Ryan, A One-Shirt Kind of Guy

If only Ryan were always as happy wearing long sleeves as he is here, in matching sweaters with Tate and Lucie. Much to his mother's dismay, Ryan is not a guy known for his fashion flexibility. He knows what he likes, and likes what he knows -- and that usually involves short sleeves, the color orange, and elastic waistbands. He is not a fan of long sleeves, jeans or fitted waistbands. (Who really is — can you blame the guy?)

Ryan has had several favorite shirts, starting of course, with his fireman costume and "FDNY" shirt. That shirt, which once seemed enormous, has been so well loved it is paper thin and skin tight. Next in the shirt Hall of Fame came the "crane shirt", a shirt picturing the Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge, bought when we were visiting Minnesota for cousin Jayme's wedding. That shirt was worn day after day after day after day last spring, the bridge slowly peeling away with each wash.

This past summer, the favorite shirt was an orange striped shirt I bought at Old Navy for $3.99. He loved that thing, especially since Chris has a similar orange shirt and the two of them could be "matching orange shirt buddies" on casual Fridays (for Chris, not Ryan — every day is casual Friday for Ryan). When I think of this past summer, I think of that shirt. It spent very little time in his drawer, and instead was either on him or in the washing machine preparing to be on him again.

And, now more recently, the favored shirt has been Ryan's "3" shirt, declaring "3's a charm!" and announcing his third birthday. Multiple requests have already been put in for a "4" shirt. I have my eye out, though frankly, I'm not ready for that yet. I wish Ryan, and his quirky fashion tastes, could stay three forever. It is a charm.

Mandatory Rest Period

As Ryan and Lucie approach 3 1/2, nap time doesn't always translate into sleep time. Sometimes there are just too many stories to tell and giggles to share for an actual nap to take place. Oh well. We're not giving up though — that hour of peace and quiet is too valuable to us all. We still go through the nap routine, and if they're not asleep in an hour, they each get a pile of books to read.

One day this past week, I could hear both of their voices sharing tales of the morning, and then suddenly I only heard Ryan's voice. "LUCIE! LUCIE! Look at my crazy move? I went bonk! Lucie?", he called out. Even Ryan's crib gymnastics couldn't keep her awake. It was time for some "quiet" time away from his sleeping sis.

He happily went through all his Amazing Machines Truckload of Fun
books one by one (he's very methodical, just like his dad). My favorite Ryan line from this reading of Busy Boats, "Some boats carry cars!" Who knew? And now on to Super Submarines...

Playmates

Out of the blue, Lucie has started to call Ryan "honey", and Ryan calls her "sweetie". They sound like an old married couple sometimes, gently chiding each other with, "Now Ryan, honey, you follow the rules" or "Don't be so funny, you silly goose!" Actually, it's mostly Lucie doing the ribbing, and Ryan following along cheerfully.

They're certainly not always this chummy, but when they hit a streak of playing well together (like their garbage collection services or Christmas morning reinactment here), I try not to interfere. I've found that if I say the slightest thing to them, the beautiful spell of getting along may be broken, and I hate to risk that.

When they're in this mode, they get completely absorbed in their game, with made-up, mutually understood rules and goals. Santa must come after all the loved ones are tucked in and the tea set is the first garbage we collect. Everyone magically knows their role and falls into place.

Mostly, they ignore me, but sometimes they'll call out with strange requests like, "Hey Mommy, can we have a Kleenex box? We're pretending we're sleeping and we might have some mucus." (How can you argue with that?) Other than these quick check-ins, they're totally absorbed in their own, imaginative, garbage-collecting and Santa-waiting world.

Adventures by Land and Air

We packed lots of fun into our four day trip to visit family. Lucie and Ryan had a non-stop day of play at Taterbug's house, including time at the train table, a partially successful nap (Tate slept, Lucie and Ryan giggled) and a trip to a neighborhood park. When we first got there, Tate was so jazzed to see his cousins he started running laps around the kitchen in delight. Lucie then led the boys in a spontaneous yoga session, adding her own twist to the downward dog pose.

Next came some time at Grandma and Grandpa's house, where L & R happily helped plant a new "Lucie tree" (later a lemon tree), and picked oranges and tangerines. They love spending time in the garden, especially when Grandma sets aside special tasks for them. And, much fun was had tinkering with Grandpa's remote control boat and learning to drive it in the pool.

This was the first time I flew both legs of the trip by myself, and thankfully, all went well. (I've flown by myself with our two plenty of times, but usually have at least one leg with Chris.) By now, Lucie and Ryan know the drill. They take off their shoes in the security line without even having to be asked, and go right to our favorite spot of the airport for smoothies and entertainment. Boarding the plane, they always peek into the cockpit, hoping to get a glimpse of the pilot and myriad of buttons/controls. This trip the flight attendant gave them each a set of wings and a luggage tag, which they thought was the coolest thing ever and wore proudly on their shirts.

