again. He often says “mercy mommy, [something new he sees]”
4/15 - I come out to the garage in ready to take Frank to school. Both kids are halfway in the car yelling. Frank yells “I’m going to school.” Timmy “I’m going to dance class.” They took turns nicely and I was also surprised Timmy didn’t just repeat what Frank was saying and knew where Timmy was going instead. As the garbage truck pulls away Frank asks me “he[garbage man] didn’t tell me his name”
We arrived at the dock house. Frank calls the dock house neighbor dogs “yappie” and is concerned they will wake him up. He says “you know what I need?” I was thinking oh no not another scorpion stinging wish. “Earplugs” For a while he kept saying “those yappie dogs are going to yap into the bay.”
Upon arrival, Timmy says “mommy, put out the ding dings.” So we obliged to put grandma’s fancy wind-chime out.
4/16 - Timmy sees ant on the dock steps. He steps on it. I tell him they live here outside and not to kill it. He stepped on it again. Ant gone. Where is ant? On your shoe. Timmy is terrified until I check under his shoe and assures him the ant is not there. On a similar note, he was blowing dandelion seeds and freaked out when some landed on his sleeve. The horror! He is so curious yet scared. He wants to see the hermit crab. He gets a shell and tells me to scoop a big one out for him. I did but he didn’t think it was big. Oh well.
4/17 - Frank finishes the new rain forest puzzle again. Hmm, a poisonous frog. Many questions about this new animal with poison. We’ll have to hit the library again.
Timmy and Frank does collaborative play. Maybe my first obvious observed moment. Timmy puts the stomp rocket on and Frank stomps it high. One time Timmy was still working on it and Frank stomped so the air blew at Timmy. They both laughed and laughed. Frank promises not to do it but does it again. More laughing. He stopped while it was still funny.
Frank is asking questions about words but really they are syllables of words. Mommy, what is ’sin’? Huh? (I was perplexed as to where he’s even heard of the word) That was quickly resolved when he said “you know, cin in cinderella.” Well that is not a word. Sort of, maybe. On a similiar note, Frank asked “what is ‘hell’?” I just looked at him. Then he said “you know, like in hell-o”.
4/20 - Early in the morning the kids woke up and came down as usual and came to my bed. Frank always run down first and climbs on top of me to snuggle. And to take up all the space before Timmy comes. Timmy then arrives and climbs on. He pushes Frank away to make room. I get Frank to move to one side so Timmy gets the other side. Timmy continues to push and says “I want all three sides.” Mommy only has 2!
4/22 - Timmy is up early while Frank is still asleep. Daddy get him some milk and breakfast and he sits on his highchair and starts to talk non-stop. This goes on for over an hour and I’m wondering how Frank is sleeping through all the noise. Large part of the conversation was about the elmo bunny easter egg. He opens it and closes it. He needs help. He doesn’t need help. He did it. He dropped it. He picks it up. He tells you every detail of what he is doing. I call him a ’silly goose’ He replies, “I’m not silly goose. I’m silly duck. quack quack quack….” For about a min he quacks” Still Frank sleeps.
4/27 - Frank and Timmy’s first rollerskating experience. Frank did not want to do it. Timmy tried the shoes and then Frank wanted to as well. Timmy loved just falling and being silly for the first half hour. My arms were pulled to the max. Frank walked slowly also pulling my arm but in a different direction. Finally he tried without holding me. And later went to hold his classmate’s hand. We had a brief lesson and one part it taught how to fall on our bottoms. Frank did not want to try that. He just preferred not to fall. Good time. Heavy skates. Long naps for everyone.
4/28 - Timmy finds his old toy phone and plays and plays until Frank gets home. Frank started to play with it. Timmy said “Frank, that’s my phone.” Frank replies, “no, it’s everyone’s.” I held my tongue to see what would happen. Timmy said “Frank, share.” Well Frank didn’t and Timmy then came to tell on him for not sharing =)
4/29 - We are loading up the car to take Frank to school. Timmy goes outside and come back into the garage saying “I tell birdie get off my grass.”
4/30 - This morning surprisingly Timmy got to my bed first. And he took up all the space. Frank came and said “Timmy, if you don’t get out of my way I will squash you into a pancake.” No response from Timmy. Holding his ground. Frank adds “And then I will put you in the oven.” Still nothing. Then we resorted to brute force.
Timmy knocks down his milk and won’t go pick it up. Daddy asks him “who knocked it down?” Timmy looks around and said “It not me.”
Frank is climbing up the support beams of the house with Nat’s help. Video will be coming soon.
No dates - Timmy is giving me kisses like I give him. Little kiss on one side, little kiss on the other side, big kiss on one side and finally big kiss on the other side. Unlike him, I’m not wipe wiping them off. Sometimes he wipes it off for me. Sometimes not.
Timmy and Frank are doing some of the Chinese CD songs. I hear Frank start it and Timmy will finish it off. Timmy also likes ‘two little black bird sitting in a tree, one name Jack and one name Jill. Fly away Jack, fly away Jill, come back Jack, come back Jill.” Often he says “fly away”