Tootle

What is it about little boys and trains?

Elias' current favorite book is "Tootle," a Christmas present from his aunt & uncle. It's actually a "big kid book" with paper pages, some of which are almost entirely text, with minimal pictures. I'm not sure why he likes it (I'm not particularly fond of it myself), but there's no doubt he does. When I ask if he wants to read a book he'll often say "Tootle?" and run to get it. He sometimes spells out the title for me, pointing at each letter in sequence, and occasionally picks out favorite letters from the text. He seems to grasp that I'm getting the words I say somehow from those letters on the page. He likes pointing out the horse "horse: neigh!" and the mayor "mayr," and on the first page, half-way through the first paragraph, saying "ToooOooot!" with me, at precisely the right time. He also usually counts out the red flags in one picture, and yesterday even used words as he slowly counted them off: "one...two...three...(ugh)...five...six..(ugh)..eight"!

When I dropped him off at daycare yesterday that he ran and got a Thomas the Train book, brought it to his teacher, and plopped himself down on her lap to be read to. So I guess I should get more train books. I'm not even sure he's seen a real train. Will he be disappointed when he discovers they don't really have faces on the front engine and talk?

Full weekend

This weekend with Elias was fun. Saturday morning we went to work to care for our trial fish. Elias made a big mess with the water. We both took a blissfully long nap, which for me was wonderful after a week of little sleep. Then in the afternoon we went to the waterpark. He'd gone there with daycare this week, and everyone said he had a blast, jumping right in whereas the rest of his class was more timid, mostly just watching him. Yesterday, though, Elias was less engaged. Part of it was that it wasn't very warm out, and the water was COLD. He kept wanting to go over to join the several family picnics going on, and finally just asked for his shirt back on, and went to play in the jungle gym part. He climbed and did a balance bar surprisingly well for his age. I was really proud of him when he made a run for the pond, but stopped dead and waited for me when I called out for him to stop.

Today right after church we went to my favorite restaurant, Quivey's Grove, with a couple friends. It is "restaurant week," with special menus. I wanted to try a kobe burger. I must say, it was incredibly good, and Quivey's did it right with bacon and aged cheddar...and the raspberry fool dessert. Although our friends may've thought Elias was messy and loud, I judged him as doing pretty well: good mood, no dropping things, and no food on any adults. After a nap (yeah!) I was able to do quite a bit of cleaning with him around, and then did some weeding in the back yard where he again (mostly) entertained himself. He played in his wading pool, often running back to me to get "Mommy, wet!" much like at the water park. It was really great being at home and enjoying each other without having to be in close physical contact at all times.

Wednesday at home

After two very long and intense days of strategy planning at work I finally got to come home and enjoy Elias. I didn't get home til 9:30pm last night, so this day was extra special...and after just one day he seemed a lot older! He was also extra specially cute, but I couldn't seem to capture it very well with my camera--when I could catch up to him.

At breakfast he very clearly said "Alpha Pig!" then excitedly waved his arms up and down when he saw this cartoon character on TV. Wouldn't you know, his superhero is a farm animal who recites the alphabet. He did it all except a couple letters this morning. He also identified a lowercase "e"on TV--something I didn't know he could do, since I've been just doing the capital letters.

We picked raspberries out back, pushed the stroller around, and watched the chickens take dust baths. Inside, we read books and roughhoused. He likes to sit on my back while I crawl around, playing horsey. Mr. Daredevil doesn't hold on and keeps trying to stand on my back: circus horsey.

County Fair

Tonight the two of us went to the Dane County Fair. Elias did pretty well. His favorite part seemed to be strolling through the carnival; I of course go for the livestock. He also really liked the rows and rows of cattle--he kept mooing to them. He also baaed to the sheep and maaed to the goats. I didn't hear much conversation with the other animals, although he continuously waved to the chickens as he wheeled by. We shared some chocolate yogurt, a corndog, a strawberry smoothie, and a famous Wisconsin cream puff. He enjoyed all the new food, but the sugar overload made me feel a little ill. The video clip is about 5 seconds of him groovin to the live Mexican music, La Movida. (Incidentally, his left eye is all swollen due to a bug bite. He swells up terribly with some of them.)

