The Small Family     

Hi all! We had a semi-quiet week, but not without fun developments to report! Zoe is a full-fledged part of the family by now, and we’re really enjoying her. Theo thinks she’s very funny when she kicks up the grass after going potty…apparently this is quite amusing. And one of her favorite things to do is chase lights that fall on the walls, floor, and ceiling at certain times of the day, when the sun is in just the right position. It’s really quite amusing, and it tires the girl out--bonus! I think her false pregnancy may be subsiding, as well. She doesn’t look as swollen, and she is very outgoing and not skittish now. Funny thing is, the one time she gets skittish is when we encounter children while on a walk. She cowers something fierce--it’s rather sad. I wonder if she feels vulnerable on a leash? She’s fine with Theo when she’s on a leash, though. And in fact, she’s wonderful with Theo all the time--not the least bit skittish around him. But she is around other children when she’s on a leash. Interesting…I will be curious to see whether my friends’ children make her nervous when they come to visit.

Anyway, after Chris leaves for work, Theo and I take the dogs on a walk every morning. Getting them both leashed up and Theo in the stroller is a bit of a feat, but we do enjoy the walks once everyone is ready to go. And it results in mellow pugs for the rest of the morning, which is lovely. :-) In this week’s album, you’ll see a couple puppy pictures of Zoe, which her previous owner emailed to me. So cute!

In non-pug news, I switched Theo’s Little Gym class after noticing some interesting differences in his normal class and a makeup class I took him to after our trip back east. At age 2 1/2 (which Theo will officially be on Tuesday--woohoo!), the kids can move into a Super Beast class (from the Beast class). So Theo switched into that in late August, since he would soon be 2 1/2. However, his class was all girls (occasionally one other boy, but usually at least six or seven girls), and they were all older than him. (The class goes from age 2 1/2 to 3, and most of them were closer to 3.) And although Theo enjoyed the class for the most part, there were some interesting developments. I discovered that the kids in this class tended to have very defined rules about how to play. There was a fair amount of, “You can do that because X, Y, Z!” or “This is our castle--you can’t come in!” And Theo just isn’t at the “rules” stage yet. Whether it’s age or gender, I’m not sure, but he is very into freeform play, and these “rules” confused him. He’d get frustrated or get his feelings hurt, and then he’d come running to me, all upset.

When I took him to a makeup Beast/Super Beast combo class, it was all boys. And most of them were about his age, with a few being younger. (One is 20 months old, for example.) And wow…what a difference. These kids played much like Theo: They were happy to run around and explore, and there were no “rules” about how one could climb on the mat, swing on the bars, or whatever. None of the kids seemed to care a bit about what his peers did--even when they were playing together, they didn’t have to be doing the exact same things to have fun. I took him back to this class a second time to see whether the same held true, and it did. And Theo had a wonderful time and even seemed to make friends with the 20-month-old. (This particular boy is young for the class, but he’s extremely agile and physically capable, so he keeps up with the other kids perfectly well.) It was really cute to see Theo and Marcus (the little guy) talking and laughing together. I have no idea what they were talking about, as Marcus is still mostly in the babbling stage, but they were both laughing and having a grand time, so it was obviously something very exciting and fun!

Anyway, I’m very pleased with this new class, and I’m just fascinated by the differences in play. Did the kids in the other class have defined “rules” because they’re slightly older or because they’re girls? I have heard that girls and boys often play very differently, and I’m wondering whether that’s what I was seeing. Or was it just the age difference? Funny thing is, one of Theo’s favorite people is his friend Emma, who just turned four. So she is both a girl (obviously!) and older than him (again, obviously!). But they play quite well together, and Emma doesn’t seem to be in that “rule-making” stage where she insists that things must be done in a certain way. On the contrary, she and Theo play well together because each one lets the other do his or her thing. They talk and do things together at various points, but mostly they each do their own thing and couldn’t care less whether the other one is following any specific rules. Then again, Janeane (Emma’s Mom) did tell me that Emma tends to gravitate toward the boys in her preschool class and has some tomboy in her, so maybe that’s why she plays well with Theo? Or maybe it's just because she’s a nice little kid. Probably some of both. :-) Anyway, interesting stuff…I’m fascinated by how gender differences manifest at this young age.

