vonRoeschlaub Family News

Diana had to visit the doctor, so I had Avery over for lunch. We went to the Subway near the office and he had the usual Turkey with cheese. The guys there are really nice to kids, and they gave him a “kids meal” toy even though he just had a normal sandwich. It’s a sneaker that rolls. I have no idea why they made such a thing.

After eating Avery needed to go to the bathroom, but it took a little work to convince him. We went in and he refused to use it because there was no urinal so it must be the girl’s room. I explained there was no other bathroom, but we still went in and out a few times before he believed it.

Last night Claire was playing dress-up with Megan. After Megan left Claire showed her cute little outfit and then retired to the bathroom to take it off. Avery insisted on going in with her, and after ten minutes I declared it time for bed. Claire asked for another minute, so I ran to get the camera. Good call. When Avery came out, this is what I caught.
Hopefully there is no long-term psychological damage. Of course, posting the picture isn’t exactly going to help, is it?

Did a little Christmas shopping over the weeked with Avery in tow. A big mistake since he not only remembers what we picked up, but even remembers everything we said while picking it out. No more shopping trips like this with him, it would seem.

While at Target I did convince Diana to get a Lego set for him. She didn’t feel he was playing much with what he had, but I felt it was more an issue of how the Duplo sets are geared to be assembled only one way. We purchased a bucket of generic house-parts and opened it when we got home.

Avery fell in love. It is by far his favorite toy right now. I still do most of the assembling, but the house is built to his specifications while he puts together the fence. All on his own he worked out how the pieces need to overlap to form a locked joint. I think he’s really beginning to see how Lego work now. It’s a great introduction to mechanics, and his “engineering geek” cred is starting to show.

Avery spent last night with my mother. When he came home this morning, Claire immediately left with her to New York to see a Mermaid play of some sort. Avery sat down to watch TV, and then suddenly noticed Claire wasn’t there. So I took him to the window and pointed to Claire getting in the car. “Say ‘Goodbye, Claire'” I suggested. He refused.

As she got in the car Avery suddenly started calling out “Hi! Hi, Claire!”

I puzzled over that a bit and suddenly realized. “Are you saying ‘Hi’ so that Claire will stay home?”

“Uh huh. Why it not working?”

Diana was out late last night, and when Avery woke up I let her sleep and took him downstairs myself. A while later I needed to dress him and the laundry basket had no underware or pants, so I went upstairs to get him some. Avery, of course, had to follow. When I showed him the underware I picked out he looked it over and shouted “BLECH!”

“Shh,” I said, “Mommy is still sleeping.”

“Oh.” He thought for a moment, leaned in close, cupped his hand over his mouth putting it right next to my ear, and whispered “blech.”

Yesterday was the Church Children’s fair. As usual, Diana and I traded off watching the kids and running the petting zoo. Avery was a bit difficult, but Claire is old enough that she spent most of the time in the children’s section handling herself. She did play with Ava and saw a Mime show at the library too.

As we were readying for the after-fair dinner Mom took Avery to the bathroom. On their way out, Avery pointed to the sign over the sink and said ” That says ‘Wash Your Hands’.” My mother was surprised and asked how he knew that. “I read it,” he said.

We still aren’t sure he really read it or just remembered it from a previous visit, but it was surprising either way.

I got back home last night. This morning I gave the kids their return presents: Litle glass blocks from kidscom.com that flash different colors when you twist the top. Kurt, my boss, gave them to me. They love them.
I also brought home a lego airplane (well, some knockoff brand actually — the pieces don’t fit together quite as well as legos) which both kids want to play with. It’s a little hard for them to put together, but it is their first standard size lego kit (or lego-compatible kit) so it will take practice.

I’m in California today, and talked to Diana on the phone. She’s not feeling so hot today, but sounded much more chipper than yesterday. I also talked to Claire a bit, she was coloring with her right hand to see if she could do it while talking on the phone. Avery wasn’t so interested in talking since Avi was over for a visit.

I told my parents about the trip to China. They were pretty excited. My mother insisted I would save a fortune buying Christmas presents there. That’s my mom.