Halloween frights of fancy

Apparently when you’re a child you don’t need Halloween to actually occur in order to get in the spirit of things. This month our children seem to have been partaking in both ends of the Halloween spectrum. For Oliver this means that he’s absolutely reveling in the dress up aspect of this holiday. After years of experience as a mother of children at Halloween (it only takes 1), I quickly learned to get a jump start on procuring Halloween costumes lest, God forbid, the coveted character become sold out. (I know people are starving in Africa, but this really can be a disaster of Biblical proportion, if you’re a toddler.) Ergo, seasoned mother that I am, the costumes arrived in early September. Solvi had no interest in her absolutely adorable butterfly costume. Unfortunately Oliver LOVED his T-Rex. I say unfortunately because, despite the fact that it was “size 4”, it was way too small. As you can imagine, my telling him that we had to remove “Rexy” rather than pry it onto his head, and no we could play with it ether, did not go over well with Olie. In fact Oliver’s response was an Oscar worthy performance in melodrama, a tour de force of guilt tripping, and gut wrenching masterpiece in manipulation. “NNOOOOOO,” he cried! “You can’t take Rexy away. Rexy is my only friend! And I don’t have ANY friends since we moved to BOSTON!. I miss my New York friends!!!!” I felt so terrible. Luckily, Olie placated himself by donning Solvi’s costume, which he proceeded to wear all evening, even when we went to Randal and Erik’s for dinner. Even if the costume only came to his elbows and knees, he really did make a cute butterfly. Best yet he found he could get away with murder. It really is hard to stay mad at a child with antenae.

So finally the replacement costume arrives. It’s Aladar an Inguonadon character from a Disney movie that Olie loves. Luckily this costume, size 4-6, fits - just. Olie just loves it. He’s basically been wearing it none stop and sleeping with at night.


Solvi, on the other hand has been experiencing the other side of Halloween - fear of masks. Except, poor dear, she isn’t just afraid of masks, she is scared of anything that covers part of the face. This include eye patches, stickers, and even hats. A couple weeks ago I innocently placed a hat on her doll and placed it in her crib while she was asleep. Moments later I heard her absolutely screaming for me. I burst into the room to find her cowering in the corner of her crib, saying, “no hat. no hat!” For several hours afterward she would occasionally relive the trauma shaking her head and saying, “no hat!” Now that the weather is getting colder, she’s having trouble socializing on the playground. “No hat!” she’ll cry at other children’s advances. Oh Dear....

Luckily Solvi is not scared of herself in hats. Actually she rather likes to admire herself in them. Go figure...

It's a Girl!

Despite the fact that Solvi, through Oliver, has been programmed to, and in fact does, like trucks and dinosaurs, turns out she is, after all, a girl. This fact has been becoming more self evident in her growing obsession with shoes. Throughout the day she frequently changes her own shoes and dons everybody else’s in the family, all the while exclaiming, “shoes, shoes,” until they are strewn all around the house. But the shoe fetish was not the real clincher. No, the real tip off was babies.

About a month ago while we were unpacking, Solvi found Oliver’s old eponymous baby doll, Olivia. Having never shown much interest in his namesake, Oliver generously passed Olivia on to a more receptive, responsive owner, which Solvi certainly is. Olivia is now regularly carried, fed and tucked into bed. She receives frequent hugs, which Solvi always serves up with either an “Ahhhhh,” or a “Huggy, huggy.” Olivia’s “boo, boos” are soothed and her body is dried after bath. She is in short very happy with her new mom.

Solvi’s love of babies does not end at plastic dolls though. REAL babies are likewise met with much enthusiasm. And incidentally the term “baby” applies to all people under the age of 18. The other day she adopted an 13 month old at the library. “Come baby,” she would say while beaconing with her hand.

Pictures off babies are also popular. And Solvi is quick to note how baby is feeling. A crying baby evokes, “saad baby.” While smiling babes get, “Happy Baby.” This last is my favorite because it comes out, “Hah pee bee bee.” With each, Solvi makes correspondingly appropriate sad or happy faces.

What is also obvious from all this is that Solvi’s communication skills have continued to advance. One of my recent favorites occurred after Olie bopped her on the head. Running to me with appropriately dismayed, scrunched up face she moaned, “Oh, Mama, sad baby!”

Hands down Solvi’s most used phrase is, “I want.... [fill in the blank].” This actually comes out “I wahhh.....” “I wahh baby. I waah a go. I whaa snacK. I wahhh booK. I wahhh waalK. And no, the capital “K” is not a typo. Recently after my last post, Solvi started adding emphatic “K”s to any word ending in this letter: “duc-K, roc-K, for-K, soc-K,” etc.

Solvi has also mastered feeding herself with a fork or spoon as well as dabbing her mouth with a napkin when she’s finished. In fact she’s quite the Miss Manners. The other night while out to dinner she noticed that Chad, once finished with his meal, had laid his fork across his plate. A quick study, Solvi did the same.

And for the final bit of bragging, Solvi has started recognizing her colors (!)... and on the dancing front, Solvi continues to make her Mama proud (and, by his own admission, is already putting Daddy’s dancing skills to shame.)

[Tune in in the next fews days for more Olie antics too...]