Monster

Monster is our favorite family game and anybody can be it. This game ignites imaginations, expends energy, and wears us out. So funny to hear those breaths inhale sharply as heads slowly turn, gasping, Monster . . . come! I was watching a stupid, heavily edited horror flick on regular TV the other day during nap (yet another reason to nominate me Mother of the Year) and the boys joined me as they got up (reason #2). Yeah, sure, I thought, I really should turn this off, this can't be right. But somehow I couldn't rise from the couch. During every commercial, gleeful protests of More Monster, please! were heard. Anyway, this is the great part of having three three-year old boys. There's always enough to play a whopping game of monster. Clearly in these pictures (night pics in my house are hard, so excuse blurredness), Tsega is Igor with a hunchback and Sira and Bereket are some kind of wicked shirt monsters.

Weird and Ghastly!


Slimy and Oozing!


Fantastically Freaky!



Wild and Abhorrent!

Through the Zoo

Watching






Crying


Styling



Resting



Crawling and growling


Wrestling


Strolling, sort of



Stalking


Getting left behind (click to see spot in the horizon . . . Sira does this a lot)


Running in circles

Look Ma, No Strings

I've got no strings
To hold me down
To make me fret, or make me frown
I had strings
But now I'm free
There are no strings on me
Hi-ho the me-ri-o
That's the only way to go
I want the world to know
Nothing ever worries me
Hi-ho the me-ri-o
I'm as happy as can be
I want the world to know
Nothing ever worries me
-Pinocchio

Everyday, many times a day, for at least the last year I think, although frequency has grown, Tsega starts scurrying around the house in search of socks and shoes (the socks are as necessary as the shoes). If he wants shoes, I know what's coming. He needs to dance! If he's wearing pants, I assist in rolling the legs up as high as they'll go, or we get him into a pair of short shorts. Now, costume complete, he's ready for his Big Number: I got no Strings, from Pinocchio. Lately we've been dancing with video because I was curious how closely he follows the choreography. And he's sticking as closely as he can with Pinocchio's movements, falling down at all the right times and everything. It's not like he ever asks to watch this rather dark but musically-rich movie (Geppetto could really use some lessons in attachment parenting, BTW), he just wants to sing and dance so we watch the musical numbers feature. A whole lot.

Oh, here come the eye rolls. Here's the my-kid-is-so-cute-and-talented post. A post only a mother could love. Gag. But he is talented, my darlings; dancer, singer, actor. No lie. So last night I finally captured a savory piece on video and of course, had to give my baby an audience. An appreciative one, we hope :). It's long, shaky (especially when Sira jumped on my back), with noisy background, and times when Pinocchio is idle, but there are seconds of adorable and amazing turns. So focused he keeps going when Bereket throws toys on the floor. The show must go on!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

More, you want more, more peese? An encore performance this morning! This time I tried to capture the TV and T in one shot so you can see matching dancers, even both scratching their one leg with the other at same time. Ahhh, the cuteness of toddlers and their annoying blogging mothers. Bravo.

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Angel B

Time for the identical pair to switch it up again. Trading toys morphed into trading personalities, it seems. Sira is trading a little piece of his angel in for a hunk of Bereket's naughty.



Bereket . . . well, maybe I haven't mentioned this before, but everybody kept telling me about the onery spirit twinkling in his eyes; and they weren't wrong. In fact, I had to keep reminding a few not to speak of him in this way within ear shot. You know what they say, kids hear all bad criticism and soak up less of the good. He wasn't all that really, but this crazy laugh, toothy grin, and way he had of saying, Bu-by-eeee (say it with music and extreme exaggeration, as if mocking your school teacher) just after he pushed Sira to the ground for the nth time, well, it was becoming disconcerting. I don't expect a whole lot of empathy from a three year old boy, but still. Not to mention it seemed he looked to Sira really too much for pattering and direction, instead of like, maybe . . . me? or Jerry? Meanwhile, Sira was angelic and sweet and ever-pestered by his adoring Bear-duh-ke-tuh, as we lovingly call him (said with exaggerated tongue roll).



I'm not sure what happened, but Sira's eyes are starting to look at me sideways more often, he's full of no, and I swear he's swaggering. Get this, at bedtime he puckers up for a kiss and as soon as he gets it, he tells me, Go! At the same time Bereket's hugs and kisses went on overdrive (so I can't go yet, Sira, I have about 20 more kisses to dole out, or 40 with Tsega here too); his eyes softened, I found him curled in my lap more, less defiance, more helping. I'm liking this bigger and sweeter Bereket.

It's not like I didn't see the angel inside him before, I mean he even walked like one:

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Sira is once again more drawn to daddy these days. I can tell with preschool and all, change is big on his (well, all of their) horizon. His inner world is saturated and I love seeing all the different dimensions taking shape as all my boys grow up.

Sidenote for an ending: Tsega, apparently, hates firemen (sorry for the sexist term). Do not mention them or he will go all irate and keep on insisting, No firemen!

Spoookey

Every Halloween I hunger fear. Faux fear, that is. I delight in haunted horror and eerie dread and need to get scared. One can't get too scary with three year olds and by the time they go to bed, I'm too tired for horror. But this Halloween left me giddy with fright. I'm one of those that prod my little ones into festivities, like pointing out all the creepy spiders and ghouly death faces haunting our downtown neighborhood while making shivery ooooooh, ewwwwww, and woooooo noises. Nice, mom.


Let me back up. So it's Halloween night and the boys' first-ever tricks and treats outing. They napped late and by the time they were up and in costume, darkness began, thus the sucky pictures. Giddy, we were all just giddy with excitement. And shit, but the cuteness, whoa!, I could not get over it. Cow, mouse, and clown.





We planned on driving out to some neighborhood since country living does not afford things like this, much to my liking. And totally by accident, we stumbled through Halloween Central; the Historic District downtown went ALL OUT. Kids - everywhere. Noises, lights, decorations - overwhelmingly, horrificly amazing. Frightening and fun fun fun.

OK, they're three, scary isn't really a good idea yet, I know. Tsega started out and stayed cautious, always trailing behind with Grandma. Bereket had the misfortune of being with me, the one making all the scary noises, so after about 20 minutes fear began settling in. Well, it was also the oversized death masks that did it (much scarier than a normal-sized death face, if you ask me). But he still timidly waddled up to doors and held his bag open for candy. Let me interrupt to say they made me proud because they were all so good about leaving the candy in the bag and not foraging through it until we were done. Sira had ever-positive daddy to help so he by far was the happiest tricker-treater. Big smile, bag wide open, he was having a blast. Damn, they were sooooo cute! Back in the car, all smiles and laughter, fear gone, chocolate running down chins onto costumes. Now a great Halloween memory.