Saturday scenes

What a gorgeous day in Wisconsin. The weather continues to be amazingly comfortable, pleasantly warm and dry in day and cool and sometimes rainy at night. Elias took a blessedly wonderful, long nap today, nearly 4 hours, allowing me to nap a good 3 hours myself, which has done a world of good. That has probably helped me better appreciate some really nice scenes today.

As happens every summer weekend, our nextdoor neighbor trailers out all but one of their horses to play polo. We were just coming out to play when they returned, much to the delight of the huge gelding who stays home. He kept calling out to the polo ponies and ran back and forth in the pasture, kicking up his heels. At first Elias liked seeing him (yelling "neigh! neigh!") but then as the horse's antics got wilder, he got a little scared and wanted to be held. I told him the horse was happy to see his friends again, but Elias just didn't trust the transformation of the big, calm gelding we'd so often visited.

Elias ran to the backyard and started begging me to give him a ride in the wheelbarrow. Then, however, he was distracted by the release and reuniting of all the horses into the adjacent pasture. We went over to watch them run around, then settle down to some eager grazing. I was pleasantly surprised to find some ripe cherries, some of which weren't even bird-pecked. I gave Elias 1/2 of one, and he very generously walked over to the fence and held it out to the horses (who were on the far side of the pasture). I said, no, horses don't eat cherries, they eat grass, so he ate it himself. Then we picked a few raspberries, and went back to watch the horses and sing some songs. Uncharacteristically, he wasn't much into the songs, but kept picking grass and throwing it through the fence for the (still far away) horses. What a genuinely nice kid! He pointed out the black horse, and when I asked, pointed out the 3 white horses. Then he pointed to the big gelding and clearly declared "Happy!"

Next he pointed behind me and said "Verdi! Verdi!"...and sure enough, there was Verdi the rooster coming out to see what we were doing. There's some weird facination between Verdi and Elias--both are mostly afraid of the other, but also can't seem to help themselves from following each other.

Inside, I finally made my first batch of white currant jelly. They look very pretty and sealed, but appear a little loose yet. Only 10,000 to go. At one point I heard Elias exclaiming "mess! mess! mess! mess!" (He'll keep repeating something until I acknowledge it.) So I turned around to see what "mess" in Elias-speak meant--and (I'm going to sound like Pastor Chris here), indeed, it means "mess." New word. He'd gotten into a drawer and fished out a tin of dried apricots, and had them strewn all over the floor, a few of which he'd chewed on a bit.

We read books (of course) and played with alphabet blocks. Elias opened my eyes to the fact that, turned the right way and with the right typescript, an M looks just like a W, or an E, and a Z is sometimes an N. How confusing. He, however, is certain of his identifications, and I have no reason to correct them.

OK, this scene wasn't so idyllic, but it does illustrate my revived mood. At dinner I had a fresh zucchini from the garden, and was happy that Elias wanted several piece fo "zzuk" too. Elias had broccoli soup, zucchini, apple, mac& cheese and hotdogs. He does pretty well with utensils, but always puts such huge portions in at once. Typically, he'll put as much on as his fork can hold, hold it up so I can marvel at it, then giggling, shove it all deep into his mouth, assisted by the free hand to make sure food doesn't escape out the sides and cram it all in there. Each of these steps will usually shed plenty of food to the placemat, himself, and the floor, yet there is well over a reasonably-sized mouthfull left. He often keeps a hand over his mouth to prevent it from coming out when he tries to chew, or even close his mouth. Well, this time there was just too much so he started to gag, concernedly looking to me, yet continuing to hold the food in with the free hand. So, of course, he threw up, as his natural body instincts wisely overcame his unwitting attempt to suffocate himself. More mess. After a quick drink of water, he was back to the business of refilling his tummy. I guess why I'm relating this is that it didn't anger or gross me out in the least. Instead, I just thought of how much I love him and wonder at his inate bodily functions and the learning process in action.

