Where Troubles Melt Like Lemondrops...

It's been a fun spring, though not necessarily a healthy one. Theo has borne the brunt of it, with one affliction rolling into the next, almost all of it viral. He was generous enough to share a particularly nasty bug with me, I even know the moment of transmission. He came running over to me holding his hand up and crying. I assumed he had a boo-boo in need of my kisses. Only kisses shouldn't leave behind a slick, slimy coating on your lips, right? Yeah. He wanted me to clean his hands not kiss some phantom boo-boo. He had just sneezed. Profusely. I knew I was doomed.

Esmé and I have had some fun lately, just the two of us. We spent a day in the city, first having lunch at Marie Belle Chocolatier and then taking in The Children's Museum of the Arts. Fantastic. So many things to do and make, plus a fabulous exhibit by a Japanese artist that was interactive and so inspiring-- the centerpiece being a room-sized pink dog you could actually brush! Here's Esmé donning one of the many fantastical costumes in the exhibit. On another occasion when I had Esmé to myself, we went to the Newark Museum and then we met up with K and T in Hoboken for dinner. This was a particularly fun day requiring all sorts of public transit, the train, the light rail, the Path and then home again via train. I love how connected our region is.

Esmé is growing in every respect. Her limbs are getting long and lanky now. She still loves dress up and imaginary play over all things. Almost every day she assumes a different persona. She may decide that she's cat which usually means she breaks out her white tights, white shorts and white top. I have to apply whiskers to her face which I happily indulge figuring when else in your life can you get away with such things on any given Wednesday? Theo gets in on it too. I however almost always gracefully decline, meow. Around the holidays she was Rudolph a lot, dressed in brown with a red nose and pony tails for antlers. Sometimes she's Lady from Lady and the Tramp. Sometimes she's Alice from Alice in Wonderland. Grandma made her an Alice costume for Christmas and it's in heavy rotation, worn more often than many of her street clothes. Her latest obsession is The Wizard of Oz. We're holding off on the movie itself as it definitely has its dark moments, and this is, after all, a girl who couldn't make it through the first few minutes of The Lorax. So instead we listen to the music, plus she's seen a few key scenes on YouTube. She loves the If I Only Had a Brain number. She's adapted her Alice outfit to a Dorothy one and can spend hours dancing and playing to the music. We've all gone over the rainbow here.

Theo included. And he's moving right along as well. His vocabulary and communication skills have improved vastly just these last few weeks. He's still difficult to understand. I've often joked that we're learning his language. But it's soooo much better. He's even speaking in sentences. One word we've never heard him utter is "yes." "No" he's got down pat. But he just doesn't say "yes." And now he's worked around it by saying "I do," instead. It's so funny. I'll say, "Do you want a banana?" and Theo responds, "I doooooo." Very formal. He even says "I would" when presented with the conditional. We've had some progress with potty training too, but I must admit, I feel really out of my element here. We have a small, trainer potty, but Theo has on occasion attempted using the normal potty by pulling up a stool to it. He's never christened it, he just stands there and makes a hissing sound with his mouth. Hey, it's a start. However lately he's sort of mixed the two, he stands on the stool in front of the little potty and has actually had some success. Of course I'm applying the term rather broadly here. If by your definition success is peeing into the potty, then we're not quite there. But if peeing around it or near it counts then I say, hurray! You did it! High five! What a big boy you are! And all the other stuff you do to reinforce what's happened as sort of what you were going for. The stool is an impediment in that it actually puts him farther from his target. But he won't be persuaded from using it, and let me tell you, it's quite a sight.

Theo and Esmé are behaving more and more as siblings now. Theo really looks up to Esmé which manifests itself in the cutest ways. If I put a barrette in Esmé's hair, then he needs one too. If she's playing dress up, then he joins in as well, tu-tus and all. Esmé took a cooking class this spring where she wore an apron. Every Thursday afternoon as I tied on E's apron for class there was Theo bringing me his. And he wouldn't take it off despite the fact that we were passing the time at the playground. The other night they were laughing so hard at the dinner table that Esmé actually peed herself! For me this was its own milestone. I mean you haven't really, truly enjoyed someone until they've made you lose all bodily control, right?