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As we are walking back into the house this evening after gymnastics, I dropped my keys. Its dark in the back, because the back light doesn’t work — I think its electrical, as I have changed the bulb. No problem, I send the kids in through the doggy door to open up the back door and head to the garage to turn on the flood lights. Only, the door to the garage is locked. I twist and it doesn’t move. I twist the other way and it still doesn’t move. That’s OK, I think, I’ll use the opener in the car. Only, that requires the car keys which are on the ground in the dark somewhere.

Fortunately, the big kids open up the back door and come out with a flash light.

My downstairs bathroom door is doorknobless at the moment. The other weekend, Carlo locked himself in there. It doesn’t matter how much I tell him he is not to touch doors or the fact that he pinched his fingers in the car door handle, he just can’t get over that urge to be naughty. Noelle might have locked herself in the bathroom to spite me when she was little (she never did, but its the type of thing she might have done in a fit of get back at Mommy), but when I asked her to turn the little button in the middle of the doorknob and unlock the door, she would have understood and done it. Carlo, on the other hand, keeps turning the big knob and say, “Huh?” “Turn the little button in the middle of the door knob, Carlo?” Twist, twist. “Huh?”

I went and got the ladder to pull Carlo out through the window. I should have then tossed Noelle in to unlock the door (as my butt was certainly not fitting through the bathroom window), but I was a little flustered at that point — we had company and an audience. So, I took the door knob off the door entirely to get it open.

Well, tonight we found the house and car keys with the flashlight.

The difference in the kids is amazing. Noelle and Nicky are both brilliant. Truly, Nobel laureate kind of brilliant. Well, Nicky might get a Nobel prize some day. Noelle is too self-centered. A Nobel demands a kind of devotion to science or literature or goodness. That type of devotion and passion will never make any sense to Noelle as there will be no clear and direct benefit to herself. Nicky might, though — he’s a cure cancer kind of person. Carlo is different. He’s bright enough, don’t get me wrong, but not the bear trap snapping sharp of Noelle and Nicky. At 2 1/2 Noelle was actually playing her Leapster and understood it well enough to play a variety of games and know that when things weren’t working correctly it was because the screen needed to be reset. Carlo, he just makes it beep. He likes it (mostly to be like the big kids), but he just wants it to make noise. But, give Carlo blocks and he’ll build a tower. A real construct with many different pieces, blocks that balance, angled blocks and columns in addition to the regular squares and rectangles. He clearly pictures something in his head. For Noelle and Nicky, there is not enough formality or rules surrounding free block play. They couldn’t really do it. If you directed them to make a road or build a house, yes, but they can’t just sit down with the pile of blocks and free form play. (Rules and a plan, that is what my two older ones need — Saturday morning we are sitting round the dining room table and Noelle asks, “What are we going to do today?” Nicky answers, not quite with disgust, “Mommy doesn’t have a plan.” A day of nothing and my older kids are flipping out! I did take them out to Ikea for the evening shopping and some dinner, in the end.).
I must remember to unlock the garage door tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2007 at 8:46 pm and is filed under Family, Noelle, Nicky, My Valley Of Love and Delight, Carlo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.