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Math of Ages

"Mommy, when Dylan is six, will I be four?"

"Yes, Andrea."

"And, when Dylan is seven, will I be five?"

"Yes, you will be."

"When Dylan is eight, will I be... six?"

"You will be, Andrea."

"Mommy, when Dylan is nine, will I be seven?"

And, when Dylan is ten, will I be eight?"

"You sure will be."

"When Dylan is twenty, will I be ten?"

"No. When Dylan is twenty, you will be eighteen, Andrea."

"When Dylan is one hundred, will I be seventeen?"

"No. When Dylan is one hundred, you will be ninety-eight."

So went the conversation when I was pushing Andrea on the swing this afternoon. I didn't think much of it at the time, but now that I think back on it, it is impressive to me. Granted, Andrea's math ability became constrained when she crossed the boundary of ten. However, she was either able to keep straight incrementing two sets of numbers. Or, she was able to subtract two from each number in her head. Either way, I'm impressed.

Both Dylan and Andrea are currently in the mode of challenging my addition skills and keeping me sharp. We often start simple, with something like "What's one plus one?" They then take the answer and add it to itself. Well, they ask me (or Geoff) to add it to itself. They don't seem to get bored with it, so I often find myself adding numbers in the thousands. In my head. While driving. Perhaps there should be a law against that.

Beer

Scene: Jewel grocery store on the Sunday afternoon before Memorial Day
Characters: Daddy and Andrea

Daddy: "Let's get some beer and then we're done."

Andrea: "Don't drink too much."

Daddy: "Ummmm, why not?"

Andrea: "You'll be sick."

Daddy: "Okay, should I just drink one, then?"

Andrea: "No, five."

Daddy: "Five?"

Andrea: "Five is okay."

Daddy: "Okay."

Daddy wonders with whom Andrea has been discussing drinking beer....

ttyl

Andrea is very interested in knowing how to spell various words. I often hear, "Mommy, how do you spell... (fill in the blank)?" More recently, she's turned it around to something such as "Mommy, what does c-a-t spell?" Earlier this week, the question Andrea asked me was, "Mommy, what does t-t-y-l spell?"

So any of you who are wondering whether kids these days are just inherently different than we were as kids, the answer is a resounding y-e-s (which spells yes)! I still have no idea where she got that letter combination from. It is not a phrase that I use, nor is it something that I have heard (or seen) Geoff use. However, it certainly is odd that Andrea picked that combination of letters from all 456,976 possible 4-letter permutations.

For those still wondering, t-t-y-l spells "talk-to-you-later."

Swim, Kick, Reach!

It is always interesting to me to see the videos that Oma takes of Dylan and Andrea swimming. Since I am still in the water with Andrea during swim lessons, the video allows me to see her swim from a different perspective. And I am constantly amazed. Dylan has made incredible progress in six weeks of private swim lessons. I put together a compilation of some of Oma's video taken last weekend. Note that there are no flotation devices on either kid!

Preschool Friends

Andrea is now in a pre-school class at school. She turns three later this month, and moved with four of her friends from the "Twos II" classroom to the "Pre-school I" classroom. For Dylan this was one of the harder transitions to make, since it means starting the day in a different room. For Andrea, it was the easiest!

This week, Dylan and Andrea started the day in the same classroom. They also ended the day in the same classroom. It was very rewarding to see how they enjoyed being together. I think that at both the start and end of the day, the two of them were no more than two feet apart. Dylan appeared to enjoy having his sister there, and Andrea seemed to appreciate having the comfort of her brother. I got stories that the two were apart at times, but still would look up to see where the other was. During each day they go to separate classrooms.

I am very reassured that Dylan and Andrea seem to be friends in addition to siblings.

Back on Track

I thank you for your patience during this delay. We are now back on schedule. I apologize for any inconvenience or undue distress this has caused. Grandparents and all you die-hard Dylan and Andrea fans, get your mouse ready to click and your cheek muscles ready to smile.

There are five new albums recently posted, covering the last three months of 2008 and Dylan's birthday in January 2009:

• A visit to Brookfield Zoo with Will in October
• October 2008, which includes Halloween
• November 2008, which includes Thanksgiving with Oma and Opa
• December 2008, which includes Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa and a post-Christmas visit from Tony
• Dylan's 5th Birthday

Toys Aren't Us

The return policy at Toys R Us makes me not want to shop there. Especially, not for a birthday present.

Dylan got a Power Rangers toy for his birthday that sat unopened for a couple of weeks. We decided to ask him if he'd rather return it and exchange it for a toy that he would enjoy more, and he actually agreed. That's when the "fun" began.

Of course, any gift receipts were long gone, since I never entertained the idea that he'd be willing to exchange a gift. I looked at Target, but they didn't sell the toy. I found the toy at Toys R Us, and tried to return ours. Unfortuantely, that's when I learned of their no tolerance return policy: no gift receipt, no credit card used for purchase, no return. No. No. No.

I have devised an elaborate scheme to return it, but just don't have the time to try implementation! Here's how it goes: (1) Buy Power Rangers toy, with cash. (2) Get gift receipt. (3) Get a friend and each return a Power Rangers toy simultaneously. (4) Be sure to do an exchange and not get store credit! (5) Hope that their computer systems aren't good enough to track returns done at two stores miles apart within minutes of each other! If only I had the time...

Anyone interested in a Power Rangers RPM Formula Wolf Transporter? I'll give you a good deal!

Stream of Consciousness

For the past week or so, Andrea is in a phase that I call "Stream of Consciousness." My guess is that her ability to speak words is catching up to her ability to think words. The result is that we get to see an unedited version of what is going on inside her head.

This can be good, and this can be bad.

Her teacher at school shared a story that was more on the bad end of the spectrum. Andrea wasn't waiting her turn for a toy, and it was explained to her that she needed to wait. Andrea verbalized what we all would think, which something like, "Well, I'm just going to say it was two minutes and take it back from her now."

On the good side of the spectrum, it allows me to understand what is motivating Andrea at any given moment in time. Instead of wondering why it is taking her twenty or thirty minutes to go to the bathroom, wash hands, and brush teeth, I get a running commentary on what is distracting her.

I know that this phase won't last long, so I'm going to try to take advantage of it any way I can.

Budding Scientist

Dylan shared with me that he wants to be a scientist when he grows up. He wants to do experiments. And he wants to write about them.

Yes, he wants to not only do science, but he wants to also share his findings with others.

Dylan is well on his way to his goals, as he wrote his first lab report last weekend. He did some experiments with his new science kit ("Mind Blowing Science"). Then, later that weekend, Dylan actually drew pictures to represent what had happened in the experiments.

Dylan was also creating a bar chart last week. He was polling his friends at school to pick a number. He then added a box to each bar to see which number was picked the most. He had some other complicated grid system that was designed to indicate how many friends he still had to ask. Unfortunately, I was there to pick him up and he didn't get to finish his master plan.

Four Years, 365 Days

For many, that means five years old. But not for Dylan. Since last year was a leap year, he has to wait one more day to turn five. Regardless, we celebrated his birthday today with a great party! We had a magician come who was great for the kids and parents alike, dinner of chicken nuggets, meatballs, and macaroni & cheese, a Wall-E cake, and a pinata this year. I think that I'd skip the pinata in the future unless I'm really coerced!

Tomorrow we'll open presents and celebrate at a more relaxed pace with just family. Happy 5th Birthday, Dylan!