"I Did It!"

Helios' first word was, we think, "Dada." Almost indistinct from normal baby gurgling and syllabic stuttering, this was the sound he made most often. It covered the full range of emotions from "I want that sharp knife out of the dishwasher" to the more predictable "pick me up, big guy, and carry me around on your shoulders!" After a while, it became very specific to Daddy where he'd gesture and caterwaul when he wanted something or someone else, but saying "Dada" when that's who he wanted.

Hesperos has been a little more varied in his speaking, learning to say both "Mama" and "Dada" at the same time and interchangeably. But he doesn't really use them often enough or with any consistency for us to really consider them words so much as nonsense talk. So, when we finally heard his "first words", it came to us with startling clarity.

"I did it! I did it!"

Recently, Hesperos learned (to our dismay) to climb up the stairs, which he does with irrepressible glee generally when we're looking the other way. Then, he gets to the top landing, sits, stares down in a lordly fashion, waves his fist, and yells, "I did it, I did it!"

Now that he's finally interested in walking, Hesperos will creep across the wall. When he comes to the end, he'll turn his sparkling blue eyes toward some adult to look for praise, and gurgle, "I did it! I did it!"

Most amusing (and perhaps most characteristic of the dynamics of their brotherly relationship), Hesperos recently sat behind Helios while Helios was concentrating deeply on his trains. Helios lurched away for mere moments, giving Hesperos the opportunity he needed. With lightening fast movements that belie his pudgy size, Hesperos lunged in behind Helios, grabbed the treasured Murdoch, and promptly shoved it in his mouth, as though to hide it (or at least disgust Helios with enough drool that perhaps he wouldn't want it back).

And what words did Hesperos chew out around a steel toy train that was amassing drool in every gear and rotor?

That's right.

"I did it, I did it!"

A Bubbly Birthday

In a much-anticipated event that captured the mind, heart, soul, and attention of an almost-three-year-old for weeks, Helios finally officially celebrated his third birthday with a little pomp, a tiny bit of circumstance, but mainly with bubbles and cupcakes.

The themed party was kicked off early on with invitations made of bubble wrap and dye-punched circles, helpfully pasted on by Helios himself, and enhanced with a bubble wand on the inside flap. Each invitation also came complete with a little dusting of glitter for no real bubbly purpose except that it elicited a little sadistic smirk from Mommy when she thought of people opening the invitations to have glitter on their hands and clothes.


On "Birthday Party Eve," Helios indulged with gifts from Daddy Jane, Grandpa Mel, and Uncle Scooter, including two new friends from the Thomas the Tank Engine line and a new set of Geotrax, which accommodates fire trucks, trains, and police cars. Understandably, we were all pleased that Helios received another track set. From Helios' perspective, more is always better and nothing sets a little boy's heart atwitter more than having a track that accommodates multiple vehicle types. From the parents' perspective, we're happy because now we have the ability to have one fully functional train in every central room of the house (excluding bedrooms and bathrooms). It's every homeowner's dream fulfilled!

The actual birthday party day dawned bright and early, with much hubbub. Helios had previously seen the box that contained his gift from Mommy and Daddy, a two-seater Red Flyer wagon, so his excitement was uncontainable. Then, when he saw the cupcakes upon which he would later feast, his excitement grew.





The party was held at the local YMCA, where the cost to host the party away from home was well worth the paltry sum we paid. The Y provided a mini trampoline, climbing ropes, a parachute, balls, foam ramps, mats and pads, and balloons. Mommy and Daddy provided bubbles, punch balls, snacks, sugar, and toddler music on the CD player. The children ran around like little joyful screeching sprites. Apparently one of party's highlights was when the children ganged up on Uncle Elmo. By using their combined weight of about 250 lbs (which represents about 8 children), they were able to wrestle him down where they pummelled him with balloons and punch balls, making Mommy regretful that she'd never had that opportunity when she grew up with him. Meanwhile, Helios capered around the mats with one of his preschool friends, cheerfully oblivious to the padded violence occurring around them.



The lesson we took from this is that the adults should get party favor bags, too -- preferably filled with ear plugs and aspirin, and maybe some Bengay for those on the upper edge of parenthood. Maybe next time.

Happy Birthday was performed (a song that Helios had been practicing for weeks previous) and then the birthday cupcakes came which, although pretty, appear to have been a challenge for Helios to eat. Afterward, Helios opened his gifts to much ooh-ing and aah-ing, puncutated by the occasional, "WOW!"

Afterward, we pulled out the bubble-making machine which was the arguable highlight of the event ... at least for Hesperos who did his best to catch the soap bubbles that might've been as large as he. Whenever he touched one, it would, predictably, pop, making him chortle with glee.

Then, there was a little more sugar-induced frenzy before going home, where Mommy and Daddy put the kids down for naps before crashing. We breathed a huge sigh of relief, thinking, "yes, now we're finally done and can relax," before it hit us...

Now we need to get ready for Christmas.

Little Prayers

Normally, when we go to church, we find it easier to take the boys into the parent's/children's room where we can listen to the sermon while Helios reads a book or plays with a train and Hesperos drools and gurgles half syllables. But, recognizing that Helios is now three and should be able to compose himself appropriately as well as learn the liturgy and how to pray, we've started taking the children out of the "safe room" and into the pews with the adults unhampered by toys, blankets, and snacks.

While almost everything is equally interesting and chew-worthy to Hesperos, Helios is old enough to start appreciating the finer things of church attendance. If you were to take a moment to imagine yourself as a three-year-old, you'd know right away what these are: putting the envelope into the basket, yelling out "AMEN!", and fixing your hair with holy water. (Mommy knows that her hair always looks best when blessed.)

