14 posts tagged “26 months”
T is doing more and more pretend play. Yesterday morning I gave him two strawberries – a big one and a little one. “This is the daddy strawberry,” he said. “This is the baby strawberry. I want to go up on daddy strawberry said the baby strawberry,” T said as he held each strawberry in a hand and placed the little one on top of the big one. “Hi baby strawberry said the daddy strawberry,” said T.
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Sunday night I ran to Target and Barnes and Nobel to buy gifts for a baby shower at work. I picked up two new CD’s for T. We listened to Elizabeth Mitchell’s You Are My Little Bird on the way in to school. We didn’t make it past track four; T wanted to hear the “bird song” repeatedly.
Little bird, little bird, fly through my window
Little bird, little bird, fly through my window
Little bird, little bird, fly through my window
Find molasses candy.
Fly through the window my sugar lump
Fly through the window my sugar lump
Find molasses candy.
Chickadee, chickadee, fly through my window…
Jay bird, jay bird, fly through my window…
Whippoorwill, whippoorwill, fly through my window…
The last three verses are sung with young children. Ms Mitchell asks her little friends, “who knows a bird?” and a child replies, “I do!” and proceeds to tell her its name and what it says. The song ends with the children making bird sounds fading into actual bird song. T was enthralled.
When we got into T's classroom and I was applying sunscreen, I told his teacher, Miss Michelle, about his love for the song. I asked T if he could sing the song. First he ran around singing, "Bird, bird, bird [bird's the word]," but he eventually caught the tune and he and I sang Little Bird through two or three times. T made up a bird name - chicken bird.
The plants are tall, though rather scrawny, and at least at this point don't promise a 'bounty.' However, from the one tomato T and I shared, the tomatoes, heirlooms, will be good. We have about five that are currently growing.
When I noticed this tomato was ripe I told T. I had mentioned to him once previously that we had a tomato, and he was very eager to get his little hands on it. I saved it then, but when I told him we had a red one, it was off the plant before I could catch him. It was then into his mouth in a blink of an eye.
We ate it like an apple. It was good.
I'll hope to enjoy the others similarly, though perhaps with a little home grown basil, and some aged balsamic vinegar... ummm.
...my tear ducts, or tears, or lack there of, resulting in extremely dry eyes, resulting in mild scratches, resulting in slight infections, resulting in my wearing my glasses and putting lots of drops in my eyes. I finally got a diagnosis for my vampirishly red eyes, and the pain I was feeling on Monday (and now). I used my last sick day for the year (uh oh) to stay home and nap (I was up with T for three + hours!) and go to the eye doctor Monday morning. It was about time as I had been self medicating for a couple months with leftover medication from previous visits. I go back for a followup tomorrow and will find out if the diagnosis is correct. I really hope it is. If so I will probably go on restasis which will help my eyes tear up properly again (OK, from that link I just learned it is not good to be on that while pregnant or lactating - must keep this in mind...) If that doesn't work then there might be duct surgery in my future - ikkkkkk.
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I had to put T in back to back time outs (that didn't really work) for hitting me tonight. He hits/slaps (softly, but still)
Part of the fun, after many tears I finally convinced T that the dinner I had been suggesting would be really good. He loved watching me make it, and then we had fun as he ate most of it. A cheese omelet with spinach, and kalamata olives, and avocado on the side. After dinner we playing inside, then went outside and watered the plants. T is "in control" of filling the watering can with the water from our rain barrel and he very much enjoys the task.
I'll perhaps write about it later, but T was a joy to play with yesterday or the day before. Last night ended in many tears and no book reading (he was too distraught and rocking was just the thing) but he had been a lot of fun up until that point.
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We walked to one of the parks nearby that has a playground. It is actually the playground for an elementary school, but the school was converted to city school offices a couple of years ago. They have a funny flatbed truck structure to play on.
T:: You can get in the bayack
M:: OK
T:: I'm the dry-ver
M:: Where are we driving?