Theo is warming up to his new teacher, too. Side note for any fellow Harvey Karp fans out there: Theo’s teacher was actually in the Happiest Baby on the Block DVD. Harvey Karp was her sons’ pediatrician when she lived in Los Angeles, so they ended up in the DVD. (For those who wonder what the heck I’m talking about, Happiest Baby on the Block is a fantastic parenting book. It was recommended to us by a lot of people, and we did indeed find that it was the one book about parenting that actually had a LOT of useful strategies in it. It helped us immensely when Theo was going through colic and food sensitivities as a little one. It wasn’t a magic cure-all, but it gave us the tools to understand how to comfort him. A lot of books are all theory, but this one teaches the practice, too, and it was invaluable to us. So I’m a wee bit starstruck that Teacher Darcy happens to know the great Harvey Karp, MD!)

In addition to making friends, Theo is also becoming quite the good decision-maker. Because he’s now at an age to really communicate his wants, we’re starting to give him choices for some things. For example, food. We generally give him two choices: “Do you want chicken or fish? Would you like oatmeal or a waffle?” And he can now tell us, quite decisively, what he wants. Given that neither Chris nor I is the most decisive person on the planet, I’m quite pleased to see that our son appears to really know his own mind and be decisive about what he wants! Of course, this doesn’t always mean he gets it, but we only give him choices that he actually can have, so that cuts down on a lot of issues. He seems to really like having a say in things. As an example, sometimes he doesn’t feel like stopping his playing to go to the bathroom before we leave the house. Instead of battling him to force the issue, if we simply say, “Hey, you need to go potty before we leave. Do you want to use the big toilet or the little potty?”, nine times out of ten he will quickly choose one and comply--no battles! I love it. That said, when his decision-making involves, say, additional TV time that we don’t want him to have, we obviously have veto power. :-)

We had a fun weekend, despite a rather unexciting week. Saturday we took my Mom up on her offer to babysit Theo after our return from the East Coast, and we went to brunch and a movie. And for once, I beat Chris at Pac-Man, which is really something to celebrate! I never, ever win at video games. I think that Pac-Man machine at the movie theater is my lucky game….We saw Easy A, which is sort of a teenager movie, but we had heard enough good things about it that we decided to go. And indeed, it was very funny and entertaining--we both quite enjoyed it.

Sunday we did the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes with my sister and her family. Stevie, my sister’s youngest, is diabetic, so my sister and her husband are very involved in juvenile diabetes research, in the hopes that someday we find a cure. Until then, needles and insulin are a part of Stevie’s everyday life. :-(

We hadn’t seen my sister and her family in quite some time, so it was nice to see all of them except Sam, who got sick and had to stay home. It was a nice, cool morning for a walk, too…and we worked up enough appetite to go to our favorite Greek restaurant, Opa Opa, for lunch afterward. Yum!

Last but definitely not least, there will be no blog next week. Why? Well, because we’re off and running again! We’re headed to Seattle Saturday morning, and we won’t be back until Tuesday. Why another trip so soon? A baby shower--what better reason?! That’s right--I am very excited to announce that Auntie Lisa and Uncle Chris are expecting their own little boy, due in early December! The new little Boyadjian-Duval is currently named Baby B-Du, and alas I won’t know a name until after they have the kiddo, since they’re keeping it secret. (I suspect they don’t even know the name yet…but even if they did, they wouldn’t tell me!)

I’ve known about this wee one for quite some time, but Lisa and Chris wanted to keep it quiet until well into the pregnancy. Lisa was already pregnant when we went to Oregon with them in June, in fact. So I gave her all manner of unsolicited advice. Ha ha, just kidding--she would shoot me! I think she hates unsolicited advice as much as pretty much any parent-to-be!

Anyway, we’re very excited to go celebrate B-Du with Lisa, Chris, and their friends and family. And Theo is very excited about getting to go on an “air pain” again and see Twiss and Yeesa. (He no longer calls her Santa, which I’m slightly sad about. I liked Santa!)

I’m ridiculously excited about B-Du. That is going to be one very loved, cherished little boy! I’ve known Lisa since we were in kindergarten, and she has always wanted to be a mother someday. And although she and Chris would be happy with any healthy baby, I also happen to know that she has always hoped to have a little boy. So I was super excited to hear that B-Du is a boy…also because I happen to love little boys as well! And I have visions of Theo and B-Du becoming good friends as they grow up. Though Lord knows what sort of mischief those two will make when they're old enough...

And with that, I bid you all adieu for the week, and we’ll be back in two weeks with lots of Seattle pictures and stories.