radish times

Sometimes Peter and I like to call Katya “pumpkin head” as an endearment. “Hello my little pumpkin head!” “It’s time to go to BED, pumpkin HEAD.” I am not sure why we started or where it came from, but the other night we were unwise enough as to have a prolonged conversation about it:

“Are you a pumpkin head?”
“Nooooo”
“Who is my little pumpkin head?”
No answer.
“Who is my little pumpkin head? Who is?” [Tickle Tickle]
“HAA HAA HAA HEE HEE HA”
“Are you my little pumpkin head?” [Tickle tickle tickle]
“HAA HAAA HEEE” [gasp for breath] “HAA HEE HAA YES HAA HE HE”
“Is mama a pumpkin head?”
“No.”
“Who is mama then?”
“Mama is a pickle head.”
“:( … is papa a pumpkin head?”
“No. Papa is a sausig head.” [sausig = sausage]

It is somewhat berserk having two little children. There are whole hours where not even an instant of quiet breaks through the noise. Katya has taken to talking non-stop and asking “why?” about every 20 seconds or so (this is particularly true when you are engaged in some kind of hard physical or mental labor). Vanya, having passed through his screeching at the top of his lungs phase, had entered the eternal noise and babbling stage. He just puts out a constant string of sounds, which occasionally are very cute “da da da’s” and more often are less amusing (i.e. extremely irritating) moans and groans.

Katya’s nose runs often in the winter time. We are not sure if it is the wintertime snuffles or allergies. But she often asks for a tissue. Just now, as I was writing this, she asked for a tissue. I took the opportunity to use the toilet and get her a piece of toilet paper for a tissue. As I handed it to her she asked,
“It that you pee one?” “WHAT?” “Is that you pee one?” “NO.”

Katya has become very directive of late. She has always known quite clearly what she wanted, but now she is able to articulate it. And, she does, non-stop.
•Upstairs: “Mama, I want seltzer with ice in a sippy cup, please.”
•On the way up the stairs: “Carry me, mama. Turn on the light. When we get upstairs, I want to play play dough in my playroom for a couple minutes. You turn on my light.”
•On the way down the stairs: “I want toast with black berry jam and a bowl of yogurt with honey and Mama’s cereal.”
•At the breakfast table, sitting backwards in her chair observing my mother, who makes us all breakfast: “I want a waffle, Mya Mya. I want a waffle, Mya Mya. Mya Mya I want a waffle. I want a waffle with syrup and egg and toast, Mya Mya. I want some water. Mya Mya I want some water… NO, not in that cup, in a sippy cup. I want some juice, Mama, I want some berry juice in a regular cup… NO, that doesn’t match, that doesn’t MATCH…”

Matching is a big thing. We mistakenly bought her a multicolor set of plates, spoons, forks, bowls and cups. Now it is one of the essentials of each meal that Katya’s food is all served on the same color table ware – so if you choose a blue plate, you must also be able to find the blue cup, the blue bowl, the blue fork and the blue spoon.

She has also been building lots of skills. She can do 12 piece puzzles all by herself. She is learning to play concentration with bear cards. She loves to help wash vegetables, make jello, pour pasta into water to cook and do art projects. She paints, glues, and scatters sequins and colorful cotton balls all over the place. She still loves to build towers with blocks or legos, play with her little wood and plastic people and her “babies.” She loves to migrate various items throughout the house. For example, this morning she had to take a plastic cabbage, apple slice and piece of corn down to her grandparent’s apartment.

Vanya is doing well. He is pretty big now, being seven months old and almost 20 pounds. He has recently learned to do lots o things, which put me in mind of writing his chronology before I completely forget when things happened for him:

Contractions started: Jun 10, 3 pm
Bought coconut water at store for consumption during labor in the hospital: Jun 10, 4 pm
Labor started in earnest: Jun 11, 2 am
Called doula to come: Jun 11, 4:30 am
Doula arrived: Jun 11, 5:30 am
Labor progressed with unusual speed: Jun 11, 7 am
Started feeling urge to push: Jun 11, 7:15 am
Fled to the hospital: Jun 11, 7:30 am
Arrived at hospital: Jun 11, 8 am
Born: Jun 11, 8:18 am
Longingly remembered the coconut water we abandoned as we fled to the hospital: Jun 11, 9 am, 9:30 am, 10 am, 10:30 am, 11 am….
Came home: Jun 14, 1 pm
Started breast feeding: Jun 15, 7 am
Started solid foods: Oct 11
Rolled over: Sometime in October or November
First tooth: bottom front, Nov 15
Second tooth: other bottom front, Nov 29
Sat up without help: early Dec
Stopped breast feeding: mid-Dec
Started sleeping through the night: Dec 24
Moved into a room with his sister: Dec 27
Did his first sign: Jan 1 (sign for milk)
Started babbling: early-Jan (a da da da da, a ma ma ma, a pa pa pa )
Started pulling himself to stand on his knees in his crib: early Jan
Started clapping: early Jan
Held his own bottle: mid-Jan
Shouted with anger when he was barred from entering his sister’s play space in his walker: Last week
Started finger foods: today
Third tooth: any day now
Started crawling: sometime soon or he will bust a gut
Mom completed healed from ballistic birth: before this calendar year is over?

Vanya’s defining characteristic is his calm bright cheerfulness. He can sit for ages quietly engaged in playing or contemplating life but when someone looks at him or talks to him, he positively lights up.

It has begun to become clear that Vanya is developing strong will power and sense of determination where his interests are concerned. He is not easily dissuaded from completing the tasks which he sets for himself. Downstairs at my parent’s house, they have had to rearrange the kids’ play space because of Vanya’s escapades in his walker. At first, he wasn’t really good at maneuvering around in it. But he slowly got better and better. Then he began to conduct a series of drive by’s of Katya’s table, often abducting little plastic people standing too close to the edge– and the only thing louder than Katya’s shriek of dismay is Vanya’s howl of rage at being barred from the area.

Unlike his sister at his age, Vanya likes to try to eat books, or at least chew them, and he loves to grab them and feel them. He is crazy to crawl. He tries and tries and tries – and falls, falls, falls…. and tries again and again and again. He can move around a very wide area just kind of scooting and half-crawling. He can also pick up tiny things off the floor – so we have to sweep all the time. He loves music. As soon as someone starts singing or playing music, Vanya invariably starts bobbing up and down and smiling and sometimes clapping. He definitely claps if the song is “if you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.”