T:: To the zoo-ah! [T is turning the steering wheel and looking around]
M:: I want to see the elephants, and giraffes
T:: OK
M:: I want to see the warthogs and lions
T:: OK
M:: I want ice cream
T:: OK
M:: I want mialk!
T:: OK
If you haven't guessed I was imitating T a little. At this point he climbs out of the cab of the truck and bends down in the wood chips, grabbing a handful. He walks over to me sitting on the flatbed part of the truck. This is repeated (grabbing handful of wood chips and bringing them to me) several times while he says:
T:: Here is the zoo, here is your ice cream, here is your milk, here is some caw-fee
I say thank you after each wood chip handful delivery. At the end T climbs back in the truck, back behind the steering wheel.
T:: How is yu-or mialk? How are the elephants?
M:: It is very good thank you. I liked seeing the elephants, and the warthogs.
T:: You want to go a-gayen? You want to go to the zoo?
We continued to play, getting off the truck, trying some of the other structures. When we arrived we were the only ones there. I said, "Oh, there isn't anyone here." T replied sounding very dejected and sad, "There isn't anyone here..." We ran out onto the field that is used for young kids soccer and found, of all things, an Oregon State visor! T pulled off his hat, and put on the visor before I could think about it. "I am Dylan! I wear Dylan's hat!" He grinned at me as he adjusted it on his head. "I go orange state," and then he whipped it off as quickly as he had put it on and ran ahead for me to catch him.
A Dad and two children arrived, maybe a year older than T. T wanted to play with them and he approached the boy who was doing some impressive monkeying on the stair-stepped 'hanging' bars. The boy could jump up and grab the bar that was out of his reach if he was just standing there. T watched, did his little two footed jump, but it barely lifts his body up and inch. In the end he stretched up and could get a hold of the lowest bar. The boy did some showing off and fell to the ground on his bottom. He looked up at T and made a silly face. The two of them laughed.
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B came home from Barcelona tonight and T and I picked him up fronm the airport (after going to two gas stations to get gas. The first was closed 'cause it didn't have any gas, the second only had regular. Thanks Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.) T and I practiced what he would say to B when he got in the car. When B did, Tommy got all funny-shy with a big chin-pulled-into-his-neck grin and sideways look.
M:: T, what were we going to say to Daddy?
T:: ... I miss you Daddy.
M:: and what else were you going to say?
B:: I missed you too T.
M:: welcome...
T:: Welcome home dad-dee, i miss you dad-dee. Welcome home...
On the rest of the ride home T impressed B with how much he was talking, how clear he was (though many things still have to be repeated) and how much he was wanting to tell B. T talked about all the trucks he had seen, told B we had gone to the park (used the name of the park) and told B several parts of a book I had brought for B to read to T as a wind down for bed. It's a book we got at the library this week, that T wanted read to him three times in a row last night. It's called The Night Worker and has a Dad (Papa) who is an engineer at a contrsuction site. Alex, the little boy, gets to accompany his Papa to the site one night, and even drive a bull dozer. It was fun to be the fly on the wall driving the two of them home. My heart beat proadly for my little boy.
T:: No running feet in our home Miscotti
M:: [smiling and remembering T being reprimanded by one of his teachers] That's right, what are the other rules T? [There are three rules, walking feet, inside voice, and gentle hands]
T:: walking feet... You may not do that Miscotti!
M:: What may Bis not do?
T:: You may not eat my food Bis!
later
T:: hee hee hee
M::What are you laughing about silly?
T::I'm laughing about Bis running in my home. [I wish I could write how he pronounced each of these words. It was very clear, but home was drawn out, and he was clearly working on speaking clearly.]
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Yesterday, as every day, we drove past the fire station. There was a truck outside and two in the bays.
T:: I saw a fire truck mommy!
M:: I did too!
T:: There was one outside.
M:: You are correct! Did you see any inside the fire station?
T:: Ye-ah. Two!
M:: Yes! Very good T! Do you know how many there were total? How many there were inside and outside? [I did not expect a correct answer]
T:: ... tree.
