Tor Tales: Multiple Personalities

One of Lars's colleagues recently asked me what the two kids' personalities are like. Of course any quick response to a question like that is reductive, but in short, I said Tor is sensitive and has wild mood swings, and Col is more happy-go-lucky and even-keeled. There are exceptions--Col certainly screeches to make his wants known, and Tor reacts calmly to bad news plenty of the time--but on the whole it's a good rough sketch.

"We made a pirate ship!"

Col is in a charming phase where he's eager to help with anything we're doing. Hanging up laundry to dry? Col will take it out of the washer and drape it on the drying rack. Getting cereal out of the pantry in the morning? Col will hand you each box individually along with his main utterance: "Ta?" Raking leaves? Col will snatch up fistfuls and sprinkle them near the yard waste bin. Opening a door? Col will open it for you. Then close it. Then open it. Then close it.

"I'm loud! I'm proud! Get used to it!"

Thigh rolls captured for posterity

Amazed to be riding the train at the zoo

Col has also taken a serious liking to reading. He'll hold out a book to us and not give up ("Ta? Ta? Ta?) until we take the book, put Col in our lap, and read it to him. Tor loved Good Night, Gorilla when he was about this age, and Col is super into it now. He's even been taking it with him in the trailer ride to school--that and a graham cracker, which is usually required to coax him into the seat.

He can, however, be distracted from his book

"I saw this dude in Good Night, Gorilla!"

Tor is unpredictable but when he's in a good mood, he's great company. He can be helpful, and I mean seriously getting things done, not just cutely pseudo-helpful like Col--setting the table, getting himself dressed, cleaning up toys, playing with Col while we're working on something else, sweeping the driveway, flagging down the bus. As I mentioned last post, he loves learning about new things, like what trees eat ("sunlight") and what an osteopath does ("help your spine and muscles"). He is also frequently funny, whether inadvertently or intentionally, and he generally does a good job describing things when we have trouble understanding him--which happens mainly when he learns new words.

Zoo train, part II

Reading a story about Angelina the mouse at a costume ball
Tor: Angelina's a girl, so she does a Quincy.
Me: Huh? What's a Quincy?
Tor (stands up): When you're a girl dancing, you stand like this and cross your legs. Then you bend your knees and put your hands out. Like this.
Me: Ohhh. A curtsey. And when boys dance, do they usually curtsey too?
Tor: No. Boys bow.

Reading an alphabet book
Tor: K. K-k-k-kangaroo. (pause) Kanga-POO!
(We laugh about this for a few seconds.)
Tor: A kanga-poo is a poo that jumps!