Rainy

Last week we weren't sure if we would extend our lease here past October. If I was going to be moving away soon I needed to run some errands. We stopped at Penzeys to stock up on spices and Ikea for the easel paper. That was on Wednesday. It started to rain that afternoon and the rain didn't stop until late Saturday. We had days of cold gray drizzle so we didn't do much. Also Bohdin developed a fever Thursday night that didn't break until Friday night/ Saturday morning. He had only a fever and a headache which he described as somebody banging his skull. The headache lasted through Saturday. He's much better now and Nyla is glad that he feels well enough to play again.

No! Me!

Nyla is well into the contrary and "me" two year old phase. She wants to do something "me self" and anybody that dares to help gets an earful. She especially likes to change clothes often. She can wear ten shirts in one day. She can almost always get them on by herself although usually backward but sometimes she has trouble getting them off. We have to watch her struggle without helping her because she gets mad at even the offer of help. If she truly needs the help she'll come. I wash so many shirts now because she'll leave one on long enough to get it dirty either by eating or painting or whatever it is she does to get shirts dirty. The last load of laundry included 10 pairs of Nyla pants to Bohdin's two pairs. There were at least as many shirts.

In Buddy's truck the carseats are touching each other. The other night Bohdin reached over and I think hit Nyla. She cried and was sad. I talked to Bohdin about what he had done which started him crying. Nyla was outraged that two people in the car were crying and yelled at him "No! Me sad!"

The car seats were still in Buddy's truck yesterday when we went to a birthday party at the Chaplain's house yesterday. It's been getting cooler so Buddy turned the heater on. Bohdn asks "Why do I feel so hot?". We had to turn the heater off completely and he asked for the AC on Bohdin fell asleep on the ride back yesterday just after 8 which is the first time he has fallen asleep before 11 since the Colorado trip. He was also up before 9. We may be able to get back on track today.




I talked to Bohdin about the delay in moving and asked hm what he wanted in our new house. Bohdin requested lots of room to run inside and no downstairs neighbors so he could run whenever he wanted. We can easily do that. If we were going to the Pentagon we would be able to afford a nice broom closet with shared walls. In Kentucky we can afford a mansion (we consider over 2000 sq ft to be palatial now) and land. We even saw houses over 4000 sq ft in our budget but that's too big. Bohdin doesn't need that much room to run.

Uncle Brody

Brody is at Ft. Lee Virginia for a few weeks and made the drive up to see us over the four day holiday. We were hoping he would stay longer but he arrived Friday about noon and was gone Saturday night. With such a limited amount of time there wasn't much we could show him that wouldn't involve him being in a car too long in one day. Also he didn't want to see anything that he would see with his family when they would all be in Virginia in a few years. We decided to go to Baltimore. We haven't been there ourselves in about a year. We didn't really have much in mind. As we were walking around the Inner Harbor I thought the National Aquarium was free on Fridays after 5. It wasn't (the science museum is free at that time) but they did have greatly reduced rates. Bohdin wanted to go and we probably won't ever have another chance so we went in. I'm not a huge fan of aquariums but this one was okay. They had a nice shark and ray pool with viewing from above. There was also a very large turtle in there which was quite impressive. We sort of raced through there. We saw the dolphins, the neat coral exhibit, and the jellyfish. We passed over a lot of the educational stuff. Whole Foods offers free two parking with purchase and we had to hurry back to there to retrieve the car. It would have been nice to have a leisurely dinner but we ate at Whole Foods instead.




Saturday we just stayed in and played board games. Bohdin had some trouble with gaming etiquette but other than that everything was fun. He had some trouble last night too when he lost Coloretto. We talked to him about losing and stuff. Right after that Buddy decimated me in a series of three of the same game. I suddenly knew exactly how Bohdin had felt. Bohdin went on to win a game of Incan Gold and he felt better after that.

Interview

Buddy called me Thursday morning and told me he had a job offer at Ft. Knox. The job prospect at the Pentagon was just a temporary thing until he could get the job he wanted. This job at Knox is the job he wanted. I guess it came through faster than anybody thought or something. So we're moving to Kentucky. His current job wants to keep him here for three more months. We're still waiting for approval on that but supposedly it's almost a done deal. So now Buddy won't be able to use all of that vacation time he had planned. He'll go in to work on Tuesday and we'll see from there.

I thought it had been a year since I asked Bohdin a series of questions going around the internet but it's actually been 7 months. Since I already have the answers I'm going to post them.

Interview with Bohdin - 4 3/4 years old

1. What is something I always says to you?
I love you

2. What makes me happy?
hugging you and kissing you

3. What makes me sad?
when I put stains in my room

4. How do I make you laugh?
by doing very funny things and when Nyla says "nenewchip"

5. What did I like to do as a child?
I don't know

6. How old am I?
30

7. How tall am I?
34

8. What is my favorite thing to watch on TV?
news?

9. What do I do when you're not around?
be sad

10. If I become famous, what will it be for?
I don't know

11. What is mommy really good at?
showing me things

Ok, what else is mommy good at?
taking care of me and Nyla

12. What is mommy not very good at?
picking up all of my toys all by yourself

13. What do I do for my job?
take care of me and Nyla

14. What is my favorite food?
peaches?

15. What makes you proud of me?
doing things I like

16. If your I were a cartoon character, who would I be?
none

17. What do we do together?
race
all sorts of stuff - play, eat, play games and that's the last thing I know

18. How are we the same?
We have the same eyes, we have the same nose. They (eyes and nose) work the same way.

19. How are we different?
We know different things. We're different ages.

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Because you just like me a lot.

