Thomas the Tank Engine

My son's latest obsession. I bought him a Thomas book. The first night I read it to him a good 10 times in a row and he went to sleep clutching the book to him. Last night I think I managed to get away with only 8 readings. Tonight was still 8 readings but I was able to read another book in between twice.

I realized quickly it was time to set a limit so I told him one more time and then off to bed. I'll admit the tempo went up a bit for the last reading. At the last page, I told him to say good night to Thomas.

He leans over and gives Thomas a kiss.

"Can mama have a kiss goodnight?"

"No."

I had to settle for a 2 second snuggle before he pointed to his crib.

*sigh*

Puddle jumping

I've been waiting for the moment when I could teach my son to jump in puddles. The sheer, uninhibited joy of splashing around in a muddy mess can only be properly enjoyed with a child. Unless you want your neighbors to think you have completely lost you mind.

I finally got my chance. Mind you, the kid can't really jump yet. The knees bend, he attempts to launch with little arms flailing in the air but he never actually catches air. So for now, basketball is still out for this kid.

He did splash around and once I taught him how to stamp one foot at a time he had a blast dousing both of us with muddy water.

I relished in his and my extreme joy, had a few flashbacks to my own childhood which caused me to splash just a little harder in order to change his giggles to all-out shrieks of delight and then was brought back to reality.

My son was leaning over splashing the water with his hands and then scooping it up to drink it!

He drinks his bath water soap and all so why wouldn't he go after muddy, germ-infested rain puddles? How long before he goes after a worm?

Dry Erase Markers

Dry erase markers wipe off ceramic tile with ease.



Dry erase markers wipe off a child and his clothes with any but ease especially when you aren't even sure exactly what parts of his body became his easel.



Daddy gave him the marker. Daddy gave him the bath.



Mama hopefully learned from Daddy's mistake.....

Evolution of Speech - Toddler Style

It is so exciting when your toddler surprises you with a new word. Especially when the child prefers Bla blu dohboo for everything. I did a happy dance when I figured out DUP was Yup and DOP was stop (although the tone requires improving on the last one).



My son favors his Bs and Ds so imagine my surprise when he smiled at me today, pointed at his little pearly whites and said, clear as day: "TEETH".



Ask this kid where his nose is and he will most likely point to his head. Ask him where his head is and the hands go up with a shrug. Feet he gets 99.9% of the time. To know teeth - I was not expecting that. I should have captured it on video as it will not happen again for at least five years. Unfortunately I am vehemently opposed to cell phone cameras/video.



I contain my desire to jump, shout, do cartwheels and make everyone in BRU tell me that yes, I have an incredibly smart child. The smartest in the world. Only because the toddler two carts over was eyeing my reaction; practically begging for a smart baby face-off and I think Little Man is still a tad too young for such fierce competition. I'm not positive but the girl may have been in at least one pageant already. Poor boy wouldn't stand a chance since she was near a toy that could double as a baton. Twirling is not his specialty and we weren't close enough to her for him to upstage her with his piece de resistance: swiping another child's toy while snickering AND giving a seriously wickedly evil glare.



Excitement contained, I quietly tell my son he did a great job and mama is oh so proud of him. As we move on to the next aisle, there is a slight kick to my step. I check the mental list for the next article, locate and present the first choice to my son.



He clearly and vehemently stated: "NO"



Not once, not twice, not even three times. Oh no, smartest boy EVAH said NO quiet clearly to every choice offered during our shopping trip with the exception of a Thomas the Engine book (which he is currently sleeping with).



I am now going to angle for the Award for Stating the Obvious:



I am so screwed.



I'm already starting to lose count but I believe we stand at:



Little Man: 3 Parents: 0

That'll learn him

I walked into daycare to another incident report today. Little Man was bitten yet again. This will be the 4th time. After I spoke to the director about the other 3 incidents, everything seemed fine so I was curious as to what happened this time. The previous incidents involved a little boy who would attempt to take a toy from Little Man. When he protested, he was rewarded with a lovely set of teeth marks on his forearm. I felt for the poor thing but understand biting goes with the age.

This time it was a little girl and she was the one playing with the toy. When Connor attempted to steal it from her, she bit him.

Daycare does not release the name of the other child involved. A policy I agree with except in this instance. I really wanted to find out which child it was so I could give her a huge "Atta Girl!"

That'll learn him.

I hope.

Moving' up on the short bus

Little Man will look at me, shake his finger and say some thing undecipherable. Body language and tone suggest he's telling me to wait where I am while he goes does/gets something. Normally it is done quite sweetly and is kind of cute.

Tonight, during our evening walk, he decided to take a detour through someone else's yard. I explained he could not without an invitation from that person. I explained this 3 times, 3 different yards.