M:: Wow! That's right T! There were three! You are so good, you have been working on that.
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I have been correcting T constantly about his saying, "yay-ah" and also about how he says, "wheres," or "whats." He has been self correcting on the latter two, saying things like, "where's.. where is that digger?"
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Sitting at the table tonight, T on his knees at the regular dining table, me beside him.
T:: Ah!
M:: [nuzzeling my nose into his cheek] mamina mamina mamina
T:: [giggle, giggle]
M:: mamina mamina mamina mamina
T:: [giggle giggle]
M:: mamina mamina mamina mamina
T:: [giggle, giggle] i get on you
M:: You want to sit on my lap?
T:: yayah [climbs over] Say momina
M:: mamina mamina
T:: [giggle giggle, head buts me softly] say momina
M:: mamina mamina mamina mamina....
I got all out food to go, just in case T couldn't make it through the meal and we needed to high tail it out of there. He did get super wiggly after a while and I told him if he got down from the table it would mean he was done and we were going. So we did. However, I made a fatal error in failing to realize the significance of his big boy water cup. I left our paper cups on the table and T desperately wanted his. He cried all the way home just as he had done the night before about not getting to go to the restaurant. He even cried out in his sleep about wanting his water cup! Bad mommy, tired child.
T and I went to the library after I picked him up from school. We got a large collection of books, but I'm afraid I didn't pick very well. When I laid them out on the floor for him to pick three to read before bed, he chose two and said no to the rest. Hmmm.
We left the library at about 6pm, yes, 6 when I should have had T home and at the table eating.You see at school, when we leave, he likes to go the long way around to the front, the way that takes him past two water fountains. He likes to push the buttons on the fountains and see the water go. He likes to drink from the fountains, but not before he has pushed the button a million times, watched the water go down the drain, watched how it sprays if you put your finger in the wrong place... On the one hand I want him to learn this stuff. It is fascinating watching him learn that if he pushes the button this way or that what happens. For him to say, "The water goes under the school. Where does it go?" For his curiosity to be so focused on how the fountain works, how he can work it, and how he can climb and do it himself. On the other hand, I hate seeing all that water go down the drain uselessly and I knew we didn't have a lot of time to hang out. However, we did hang out, and then we were late at the library.
T really wanted to go to toddler playground afterward, either the 'real toddler playground' or the one right next to the library, he's picky like that (not). So I thought I would kill several birds with one stone and I said, "Mommy has a treat for you, how would you like to go to a restaurant for dinner?" "I wan go restaurant!" he said. So off we went.
Except, I realized it was really late (6:10), and the place I wanted to go is popular (a taqueria on the way home). "T, we're going to drive by and see if there are too many people. If there are too many people we are going to have to go straight home. It is late." "There aren't too many people. It's not late," he assured me. I went the wrong way ("Uh oh mommy, you went the wrong way." - darn no left turn!) and by the time we drove by it was 6:20 (I was stopped at every traffic light - long lights). Sure enough, people were snaked out the door in line to order.
"T we have to go home sweetie, there are too many people and it is too late to wait." "I wan go restaurant!!" T cried. "There aren't too many people." "I'm sorry honey, there are too many people. We have to get dinner at home." "I wan turn around, I wan go restaurant!" I looked in the rearview mirror and T's face had gone into a rectangular full scrunchy face with big crocadile tears. He continued to cry and ask to turn around and go to the restaurant all the way home. I told him we could go tomorrow; we would go early when there weren't too many people. When we got out of he car and I was carrying him up the steps he said, "Go away too many people, I hit you. Go away too many people."
I made T a cheese omelette and he was happy. He also, in case you were wondering, was asleep at his normal time - we skipped bath and only washed his face.
