Darwyn's first cycle about the sun

Yesterday was Darwyn's first birthday.  One year ago today, Greta gave birth outdoors, in our back yard.  It was 26 degrees C outside at the time.  This year it's a trifle colder: yesterday it was -7 outside, it is currently -3.  No lounging around in an inflatable tub outside for us this year.

To celebrate Darwyn's first revolution about our sun, here are a bunch of pictures.  By lucky coincidence, most of them happen to be of Darwyn, though I've snuck in a few of Max, too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Max reading to himself.  "Cars, trucks, and things that go" is his favourite book.

I'm not sure why Max has his trucks on the kitchen counter.  But I suspect he's about to use them to help mommy do some baking.

We cannot keep this baby out of the dishwasher.

 

 

 

 

That diaper liner around Darwyn's neck is a necklace.  She has taken a fondness to necklaces of late.  If it can be worn around the neck then it is a necklace.

The trials and tribulations of being two

It has been a constant struggle with Max, to get him to express his feelings with words instead of tantrums.  Usually he uses words only as a last resort.  When pushed however, he will declare "I am feeling sad!"

Yesterday he marched upstairs to tell me just that, while he barely contained his tears.  "Why are you sad, Max?" I asked him.

"Daddy didn't use the boot as a telephone for very long!"

What can I say....I think I understand why he can't control his tears....I could barely control my mirth.

201 activities for the truck obsessed toddler

Before I had kids, I would flip through books in the libraries with 201 activities for toddlers and envision my life as the perfect parent.  My imaginary children were enthused about life and we explored nature together, made bird feeders, baked and made homemade presents.  We splashed in puddles and went on bike rides.  We went camping and swimming and played hide and seek.

It turns out that my two-year-old hasn't read 201 activities for toddlers.  He wasn't interested because it wasn't immediately evident how it related to trucks. Max's idea of  life with his perfect parent involves me being replaced by a large yellow loader that snorts a lot and eats and poos blocks.  (Darwyn mostly meets this description...but it turns out the yellow loader part is more important than the block part.  Fortunately, Max's friend Elliot recently lent him a loader just like this, so Darwyn is off the hook).

Unfortunately....Max's actual parents are a little less than perfect.  Not only are we not loaders, we don't even agree to play trucks most of the time.  Max wakes up ready for a bright new day of trucks.   He carries his favorite truck, Muck, out to the living room and requests that we "play trucks".  I won't do that so he requests I read a book about trucks.  I suggest a different book.  He accepts this as long as his truck can read with us too.  Then I start to make breakfast and offer that he can help.  He enthusiastically complies, but drags his trucks up onto the counter and insists that his dump truck should measure the flour.  I'm a soft touch so I usually agree...but I draw the line when the loader heads for the eggs.  Eventually our baking project is finished and the trucks "have a bath in the sink" while I do dishes.  The trucks also join us for Max's baths, at the dinner table, for tea parties and on walks.  Max's trucks have even worked on their potty training (the pooing loader is actually useful for this), but this usually digresses into a game of just "playing trucks".  I try to lure Max away from this game by suggesting we make a craft.  Usually this means I make a craft while Max plows his trucks through the glitter.  Kathrin convinced him to do a craft once...it involved dipping truck wheels into paint and then running them on paper.  This was great fun and he worked on the project for over an hour.

Eventually Max usually resigns himself to playing trucks alone in his room.  While the rest of us are quite sick of trucks, Darwyn in an enthusiastic participant.  Sometimes Max tries to include her, but her trucks never do what they are told.  For the trucks, play with Darwyn involves a lot of slobber and being smashed against things.  They don't seem to mind much, but Max insists that this is just not how you play trucks.  Max has taken to referring to her as "monster baby" and his trucks usually drive for cover when they see her coming.  And, of course, Darwyn only ever wants whatever truck Max is playing with. 

Max's current favorite truck is a character from bob the builder named Muck.  Muck is a loader/dump truck made of duplo.  At the slightest provocation Musk falls apart. The instant Muck sees Darwyn coming he crumbles.  I'm convinced it goes this way.  I'm sure he is broken before she even gets there.  Muck's demise is immediately followed by a heart-rending wail from Max as he lovingly scoops up Muck's remains.  He is quite proficient at putting Muck back together, but this does not seem to have eased the pain of seeing him fall apart.  All of this makes Darwyn a quite unsatisfactory truck playmate. 

 And so the responsibility returns to me to include trucks in everything I do.  And so a new book for children has started to take shape in my head.  One centered on trucks.  How to use a loaders to clean the toilet.  There's a loader in my sugar bowl (but hopefully not the same one from the toilet).  Let's play hide and seek trucks (oops we still can't find it? What a shame...)  How to fish a skid steer out of your baby sister's mouth (with a crane of course).  The bucket truck builds a snow man....on the drive way you are trying to shovel.  And yes, I think grandma would love a truck for her birthday...no you can't borrow it. And so it is born....201 activities for the truck obsessed toddler, coming to bookstores near you.