At the last one, he turned and did his little point. Except this time he was not sweet. This time he gave me a dirty look and his tone was anything but nice and quite clearly he yelled "DOP!" at me. Short bus mama finally figured out another word. My son told ME to stop. And not in a nice way. I do not like this new word or the accompanying attitude.

He was promptly and very unceremoniously tucked under arm ,toted away and told he would not speak to mama that way. He was very well behaved the rest of the night but it is too early to put a win in my column yet.

Besides, if it isn't "DOP" it will be something else, won't it?

Do I even want to think how many words there are in the English language that he will be able to use against me?

Please? No seriously PLEASE.

This conversation has taken place multiple times over the last several days:

Little Man: (pointing) BAH! ahbla caga

Mama (or dada): Do you want (whatever he is pointing towards).

Little Man with an emphatic nod: Yeah

Mama or Dada: Can you say "please"?

Little Man: Yup (emphatic nod)

Mama or Dada: Will you say please?

Little Man: Yup (emphatic nod)

Mama or Dada: Some time this century?

Little Man: pause for pondering and then emphatic nod and "yup".

Little Man: 2 Parents: 0

"Mama"

"Bah" is the standard moniker used by Little Man in reference to Dad and myself. This morning his cousin is running around the house calling "mama" and "dada" so of course Connor must mimic. My SIL comes back upstairs to the screams of "MAMA" from both her daughter AND MY SON.

I ask Little Man: "Where's mama"?

Little imp points to his cousin.

Child: 1 Mama: 0

Move over Bob Dylan

My son has discovered the joys of music. He has moved past the Stevie Wonder impression to the White Boy Dancing by Walking in a Circle impression. Sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and he's raise him arms above his head right as you sing "way up high". He'll even occasionally attempt the diamond. He can almost hum the ABCs perfectly.

So it is only normal that he would jump to the next step and attempt to sing. Old McDonald is his current favorite.

"EIEI BLEUAH"

The How To and How Not To Entertain a Child... or maybe just How Not To...

Any parent will tell you, babies and toddlers love keys preferably your keys versus the fake plastic keys designed specifically for them. My son is no exception. Each day when I pick him up at daycare and put him in the car, I take my car key off the ring and hand him the rest. He entertains himself on the 3 minute drive home, helps lock the car, helps unlock the front door and occasionally plops down right in the middle of the doorway to continue playing with the keys forcing me to step over him.

So we are all in the car a few days back heading home from a day of errands. Little Man has had enough of the car and is becoming quite vocal with his discontent. In order to pacify him, I hand him my key ring.

The remote to my car has not worked for some years now. The remote on my key ring for my husband's car works perfectly. We were in my husband's car.

So here we are driving down the parkway at a good 55 MPH and the doors start to lock and unlock in an interesting rhythm. For some reason my husband is not as amused as I am so of course I rib him about it.

I'll paraphrase: "Um. Yeah. Real funny. Remote has a trunk button and a panic button. Parkway. 55 MPH. Trunk flies open and the panic button starts wailing and all the lights start flashing."

Taking a toy from my child is akin to taking food from a grizzly. I think I'd prefer the challenge presented by the grizzly. Thankfully this story ends without the above description coming to fruition and an attempt to explain to our lovely county cops why our car suddenly seems possessed.

The Helping Stage - diverted

Little Man is loving his new table and chairs. So much so that cleaning up after each meal is extremely easy as he can get down from the chair himself and throw everything away.

And I mean EVERYTHING. First meal at the table was the paper plate. 2nd meal was the bib. 3rd meal was the plastic bowl. I am not sure what upset him more - the fact that I took the bib and the bowl out of the trash or that I was laughing so hard I was crying. Since he wasn't laughing, I couldn't claim the "laughing WITH you" defense.

He paid me back. He stopped throwing things out all together. At least with me. With dad, he was perfect. He would only throw away the paper plate. Everything else went on the counter. But don't worry, it didn't take long for dad to screw it up too.

Little Man steals daddy's cup and chugs most of the water. When done, he attempts to put the cup on the counter (which is still over his head) and since daddy's cup doesn't have a lid.....

Yup - water straight down on his head. I was not home for this episode but I was on the phone when it happened. I detoured around a RR track screw up in the time it took for him to stop laughing long enough to tell me what happened.

Needless to say, Little Man is now on strike with daddy too... you want it on the counter dude? YOU put it there. I'm DONE!

Never say never

I am NOT a fan of mommy/daughter outfits. I think family portraits with coordinated outfits smack of the Stepfords. One incident in my childhood scarred me for life. I thought my huband agreed with me until they both left the house yesterday in Yankees gear. That is only acceptable if you are going to or watching the game. They were doing neither.

Now should my son and I leave the house both decked out in RS gear - that is an entirely different matter and not Stepfordish at all.