Two Peas in a Pod

As we watch the boys growing up together it's clear that the difference in their ages is starting to be less and less of a hindrance in their ability to interact. Caedmon is still stretching his wings in all sorts of new ways - he figured out this morning how to climb up and stand on the windowsill in his room, facing the window. (Now he has to figure out how to get down by himself!) But Isaac is watching his every move and imitating a lot of what he observes.

A couple of weeks ago the boys had a wonderful afternoon of play in the backyard. Caedmon disassembled is tee-ball tee and was using the post as a bat, tossing the ball with one hand then swinging with the other.

Soon he grew tired of that, though, and dropped his ball and "bat." Isaac was right there to pick them up...it's clear from the look on his face that he was really pondering what to do with them, and recalling the demonstration he'd just observed! In the end, he had the right idea, and the necessary eye-hand coordination will come with time.

I just love watching these two guys playing together!

Again, Caedmon takes the lead and steps up to the plate after re-assembling his tee. Isaac was right there in the action - but thankfully not too close - his brother has quite a wind-up.

Another example of "stretching our wings..." Caedmon has figured out how to get up onto the rock columns in the backyard. Once up, how does a little boy get back down? Only one way. He braced himself and counted to three, then counted to three again, and again, probably eight or ten times, then finally leaped off the column. He landed, realized he was all in one piece, and immediately did it again - with much less counting.

Caedmon has become quite the little vocabulary coach for Isaac, as well. He's picked up on our questions to Isaac and now I frequently hear, "Hey Isaac, can you say 'drink?' Say, 'drink.' Can you say, 'digger?' Can you say, 'excagator?' Can you say, 'fiwer truck?'" (Caedmon still has some interesting pronunciations - "fiwer" for "fire" and "craown" for "crayon," to name a few, which makes it that much more delightful for us to hear his instructions.)

Isaac is making tremendous strides in his communication. Who wouldn't, with such an earnest teacher? I've been impressed lately with his mini-sentences. One morning when Daniel took Caedmon to school, he looked at me and said, "A-mon? Dada. A-mon? Dada." My translation: "Where is Caedmon? He went with Dada." Or he'll say "Dada...wuk." (Dada went to work.)

He has also learned somewhat how to tell me what happens when my back is turned. I left the boys playing with blocks yesterday and Isaac cried out as I was walking away. As I turned I saw a block launched in his direction as he followed me, holding his head, crying, and saying, "bump!" I asked Caedmon why Isaac was crying. Up until very recently Caedmon has been very honest, even if that meant he would be in trouble. He's figured that out, though, so although I could see in his eyes that he was guilty, he made up something about Isaac falling down. I asked Isaac where he got bumped and he rubbed his head, saying "head!" I asked him what bumped his head, and he showed me the blocks and said "boks!" then pointed to Caedmon, "A-mon!" Seems pretty clear to me!

It's so neat to see how those little minds work, though! My car battery died this week, and after dropping Caedmon off at school Daniel had to come back home and help me. I ended up taking him back to work and picking up Caedmon in his car. When I explained to him that my car was at home and we were in Dada's car, he thought about it for just a minute then asked, "Did Dada walk to work?" Then I asked him what we should do to fix my car and he said, "Take it to the car shop." And I reminded him that the car battery was dead and it wouldn't go, so how could we take it to the shop? His solution: "Put it on a trailer of a big rig!" He was probably disappointed that didn't actually happen!

A beautiful zoo day and more

The weather lately has been too beautiful to stay indoors, so we've been out and about as much as possible. It's been so great! We've had lots of time in the sandbox and racing in the backyard (this is Caedmon's new big thing - he'll say, "Let's race to the tree...ready, set, go!" and take off, usually somewhere between "ready" and "set," giggling the whole way.)

