Apparently the inside of a dryer looks very scary to a 22-month old. Since Mickey gets dragged around everywhere with us, I occasionally wash him down with some soap and water. This time when I did that, Carmine got very upset about Mickey being slightly damp, and kept asking me to 'fix' it. So I figured I'd toss Mickey in the dryer for a few minutes, which was fine, until Carmine went in there 5 minutes later and opened the dryer door and stood there screaming bloody murder, with a look of pure horror on his face. Mickey's going to have to air dry from now on, I guess.
The weather this month has been spectacular. Glorious. Unseasonably warm. I'm loving it, and so are the boys. We played outside after school yesterday, and we were all pretty bummed when it got so dark that we had to go in. We're squeezing in all the outside time we can, though, to take advantage of this, because soon enough we'll be bundled up inside, waiting for spring.
I'm attempting to stave off the winter blues this year, though, and am trying to get myself in the mindset of embracing winter. I may even buy a pair of snow pants for myself so that I can really get out and play in the snow with the boys without getting soaked and frozen. The delayed onset of cold weather is helping tremendously, and I'm hoping my positive attitude can last long enough to keep me from getting crabby and depressed when the truly bad weather finally arrives.
Carmine is a regular at the gym again. He settles in with his snack and watches me leave without so much as a whimper. But when I come to pick him up, he looks around to see what toy is closest to him, picks it up, and throws it on the ground. I wonder if this is his way of saying that even though he's enjoying himself playing, he's still a little pissed at me for leaving him there? I remember Gabe doing the EXACT same thing when I picked him up from daycare when he was this age. Those two are cut from the same cloth.
Carmine definitely has Gabe's temper, too. The second something bothers him, the screaming begins, and it sometimes goes on for a long, long time. I've gotten very good at ignoring the screaming.
Gabe is in overdrive with the holidays approaching. Dante is, too, but Dante's kind of permanently in overdrive, so it's not as noticeable with him. I need to be mindful of the fact that Gabe has a particularly hard time with stuff like this, so that I'm not so easily frustrated by his craziness. I know all kids get riled up around the holidays, but Gabe takes it to a whole new level.
He and Dante made their christmas wish lists the other day, by going through toy catalogs and cutting and pasting the items they wanted onto sheets of paper. Gabe's was 4 pages long, and every page was completely covered with pictures. Dante's was 2 pages long, and only had about 6 items total.
Dante keeps saying he wants a knitting machine, by which he actually means a loom. I think he'd love it, so I'll probably get him one. He's a crafty little kid, and is always taking out glue and scissors and beads and popsicle sticks and making some kind of creation. He's got such an amazing imagination.
Dante has also become our early riser. Gabe is showing hints of his future teenage self, sleeping later some mornings - although late for him is 7:30 - still pretty early by a lot of people's standards. Dante is often up at 5am. And since I'm often up at 5am, too, it's tough to tell him he has to go back to bed. I do make him at least try to go lay down for a while, but it doesn't usually last long.
And his company is nice, but there have been some mornings where I had to ask him to just stop talking for a few minutes. He maintains a constant stream of chatter, which, especially at 5am, can be a bit much.
Carmine's another chatty one. When he wakes up from his nap, or first thing in the morning, he'll play for a long, long time in his crib. He talks and sings, and throws his toys on the floor. It's really funny to listen to him. We hear the occasional "Wow!" or "no, no, no," and there's always a few "Mickeys!" thrown in there, too.
He and I have a little game we play. I tell him I need a hug, and he laughs and shakes his head and says "Hug. No, no, no," and backs away form me, giggling. Then after a few seconds, he gets into his football stance and comes running over and throws himself into my arms. It's a fun game : )
Dante continues to provide lots of comic relief. He told me that the Pilgrims and the "made of Americans" celebrated the first Thanksgiving.
And yesterday Carmine was playing with a car Dante got for his birthday last year - it plays the song "Funkytown." And he came over to me laughing and asking "Why do they keep saying 'Birthday Cow?'" Best misinterpreted song lyric ever : )
Gabe contributed to the hilarity, too - he brought home a page of his writing from school, and in it was the sentence "It started to get defecated, which is another way of saying loud." I suspect that his teacher made sure to send that one home for us to see.
Last night after dinner the boys were having a treat, and we asked Carmine if he wanted one, and he said "no, no, no." I laughed and asked him if he wanted some chocolate, and he said "no, no, no." I knew he was just saying no because he likes to say no, so I asked him a few more times, and finally something clicked and he realized what we were talking about, and in the middle of shaking his head 'no,' he threw his arms up in the air and yelled "Treat! Me!!!!"
We've enjoyed our 2-month hiatus from activities, but it ends tomorrow with Dante's first karate lesson, and Saturday Gabe has his first basketball practice. The break has been nice, but I'm excited for them to get started with their new sports. I think they're both going to be really happy with what they chose. And not that there's anything wrong with soccer, but it'll be fun for us to watch them doing something other than soccer.
We also started back up with our special nights out with Mommy. Dante and I went out last week, and had a lovely dinner, and then went to the store to scope out some toys (getting ideas for his list for Santa), and then out for ice cream. Tonight Gabe and I are going out, and will likely do much the same thing.
And while I was out with Dante, Daddy and Gabe had movie night at home, and he and Dante will do the same tonight. The one-on-one time with them is so fun. We'll probably have to skip it next month because it'll be too crazy with the holidays, but it'll be great to return to it in January.
I'm trying not to get too far ahead of myself, but I am getting excited for Christmas. I have some fun gift ideas in mind for the boys, and the 'big' gift we're getting them is a Wii, which is going to blow their minds!!!! We definitely have to make sure we have the videocamera rolling when they open that one.
It's going to be even more fun this year, because Carmine's going to be so much more aware of the whole thing, and I can't wait to see him open his presents. Not long to wait now.....
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