21. What do I like most about daddy?
Because he gave you a ring

22. Where is my favorite place to go?
I don't know. Commissary?

Last February's answers can be found here: http://buddyhelen.blogspot.com/2009/02/stalking-tyken.html

I asked Nyla some of the questions also. Here are her responses without the umm that preceded each answer.
1. What is something mommy always says to you?
bus song(Wheels on the bus) and abcs

2. What makes mommy happy?
kitchen

3. What makes mommy sad?
fish

4. How do I make you laugh?
happy

5. What did mommy like to do as a child?
move

6. How old is mommy?
Two. Me two.

7. How tall am I?
three

8. What is mommy's favorite thing to watch on TV?
Umm

9. What does mommy do when you're not around?
race

10. What is mommy really good at?
tree

11. What is my favorite food?
rice

12. What do we do together?
race

13. Where is my favorite place to go?
play

Incan Gold

In Colorado I stopped at the game store and picked up all of the games they had that dealt with gold and treasure. Well maybe not all but several. We played Incan Gold in Colorado which Bohdin enjoyed. We played it again when we went to the chaplain's house on Saturday. Bohdin was the landslide winner. On Sunday we played two new games, Archaeology about looking for Egyptian treasure and Boom Town about gold mining. He seems to have the mechanics down pretty well but the strategy is a bit much for him. In addition both games have cutthroat elements. In Archaeology there is a thief card and Bohdin doesn't like to have his cards stolen but who does. I did steal from him once. Bohdin steals from Buddy the majority of the time. I think he won the first game and came in second the second time. Boom Town is even more cutthroat. We tried to be fairly gentle on Bohdin or I did anyway. There were times that Buddy did not. For the most part Bohdin handled it well. He came in second place. We were unaware of one of the scoring rules until nearly the end which could have been a factor in his loss.

The government has changed the moving process to an automated version from a live version. It doesn't work. Buddy has spent hours on the phone trying to get the computer problem resolved. I think he has partly given up in disgust because he now wants to do the move ourselves. I'm not excited by the work but at least our stuff shouldn't be destroyed or stolen. Maybe we'll make a lot of money from it with the reimbursement.



Bohdin said earlier this week that he wanted to get sell of all of his trains so he would have more room and money for Playmobil stuff. He has been saving his money for a possible trip to the Playmobil store. He found five dollars at the grocery store, about 80 cents at the airport, 30+ cents at Sonic, and various pennies and dimes recently so his money collection is really growing. He is also contemplating
getting a job although I don't know what kind of job he is thinking about.

I've reached the limit of knowledge and sometimes patience for questions. I can't tell which way electricity is flowing through a wire outside. I had to think hard about what makes wind. I wasn't quite sure what the sun was made out of. I don't know exactly how trees use carbon dioxide. I don't know if carbon dioxide is found in all water. I don't know the significance of the sphinx in ancient Egyptian culture. He asks too many questions in the car. I need to hire a professor to come with me on my errands and answer his questions. I just want to listen to the radio.

Nice?

Last week Buddy received a job offer down at the Pentagon that he will most likely take. It would start immediately after his 6 weeks of vacation are over. This is his last week of work before it starts. We have some ideas of what to do with that time but I don't know what will make it into the realm of actually happening. It looks like around Bohdin's birthday we will move into a new place in nothern Virginia. He wants a party with his friends there but he'll actaully be lucky if we're not in a hotel room like we were for his 3rd birthday. Perhaps we can move his birthday up a few weeks. He's not very good with a calander yet and would likely not know the difference.



Nyla watches behavior. A few weeks ago I had my hair up in a pony tail. Later when I took it down I put the rubber band thing around my wrist until I could put it away later. A few days ago Buddy put Nyla's hair in a pony tail. Soon after her hair was down and the holder was around her wrist. She also is trying to figure out what is nice and not nice. Her physical affection tends to be on the rough side. We've told her many times to use a soft nice touch so now sometimes she tests it out. She'll touch us and ask "nice?" and repeat it over and over. She cries when we say that it is not nice.

I set out the kids meals on the little table and grabbed my cereal bowl and sat down. Nyla came over and farted in my face as she climbed up into my lap. Then she stole my spoon and started eating my cereal. That was certainly not very nice but she didn't ask.

Neno chip

Nyla is talking a lot more but her pronunciation isn't anywhere near perfect. I suppose she sounds like a typical toddler. Bohdin had a bag of veggie chips that he and Nyla were sharing. Every time Nyla's hands were empty she said "Neenoo chip". I thought it was pretty obvious that she was saying "need new chip" but Bohdin thought she was saying neno chip. He thought that was hilarious and has since asked her to say it repeatedly. He's also been amused by her saying "shh shh" and "gukyou" which is thank you.

Usually when Nyla speaks in sentences she has a long pause between words. "Me. Knee. Blood. Hurt. Sad.". When she reads she sounds completely different. She'll pick up a book and put together a 3 syllable babble before pausing. "Hehohe. Nuhitoo.". I love hearing her read because she does it loudly with so much confidence.