Elias' last monthly birthday

Elias is 23 months old today: his last socially-acceptable "month" birthday. On his wall chart he is exactly 34" tall, which makes him of exactly average (50% percentile) height. Rounding out the stats, he's ~70% for weight (reflecting his "momma's belly") and a whopping ~95% for head circumference--reflective of his amazing brainpower, it just so happens!

Elias' alphabet recital today: ABCDEF - - IJ - LM - OPQ - S - - V - XYZ! I think this is simply amazing for someone so young, who hasn't been drilled on it. He's picked it up himself just with me reading alphabet books with him and singing (or shouting) the alphabet song. Does anyone else think this amazing? Seems he should be reported to some governmental genius authority or something...oh, wait a minute. In all those sci fi books, that's always a very bad move.

In the bath today he appeared to count out his stacking cups, up to 8 (There're only 7 cups, but he added the "eight" at the end as a bonus). This is how the alphabet thing started. I was counting them out as he methodically unstacked them, but then he immediately took over, pre-empting me! He didn't pronounce them all clearly, but they were in the right order. Maybe I should get him a counting book.

He is finishing his transition this week to the 2-year old room at daycare. He wasn't too happy about it yesterday, but today was much better. (I, however, am thrilled at the $56/month lower tuition.) He still sees his old toddler pals and teachers at meals and on the playground. This teacher, as his previous teacher did, commented to me today that she's never seen a kid so book-crazy as Elias. One of the occasional caretakers remarked yesterday how he was so surprised Elias called him by name, when he'd only met him about a month ago and hadn't seen him since then (now that's a skill I've never been able to attain.)

I wonder why I delight so very much in his obvious intelligence. Sure, sure: most parents will say their kid is exceptionally smart--but Elias really is! =) Maybe it says I'm more of an intellectual snob than I'd thought. I know I'd love him just as much if he were as dumb as a kite, but what a blessing that he excels naturally at something I have always valued.

Postscript: currant scones: uummmm!

current tech & currants

Close on the heels of starting a blog, I have now successfully uploaded a video clip to YouTube, and Facebook. (After 10 hrs of uploading it still didn't get onto here, so I'm posting the link instead.) I guess I just needed someone to inspire me to get current with today's IT trends. Next step: iPhone (not really--too expensive--but I admit to wanting one!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2w5-G3bXUU

This is the tail end of last night's dinner. When Elias first did the strongman act a couple months ago over dinner it really scared me: he suddenly turned to me, tensed all up, stopped breathing, and turned all red and quivery...then laughed. Another daycare trick I suppose.

The raspberry patch is getting up to speeed at last. Elias is getting good at finding and picking them (he was already good at eating them). After he went to bed I picked currants. The good thing is, they pretty much get ripe all at once, so now I have 4 ziploc bags of beautiful berries. The problem is, now I have 4 ziploc bags of beautiful berries. What to do with them? Jelly is too much work for tonight (and maybe for this summer.)

ET Madison Adopt picnic

This is a picture with my zoom lens, of Elias being brought back to the picnic by our friend K. K is very attentive and has variously referred to Elias as her "baby" and her "husband." [I'll let others insert their own commentary here.]

Despite the great weather, people, location and food, the picnic wasn't really relaxing, with me constantly tracking and/or chasing down Elias. He tends to range far, and quite often will casually insert himself into other families that interest him. Many people commented on this, from "he's so friendly!" to "He's quite a handful, isn't he?" Completely contrary to his behavior at home, in public he doesn't seem to care where I am and ignores my calls. Towards the end he decided it was time to go home so set off to find the car, which was quite a distance but still in sight. I caught up to him right as he neared the parking lot, much to the delight of a man who'd just drove up, who kept exclaiming how beautiful he is, and that he is of royal blood (referring to the legend that King Solomon & the Queen of Sheba founded the last Ethiopian dynasty). He also flirted with me a bit, which is a rare event indeed. Around 7pm, his bedtime, I carried Elias back and packed up, and we set out for the car again, but by then he'd changed his mind and ran back to the group. I kept going, hoping he'd follow, but of course he didn't. When I got to the car I left the loaded stroller to go get him, and saw that another mom had loaded Elias into her wagon and was towing him over to me. What a nice group of people.

