Cerin Amroth

A huge picture download covers Thanksgiving and both birthdays. Enjoy!

Big D’s birthday was a low-key affair, but he seemed fine with that. After watching Ella open her birthday gifts, he certainly likes that aspect, and we thought he wouldn’t mind having it be just the four of us. I got off work early, and we went to a local restaurant for wood-fired pizza. The kids happily played with unbaked pizza dough – as is the custom of the place – while we waited for food. Dominic ate his piece of cheese pizza and devoured the cut-up apples mixed with cranberry sauce. The waitress brought out a brownie sundae with a candle stuck in the top for his dessert. He had a big grin on his face as we all sang Happy Birthday to him. He attempted to blow out the candle, but he required some big sisterly assistance – which came unrequested, of course. He had no interest whatsoever in eating the tasty treat. He has almost a negative sweet tooth.

While the rest of us polished it off, he walked over to the stage that was set up with a microphone. He was very happy to run around the stage and ham it up. When Ella and I joined him, he wanted to be lifted up so he could sing in the microphone. He certainly seems to be a performer at heart. We had to practically drag him out the door when it was time to go.

Next stop was the bookstore. He hadn’t been there to play with the trains in a while, so he was delighted. He played with them for a bit, and then picked two up and walked over to me. He pulled on my pants to get my attention and handed me one of the trains. As soon as I took it, he held up the other train and said “Hewwo.” This is one of his favorite activities, which is probably why it’s one of the few multi-syllabic words that he says in its entirety. He would have been perfectly content to stay there all night, having me follow his train around the track and stopping to say “Hewwo” every few minutes.

We steathily bought his gift and then went home to open it, as well as the other two gifts he had waiting. As soon as we put the gifts on the floor next to him, he grinned from ear to ear. Ella helped him get the tears started, but he handily dispensed with the wrapping. He was very excited and immediately started playing with the doctor’s set and the percussion instruments. The 3T-sized clothes from his cousins will come in very handy, as some of his 2T ones will be small soon.

At 2 years, Dominic is a very contented and focused kid. He’s really good playing quietly by himself. If he’s into a particular toy (especially if it’s Legos or Playmobil) he will sit for long periods of time. On the other hand, he loves running around the house with his big sister. He eats up whatever attention she gives him with a huge grin on his face, even the hugs that wrestle him to the ground. He’s not displaying a lot of the terrible-2s behavior, although he can be extremely strong-willed if he’s got something particular in mind. This usually involves straightening out stiff as a board if he doesn’t want to go in his carseat or high chair. He’s really good at dragging the stools or chairs around the house to access all manner of items. There are very few places that are out of his reach or cunning.

The word “No” occasionally pops up, but it’s certainly not a staple of his vocabulary. He clearly understands A LOT, but chooses to vocalize very few words. I think mama was his first word, and he continues to use it as a multi-purpose attention getter. The other night in the car, he kept saying “Mama, Mama” to get me to turn my head around, and then he’d quickly point out the window and utter some other syllable, but without focusing on anything in particular. After he did this several times, Nate observed that he probably just wanted me to keep looking at him. He knows the other important words – Ella and Daddy. He’s also responded with “Two” a few times when asked about his age, but he still hasn’t mastered isloating two fingers to stick up.

I’m pleased to report that he still loves snuggling. He has an even stronger attachment to my hair than Ella. Earlier today, he melted my heart when he looked up at me after I put him on his changing pad and said, “Mom hahr puhee.” I bent over so he could grab two fistfulls of my hair. He repeated the same phrase and held his arms out, and I noticed the subtle vowel shift to change hair into hug. How could I resist?

She had something of a rolling birthday celebration — family in town for Thanksgiving, and therefore some early presents, a celebration at her preschool complete with cupcakes and Suanna as the parent helper, dinner that night at Hard Times Cafe, and finally, this past Saturday, her birthday party, with five friends of her choosing.

There was a bit of drama at the party when it was discovered that an evil spell had been put on the box around the birthday cake, rendering it unopenable.  Fortunately the kids were able to call upon the Great Wizard Intaglio who, with help from them in gathering together crucial magical items, was able to break the spell so that the party could continue.

Ella loved it all, though you could be forgiven for doubting it if you were watching her.  Suanna took a video of Ella at preschool while the whole class is singing “Happy Birthday” to her.  She has her hands clamped over her ears and her elbows angled inward and head tucked in so as to obscure her eyes.  At her party it was hard to draw her into Intaglio’s activities, much as she loved the event and talked about it afterward.

She just doesn’t like attention all that much — definitely not the widespread attention from groups.  Sometimes the seeks out individual attention for affirmation of something she’s accomplished, like somersaulting into a headstand on the couch.  But if I try to give the same positive attention to her after I eavesdrop on a song she’s been improvising, she’s liable to clam up — “Daddy!  Don’t listen!”

It’s been a very long time since I’ve reviewed the ol’ Trifecta (eating, sleeping, pooping) with respect to Ella.  Nothing in particular to report on #3, thankfully.  She is every bit as much of a picky eater as she has always been.  Her caloric intake operates on something like a four-day cycle — she patiently waits for a supper that she likes in order to stock up, and largely skips the meal or eats whatever token spoonfuls we insist upon on the other nights.  She’s better at breakfast and lunch though she still doesn’t eat a lot.  And yet, she’s healthy and growing, somehow!

On the sleep front I am happy and somewhat shocked to report that she has been occasionally sleeping in lately.  As in, she no longer wakes up when she hears Dominic wakes up, but stays conked out until 7:30 or so.  While this is pleasant it is not really a game-changer since D is prone to get up at insanely early hours these days.  But it’s a nice gesture.  She still stores up a little bit of sleep-need every day and catches up with a two-hour afternoon nap every week or so.

Ella’s favorite recreational diversion right now is LEGOs, the regular-sized kind, which she got her first sets of as birthday presents, Star Wars-themed, which she arrived at via the Xbox 360.

Let me back up — we got the Xbox a couple months ago, and Ella and I started working through Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga as a father-daughter activity.  When I think back so how frustrated she’d get in the early days at executing a simple platform-jump, and how adeptly she now vaults from a crumbling precipice onto the railing and then uses the Force to open the door to the next level, well, I’m not ashamed to say that my chest swells with pride.   There were some rough patches in the beginning, learning to work together, and me learning patience, but we’ve now hit our stride.  We’re now working on Lego Indiana Jones.

Anyway, a few weeks ago we were in Target walking past the toy aisles and she spied an endcap display full of Star Wars-themed LEGOs.  “Daddy, look!” she exclaimed.  “They make LEGOs of LEGO Star Wars!”  Bless her heart, she didn’t just assume that the video game was necessarily associated with a LEGO product.  She couldn’t believe her good fortune that the world actually worked that way.  And it made birthday present suggestions easy for us.  So now she has the beginnings of her regular-sized LEGO collection in the form of the Hoth Rebel Base, Rebel Speeder, and Imperial Dropship.  I am happy to report that they all break down to the same classic LEGO pieces at the end of the day, though it’s somewhat disconcerting to see that those pieces are way smaller than they were when I was a kid.

The only person who is more excited about Ella’s new LEGOs than Ella is Dominic.  Today is his birthday, and I’ll do a post dedicated to him tomorrow, but this morning as a gesture toward birthday celebration I am giving him unfettered access to the Star Wars LEGOs, and he couldn’t be happier.

Oh, and we’ll have a picture update very soon as well.