A Cerney Periodical

Brock continues to attend music class. He has had a new teacher since he turned two, Little Miss Ann. I quite like Miss Ann and her music is great, but I think Brock had a better connection with his last music teacher. He still says he likes music class, but is slow to participate most of the time. That said, he will never hesitate to help on the soup song where you chop up imaginary vegetables and add them to an upside-down drum posing as a soup pot, help move a parachute up and down, or interact with anything physical that Miss Ann introduces. He does like the songs, and has favorites that he sings at home or will request. More on music: lately Matt and I and Brock have been laying down on the couch and listening to some of Matt and I's favorite albums as we talk him through crescendos and transitions in the songs. I have very special memories of Fleetwood Mac playing at BBQ's, Tom Jones as my mom sat sewing, and Elvis and Christmas at our house in AK growing up. I hope Bro...

is a Mini Cooper! Matt's awesome Christmas present from Jake and Joanne was a blast to put together and is getting extra millage from Brock's imagination.   A pleasant afternoon picnic with orange, tomato, truck and dice.  It has been high maintenance to keep track of the wine classes and cheese, I think we are down the awesome french loaf and maybe a passenger side mirror. I'll check the cushions again.

Our friends twin boys Jackson and Jonas celebrated their 5th birthday at POW! in Chicago and had the extreme courtesy to invite a two year old to their super hero training themed bash. Brock doesn't at all understand what a super hero is or is familiar at all with popular characters so I have chosen to name him ironically Super Sharer.  First several harrowing leaps to islands of safety in a hot lava pool. Please ignore his sidekick, Daddy'O, he's just there for laughs, not any assistance whatsoever.  Then our brave hero must tackle the bad guy. and walks away unscathed, of course.  Next mission: delve into the belly of Planet Zorb's indigenous predator feared throughout the galaxy Rainbow Worm and collect its digestive enzyme to cure cancer on planet Earth.  Once again, no issues, although Daddy'O nearly botched the mission with his silly suggestions.  Is any super hero fully realized without some flying abili...

(Brock cleans up the mess after helping make mommy's birthday cake) Occasionally I'll write down funny things that Brock says. Some of them eventually turn into their own posts, but there are always a few danglers that seem a bit too small for an entire write up. Here's few.... While experiencing some perplexus frustration: "I'm sad about the ball falling off the funny tracks."  "Well it's ok to be sad sometimes Brock." "No! That was a joke! Hahahahaha!" Brock holds up a blue easter egg. "Guess what's inside this egg. It's an enchanted garden." *rattle rattle* as he shakes the egg. "It's actually not an enchanted garden. It's just some friendly marbles." Here's a video of Brock trying out some funny voices as we clean up. We find it hilarious.  And lastly, here's Brock trying his first (decaf) coffee.

Brock has already learned discrimination. We certainly didn't teach it to him, and we try to discourage it, but he decided on his own that zebra and elephant are second-class citizens. A typical play-time activity for Brock is building a structure out of plastic blocks (usually a pool, restaurant, or a bed) and then inviting all of his animals to a party. The restaurant always comes with lots of food and everyone sitting at one big table. Then Brock will designate a waiter who comes by and asks, "how is the food?" Perhaps we are taking him out to eat too much. At the pool, diving boards are erected, and the animals take turns diving. Sometimes Brock will ask us who should dive next. How about ducky? Of course, ducky can dive. Wheeeee! Splash! How about giraffe? Ok. Wheeeee! Splash! Can zebra dive? "No. The pool is closed." "The pool is closed? Well, can Murray dive?" "Yes." Murray does a back flip. "Is it zebra'...

Brock is an addict. He plays "silver ball" for at least an hour every day, and frequently much much longer. It's pretty mind-boggling the progress he has made. There's only one type of obstacle that he hasn't figured out how to do, and there's only two or three of those in each ball.  This allows him to complete the Perplexus rookie from start to finish while only handing daddy the ball twice. The original ball is split into thirds. He's completed each third with only one hand-off in each many many times. The epic is a different beast. He's successfully navigated all but three obstacles in the epic on their own, but he can't string together his successes into long runs. (To be fair, I have never completed the epic myself in a single run, and I've tried way too many times. It's crazy hard.) He has many great chunks mastered though, and on some of the harder obstacles he already has a higher success rate than I. Most afternoons w...

How do you explain to a child what objects are for throwing and which ones are not? Well the general rule in our house for sometime has been, "if it's soft you may throw it. If it's hard, you may not." Brock really is a good kid, and rarely breaks this rule, but every now and then he cracks and a marble goes flying. Without fail, his standard response to a scolding is to quickly reassure us he knows the rules. "But you can throw Murray though. Murray is soft," he says as if that gets him out of trouble. (Brock still refers to himself as "you") If you press him to acknowledge his misdeed, he'll just keep repeating over and over, "but you can throw Murray though!" It's also obviously time to update the definitions. Brock was inspecting a candle in a jar that Holly got for her birthday. He scratched the wax. "See how soft the wax is Brock?" I asked him. His eyes lit up like Christmas morning as he excitedly asked ...