(B don't read this) When I went to pick T up from Extended Care, I heard a child crying. It sounded like T and I barely held myself back from knocking down the parents in the doorway between me and him. The parent teacher who was watching the kids told me that T had been fine up until just before I arrived. I believe him as between the history lesson and the service I almost went to check in on T when I met the parents who are running Sunday school for the twos. They told me T did great and was quite funny and involved. They told me he sang quite well and really got into the singing, and that he told them he was a "big boy!" We decided that since all was going well I shouldn't tempt fate by popping in and then leaving again. When I asked T if he was crying 'cause he was scared I had forgotten him he said, "Yeah-ya," and wiped away his tears.
If only T could have known that I thought about him during much of the service. When we were to pray our confessions and whatnot, I mentioned about needing help with patience, and asked that God help me make it through the service 'til I could see my son again. I almost walked out on communion 'cause it was causing things to run a tad long. Being at church so that I can get T baptised has it's limits does it not?
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While rubbing T's back so he will go to sleep tonight...
T:: The foxes are at their homes
M:: ?
T:: The foxes are at their homes
M::Uh, yes, the foxes are at their homes in the country. Foxes don't like cities and we live in a city.
T:: Foxes don't like cities.
M:: No they don't. Foxes like to be near chicken houses, they like eggs.
T:: Foxes like cities.
M:: No, foxes like the country, they don't like the city.
T:: Foxes like the city!
M:: Uh, ok, but they don't like houses. Our doors are locked. We have rabbits, and squirrles, and birds around.
T:: And doggies! we have doggies [two big boxer (??) dogs are staying next door. Until the last two days they have been barking at us when we park and T has been afraid of them.]
M::Yes, dogs and cats in the neighborhood, but no foxes.
Silence. I go to turn down the volumn on Nicki's Jazz Lullabies, and T sits up and starts to yell.
T:: The soldiers are coming!
M:: No soldiers are coming T, it's OK.
Just then, the dreaded freight train blows it's horn, really load, and really long - of course.
T::IMSCARED OF THAT TRAIN! imscaredofthattrain IMSCAREDOFTHATTRAIN!!
I pick T up and he burrows into my arms and under my chin. I sit in the rocking chair, and if he could have climbed inside me, he might have.
M::That train is just going on by. It's three houses away on the tracks and it's going to the station.
T::It's on the tracks?
M:: Yes, it stays on the tracks, its going on by
T:: Issgoungonbeh?
M::what honey?
T::Issgoungonbeh?
M:: Uh... Its going on by?
T:: It's goin' on beh
M:: yes, it's going to the station. Right past us and on to the next station. Box cars and containers just going on by.
T:: It's taking toys, taking toys from ... it's taking toys to boys and girls!
Finally, in five minutes or so he was asleep. 8:20 pm. Night two of B being in Barcelona. Night two of no painting headway beyond bringing up screw drivers so I can begin to dismantle the room to paint...
All of a sudden T has developed a Southern accent this week. "Would you like your milk," I might ask."Yeah-ah," is his reply. "What do we say instead of yeah?" "Yayas," says T. B and and I don't know where this came from. We don't have Southern accents, or only slight ones, ditto most of his teachers. "What's thee-as?" is another of his Southern accented phrases. While kind of funny, this new Southern-ism is also a little annoying. Especially the "yeah-ah," when I am trying to get him to say, "yes, mommy."
T continues to say more and more and put together more concepts. He is also delving into pretend play more and having fun at it. Tonight we read one of the new Curious George stories, one where George goes camping and gets squirted with stink by a skunk. When we were closing the book at the end, T said, "I wan to lee-aft my tay-el aynd squert you."
Earlier we were on the futon in the den. "Get your feet up," T told me. "Why?" I asked. "They-re li-ons unner the cow-uch. They say Grrerrr!"
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We saw our neighbors across the street tonight when we went to the mail. We haven't seen them in forever; they have an eight month old baby girl. We were chatting and I told them we had rented a cabin in the North Georgia mountains. "I got stung by a bee!" T piped up. "I was cwying."
Another mountain weekend. We headed back up to the North Georgia mountains/Southern Appalachians for the Memorial Day weekend. We rented a cabin through VBRO again, this time a two bed two-bath cabin between Blue Ridge and Blairsville. My dad and step-mom also joined us, bucking the weekend tide and leaving the Carolina Beach area of NC.
