The sound of one hand clapping

When Soen was a year old dinnertime was very stressful. Because he couldn't speak to tell us what he wanted, he would just scream. Wife finally had had enough, so she taught him the sign for "more." Suddenly the screaming stopped. The signing had another benefit, too. It seemed to connect the "language gets me things" synapse in his brain and he started talking more. Within a month, his vocabulary went from five words to 30. Sounds like an ad for teaching your kids how to sign, doesn't it? If this were a movie, the screen would fade and then the words "Three years later" would appear...

Sadie just turn a year old and is suddenly screaming a lot more around dinnertime. Well, with her, any time anyone is eating anything, she starts screaming, but we were able to detect the subtleties within her screams and we could sense that she was frustrated at not being able to express herself. So, we started with the sign language lessons and now she can sign for "more." This was a very happy day for us and we waited with bated breath for the screaming to stop. And we continue to wait.

Both kids developped their own version of the "more" sign. Soen would point his index finger at the palm of his other hand. Sadie will sometimes do that, but more often she opens and closes one hand. On some days this reminds me of Bart Simpson's response to the old Zen koan about the sound of one hand clapping. On most days, however, I am reminded of a snotty Frenchman snapping his fingers and saying, "Garcon!" Except her version of "Garcon" is "aaaaaaaaagh!!!"

The other day she was standing next to me with a cup in one hand and a safety fork in the other, screaming for more of my cereal. Being an ass, I said, "Sadie... do you want more?" Appropriately, she shot me the glare of death, slammed the fork down on the table, started one-hand-clapping in my face, and screamed.

Still no verbal communication beyond the screams, but there is progress. Today she started saying "muh muh muh" and pointing to some crackers. This is what Soen used to say. And frankly, it couldn't come at a better time because she's been doing the silent scream for even the littlest offenses. You know the silent scream: The kid is so upset about something they can't catch their breath enough to scream. It's the worst because you know it's coming and the longer the pause, the louder it's going to be. The other day I swear it was a good ten second between the first little scream and the storm surge. And that was for telling her she couldn't have my coffee.

Anyway, when Sadie isn't eating (or screaming for more food), she throws herself on pillows. I caught the tail end of it, here. What I love about this video is how she look like an old man with a cup of coffee in one hand and the newspaper in the other.

Halloween

Some pics from our first Halloween in Dixie. Fun was had by all. In this picture on the right, Soen is demonstrating how a dragon sleeps in a nest of pine needles. Sadie lasted about an hour.

I had forgotten about children's boundless love of candy. Ever since we went trick or treating, my son has asked at least once a day to see his loot. He then dumps it out on our kitchen table and examines every piece, asking what each one is and then reporting what we say to the other parent. "Daddy! This one tastes like banana!" He is allowed one piece a day and man if he doesn't look forward to that piece all day long. "Daddy! This lollipop has rainbows!" It's hard to believe that in a week or so, he'll have forgotten all about his candy. Last year we wound up throwing out 90% of his goodies.

Evil!

Soen saying, "Mu-hu-hu-ah-ha-ha-ha-ha (cough cough cough)"

Soen has a new found love of superheroes. Not sure how this came about, but he loves Batman, Superman, and the Flash. Especially the Flash. His favorite is to run around the house (naked) and slam into me and knock me over, much to the delight of Sadie.

Anyway, wife found the Justice League on the Cartoon Network and we've been recording it for him. I started watching today and was surprised at how hilarious it is. At one point Lex Luther is leaving the men's room and one of his supervillain buddies says, "Aren't you going to wash your hands?" To which Lex replies, "No, because I'm evil." Well, that made me laugh out loud, so Soen decided that was pretty funny, too. So all night he would ask me to ask him if he was going to wash his hands so he could say, "No tubby I evil!" And then laugh menacingly.

Ed note: For some reason, the boy has been pronouncing "because" as "tubby" pretty much since he started speaking. We've been trying to correct him but then he just says, "No, because tubby I evil!" Eh, he'll figure it out one day. Until then it makes for almost-interesting fodder for the blog.

Goal!

Aunt Carol came down for a couple of days and we all had a rather nice time together. Being Aunt Carol, she had to spoil the kids rotten with scads of gifts, one of which you can see here in this video clip. Being Soen, his favorite gift was the soccer goal, since you A) get to kick things and B) it makes a fun sound when you do. Being me, I couldn't resist telling him that after he kicked a goal, he had to run around with his hands in the air, yelling "Yay," which he did with great enthusiasm, if not great technique. I thought it was hysterical, so I ran for the video camera and tried to get him to do it again.

I don't know why I ever think I'm going to capture something on the video camera, since the kids always stop doing whatever it was that sent me for the camera by the time I actually get it. This time was no exception, since Soen had lost the aforementioned enthusiasm for running around like a World Cup winner. However, this "outtakes" video is in some ways better. My favorite is when he misses from three feet away.

Oh, the P.S. to this is two days later he is still playing with this and still running around like an airplane after kicking a goal. (If I could only get it on film!)

Monsters

Soen looked at me rather seriously tonight as we were watching Schoolhouse Rock on YouTube. "Um... Daddy? Do vampires have bippies?" I told them they do. He nodded and went back to watching "My Hero Zero."

He's been on this monster kick lately. I gather his pre-school has been talking about Halloween. At first he was a little scared of vampires, but now he likes them. His favorite thing is to pretend to be a zombie and chase me around the house. Here, he is showing me how the dreaded Kitty Cat Monster walks. This monster, Soen told me, eats houses and fruit. I told him to put on some underwear so I could get it on film. Luckily, the flashlight scares the Kitty Cat Monster away.

Sadie turns one!

Sadie's birthday is today and to celebrate we went to the beach. I keep thinking we're taking our last trip to the beach but the weather continues to be nice. This morning it was close to 80 and so was the ocean. It's OK to hate us a little.

Sadie is walking about half the time now and I imagine that will be full-time in time for Halloween. This video was taken the other day after she opened her birthday present from my parents.

I was going to post a video of Soen singing the theme song from the Land of the Lost but unfortunately he was naked for that, so I thought it might be inappropriate. We need to get more clothes on him if only so we can show his videos online. That's his second favorite song. His favorite is the outro to the Land of the Lost, which he sings quite well. I'll catch him on film soon enough.

My son, the diva.

OK, it's not the Carter Family, but I'm sure they had to start somewhere, right? Watch at the end for Sadie's new (non-food-related) trick.

Soen scolded me in the pool the other day: "Don't mess up my hair, because then people won't see my curls." Great.