Two for Two (for Two)!

Last night's word:  ZOO.

And Matt used the potty again!

The Dog and Powweee Show

So Danny read a word last night - DOG.  It was pretty exciting.  He pointed at a picture of a bag of dog food in a book that said "DOG" on it and he said, "That's what dogs eat," while pointing at the word dog.  I stopped and said, "Wait, did you just read that?"  There was some uncertainty, so we kept reading and the next time the word "dog" appeared in the book, I pointed at it and asked what that word was, and he quickly said "dog."

Awesome!

Then, Matty asked to use the potty.  I'm not kidding.  He said, "POWWWEEE" and then peed on the potty.

And then I fainted from joy.

It was a fluke, for sure, but still - STILL!!!

The Children's Book Danny Wrote Last Night

This summer has been important in lots of ways.  Dave's been off since May - we always planned that he would take May and June to let me really focus on my work - but the extra three months has kicked my work into overdrive.  It's also allowed him to settle into a groove with the kids, and I know he'll always look back on this time with a lot of fondness and tenderness (as hard as it can be to watch two maniacs all day.)

But since I try to be home for lunch and dinner every day, I've been taking work meetings at night, usually at 8pm.  "Drinks" in Hollywood is a big thing - this town has a weird socialization/networking thing that is kind of awful in some ways - schmoozy and phony at times - but if you just relax into it, you're basically enjoying the company of a friend while talking about working together in the future.  And since a few of my colleagues from USC are really beginning to make it, it gets more fun all the time.  Like when Ken Segna, my longtime producing partner and now Executive at Starz, says "So, Mare, just bring me anything you have," and he really has the power to greenlight a project.

The downside of all of this is that I'm leaving once or twice a week at 7:40 or so, which is hard.  Matty's usually asleep, but Danny's still in his death-flailing before sleep.  And last night, as I got ready to go meet Emily and Maya, our editor for the Baltimore documentary, he and I had this exchange that could have been lifted from a children's book:

Mommy:  "OK sweetie, I have to go, but I'll see you in the morning, OK?  Good night."

Danny:  "I want to come with you."

Mommy:  "Oh, honey, I'm sorry.  I wish you could but you can't - this place is for big people."

Danny:  "I am big.  I'm a very big boy."

Mommy:  "Yes, that's true:  you are a big boy, but this place is for old people, people so old they have a license to drive cars."

Danny:  "I can drive a car.  Come on, I'll show you.  Let's go."

Mommy:  "Oh honey, I shouldn't have said that, that's not what I mean.  I mean you have to be big, a tall person like Mommy or Daddy."

Danny:  "I am tall!  Come on, let's walk - we'll walk - we'll walk there together, and my shadow will be as tall as you."

Mommy (to self):  "This is scary."

Danny:  "Or, you can carry me and I'll be as tall as you."

Mommy:  "Danny, holy cow, what I mean is you have to be an adult, an adult like Mommy and Danny.  Besides you just can't come.  It's just for girls!  Gah!  I'm sorry!  I love you!"

Daddy:  "Just get out of here before you make it worse."

And then...

Just when you're in the doldrums about a house full of tired, cranky people and wondering if moving them in together was a mistake...

Danny helped Matt down the stairs by holding his hand, exclaiming:  "That's very nice of us!!  We did it!!"

The Artiste

Check out Danny's new work, totally self-directed.

Oh, Transitions.

So some of you may know that we moved Matt out of the closet and into Danny's room.  We did it about two weeks ago, shortly after this exchange while the kids were climbing on the couch to watch their morning TV show:

Mary (kidding, mostly):  Oh, Matt, I'm so sorry - if your IQ is low when you grow up because I let you watch TV before two, you can blame it on me.

David (deadly serious):  Yeah, along those lines, I think we need to move Matty out of the closet.  I think it's psychologically damaging him.

(pause)

Mary:  Well, OK then!

So, we took the plunge and moved them in together.  I was really reluctant.  I wasn't convinced Matt had any issues in the closet - he seemed to be happy as a clam in there, jabbering away in the morning with the books and toys we left in his crib.  And frankly, after what feels like two straight years of no sleep and one transition after another - from big boy bed, to new sibling, to potty training, to traveling, to preschool...I was enjoying the two seconds of calm.

However, mental health is important (as is access to the grill).

The verdict?  It's been a mixed bag.  At first Danny seemed to really dig it, and instead of opening the door in the morning and running to our room right away, he would open the door, hear Matt wake up, and turn around and chat with Matt for a bit:  "Hey Matty!  Do you want me to get Mommy and Daddy?  OK!...MOMMY AND DADDY!!!!  Matty needs you!!!!"  (Matt would "chat" back by just crying.)

But now, however, the bloom is off the rose and they both just seem tired.  All the time.  Matty's going to bed easily and happily, just how he did before.  But Danny wants to yuck it up in his room like he used to, and he can't anymore.  So we have to exhaust him in the main room - which means we're up with him often until 9:30pm.  In the past, we'd just close the door and let him work it out.  But he knows quite well that if he starts getting loud and saying "I'm not TIRED!!!" that we get nervous that Matt's going to wake up, and we'll bring him out and read another story.   

Then, you have the middle-of-the-night wakings, where both are getting up.  Not always, but about 3 times a week we're up for a good hour with both of them.  It's just like having a newborn again - complete with horrible bags under the eyes and mild dementia!!

Lastly, there is this weird phenomenon with kids that the less they sleep, the less they sleep - i.e., if they're not going to bed on time, they tend to wake up EARLIER, not sleep in like all other sane human beings.  So since he's been going to bed about an hour to two hours later than usual, he's waking up before 6:30 every morning.  And before, we could get a half hour of just quiet time with Danny and Matt would snooze away blissfully unaware, now both of them are up, and the party starts early every day.

I know this won't last forever, and soon enough they will be teenagers who will need a grenade to explode next to their head to wake up.  But it's still challenging.

This morning started at 6:18am.  We made our smoothies, counted the money in Danny's piggy bank (I was clearly delirious), then we turned on the Django Reinhardt and ate some bread with Nutella.  I should have taken a video, so you could hear Matty scream out "AGAIN!" at the end of the song.  He loves the music.

Speaking of Matty, he had his 17 month checkup yesterday and he's caught up to his brother in height.  In fact, he was in the 85% percentile (which means taller than 85% of kids his age, not he's 85% of where he should be).  I think up until now all of his growth had been going into his enormous noggin.  This last time, his head stopped growing and he shot up like 3 inches.*

*Mom, you can officially make fun of me now.