So in the million years since I’ve written about them, here’s what the kids have been doing:
Andrew tried riding his bike without training wheels. We went out to the park and I held him by the saddle and pushed a little while he leaned left and right and said “whoooooa!” a lot. He took one good fall but got back on, but I think he was glad to have the outriggers back on for the ride home. So was my back.
He’s also getting really good at writing his name – today was the first time I saw him write it with the letters more-or-less the same size and in a straight line. They’ve been working on this consistently at pre-school and he’s pretty much 100% with getting the “N” going the right way now.
In terms of toddler cuteness, Maggie is peaking right about now. Soon she’ll be a raging two-year-old; the other day she was just practicing saying “no” to me over and over again for no particular reason. At least she was smiling while she did it. But she’s got the dimples, and a valence of wild, slightly curly auburn hair, and I can tell she’s going to be a master manipulator of good ol’ dad.
Anyway, in addition to “yes” and “no,” she can say “duck” (just about every kind of bird is a duck, as well as dogs and other four-legged animals), “doooooown” and of course “mommy” and “dada.” She very much likes reading books; she made me read one of Andrew’s Cars books about five times last night. And she goes to bed a whole lot easier than Andrew did at her age, but I wish she’d stop signaling that she’s done with dinner by dumping her plate on the floor.
Someday, I’ll probably think back on this and think it was easy. Future James, get over it; you might have it hard in 2018, worrying about Andrew’s first date in the hovercar and what kind of self-portrait holograms Maggie’s posting on the Internet, but this ain’t easy either.