Keeping up with the Rosses

Just need to note a few things, for posterity.

Asher is learning his colors, fast. Just last week, everything was “puhpull.” Now, he’s added “ink” and “bwu,” correctly, to his repertoire. He also says many other colors- “yehyoh,” “gween,” “ahnge,” though he’s still working on connecting those colors to their name. The incoherence of his speech is hilarious… and gradually dissipating into coherence. Either that, or my translation is just improving!

Isla again wanted to play “mommy” tonight with Asher as her child. I stayed out of it as much as possible, as I’ve learned that by observing, I’m usually rewarded with insight into the oftentimes indiscernible mind space of my children. Isla spoke so sweetly to her child, “Olah.” She gave an indepth, shockingly accurate account of the daddy’s deployment. She told Olah how much she loved him and enjoyed this opportunity to take care of him all by herself. She introduced him to his daddy doll, and added that she knew he wanted a mommy doll, too, but since his mommy was staying right here with him, he wouldn’t need a mommy doll at this time. I was seriously fighting back tears. I’m sooooo grateful for this unsolicited boost from my 3 yr old!

Of course, later in the game she mentioned to Olah that she would wake up first in the morning. Then she’d come in his room and say, “Time to wake up, Lazy Bones!” I had to interject, so I asked where she heard that. “Oh, that’s just an expression.” That child.

On the flip side, but just to keep my feet on the ground, I should record this gem of a story. We ventured out to eat tonight for the first time since Elliot left. We were joined by my friend, whose spouse is also deployed, and her 3 children. Safety in numbers, goes my thinking. Dinner went off fairly well. The usual kid/table manners battles, but nothing too appalling. As we were leaving the restaurant, Asher bolted for the street. Said street was less than 5 yards from the door of the restaurant, with barely any barrier-type thing between that door and the very busy street. I practically catapulted over 3 girls to run after him. I no sooner caught him, when Isla bolts the opposite direction into equally unsafe terrain, and she’s much faster than Asher. Yelling “Isla, stop!” in the most earnest, frightened tone I could muster (no acting required!) resulted in her pausing to catch my eye, giggle, then continue on her course, just a few feet now from a busy street. I knew it would only further provoke her, but I had no choice except to chase her, now with 35ish pound Asher in tow. I caught her, grabbing her arm too tightly. She started wailing, like really loudly, “You’re damaging me! Why would a mother damage her child?! Bad momma!! I want a new momma!!” Seriously?! Damage?! Where does she get her vocabulary? I’ve never heard her use this word before, and in true to Isla form, she gets it spot on, first try. Sometimes I wonder how long she’s been thinking about a word before she lets it out, with perfect connotation and annunciation. Anyway! With my friend’s help, I managed to wrangle Isla and Asher to our car. Once they were safely buckled, I buckled. Scary! Asher’s dash didn’t surprise me, but Isla’s most certainly did, especially that I couldn’t stop her with my “serious” voice. Time to rewind to a more vigilant, child-may-engage-in-life-threatening-behavior-at-any-moment state of mind. And perhaps it might be awhile before we attempt going out to eat again.