Big Beezy

We now have “Mama”, “Dada”, “Hi”, and a very clear, “NO!”  She can be very obedient when she wants to.  Like if we say, “Lie down,” she will put her head down on the comforter we have on the floor for her.  Too bad it doesn’t last long.  She’ll do it long enough for us to say, “Yay!” then she pops right back up.  She can also sit and stand on command.  And knows to lie down when her diaper is wet and needs to be changed.  Still many commands most household dogs have mastered.  Oh yea, and she’ll “fetch” her books when asked as well.

On the way home from school today, Brandon asked, “Mommy, do you know what 2 plus 3 is?”  I asked him, “What is it?”  He answered, “5!”  He was so proud of himself.  Then he proceeded to tell me what “2 plus1″ and “2 plus 2″.  He told me, “I’m only telling you what I know.”  I asked him what “3 plus 2″ was.  He said, “Ah, thirty-two.”  At least he knows what 2 plus 3 is.

Brandon’s been having trouble again with his classroom dailies.  I asked the teacher to help me understand more what he does during class so that we can work with him at night.  She said that since the kids serve themselves food during lunch, Brandon tends to hoard food.  The teachers all know that he eats more and make sure to get him what he needs, but they are trying to teach Brandon to wait until others have had their share before getting seconds.  He did tell me the other day he got in trouble because he took the fruit bowl away from another child.  They said he loves milk, and while they won’t stop him from drinking it (they do limit the juice), he will fill his cup up right to the top.  Other kids don’t like it as much, so he essentially takes their share.  During circle time, he makes animal noises and is disruptive.  She did laugh though because she said the teacher leading circle time will stop and ask Brandon what it was that she just said.  Invariably, he will answer correctly, even while he was appearing to not pay attention.  She said he was a great “multi-tasker” in that respect.  I did mention that I’ve been telling him to pay attention so that he can learn a lot during circle time and that he needs to let his friends learn, too (since apparently he can talk and learn at the same time).  Dave said Brandon is the same way when they read.  He is fidgety, and looks around, away from the books, but can always tell Dave what is going on with the story when asked.  We just have to read him new books so he doesn’t already know what’s going on.  We keep reading the same old stories to him, and he’s memorized what has happened already.
Last week, after Brandon got his shots on Thursday, we went to the Farmer’s Market at my work to get a treat.  On Sunday, we went to another city Farmer’s market, and we saw the same cookies by the same bakery.  Brandon pointed to the cookies and said, “Hey Mommy, just like the cookies at Kaiser!”  The baker was there and overheard Brandon talking.  He answered and said, “Yes, you are right.  I was at Kaiser!”  I rushed away embarrassed.

Today, when I went to drop Peyton off at school, we entered the infant room portion of the infant/toddler area, which is separated by a sliding kitchen door.  She heard all the children in the other room, and when I set her down on the floor, she said, “Eh?” and looked toward closed door to the toddler area.  I told her I wasn’t ready to take her over there yet because I needed to put her sheets, bottles and food away.  While I was putting food away, the distant noise became louder.  Suddenly, I heard, “Hi.  (pause)  Hi.  (pause)  Hiiii.”  I peeked to see what was happening.  Peyton must have stuck her finger into the door and pushed it open.  The teachers were laughing, asking her if she got in there all by herself.  I told them that she must have, because the door was closed, and I had no part.  Koko told Dede, “Wow, she is saying, ‘Hi’ to us, and made such a grand entrance.”  She just wanted to say good morning to everyone in there.  Koko asked her for a hug, and she gave her the extended version, a “welcome back from the weekend” kind of hug.
Dave picked up Peyton early for her dental appointment.  Elyn, the director of the school, told him that Peyton was in the buggy.  Vahideh, the teacher, came up behind the buggy to whisper something in Elyn’s ear.  Immediately, Peyton said, “De-de.”  Elyn was amazed a Peyton’s supersonic hearing.  Peyton didn’t even see Vahideh, she just heard her voice.  She’s going to make a great eavesdropper some day (just like Mommy :)  )   Apparently, at the dentist, she gave the entire office her death stare.  She let the dentist look at her teeth, but according to Dave, she was very leery of the entire experience.  I can only imagine how she was.
Brandon has been learning to follow patterns at school; it’s usually with shapes, alternating squares, circles, squares, circles, etc.  Today, for dinner, Dave steamed some gaelan.  I wanted to make sure Brandon ate enough veggies, so I made him eat one gaelan first, then a ravioli, which he loves.  He ate one round, the said he was still hungry.  We handed him another gaelan, then he said, “And then I get another ravioli because that’s the pattern.”

Brandon got a toy for Christmas, which he calls his phone.  It is like a kiddie smart phone, in that it has a QWERTY keyboard, with a large screen and large buttons.  It is different than this laptop that he has, which has all the keys lined up alphabetically.  Today, he was sending a text to his friend, and spelled out his name.  He was so busy typing in the letters, then he handed it to me in the car.  On the screen was “A-L-E-S-S-A-N-D-R-O”.  Genius.  Not only can he spell his name, he can spell out his friend’s, too!  And that is a LONG name!  Pretty soon, he’ll be able to send texts faster than I can.

These take awhile for me to upload, so when I do them, they usually come in sets.
Here Brandon is showcasing his inner Idol, while Peyton thinks she can dance.

Here, both are eating Cheerios before picture day at Brandon’s school (to which Peyton was invited).

Peyton was hanging onto my leg while I was doing dishes after dinner.  Dave came up to her to ask her if she wanted to take a bath.  She quickly responded by walking toward him.  He backed up, so she had to keep walking.  He did this until he ran out of room in the kitchen.  He was fake crying when he picked her up, saying she’s growing up too fast.  She put her head down on his shoulder and started to pat it, in an attempt to comfort him.  Dave felt a little comforted by this, but what he didn’t see was the funny grin on her face while she was doing it.  She is already starting to torture him.