Our first stop before getting to the cabin was Mercier Orchards to pick up some lunch and more of their fabulous wild blueberry syrup and fresh picked apples. This weekend marked the beginning of their U-pick season and they had tractor pulled wagons to take folks out to the orchards. Can you guess who wanted to, “see the tractor?” We rode out, and after a quick picture next to a tree where T pulled an apple from the tree and immediately started to eat it, we got back in for the quick ride back to the parking lot. T would have taken that ride ten times if we had let him.
I enjoyed talking with the owner, the grandson of the founder, when we rode in to the trees. A sign of the times and the value to the rural economy of vacation homes, Mercier is the only orchard left in the county, down from a high of 130. They are also the only packing house left in the state. While it is nice to have a good variety of rentals available, I would gladly trade more remoteness and apple orchards for that variety!
Dad and LED were at the cabin napping when we arrived with Mr. Noisemaker. He was excited to see his grandparents and get out of the car. It was smiles all around as we checked out what the cabin had to offer and settled in. T was quite the lucky boy getting a new T-shirt and Gund sleeping pig toy from LED. The pig, that T named Cookie, has a spot on one leg you can push to make him snore. When he snores one of his ears shakes, and every once in a while he says in his sleep, “a bowl of slop would be nice!” Cookie is very soft, and joined Cloud in being carried around and slept with.
Our first night we kept hearing things, things that turned out to be bugs banging into the windows and doors. One got in and it was a very large bee or wasp. We looked out and there were a ton of them! Bill did some research and they seemed to be Cicada Killer Wasps - wasps that eat cicadas. This is their mating season, or a time when a lot of males come out at night. They get very sleepy with the cool morning air, and as luck would have it several were still hanging around the deck the next morning when T and I went out to sit in a rocking chair and read. T got stung or bitten! Much drama ensued where I was concerend we were going to need to go to the local emergency room. T was in pain. We gave him some Tylenol and after a lot of rocking he slept in my arms in one of the rocking chairs on the porch.
When T woke up we decided to head out to a waterfall and a hike. LED stayed back (she read on the porch where a deer came up to eat the grass and visit) but Dad, B, T, and I piled in the car. We drove over to Helton Creek Falls not far from Blood Mountian, Neel's Gap and the Walasi Yi Center on the Appalachian Trail. It was a bit longer of a drive than we would have liked and expected, but the falls were beautiful. Happily it was more than a quick look see as well, and T and I both got in the water. There are upper and lower cascading falls and enough water to do a little swimming if you so wish.
Having gotten a late start, after the falls and a quick look at the Walasi Yi Center, we headed back to the cabin. Hardly more than five minutes from the cabin little T's stomach gave in, and we had to pull over to clean up throw up. It was a rough morning for the dude, but he slept well at nap and was raring to go later in the day. B, T, and I walked near the cabin and played various forms of chase in and out of the cabin.
Monday we ended up leaving the cabin earlier than any of us had intended, but it worked out well for all involved I think. Dad and LED had a long drive a head, and T's stomoach made our drive slower going. We decided we wanted to take T to a wildlife center and took a route we thought would be easier on his stomach. Easier perhaps, but we still stopped three times before we reached the place.
One stop was fun however - we went to Burt's Pumpkin Farm. We only bought one small pie pumpkin (that T picked out) and a large butternut squash, but they had a great variety of pumpkins already (its early) that included funny bumpy pumpkin gorde mixtures, white pumpkins, pink pumpkins, old fashions, and huge ones. They also had a tractor T sat on.
When we finally made it to the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve T had fallen asleep. We woke him up and walked around. It was not quite what we had expected and we were a little saddend. The place is a non-profit and does some reaserch and caring for hurt animals (I think), but it was a bit more like an old fashioned zoo that we would have liked. Meaning that many of the animals were in cages, and not big ones with perfect settings for them. T was tired,
That was our weekend - we hope you had fun!