Today I finally got to take off Elias' bandage from surgery and give him a bath. The upper cut is about 3 cm long and looks serious, but doesn't bother him in the least. Both incisions are healing very well. The surgeon said they might not even leave a visible scar. This whole surgery was so "easy," at the end it didn't scar me, either.

Incidentally, Elias' waning appetite has revived. Tonight he gobbled down two hot dogs, 1/2 a large apple, a bowl of egg salad, sliced carrots, and some leftover mac&cheese, followed closely by his bedtime milk. It's a good thing his stitches are so low, so they aren't endangered by the stretching skin over his bulging belly.

first fruits

I ate the first cherry from my own cherry tree today. To tell the truth it wasn't very tasty, but I still really enjoyed it. I'm sure the birds would've eaten them all had I waited until they were more ripe. I also harvested a few handfuls of my "June-bearing" raspberries today. Elias even found one himself. Unlike the cherries, these were some of the biggest, prettiest raspberries I'd ever seen. In addition to being a month late this year, there are many fewer but larger berries, and also bushier plants. I also noticed my first ripe non-cherry tomato in the garden. Since the competition for tomatoes is much less than that for cherries, I left it on there until I have a good use for it.

Last night's picnic was good. Elias was very energetic and adorable, and I strongly suspect he was everyone's favorite (well, aside from their own kids). A couple people asked me if I had other children or am going to adopt again. Although certainly not opposed to the idea, practically speaking I know I don't have the resources in energy, money or youth to do it as a single parent. Elias is my first child, but he's so wonderful and "larger-than-life" that I am lavishly blessed and satisfied for him to also be my only child.

What a Week

This has been a full week. On Wednesday we had a make-up, followup urology appointment (the first having been canceled because I got stuck in construction traffic). I suppose I'd been blocking out this possibility but it was put to me in no uncertain terms: Elias needed surgery. He started off with undescended testicles, and although one had moved down since our last appointment, the other was still spending too much time up high, and the higher temperature would damage his fertility--even so young. He said it was important to do the surgery (an orchipexy) before he turned 2 years old. It turned out he had a cancellation, so we scrambled to schedule a pre-op with his normal clinic for the next day, and then surgery Friday morning. Perhaps as much as anything, the suddenness of it--less than 48hrs from the exam to the surgery--had me pretty discombobulated. It was about an hour, then a couple more to recover from the anesthesia (he had both a general, and a "caudal" (local from waist down)). Thankfully, it went very smoothly. Elias of course charmed the staff with his chattering and hardly a cry throughout the whole scary (and food/water-deprived) morning. The only time he really cried was when we got home and I set him down and he tried to take off running, but fell because his legs weren't really working yet. After a 3 hour nap he woke up pretty much his old self. He has two incisions with stitches and some swelling, but doesn't seem in pain at all, and certainly hasn't restricted his movements. They sent us home with Tylenol/codeine, but we haven't had to use it at all. Apparently it's a "non-issue" from his perspective. So, I guess that's about as good as could be hoped for.

In the midst of this, we had another long-standing followup appointment for the Birth-to-Three program. They sent a speech and a development(?) therapist out to our house to check his progress. Back in December (when he still couldn't hear) he was way behind on verbal development but wasn't deemed eligible for the program because he was doing so well in the other areas, and it was hoped that the ear tubes would resolve things. In May, another speech therapist, after hearing him talk, urged me to have Elias tested again "ASAP," which sort of concerned me; hence this appt. Although I don't have their report back, I get the impression that the B23 people have absolutely no concerns. I felt the silly bragging mom, proudly answering their questions virtually all in the affirmative, and Elias enthusiastically performed all sorts of tasks put to him. I mentioned the alphabet thing a few times, but that didn't really fit into their questionnaire--surely, way too advanced! They were more concerned with things like knowing colors, drawing, and pretend play, which he's done for months.

