I, Caboose

W1 is a moderately train-obsessed boy. He likes to build train tracks, read books about trains, and watch Thomas the Tank Engine. Pretty mild, right?

After he learned to say his own name, sometime last fall, he was constantly talking in the third person. "W1 eat it", "W1 get shoes on", etc.

Then, in early January, he decided that he was a caboose, and decided his name, also, was Caboose. Our conversations went something like this:

K1: "W1, what do you want for breakfast?"

W1 (pointing to himself): "Caboose."

K1: "Caboose, what do you want for breakfast?"

W1: "Peanut butter toast."

W1 has also given train names to the rest of us. L1 is box car, R1 is tank car, and I am the train tracks. I'm not going to think too deeply about the meanings behind these name assignments.

It is perhaps telling that W1's current favorite book is Bill Peet's The Caboose Who Got Loose:

It (along with Peet's other books) is a very fun read.

We are now into the first week of February, and this little quirk of his is already starting to pass. I am just a tiny bit sad.

On Wednesday, due to the snow

We stayed at the house all day and:

- Opened the emergency box of Play-Doh
- Drank too much hot chocolate
- Jumped our bikes off the coffee table (or, W1 attempted and K1 intervened)
- Played outside in the snow for a brief 10 minutes before L1 fell face first into a snow bank and demanded to return to the house
- Shovelled the driveway at least twice
- Made and ate deliciously spicy peanut soup
- Watched too many episodes of Bob the Builder

On Thursday, we were very grateful for four wheel drive, snowplows, and places to go where they keep the thermostat above 60 degrees, even if it is just all the stores we have to visit while running errands!

right about now...

This looks really good.

Doesn't it?

I keep daydreaming of a beach vacation. A warm beach.

I really need a beach vacation.

Why?

Let me make my case:

1. I was talking to a friend about how warm it was last Friday when the temperature finally got above freezing. Man, that was nice.
2. L1 is breaking in his top front teeth. For too many long sleepless nights in a row.
3. Saturday night, I cleaned up vomit and blood. From the same kid. Within 15 minutes.
4. Right now, I am wearing three layers of clothing. Inside my house. And still feeling a little chilly.

I know what you are thinking. It's not like I work 60 hours a week or anything.

Yikes, I shouldn't complain.

Life would be pretty much perfect.

If I were on a warm beach.

BUR to LAS, LAS to BUF

I was grateful that our flights from California to New York didn't involve rising before dawn and speeding to the airport in the dark. Because we usually end up staying up late the night before a flight packing, and I like to be well rested when travelling with a two-year-old.

We left my parents house around 10:30 am, met my dad for lunch at The Hat, and made it to the airport in plenty of time for our flight. Our first flight was painless, a quick 45 minutes in the air to Las Vegas. When we landed, the pilot let W1 in to take a look at the cockpit, which I'm sure was the highlight of W1's day. The trick at the Las Vegas airport was keeping W1 away from the bright, noisy, enticing slot machines that were everywhere.

The second flight was very long, but the beautiful thing was we had two rows of seats to ourselves. That made all the difference. The kids managed to take naps, and R1 and I managed to keep our sanity.

The only weird thing that happened was when we were going through security at the Burbank airport. We were carrying 5 or 6 jars of baby food for L1, and I had to open every one of them to be tested. The lady who tested them kept apologizing, but I just thought it was odd. And then, she asked me if I was planning on home schooling W1 and L1. It was way out of context, so as I fumbled around for an answer, she said that it was just that my children seemed to have a calmness about them.

Well. If only that were always true.

I realized that I don't really have an answer to whether or not I would choose to home school. It would probably depend on where we are living, among many other things. What about you? Would you? Are you? Let's hear your opinion...

A whole new kettle of fish.

*A note before we begin: We are safely back in Rochester after our lovely visit to California. I meant to do a whole post about our flight, but... Maybe I still will. Tomorrow. Yeah.


Don't be fooled by L1's sweet, innocent looks.

Yesterday we went to play date where I was asked if L1 was walking yet.

"Oh, no." I replied. "He can stand on his own, and shift his weight a little bit, but he hasn't really taken steps yet."

L1 apparently took this as a throwing down of the gauntlet. He was thinking, "Mom sure is making me sound like an underachiever, when all I have been waiting for is an audience of the appropriate size."

He then proceeded to take at least 4 steps in a row, all kind of matter-of-factly.

Way to make me a liar, kid.


The best part is how excited W1 is about L1 walking. All yesterday afternoon he wanted to hold L1's hand and walk with him around the living room.

So, now do I have to say I have two toddlers? Yikes. I guess I must. Why else would I have checked out multiple books on discipline from the library today?

When in California...

1. Eat as much good Mexican food as you can handle before returning to the Northeast.
2. Go boating.

Being extremely efficient, we handled both of these requirements in one day.

We started with lunch at Yolanda's Mexican Restaurant (we didn't get any pictures of the restaurant or the food, because we were too busy savoring the deliciousness).

Then, we rented a boat from Duffy, and cruised the Channel Islands Harbor for an hour. It was an electric boat, and when the engine was turned on, it was so quiet I could hardly tell it was running. Of course, it didn't go very fast, but it was perfect for cruising around the harbor. We admired the waterfront homes, and groaned at the names of many sailboats and yachts.


W1 even got a turn as captain and tour guide. I can almost hear him saying, "And on your right, you can see the...":
Grandma, enjoying the fresh sea air.

A flurry of activity...

...not unlike the actual flurries being experienced by people in other parts of the country. (I'm sorry.)

It is always nice to be on vacation, but I didn't actually intend to take a vacation from this blog as well. I'm sure you are all wondering what we have been up to. So, to satisfy W1 and L1's adoring fans, let's do a quick sum up of our Christmas.

Gingerbread house construction, and subsequent destruction (which I think W1 started when we caught him sneaking M&M's off of the landscaping).
Christmas tree decoration, with a little help from W1's uncles. W1 and L1 only broke 2 ornaments during the couple of weeks the tree was up. A miraculously small number, considering. Grandma just took the tree down today, so we can now breathe a little easier.
Matching festive holiday shirt wearing. As if they had any choice in the matter.
W1's first piano lesson from Great-Grandma.
And a lovely stocking Christmas morning, mostly filled with socks, toothpaste, and fruit snacks. Aren't we mean? Or, isn't Santa mean?
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, filled with family, friends, and lots of fattening foods.