Getting To Know You

Looking over the blog posts from the last few weeks, I realized that there has been a large focus on where we've gone, what we've done and what new skills the kids are developing. There's nothing wrong with that - it is of the basic purpose of this blog- but nothing gets to you feel like you really know a kid like knowing what they're in to. Therefore, here it is: the Likes and Dislikes Rundown for Lucas, 11 months; Elise 3 years.

Lucas loves socks. Not on his feet, mind you, oh no that would be way too normal. Lucas loves eating socks. Yes, I realize this is a little gross, but it's been fairly challenging to kick him of the sock eating habit, especially with a sister who has a pretty bad randomly-take-her-socks-off-and-leave-them-lying-around habit. In pretty much any situation, he will manage to find a random sock (usually Elise is the leave socks around culprit, although he has been known to raid clean laundry) and start sucking on it. He will find said laying around sock, walk around with it for a while (intermittently chewing on it, throwing it, retrieving it, then sucking on it some more) Then when he's had his fill of quality sock time, he leaves it somewhere (like between the couch cushions), so you find a wet surprise in the couch a few days later. He never seems to kidnap a pair of socks, it's always just the one. Elise is currently in a serious sock matching crisis.

Besides his love of socks, Lucas REALLY enjoys playing peek-a-boo. The cool part is he initiates it and everyone find it hilarious and fun. The bad news is he usually does this during mealtime. The problem with that is that the cuteness tempered by having to the clean food that was on his hands out of his hair, ears and clothes. His accuracy with covering his eyes is marginal at best.

Another interest for Luke is sharing his food and feeding others. He thinks it's absolutely hilarious to offer up some of this yummy finger foods and even funnier when you actually eat it out of his hand. Trouble is, he usually samples the food first, fishes it out of his mouth and then offers it to you. It's a nice sentiment but there are few people who actually want to eat a soggy, partially chewed Cheerio. Maybe this is why Lucas has become good buds with Gram and Grandpa's dog, Bentley, who has no such snobbish hesitation to eating half chewed Cheerios. Lucas loves sharing his food with Bentley and Bentley is enjoys the influx of snacks available when Lucas is around.

Lucas hanging out with Opa
Finally, one of Luke's favorite things to play with is the Dora kitchen Elise got for Christmas last year. This is extremely frustrating for Elise since he is a little rough with it. He usually pulls off its oven door, rearranges her perfectly placed items (i.e. pulls everything out and throws it on the floor) and generally makes a mess of things while having a ton of fun with it. Interestingly, Elise never really gravitates to it unless Luke is playing with it, then her "system" of organization and play is greatly disturbed by his recklessly abandoned pursuit of fun. Perhaps his Uncle Scott could provide him with some pointers for working in a kitchen without destroying it.
Gram reading to Elise
Speaking of Dora, it seems as though the Dora ship has officially sailed for Elise. As you may recall, Dora took over for her Elmo obsession at the end of last summer. Pretty much anything that had Dora on it was the most exiting thing that ever happened, and she loved watching Dora videos (exclusively) that we rented from the library on a bi-weekly basis. But by this summer, the torch she was holding for Dora began to fizzle out and nothing has yet replaced it. She still likes Dora, just like she still likes Elmo, but the obsession has passed. I suppose her biggest interest right now is princesses but we are (barely) keeping that out of the obsession realm - despite the best efforts of her Oma to thwart us!

Whether it is Dominoes, Uno, Go Fish, Chutes and Ladders or Hullabaloo (thanks Shoshana!), Elise is really into playing games right now. Her love for games began in January when Oma taught her to play Dominoes the big girl (right) way. Since then, she has developed an interest in playing other games too. Lately we have been playing a lot of Uno and in the process she is learning how to have fun, be a good loser and be a gracious winner. Sort of. Being a good loser has been a bit of a process (once she realized there were winners and not winners, she always wanted to be in the winner category - "we both win!" she says as she set the rest of her cards down after you've already gone out), she is slowly developing the skills to handle it and we're really proud of her. We still have some pouting when we lose - and when she doesn't get dealt a wild card - but for the most part she's learning to take not winning in stride.

The most enduring thing that Elise loves are her baby dolls and stuffed animals, who she refers to as "the friends." She has a very complicated and intricate system of "putting the friends to sleep" that involves giving them a bath, laying them face down on the floor, putting a blanket over them and patting them on the back. Uncle Kevin always jokes that the friends "drank the kool aid" when he comes over and sees the face down babies all over our basement. This is a regular occurrence since it is her favorite game. Elise has been playing this game since she was about 18 months old or so, so now she has it down to a very specific science. She always asks for someone to play with her, but there are so many rules - she has "assigned" every friend a specific blanket and sleep spot, and she remembers all of them even though there are about 20 friends and blankets that are very similar - that even when you try to play with her, she bosses you around and tells you you're doing it all wrong. The friends must be finally getting older because they are spending less time sleeping. Lately she's been into taking her friends for a ride on the bus (which is the couch) and she can spend hours lining up all the friends on the couch in her specific order, then filing them all out once they reach the fictitious destination (usually the pool) and then getting them all back on the bus.

Lucky for us, one of the biggest interests for both kids is one other. Elise can always make Lucas laugh and she likes nothing more than kissing, cuddling and playing with her little brother. He sometimes feels a little smothered by the kisses and cuddles (rightfully so because it is a constant onslaught) but he loves playing with her too. Especially when she keeps her hands to herself.