These same 3 momentous days saw two more Elias developments. Firstly, he started sticking his hand in his mouth. He sorta sucks, sorta gnaws, sorta licks it--basically a big mess. This really exacerbates his drooling and hardly encourages adult contact. It's also started spreading to his wanting to lick or just mouth at me at every opportunity (ick). It seems borderline obsessive. I suspect this will be a long discipline issue because it's so hard to get him to stop, but I haven't made a huge deal of it yet. Secondly, more pleasantly, he started reciting the alphabet now, not just pointing out letters (which he does all day now, when he sees text on books, boxes, and signage), but can say many in order. I say "A" and he says "B! C! F!" (he likes getting the F in there as much as possible). He also does E-F, H-I, KLM, OPQ, and WXYZ . We enjoy yelling out the alphabet when we're in the car.

The week's not quite done yet. This morning we went to one of the smaller farmers' markets, and this afternoon we plan to go to the Ethiopian Madison Adoptive Families picnic at the zoo.

morning ABCs

Elias' "reading" ability amazed me yet again this morning. Is this just the mom in me, or is he really quite unusually advanced for his age?

After hosting a Madison Single Moms by Choice BBQ last night (which was great!), I didn't clean up a whole lot, so toys are everywhere even more than usual. After being awoken at 5:54am by Elias' clapping, this time accompanied by "Elwo? Elwo?" ('Hello'), I changed his diaper and was led out, stumbling, to a living room strewn with wooden alphabet blocks. While I fiddled with the remote, waiting for PBS to begin its broadcast day which just might enable me to go back to bed for 1/2 hour, Elias plopped himself down in the midst of the blocks. In quick succession, he handed me blocks while confidently declaring the letter on each of them: D! L! M! P! S! F! D! O! M! (OK, that last one was really a W, but that totally counts). The only one he got wrong was mistaking an E for F. He was very proud of himself, and I am too. Have I mentioned that he's a genius?

BTW, I was able to snatch another 20 minutes in bed. That was nice. Another little bonus this morning was on the way to daycare, only about a mile from home. I had his window down and he was loving the warm wind in his face, laughing, squealing, & giggling and thrashing head, arms and legs in delight: an irresistable pictue of unbounded joy. For both of us.

3rd & 4th rundown

Last night I went with some friends to American Players' Theatre, one of my favorite things. I think I've gone every year but one since 1990 but nearly wrote off this year, foregoing my typical large order of early-bird (heavily discounted) tickets. I learned they had seats for the 3rd & 4th of July at half off, so I sent out a request for babysitting. A & C, two simply wonderful college girls and Elias' favorite sitters, kindly stayed with him from 6:30 until after midnight, even though they only got to play with him til 7:15, when he went to bed. Having a night out was such a rare treat for me. I was all excited for about 2 days beforehand. Unfortunately, I'd gotten so little sleep this week, and then ran around like crazy all of yesterday (getting stuff done since I had the day off work with Elias at daycare), I was really really tired when the time actually came. Still, it was psychologically refreshing.

Elias blessedly slept in an "extra" hour this morning, giving me 5 hours of sleep. Oh, to double that! Well, partly to keep myself awake, I decided to take Elias to a neighborhood festival. Friends D&S suggested we meet there at 11 or 11:30, but I was really banking a lot on our 12:00 nap so we went early without them. It was really neat: a true hometown 4th of July. There was an unlikely-looking band all dressed up, balloons, face painting, a rented blow-up bouncing structure, and games like beanbag tosses and a cakewalk. I bought a few 50-cent tickets for Elias to win some candy (the consolation prize for all the games) and just hung out and watched all the people. He likes caramel. As it approached noon, though, he was getting pretty tired so we left. He fell asleep about a mile from home so hard that he barely awoke when I extracted him from the carseat, took off his shoes and put him to bed. Then I eagerly went to bed too, and slept deeply until he woke me up 3 hours later. Really nice, but still not long enough!

Elias of course woke up hungry. He's recovered most of his appetite after last week, but still retains a little of the pickiness. It wasn't much of an issue, though, when he got turkey, green beans, broccoli, and blueberries for snack. He sent me back for more blueberries ("more bwu-bu?").

