iam

Andrew calls William "iam" the last bit of his name, /eeam/. It's very cute. They went to Seth's birthday party and Brian's christening yesterday. Diana sent me a photo of some good that took a shine to William and visa versa. I was off meditating, chanting and talking the dharma. I yearn to have more of that, but when I'm away from the boys, I yearn to be with them.

William has been into the movie Balto. Balto is a half breed, and he is bothered by Steele the lead dog. Slurs and jokes are made about his parentage. But in the end, he uses his identity as part wolf to get the antitoxin to save the little girl, and win the heart of Jenna. In a way it's a tale about minority status with racial slurs and prejudice, which is ironic in the wildnerness instead of an urban setting, though maybe not.

He also likes Tarzan which is similar but different. Tarzan is raised by gorillas but when humans come and he realizes he's a human, he betrays the gorillas to let his new love Jane meet them. Greed and avaraice play a part in other's trying to exploit the situation and Clayton is the evil man who tries to kidnap gorillas. Similar but a more complex twisting ending, than Balto which is more clearly black and white.

The minute I suggested to Diana that William wouldn't learn to clean up until he was potty trained, he began to learn to clean up his lego. We make it one thing out at a time, excluding trains and cars, though those sometimes have to be corralled. He's got some wooden tracks, some plastic tracks and lego, and they have to be cleaned up to get to the next one. William said, "put the tracks over there." He's got creative solutions when he wants it, but the rule is put one away before you get out the other one.

School has begun to captivate William's imagination. I don't know if he knows what September is, but that's when he's going.

The boys fight. It disturbs me, but I'm beginning to see it more as my problem. Of course we put them in time out and separate them, intervene some times, but sometimes let it go in the hopes that they will work it out. Neither course is yielding immediate results. It disturbs me. The hit, push, throw things. Very disturbing, but I'm afriad normal. I feel impatient in getting them to stop. I have not succeeded yet, and I think it's not abnormal. We'll keep working on it.