Helios has also taken a liking to kneeling and praying. Lest anyone too quickly assume that our son has a spiritual bent, consider that when kneeling he has the opportunity to move around and play with the kneelers, and when praying, he finally has the chance to talk without being reprimanded. And Helios loves to talk. In fact, Helios does in church what Mommy does during movies ... providing a running commentary about everything. Except whereas Mommy at least has the discretion to mutter sotto voce to her movie-going companions, Helios prefers to share his observations loudly with perfect timing the comments that you'd rather others not hear, like how the priest is bald or that the Jesus on the wall "is not moving, Mommy. Go wake him up and tell him to stop sleeping on the wall!"

But Helios is capable of prayerful solemnity at times. As some readers may know, one of the boys' grandfather's has been afflicted for many years with multiple sclerosis. Their other grandfather was recently diagnosed with cancer. So, every night and whenever we go to church, Helios includes his grandfathers in his prayers asking for their improved health.

Helios' prayer at church this past week was especially earnest and spoken without prompting or reminders from his parents. "God bless Grandpa Mel and God bless Grandpa Wil and make them get better soon so they won't have to take yucky medicine. And God bless Aunt Tiffany's kitty-cats. And God bless my big red wagon. It's a big red wagon and goes really fast! God bless my big red fast wagon...and my trains!"

Every little boy needs to have his priorities!

No, It's Not Really Helios and Hesperos

Every once in a while I have someone who is just now turning their dial to 99.9 Baby Blog FM and, after reading a few posts, invariably e-mails something like this:

"What do Helios and Hesperos mean?" (curiosity thinly veiling their abject horror that my children are named something so dreadful)

"You named your kids what?!?!" (not so thinly veiled disbelief)

"So, are those family names?" (polite inquiry, often also coupled with a question like "are they Spanish/Latin names"?)

Rest assured, faithful reader or random passer-by, Helios and Hesperos are not their real names. This was mentioned in the very first blog post, but there's no reason for you to have read that.

In fact, almost no one's name is real. Helios and Hesperos have Greek significance: Helios was the god of sun and Hesperos was the brightest star in the heavens. For everyone else quasi-named here, the names have no such lofty intent. Pseudonyms simply have the same gender affiliation and number of characters as the person's real name.

The only real names here are Mommy and Daddy. :)

We Are George and Hazel Bergeron

(Advance notice: The pictures have no bearing on this post. It's simply an opportunity to gratuitiously post more photos. The picture of Helios and Daddy is from October 2006 and the one of Hesperos is from February 2007.)


The short story, Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut, tells of a time in 2081 when government-enforced egaliatarianism is so over-reaching that it has created a dystopia. George and Hazel Bergeron are a couple (parents of Harrison Bergeron) who have extremely short bursts of thought and possess a limited attention span. Hazel's are short because her level of intelligence is such that she can only carry on internal thought processes for a period of time. George's are short because (in order to make him of equal capacity with the societal average), bells ring loudly in his head every 30 seconds or so, thereby disrupting his thought processes.

What possible bearing does this story have on the children's blog?

Imagine that George Bergeron's bells are the voices of the children, sitting in the backseat of the car. Now, read the dialogue below. This is Daddy and Mommy trying to have just an ordinary conversation on any given day.

Daddy: What would (one fish two fish) you like to do about (Daddy, make the radio louder!) dinner (louder, Daddy, louder!) tonight?

Mommy: I'm not (la la la pffffffffht wwaaaaaaah la la la splutter) sure. It's getting late so we could (music playing) stop some place (head, shoulders, knees, and toes, knees, and toes!) on the (no, Hesperos, only *I* sing head, shoulders, knees, and toes) way home (pffffffffht splutter raspberry sounds) if the wait isn't (NO, HESPEROS, ONLY I SING IT!) long (giggle). Or we could go (This is the song, la la la la, Elmo's song) grocery shopping (la la la la, la la la la, Elmo's song) and I could cook (LA LA LA, LA LA LA, LAAAAA LAH) but we'd need to get the boys something before then (make the radio louder, Daddy!).

Helios, say please! (Please, Daddy, make the radio louder.)

Daddy: If we go (thank you, Daddy) out to eat, where (giggle pffffffffht piercing scream) would you want to go?

Mommy: Helios, don't take toys away from your baby brother. Uh, I'm not sure, (WAAAAAAAAAAAAH) uhm. We could go to...uhm (whimper whine). I'm sorry (Mommy, he was eating my toy!), what was the question?

Daddy: Where (in the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room, in the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room) would you want to eat?

Mommy: Well, there's (all the birds sing words and the flowers croon) that pizza place off McKenzie and 12th, (in the Tiki TIki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room) or we could go to the new restaurant a few miles to the other side (again, Mommy, again! I want Tiki Room again!!) of the -- okay, Helios, say please -- highway. (Please, Mommy) Or we could go to the pizza place off McKenzie and 12th.

Daddy: So you want pizza?

Mommy: (Pizza, I want pizza, I want yummy yummy cheese pizza!) I don't care, do you?

Daddy: Well, you named (Mommy, I want pizza for dinner! I'm sooooo hungry!) the pizza place twice so I figured you wanted (Hesperos wants pizza for dinner, too, Mommy!) pizza.

Mommy: Oh, did I? I don't (I want cheese pizza and broccoli...) remember. What (rar rar la la pffffht rar rar) were we talking about (...and fruit and canteloupe and strawberries...)?

Daddy: Where we want (...and pizza and Mommy's special cheesy biscuits and chocolate!) to go to eat.

Mommy: I don't care, whatever is easiest. Sure, pizza is fine. (YAAAAAAAAY! PIZZA!) (giggle pfffffhhhhht)


If that hurt to read, imagine what it was like to experience.