We then read some books and went outside to let out the chickens. We played a bit in the back yard, on the mini play structure D&S gave him and wrestling on the grass, then got yesterday's remaining laundry off the line. Elias immediately emptied the basket of clean clothes, mixing in lots of dried lawn clippings for the organic touch. We went back in, me to collapse on the couch, him to play with various basement toys. Then he asked for "Wa-wa?" so we went back upstairs for a drink and more books. I tried to elicit his help to clean up the livingroom and his room, but ended up doing it all myself while he flipped though books he couldn't bear putting away. When I asked where the balls were for his hammer-and-ball set, he immediately ran to his crib and laid on his belly to look underneath, and sure enough, there they were. He can fish them out with a hanger most of the time, but they were beyond his reach in the far corner. He had great fun hammering them through the holes in the bench, then hitting the balls together, then hitting wall--which I immediately stopped with a "No"--then hitting them against his playchest which made nearly the same amount of noise (and which I allowed--'choose your battles,' you know). He drifted from that to more book-gazing to playing music on his "Baby Tad" frog toy on his own, allowing me some time to finish the laundry and other housekeeping.

Then it was back outside. I tried to plant some of my new & pricey prairie plants that've been sitting in my driveway for a week now and actually succeeded in planting 5, despite Elias' extraordinary--although unintentional--efforts to block any progress. He was continuously trying to climb on me, falling & stepping on the plants, begging to wear my gloves, "helping" shovel, filling the holes back in with dirt, and insisting to "sit!" on me and hear a song. I kept thinking there was no way he could be so good-naturedly disruptive even if he had a staff of interns working for him to plot out and direct his sabotage. I also had to keep an eye out for my rooster Verdi, who at times gets mean, yet fascinates Elias, who calls him by name, along with the hens Emily (aka "Elmo"), Cinnamon, and D3. Cinnamon, too, apparently was in on the stop-the-planting conspiracy, eating the plants and crowding me while Elias kept excitedly calling my attention to his touching her back or head ("Eye! Eye!").

After a big dinner and bathtime, Elias had a whole sippycup of milk and gladly went to bed by 7:30. I went back outside to feed the chickens, get a couple more plants in, add some lawn clipping for the garden, and do some pretty heavy tree-trimming and brush removal before it got too dark and the mosquitoes decided to break through my Off armour. I spent some time in the basement getting ready for tomorrow's BBQ then went to bed early...only to pick up my laptop for a quick blog. Ack! How in the heck did it get to be tomorrow already!?!

Twos on the Fourth

Elias started counting with words today. Well, word. He "counts" up to five with me, pointing at a series of items when I ask him how many, but usually just says "Uhh...Uhh...Uhh..." along with my "One...Two...Three..." When unloading the dishwasher (pretty much his only "chore"), he identifies the items as he takes them out one by one then hands them to me to put away. So, tonight, I got lots of "Mama's spoon," "Elias' [spoon]," "bowl" "big plate" and so on... then he said "two!" and handed me 2 spoons together. He doubled up one more time, on his forks, and again handed them off to me proclaiming "two!" I guess he figures one of something is self-evident, and only an unusual pairing up deserves a spoken description.

I'm getting more two word spoken sentences now, too, although he's signed 2-3 words together for a while now, and of course "Pleeeeeze" added to book and cookie requests. This morning he ran up to me and very clearly said "Eat, apple" then got very excited when I actually went and sliced up an apple for him. This was extra neat, because I think I've only given him a raw apple a couple times, the last one probably months ago. He must've seen that Granny Smith I had in the fruit bowl and'd been thinking about it.

Cute cute cute!

Elias was just so darned cute this morning that I had to take a picture, even though it made me late for work. This doesn't even capture it, with him all giggly and active.

He's been facinated by Mommy's book (C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters) this week, snatching it from the nightstand and flipping through at every opportunity. It might be because it's the only book he knows as "Mommy's" or, strangely enough, doesn't have pictures...or maybe he's been reading it and likes CSL as much as I!