Unfortunately, both kids have developed a bit of motion sickness when flying. They're fine for the majority of the trip, except during landing when I can be found sitting at the end of my seat, airsickness bags in hand. The guy across the aisle from us on our outbound trip laughed at me as I sat with bags poised in front of each kid while the plane made its final descent. Thankfully, no one got sick. In fact, as soon as we touched ground, the moans of "My tummy hurts!" were gone and L & R bounded off the plane. Phew. It's always an adventure with these two...

Needed: One Trampoline

Lucie, Ryan and I made a quick trip this weekend to my grandmother's 80th birthday party. With a trampoline, game room, slides, ride-on toys and tons of young cousins to play with, adventures were aplenty at my Aunt Karen's house for the celebration. It was great to watch the kids have such a fun-filled time, because that's just how I remember family parties at Karen's when I was a child.

Lucie and Ryan bounced and bounced and bounced the afternoon away. Lucie only came off the trampoline once, and that was to get food, and then jumped right back on again. By the end of the afternoon, her white tights were practically black from so much bouncing from her knees to her feet. They made up little games with their cousins, alternating between jumping with reckless abandon to being bounced around like popcorn in the middle. What an afternoon.

When we got in the car to go back to Gigi and Papa's, Ryan declared (totally unprompted), "That sure was a great party!" Then, he cuddled Bunny, sucked his thumb and proceeded to sleep the entire way home. I think Lucie was asleep before we even left the driveway. If only we had that kind of entertainment in our backyard — nap time would never be an issue.

There were many great photos from this day (the weather was gorgeous), but one of my favorites is this one of Lucie, Ryan, Uncle Andrew and Aida taken by my Uncle Chris.

Moon Garages and Gondolas

Kids this age say the cutest things. Lucie and Ryan are constantly trying to figure out the world around them, putting confusing and abstract concepts into terms that make sense in their minds. And, like the girl who declared in the middle of L & R's gym class, "I have a new dollhouse!", their speech is so spontaneous and in the moment. Sometimes I feel like I can see their minds working as their thoughts come rushing out, one after another.

Yesterday we went for a walk late in the day, just when the moon was rising for the night. Ryan loves looking at the moon and following its various forms throughout the month. We're trying to talk a bit about planets and stars, in the very simplest terms, but I'm not sure they really understand my explanations. Today he said thoughtfully, "Mommy, where does the moon go when it's daytime? Does it have a little garage or something?"

We checked out a book from the library on Italy. It was a very simple book geared towards children, with pictures of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, plates of pasta and castles. Someday I'd love to take my kids there. When we got to the Venice page, I said excitedly, "Hey look, Lucie, this boat is called a gondola!" She looked at me, totally unimpressed, and said, "Mommy, I already know what a gondola is -- the Wonder Pets used one to save a baby kitty floating on a piece of driftwood. It was just like this one."

Huh? My 3 year old can recognize a gondola? And uses the word "driftwood"? I couldn't believe it. Days later when that same episode of Wonder Pets came on, sure enough, there was a gondola saving a kitten floating on a piece of driftwood. This girl remembers everything.

Holiday Letdown

This weekend is holiday cleanup time and we're busy taking the tree to recycling and putting away the decorations. To counter the post-holiday letdown, we decided to visit a nearby light parade in a last hurrah for Christmas. It may be a little tough to tell from the pictures, but you drive around a mile-long loop and look at over a hundred 20 to 30' high displays. Lucie and Ryan enjoyed shouting out their favorites (Santa flying an airplane and the tunnel were big hits).

The new year also marks a new format for 20 Fingers and 20 Toes. We decided to take advantage of the new widget templates from Blogger. The "Friends" list now pulls in the latest post from each blog and it's easier to navigate to older posts. We hope all 12 of our readers enjoy the changes :>

Lucie and Me

Last month, while Megan and Ryan took in the local children's museum, Lucie and I had our own special day. After hearing about Ryan's exploits on Chex, there was only one destination on Lucie's mind — the petting zoo.

Lucie kept track of our train tickets and made sure we found seats on the top-level of the train. We had just enough time to enjoy a snack of goldfish and raisins before arriving at our destination. I had arranged to meet our friend Jen and her little girl Logan at the train station.

We've known for awhile that Lucie is a devote animal lover, but only from a distance. Since that's the exact opposite of a petting zoo's purpose, I wasn't sure how she'd do. We learned that Lucie is fine as long as there is a fence between her and the animals. A walk-in pen with 100 bunnies and guinea pigs — no thank you. Feeding carrots to the ponies through a four foot fence — yes, yes, yes.