Singing frog

Wife had been wondering about these weird noises that Sadie was making. She said she sounded like Regan from the Exorcist. One time she made the sound in front of both of us and I laughed and told her she was just imitating Animal from this great Muppet clip of Beaker singing "Feelings." When I filmed this, she had been sitting in front of the computer singing along with Beaker and imitating Animal yelling "Quiet!" So, I grab the camera to catch it, and predictably, all she cares about is the camera. In this video, when you hear me griping about how she only ever wants to see the camera, what you can't see is that I then turn the view finder around so Sadie can see herself. The look on her face is priceless. She does finally give us a half-hearted "quiet" but she's totally phoning in the performance.

By the way, you can watch that Beaker clip here. Aside from the fact that this is clearly the best version of Feelings (his lyrics are way better than the original), I love the way Beaker "watches" the band before he sings. But the best moment is right after the sax solo. When it cuts back to Beaker, it's like he was watching the saxophonist. I just love the little touches like that. Almost makes you forget there's just a bunch of dudes under a table.

Wheels!

The other day I picked up a skateboard at Wal-Mart for $9. When I told my mom that Soen was skateboarding, she asked me if he was wearing a helmet. I said no because Soen was only going about five feet an hour. I don't think she believed me, so I'm posting this video to show the kind of daredevil stunts my son and daughter do on the skateboard. (Anyone want to lay odds on whether she still thinks he should be wearing one?)

Since then, however, I've purchased a push scooter for him, which he's much better at (and does wear a helmet for). The funny story about the push scooter is that I had mentioned to wife a few weeks ago that I thought it would be cool to get him one of those since he could ride it better than his skateboard or bike. She said, "How about we wait until his birthday," which totally seemed like a great plan until I decided I couldn't wait until October.

Soen loves the fact that I got put in time out for buying him his new scooter (which is a big hit, by the way). And I wonder why my kids don't listen to me.

Punchy

SWF, enjoys food, costumes, fisticuffs.

File this under "Things you never think of before you have two kids." Soen has been having a hard time distinguishing between "she" and "her." He says "her" for everything, as in "Her is going outside." 90% of the time the "her" in question is his sister and I just correct him. But lately it's gotten more complicated because he's usually telling us that Sadie is doing something we wouldn't approve of. And then I'm stuck with trying to decide whether to correct his grammar or address the problem first. If I correct Sadie's behavior, it's then hard to get back to the grammatical error in question, especially since Soen usually wants to talk about the finer points of Sadie's indiscretion. This often leads to rather bizarre conversations like this exchange...
Soen: Her hit me.
Me: SHE hit me.

This of course brings me to the real subject of this post: Sadie's new violent streak.

While I wouldn't go as far as to say "we're concerned," it has become a bit of a problem lately. Sadie now resorts to punching whenever she gets mad. She punches Soen, us, inanimate objects, or even--if nothing else is available--herself. It's gotten to the point when all it takes to get socked from our daughter is a simple "no." As in, "No, Sadie, you can't play with knives." WHAM! Right in the kisser. (Well, more accurately, it's more like a light slap on your knee.)

While--on paper--it may be funny to see such a cute little girl punch anyone who crosses her, we certainly don't take it lightly, and she gets disciplined and put into time out. (Usually, we get punched a few times as we're carrying her over to the T.O. chair.) I think she gets frustrated since she doesn't have much of a vocabulary to express her rage at the injustice of it all. (Then again, who does?)

Meanwhile we are struggling to reign her in, which is why the next time Soen said "Her hit me," I replied with the much more sensible: "Maybe you shouldn't put your face within her reach."