Nothing's Impossible

Hal can now take off his clothes, including diapers.  He insists on wearing underpants but refuses to go to the bathroom.  If you put him in a diaper, he strips.  He can also open doors.  Sigh.

Christmas

James has informed us that tomorrow (2 days before we leave for Indiana) will be "the busiest day ever" because he has "so many presents to wrap" and he has to "get everything all packed up."

Hal has informed us (again) that he is Gordon.

Muscles

Hal was trying to peel an orange tonight when he announced "My muscles can't keep up" and asked for help.

knock knock

Hal sat down at lunch yesterday and said, "Knock, knock, who's there?" several times in a row.  The he laughed uproariously.  I tried to explain the joke format to James who fundamentally didn't get it.  Hal also made a joke about beards.  "Daddy have beard.  Daddy have beard.  I don't have beard.  I ate it."

"Don't Touch"

Hal became fascinated by the title of a book today.  He pointed to the two word title and repeated "Don't Touch" again and again while pointing to the words.  Age 29 months.

James "invented" a toy idea today.  He wants a toy that will show teh Big Bang and then will have all of life on earth.  He described "when it was all oceans and then the boney fishes.  then the giant dragon flies and then pangea and all of the dinosaurs.  Then mammals but then, in the toy there's an ice age and the ice age animals like wooly mammoths and then humans."

He's been drawing a lot of maps lately.  Yesterday, one had a key and a compass rose.  He explained that "the dots respond to a path"  He meant "represent."  He's been experimenting with more complex words like that, with abstract meanings that he's still piecing together.

advent

James and Hal got Playmobil advent calendars this year.  James announced as he met me this afternoon, "I can't wait to open number 2!"

Nicknames

Today James came up with a nickname for Hal - Mr. Waffles.  We decided Princess Waffles was a good name for when we were playing dress up.  I asked if James remembered a time when Hal wasn't in the family.  He said he did, "Yeah, it was lonely then.  I didn't have a little guy to play with."  James  and Hal played with their planes today insisting there were air earthquakes.  Terrifying.

Gordon

Hal has begun to call himself "Gordon" and his dog is "Gordon Dog" right now.  He enjoys taking care of things and often asks to be the mommy dinosaur (although he only offers hotdogs to his hungry dino offspring.)  Our new nickname for him is "Veto" as he is going through his twos.  James hit this a little later and we called him Dr. No for most of his third summer.

Hal Drawings

Hal has been drawing circles and other closed shapes.  James is working on lower case letters in his name, "Does this look like grown up handwriting, Mom?"

Halloween 2008

James was a tornado -- the tri-state tornado to be exact.  He drew me, a cow and "twisted train tracks like I saw in the book" to add onto his costume.  I told him he wasn't allowed to spin during the Children's House party.  One of our last houses on our trick or treat route was filled with St. Olaf women, with large pitchers of margaritas on their dinner table.  James, needless to say was a hit (and the first trick or treater to brave their dead end).  They wanted him to spin and he hesitated.  Once I had assured him it was O.K. he said, "O.K. but I'll spin carefully so don't be scared."

Hal eventually decided to put on a costume.  He had wanted to be a cow initially but wouldn't put the costume on.  Then he wanted to be a dinosaur so I brought up James's dragon costume and said very deliberately (looking at James) "Here's your DINOSAUR costume, Hal"  Then Hal wanted to be a dragon so I showed him the same costume which he was thrilled with until he put it on -- then he screamed to take it off.  Evidently, handing out candy convinced him that the trick or treat thing had some potential and James and I were greeted by George and Hal just as James was about to call it a night.

Hal spent about twenty minutes today asking Tom to put the tomato cage over him so that he could crawl out of the bottom.

James made a very intricate Lego car.  He explained he "built it from the bottom up so that it would be sturdier."  He also told me that he didn't just "be like this and then this and then this" but thought about things instead so that it would work well.

Lego Seismograph and Underpants

James built a seismograph out of his Legos today.

Hal wore his Thomas underwear for the first time yesterday.  He lasted about an hour.

And then...

Hal told a story tonight at dinner that went, approximately, "They dinosaurs.  They dinosaurs in the house, mama.  They right here.  They playing.  They eating dinner.  Dinosaurs go to Tinys and eat all the hotdogs.  They pay money.  Go to Dianes.  Dinosaurs read books.  Go downstairs and play."  That's as close as I could make out.  He doesn't have "l" yet and he doesn't really have middle syllables so it's a bit hard to decipher.

James announced that he thought that bears should have a bear stand where they sold salmon.  They could come here and set it up by the coop and sell the salmon they caught.  George pointed out that they'd need to work on their cold chain.

The Golden Monkey Turns Five

James turned five today.  Hal vacillated between wild excitement and confusion.  At one point he turned to George and said, "I five Daddy."  James finished up the day talking about a "dramatic earthquake."  This after explaining to Tom and Gaelyn that tsunamis are caused by underwater volcanoes and earthquakes.  Hal began saying, "I not Hal, I Henry" last week.  He's also started telling stories, every eighth word of which we understand -- "One day dfkj alsdfkj dslfk ldskjf, and then dslkfja asdofjlk asldkf  diesel vrmmmmmmm.  Thomas and Henry alskdj asdflkj laskdj ldkasj and then aldj adlkfj  adklj ldkj."  James is getting more interested in numbers, "What's 4 more than 10?"  He's also able to tell you if a number is more or less than another number.  Hal continues to live in a binary world.  He has two or he has more than two.  At least it's a binary world with an increasing number of colors.  For a while there, everything was "pink."