Mudonna!

Augie and Vi took their parents and grandparents to the open house at the St. Paul Saints sports training facility today. Wow, it's a huge and fantastic place, dreamed and created by our friend Lamarr. There were footballs and soccer balls and tee balls and tennis balls, and Augie played with all of them. Vi was having a good time kicking the ball with the soccer coach (who plays for the Thunder) until he actually said "Hi." Oops, meltdown. He didn't give up, though, and eventually they got a nice little game going--as long as he kept his distance and Mommy stayed close.

What a difference when Mudonna showed up. Instant love! They played peekaboo and catch, and before long Vi climbed into her lap. Augie ran around the whole place picking up soccer balls and bringing them to the big pink pig as gifts. The kids are always excited to see Mud at the ballpark, but they've never had this much up-close-and-personal time. Whoever was in the suit today did a great job with them. (Mudonna is played by different people, who have different schtick. In summer 2008, Mudonna would do a great big sneeze, which cracked Augie up. Never happened in '09, but for most of the summer he still said "Achoo!" when he saw the mascot or a picture of her.)

Story time

We've been in a reading mood this week. Augie was always a book-lover (he was 10 mos in this photo with Pa). Vi preferred looking at pictures, upside-down, but now she too picks out stories, listens all the way through, and says "Again?" (Not really a question.) Today we read Elmo Loves You four times in a row, an alphabet verse book three times, and lots of others.

Much of the time Pa/Peter and I are both reading aloud, simultaneously, each to a different kid. These dueling narratives used to make me crazy, because (a) he has a booming delivery and (b) words coming in through my ears trump words I'm trying to read. But we have managed to accommodate one another, and it's all become much more enjoyable. (I had suggested that we could read in separate rooms, but it's more fun being together in the living room, which allows the kids to trade off, bringing one book to me and the next to Pa.)

Many of Vi's new favorites were well loved by Augie and still resonate. So Augie and I might be deep into Arthur's Birthday or Tootle, but, if Pa starts reading Goodnight Moon, Augie will look up and tune in to that. I just pause until he turns back to our pages.

But we're entering a new phase: increasingly, there are books that both kids want to hear at the same time. We'll all snuggle together and read I'm a Little Teapot (the world adventures version) or nursery rhymes or But Not the Hippopotamus. I suspect Vi will come to love Max with his Wild Things and Alexander with his terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day. And over time, we'll find ourselves introducing new stories to both kids at once.

When Vi turned 15 months, Augie was twice her age. But with each month that goes by, the difference shrinks a little, and in many ways--reading being one of them--that will add to the fun.

I'm just not a morning person

Every fall when we go off Daylight Savings Time, I resolve that instead of taking the extra hour of sleep, I'll keep getting up at the "old" time. I'll get an earlier start on the day, and it should be painless, right? But to make it work, I'd need to go to bed on the old time, too, and I just never do. I'm a night person. I like the quiet hour or so after the news, and after my husband goes to bed, to just read or play computer games. I do get up more cheerfully than ever before when the kids are coming, even when they come extra-early. And my office hours include only one morning a week. So maybe I'll just let go of that whole resolution thing here and now. There, I feel better already.