I've only got one more thing to learn

A couple months ago, Liam and I were talking about the things he'd need to learn before going off to kindergarten (1st day is 85 days away!). It wasn't a long list, but quite important. The first on his list was wiping after pooping. Yes, he should be able to do that, but he rarely wants to. I made him this afternoon and he immediately said the title sentence. There's no time like the present, so I sat him down to learn how to tie his shoes.

I'm not a great teacher, but he was pretty interested. He got the hang of doing the initial tie in just a couple tries. We then moved on to the looping part and he actually did that pretty well, too. He thinks he's ready now, but I suspect a few more practice sessions will be required. I'm just glad he's excited to learn. Of course, he may need to add a few things to his list.

Gymnast Liam

We decided to sign our boys up for "stuff" this summer. Cole is still too young for most things, but Liam is going to be busy. This week, he is going to gymnastics every morning for about an hour. He has been walking on balance beams of various heights, learning to tumble (somersaults and log rolls), doing a bear walk, and hanging on the high bar. Monday evening, he was still awake when we were getting ready for bed and he couldn't stop talking about what he had done. He wanted to show me everything and was even looking for a place in the house that he could use as a high bar. Fortunately, we got him back in bed before he found one.

Jeff's only gripe about Monday's session was that he brought my camera and not his good one. He rectified that today, so we have some really cute pictures of Liam on all the equipment. I think this might be something we continue in the fall, because he seems to love it.

a bird story

Jeff, Liam & Cole were out in the backyard today when Jeff noticed Cole and Sadie paying very close attention to something. When he walked over, he saw Cole pick up a bird by its leg or wing or something. (Not gently, the way we'd all hope our kids would.) Anyway, the bird tweeted at him and flapped its wings at him. Cole promptly dropped him and the bird flew away, fortunately.

The story, as told by Cole, has been developing throughout the day. He has told me at various times that it was a big bird, that it bit him, that he actually caught it. He told me at one point the bird should be in the dungeon.

I really wish I had a photo of that moment. Unfortunately, noone has developed a downloading process for actual memory!

'Tect my cereal

Cole has been very big into imperative sentences lately. I suppose that's typical for a 2-year-old, but he's come up with some good ones. "Stop, Liam" is frequent. Jeff & I have become quite certain that Liam isn't doing much of anything when we hear those two words. We'll never know for sure, of course. Cole also is fond of "By myself." Yesterday, I was helping him get dressed before Jonah's birthday party and we came to his socks. He told me he wanted to do it and then sat down with the socks. He looked at me, looked at the socks and said "Not my job. Your job." Okay then.

This morning, he was for all intents and purposes done with his cereal. I sat down next to his bowl to eat my own while he headed off to the bathroom. He looked back at me and said "'tect my cereal". (Sadie believes that all food left within her reach is fair game, so Liam frequently tells us to protect his food.) I was fairly certain Sadie wasn't interested in mushy Raisin Bran, but then Cole said what he really meant: "Don't eat my cereal, Mom."

Hi big birdie!

Our big adventure today was a trip to the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago. The boys had a great time seeing all the animals. We came up to the Andean condor enclosure and Cole stepped up to the fence and said "Hi big birdie." Unfortunately, big birdie didn't respond, not even by showing us his extraordinary wings. Oh, well. We at least got to see a baboon pee, dinosaurs roar, a polar bear splash in the water.

Water temples and stagelmites

This evening, Jeff was digging a spot for a new lilac. He had to move a bunch of rocks and then get at the dirt. Liam came over to see what he was doing and said, "Oh, you're digging down to the water temple. Look at how dark it is?" I didn't even know he knew what a water table was!

Later, after dinner, he started telling us about stagelmites. They are rocks that grow horizontally across caves. He told us that he's never been in a cave that had them, but he thought they might grow in the bat cave at Carlsbad Caverns. Cole agreed.

Mummy and mommy are kind of similar

Liam, Cole and I went to the library this morning in between hospital rounds, dental appointments and Cole's well child. They mostly wanted to play with the trains, but did finally decide to pick out books. Liam's choice was Franklin's Class Trip. At the end, Franklin isn't scared of a mummy because he has one at home. Liam didn't get it at first, but then told me "You know, mummy and mommy are kind of similar." How many 4-year-olds use "similar" correctly?