Spring Break & Zoo

We stayed in town for Spring Break this year, electing instead for a longer warmer retreat in August… thinking of something like a lake house in Missouri with lots of extended relatives thrown in our mix.  So, for this short week, we stayed home and recuperated from everything that normal life throws at us.  And because this is the most amazing time of year as far as the weather goes, we spent a lot of time outside, just appreciating the fact that there is probably no place in the Continental US that feels/smells/is more beautiful than it does here right now.  We just felt grateful for the citrus and lilac blossoms, the chirping birds, the warm breezy afternoons that are warm enough for shorts but cool enough that you don’t long for shade, and for open windows bringing it all inside.

I loved staying home with my little ones.  It was such a wonderful break from running around all the time and always feeling like I’m missing out when I’m in grad school.  And I can’t even pretend to tell myself that I haven’t been missing out, because they showed me every minute that I spent with them just how much they’ve grown and changed.  Gabe has begun reading, and he loves to stop me when I read him stories and ask to sound out words he doesn’t recognize.  He is turning into the most helpful boy lately.  He always wants to help with the laundry, whether carrying baskets or putting clothes in the washer.  He loves to take his plate and placemat to the sink, buckle his own carseat, hold open doors, and get dressed all by himself every day.  He has a great imagination and always seems to always be actively engaged in the adventures of his own little world.  He’s falling into a bit of a tattletale stage – Jake calls him the “hall monitor”.  It isn’t his best side, but I like to think that it’s his way of demonstrating accountability.  I think this rigidity is something he’ll grow out of, but it’s kind of funny while it lasts.  Jake was motoring through the house on the plasma scooter one night while giving the kids rides.  It was Ari’s turn and Gabe and Bella were providing their propelling force (pushing them).  As Jake was yelling “Yahoo!”, Gabe pipes up, “Daddy!  Don’t make those cowboy noises!”  Jake: “Why, Gabe?”  Gabe: “Because you need to listen to your conscience.”  Jake: “And what is my conscience saying?”  Gabe: “Your conscience is telling you not to make cowboy sounds”  Jake: “Are you my conscience?”  Gabe: “Yes.”  I get a kick out of how he has a really developed sense of humor.  He can always keep up with our jokes, plus he keeps us laughing all day with his own comedic act. 

Ari communicates very proficiently on her talker.  She is finding unique ways of using the vocabulary on her augmentative communication device to express herself.  Whenever it’s absent, she gets frustrated and reaches to her left, while giving us a most expectant look, like “How do you expect me to communicate?”  We are very proud of her, and I think that she will grow tons more with it in the next year and a half that she has before entering Kindergarten.  Ari is getting very mobile, and her belly crawling is faster all the time.  She has begun to pull her knees up under her and go to four-point (hands and knees) more frequently than before, and we always get really excited when she does this.  She, of course, then starts cracking up at our sillyness and falls back over to tease us and get our reaction again.  Ari is probably the biggest tease of my three – she loves to get us going and then bust out in hysterics at our reactions.  One of her favorite things to do is to get us to sing her a song and then tell us to “Stop!” on her device.  She loves seeing my feigned insulted expression when she tells me she doesn’t care for my singing.  Of course, she is no different from any of my kids in the sense that she’ll do anything for a laugh.  One day, Ari crawled into the laundry room to pick up one of Gabe’s sneakers and then crawled with it into the bathroom only to drop it into the (empty) training potty.  She then crawled out to signal to me, with a wide mischievous grin and raised eyebrow, that there was something she wanted me to see in the potty.  When I said half-laughing “Ari, no!  Potties are not for shoes,” she burst out laughing.  Then, she proceeded to repeat this behavior another five or six times until I moved Gabe’s sneakers.

Bella is a whole different animal these days.  She was the most mellow baby ever, that I kind of thought she was going to be my vanilla kid.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.  This girl is as unpredictable as they come, and she keeps me endlessly entertained.  In fact, the only things that are predictable about her are that she will eat her food and she will not keep her clothes on for more than an hour at a time.  You can set your watch to that second part.  While Bella has had a whole host of nicknames in her time (Bellarina, Isabelly, Cinderbella, Tinkerbella to name just a few), her latest and most fitting little name right now is a moniker given by her Grammy, Jezibella.  This nickname stemmed from Bella wanting to be called, “Jessie” from ‘Toy Story’, but has much more to do with her inability to stay clothed or refrain from wearing mommy’s tank tops and nighties as dresses and 4 inch stiletto shoes, her refusal to wear her hair in anything other than her signature bedhead look, and her unintentionally seductive gazes/sly smiles.  She is too much!  And while she has an attitude to match, answering our requests and directives with a self-assured, “No fanks (thanks)!” multiple times a day, she can also be the most empathetic and considerate little thing when she wants to be.  While Gabe looks out for Ari’s needs when they are playing (“Mom, Ari can’t reach the toy on the self!”), Bella translates her feelings (“Are you okay, Ari?  I’m sorry you’re feeling sad.  Do you have an owie?  Do you want me to kiss it?”).  I love that she is learning caring and concern for others at such an early age.  Empathy is an essential trait in my book, and my heart beams when I see my children loving and taking care of each other.

This was our latest zoo trip this past weekend.  Some highlights were seeing the tigers move around (a first for them), learning that some monkeys have red bottoms, playing by the splash pad, and a little lesson about money (even zoo members can spend like crazy for the family when stingray petting, giraffe feeding, camel rides, face painting, train, carousel, and even use of the binoculars are extra!).