The little sister

This evening Leif rode his bike all the way to the middle park. With us all in tow of course. When I was a kid it was probably fine for me at that age to venture that far out.

But I guess I am just one of those overprotective mom of a less than confident little boy.

There was little whining along the way, I suspect mostly because he had a target in mind.

The coveted middle park.

The park where we quite often run into other children his age, and most often from his own school.

This evening was no different. The one little boy who lives on the park, who is not my favorite child, but I am learning to tolerate as I see that he may have less confidence than my son and his actions and the things he says that make me cringe are most likely stemming from trying to appear cool to my son.

Two other boys showed up who are also the same age as Leif and know him from school. Two boys that I far prefer and at least one of them I know his parents through work pretty well and am confident that they share similar parenting values. The boys were instant chums and split up for a quick game of soccer where the boys argued over who got to be captains and who got to be on my son's team. In talking with the other parents, they admitted their kids were not much for soccer, or for that matter any sports. Which is fine. AB and I enjoy sports and Leif has easily glommed onto this.

After soccer the boys went to the playground equipment and played and chased each other and enjoyed each other's company.

There was one other person in the park this evening.

One very lonely little girl.

Skadi stood around, refusing to join the soccer game (which didn't hurt my feelings any - those big boys can be a bit rough). She wouldn't go near the boys.

Instead she came and stood by me and said, "those boys are mean to me".

What she really meant though was, "those boys have stolen my playmate from me".

On a normal day a trip to the park is usually a solo venture for the kids where they play together and run around together.

My baby got her first taste this evening of not being included with the boys.

This maybe a harsh realization as she moves up to preschool this month and suddenly sees that her brother does indeed have a life outside of playing with /tormenting her.

Skadi moped around the park a bit, whining about the mean boys. AB finally went over and took over Leif's place being "the grumpy old troll who lives under the bridge" and coming up with wacky riddles for her to cross the bridge. AB didn't once ask her a math problem - it was a nice evening for Skadi in that respect. (Leif made up for it later though when he quizzed us the entire way home... what's 1600 times 1600 mom? Well then what is 2,560,000 times 7? We may be introducing the concept of a calculator sooner than normal.)

It's one of the tough lessons growing up. Realizing that siblings have their own friends.

Q & A with L & S

I dated a guy once whose parents asked he and his brother questions when they were kids and then wrote down what they said. I always thought this was a cool thing and the insight gained from how my kids respond is both hilarious and at times very enlightening!

Me: "Leif why is the sky blue?"

Leif: "Because that's the color it's supposed to be."

Me: "Skadi why is the sky blue?"

Skadi: "It's NOT BLUE, it's YELLOW!" (See what I mean... this says so much.)

Leif: "Did I get it right?"

Me: "Yes, I guess you got it right."

Skadi: "GUYS! I said it's not blue, it's YELLOW!"

Me: "Okay Skadi. Leif, why does it rain?"

Leif: "Well see first the clouds get full of water and so full they are about to burst and then they explode! And when they explode, the water comes out as rain called evaporation."

Me: "You mean condensation, right?"

Leif: (Breaking into song.) "The water travels in a cycle yes it does... the water travels in a cycle yes it does, it goes up in evaporation and comes down in condensation - yes mommy! You are right, condensation!"

Skadi: (Not to be outdone in the singing department...)"Old MacDonald had a farm EIEIO..."

Me: "Leif where are you going to live when you are a grown up?"

Leif: "Is elephant meat a protein? I think it's a protein. Is it a protein mommy?"

Me: "Yes, elephant would be a protein, but I imagine it would be really tough."

Leif: "Well I want to hunt elephants this afternoon and if I catch one you can cook elephant meat for dinner, okay?"

Me: "I think you would have to go a long ways from home to hunt elephants."

Leif: "Nope, just to Antarctica for snow elephants."

Me: "Skadi what is your favorite animal?"

Skadi: "SNOW elephants!"

Me: "Leif, what is your favorite animal?"

Leif: "Bears cause I saw one remember last summer in Alaska."

Me: "Yep, we saw bears."

Leif: "A bear would eat a snow elephant."

Skadi: (Screams.) "NO YOU CAN'T EAT MY FAVORITE ANIMAL!"

Me: "Ok, no one is going to eat a snow elephant."

(Silence.)

Skadi: "I have a baby in my tummy."

Me: "Nope, only mommies get babies in their tummies."

Skadi: "YES! I HAVE A BABY IN MY TUMMY!"

Me: "What's the baby's name?"

Skadi: "Little baby."

Me: "You could name her Skadi Jeanne."

Skadi: "I the ONLY Skadi Jeanne."

Me: "You are right about that."

Leif: "When Niranjana and Cate have my babies, they will have twins like Ms. Amanda and we will all live at our house with our babies."

Me: "Yikes. I guess you finally did answer my question though."

It has started

I am constantly amazed at how quickly Skadi is becoming verbal. AB and I can't figure out if she is just that much faster than Leif, or if we are accustomed to toddler-speak already. I presume it's a little of both.

One of Skadi's favorite lines lately is a very rude sounding, "NO!" She says it quickly and usually while turning away from you.

Or like today at the door on the way out of daycare. She plopped down in the middle of the floor a few minutes after 5pm and when I said, "Skadi come on". She responded with her rude little, "NO".

You know how much stuff you have to put down between two kids to pick one child up out of the traffic? Yeah, lots. We finally got to the car.

We got home and I had told Leif he could watch "Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving" when we got home. Truly I was just glad I didn't have to listen to another Scooby Doo. Anyways, I walked over to the DVD player holding Skadi when she very plainly asked me, "Elmo?"

I put an Elmo video on most mornings and entertain her during my maybe 10 minute shower until she comes wandering in insisting on something - namely me getting out of the shower.

I was surprised to hear her Elmo request.

"No Skadi, we are going to watch Snoopy," I told her still not sure that she had actually ASKED for Elmo.

"NOOOOOOOO!" she wailed and threw her body backwards. Ok, I guess she DID ask for Elmo.

I set the DVD player to only play the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving episode and not the Mayflower episode after. Once it was over I asked her if she still wanted to watch Elmo.

"Yes," she said and walked over to the couch where she sat for a whole 20 minutes.

And then I got to listen to Leif whine about "I don't like Elmo," and "but I want to watch Scooby Doooooooooooo".

It has started.

Maybe our bedroom TV will get some use afterall.