While strolling, mowing, tricycling, or pulling wagons up and down the sidewalk, we've noticed that the pecans have begun falling. I cracked one for Caedmon and now have plenty of occupation for my hands while we're outside, as he can eat them much faster than I can shell them. Isaac wants to eat them too but is at a distinct disadvantage, having no molars, so he normally works on the little bits I give him for several minutes before giving up and spitting them back out.

Caedmon has tried to shell his own pecans and enthusiastically stomps them, but has yet to break through the tough outer layer. He isn't shy about asking me to help, though!

Isaac has been bringing lots of smiles to our faces lately as he continues to pick up Caedmonisms from his brother. He knows that Doug is not like all the other toys and when he happens to find him unattended, he usually picks him up and cuddles him. The past couple of weeks, he also puts Doug's little "hand" up to his nose exactly the way Caedmon does when he's sucking his thumb, except the smile on his face and in his eyes tells us that he is just imitating.

A few Sundays ago in church he happened to pick up their little yellow feathered friend during the service while sitting in my lap. He first put Doug's hand to his nose, as above, then took Doug's little head in his hand, turned him to face me, and made Doug give me a kiss on the cheek, complete with the sound, then laughed. I laughed too!

We had a great trip to the zoo this week, too. The guys were excited to go and loved checking out the animals and running ahead of me, when the tired of the stroller. Freedom!

The highlight of the trip for them, I think, was a statue of a tortoise outside one of the exhibits. I'm not sure how we've walked right past it numerous times before without stopping...that won't happen again. They climbed the turtle, patted it's head, rode it, slid off, and did it all over again. They thought it was so much fun. And it was! A breather for me too, pushing those guys up and down all the ramps and all around the zoo was a workout, they're getting big!

We've realized that we are in full-fledged question mode with Caedmon. He talks all the time and a lot of what he says are questions. It's so cute and intriguing to hear what's going on in that little mind!

A few recent quotes from Caedmon that have made us laugh:

Neither of us can remember the circumstances, but he very seriously, yet innocently told Daniel, "Dada, shut your mouth." He wasn't being disrespectful, but that's probably the only time he'll get away with saying something like that!

While he examined my wedding ring, I explained to him that I have one and Daniel has one, and we have them because we're married and want to spend our whole lives together. He looked at me with furrowed brows and said, "Oh. Does it hurt?"

And he's working so hard on being polite that he often reciprocates our encouragement. Today, after a big-boy adventure of exercising with his Dad, I told him, "I'm so proud of you!" He said, "Oh, I'm proud of you too!" And I don't remember the reason, but I did something and to encourage his "Thank you," I gave him a hearty, "Oh, you're welcome!" To which he said, with equal enthusiasm, "Oh, you're welcome too!"

Bob the Builder and Huckleberry Finn

Last night was the first Halloween that our guys have dressed up and gone trick-or-treating. I don't think they really understood what we were doing - Isaac especially - but it was fun to see them dressed up! Caedmon did get a kick out of his costume and thought it was fun to pretend to be Bob the Builder.

We had a hard time getting those two guys together for a picture - it's a difficult undertaking under normal circumstances but when they're wearing funny clothes and going outside with buckets instead of eating their supper, while strange-looking people and other creatures are walking down our sidewalk, it's even more challenging!

At first, Bob the Builder was much more interested in the fishin' pole than little Huck. When we went to the last (of five) houses right around us that were handing out candy, he did finally pick up his pole, and started hitting the ground with it until the fish flew off. I think he prefers it as just a stick - he knows exactly what to do with those.


Then we got home and fed the boys some soup, with the piece of candy that they each selected waiting for them in the middle of the table. Isaac doesn't really know about what's inside all those colorful wrappers, but after giving him a section of a Kit-Kat bar, we watched him taste it very carefully and seriously, then stick the whole piece in his mouth and look up with big, wide eyes, asking for more!

Caedmon, on the other hand, knew what to expect and very eagerly selected his package of peanut M&M's. He took a few moments to play with them and watch them roll around on the table, but then lost no time in eating them. He was so excited!