Dave came home late last night from a trip to WA; Brandon was already in bed, almost asleep, and Peyton was asleep.  He brought stuff for the kids, and gave it to them this morning.  Brandon got an airplane, from one of the big manufacturers there, and Peyton got a book from the “Goodnight” series.  She LOVED it.  As soon as she saw it this morning, she reached out to Dave and said, “Buh!  Buh!”  Dave read it to her while I was getting ready, and when I got out of the restroom, she gave me a good morning hug (she had been sleeping when I went in there to get ready), and thrust the book in my face and said, “Buh?”  I read it to her, too, and then got up to take her to school.  Life can resume as normal (my mom, who helped me out, left last night before Dave got home) until his next trip - to China in less than one month!

Today was Brandon’s four year old check up.  I couldn’t make it, so Dave was taking him solo.  When I left the house, he was still eating his breakfast.  I told him to be brave at his appointment, and that he would be getting some shots.  He started freaking out immediately.  I told him we’d do something special if he was brave.
I finished my meeting right at 10am, and called Dave.  He was in the injection room.  I passed by there, and didn’t see him.  I called again and he was actually in there in the process of injections.  I went into their room, and the nurse was drawing up the injections.  Normally, they are well-prepared and have all the shots lined up and ready to go.  It was Dave’s fault because initially, he told them to separate the doses and only give two today, and we’d come back for the other two later.  Midway through, after the first two were done (before I had gotten there), he changed his mind.  In this time, I had gotten there, and there was a delay.  Brandon was totally fine, then started freaking out.  He started thrashing around, and was fighting Dave.  The nurse came close to him with the first of the second round.  Dave was trying to get Brandon’s arm out of his sleeve.  It was a gut-wrenching, “No, Daddy, let go of me, pleeeeeze.”  The nurse was good and did her job swiftly, but not without plenty of protest from Brandon.  Finally, he was all done, and we went outside in the hall.  I gave him a big hug, and he slowly calmed down.  We saw Kathy, who tried to make Brandon feel better by giving him her duck favor that she had gotten from Julie.  It was filled with candy, which Brandon didn’t know at the time, but he did take it and rattled it a little bit trying to figure out what was inside.
Dave went to pick up his typhoid pills, and told me to go to our farmers’ market to get Brandon a treat.  We went down the row of cookies, and he got to pick one out.  He started eating it, and rubbed his tummy.  I asked him if he wanted to go visit Auntie Julie, but he said, “No, I think I want to stay down here.”  He just wasn’t in the mood to go visit with anyone.
I met up with Dave at the pharmacy.  He told me that Brandon’s blood pressure was a bit high, and that our doctor had to recheck it.  Initially, he told me the first blood pressure reading was 150 over something.  The recheck he said was 120.  I was a bit concerned because both seemed high to me.  Those are both higher than my blood pressure.  I had to wait to get back to the office to check the normals.  Dave then took Brandon to school.
Later, I looked up the blood pressure (the 120/52) which is stratified by age and then percentile in height.  The blood pressure was in the 95th percentile.  He said Brandon was squirmy, but I didn’t think that would account for it being 150!  Even the 120 was not a good score!  I quickly sent an email off to the doctor to clarify and get her thoughts.  I thought it might have something to do with all the school food he eats, as we no longer pack his food and have control over it.  He also eats probably twice as much of it as the next kid at school.
When Dave got home, I got even more of the scoop.  Turns out Brandon is a 4 year old stuck in a 5 year old’s body.  He is 43″ tall, and 42.3 pounds.  He grew 4″ in one year!  The doctor said he was above average in that he followed commands to put his clothes on (and could successfully do it), and that he was very verbal (which he always has been).  Dave said the school was concerned because he couldn’t catch a ball, but Dave wasn’t worried about his coordination because the kid can smack the heck out of a golf ball (Dave’s measure of athletic ability).  Apparently, the behavioral problem is no longer.  Although, I beg to differ on some occasions.  She had him run down the hall, and said everything was normal.  He then showed me the after visit summary.  On it was written the actual blood pressure.  102/52.  Nice, Dave, nice.  Apparently, Dave is not the numbers wizard I had made him out to be.  Waaay off.  So, now I look like a crazy because I emailed the doctor and was so concerned.  Dave also told me he asked Brandon why he didn’t share his cookie with him.  Brandon said, “Because you didn’t get shots today!”  Brandon was pretty upset by having to get shots.  He told me, “I don’t want to go to the hospital, not EVER.  I don’t want NO shots.  I don’t LIKE going to the doctor.”  I told him next time we go, we can just go visit Mommy’s friends.  He calmed down a bit, and said, “Yes, I can do that.  That’s okay.”  He’s all set until the next flu season, and then the PPD test before real school starts.

I receive email notifications on my credit card balance once I hit a certain threshold (I established this threshold myself; good thing for my smart phone  ).  Today, I noticed that my balance was significantly higher than it was yesterday, and I haven’t made any significant purchases.  I was told in the past not to log in at work, as they may keep track of our information, but I was too curious and worried.  Luckily I checked!  There were four charges - 2 at gas stations, 1 at a drug store, 1 at a grocery store - that I did not make!  I called the credit card company right away, and they are going to issue me a new card.  The scary thing was that the lady told me the transaction showed that the card was swiped.  As she was telling me this, I have the card in my hands now.  Also, at gas stations, you usually have to enter your zip code into the kiosk before it lets you pump.  There was a charge for $65 and another for $95.  I wonder what kind of a car they are getting gas for!  They are going to overnight me a new card, but I wonder who is doing this!