Sunday, November 29, 2009
weekend ends
Saturday, November 28, 2009
a traditional black Friday
Elias let me sleep in, happily watching PBS Kids and playing with his new truck. After breakfast he spotted the next door horses out the window and proclaimed "I clean up!" and hurried about, picking up the many toys and books scattered about the living room. This was to butter me up so we could go outside. So we got coats and shoes on. As we were leaving he ran back in and grabbed the bag of carrots in the kitchen for the horses. I let him bring one carrot, supplemented with apple peels from breakfast and some aging celery. He was so cute running over to the pasture with the carrot held out in front. Unusually, though, the horses kept their distance, even the big brown one Elias calls "Happy." We got a few to approach within vegetable tossing distance, and one took a tentative bite of the carrot I held out. When I held Elias up with the carrot I discovered the problem--as the horse took a bite, my arm protecting Elias' connected with the newly-electrified top wire. I got quite a jolt, and from his response, apparently the horse did too, and took off running. Elias didn't understand why they were rejecting his offers and wanted to follow, now picking grass for them (since apparently carrots weren't working). I distracted him by suggesting we walk across the cornfield to check out the tractor parked in the distance. It was a nice, sunny, crisp day and he liked stomping though small puddles which had iced over overnight. After admiring the huge tires on the tractor and a giant abandoned pumpkin, we set off back, Elias forging his way through high weeds at the edge of the cornfield and I following. He suddenly plopped down on his back on a bunch of fluffy dried grass and invited me to join him "I lie down...Mommy lie down?" So we lay there on our backs, pointing out clouds and neat looking plants, and generally enjoying nature. We did that a couple times on the way back. He wanted to visit the mailbox, his thinly-veiled excuse to watch cars whiz by, and was duly rewarded by a couple of fast trucks "Whooooooaaaaaa!!!" Then we played catch and some basketball (he yells "Yea! Mommy!" and claps when I make a basket), and let the chickens out and gave them some corn. What a great morning. I pity the clueless, stressed out masses at the mall--this is what the day after Thanksgiving should be.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
'Dillo empathy
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Odds & Ends
- "Bob's tea" (left at home when Bob the Builder went to his work site.)
- "Oh, Corduroy! Why didn't [you wait for me? I went looking for a] pocket!"
- "Check out this cool creature." (an alpine salamander)
- "A new fish bowl? No, couldn't be!"
Elias corrected my grammar today. I don't remember the direct object, but the conversation was along the lines of: Elias--I eat carrot. Me--Maybe you can eat two carrot. Elias--Two carrots (looking at me and emphasizing the 'S').
Yesterday I asked him how many horses he saw in the field beside our house, and he counted all the way to 20! Pretty neat...even if there are only six horses. I partially heard a radio program that same day that said kids don't really get the concept of numbers beyond 1, 2, and "many" until about 3.5 years old. Today he counted--or, rather, recited to 12 in Spanish.
Elias loves looking at pictures and video clips of himself on "Abu," his name for my laptop computer. I showed him what button to push to replay them, and he'll sit there watching them over and over, his face lit up with joy as he relives memories of his not-so-long-ago past. His favorites are "pool," "park" and "hokey pokey" (all on YouTube--search on "utubecarrie").
Despite the early false start, I backed off working on potty training. He's interested in the whole potty training issue, but I don't think he realizes what his body's doing yet. He sits on his potty, and tells me more often now when he has poopy diapers--but then immediately denies it, because he hates being changed--but he is quite often mistaken. Recently I was sitting in the living room and he asked me if I had to go potty. When I said no, he ran behind me, pulled out my waistband to peer down, and declared "Mommy no poopy."--so apparently they don't believe him when he denies it at daycare, either.
When he wants me to do something for him he often comes up to me saying "please; thank you. Please; thank you, Mommy." Today he sneezed and said "bless you!" It's soo cute with that little high-pitched voice.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Song & Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWeoYfSDgrs
Halloween
A nighttime walk in a strange, decorated neighborhood with hundreds of costumed kids roaming the streets can distract someone even from Thomas. I suspect he didn't really know what people were giving him (he doesn't get much candy), but he certainly enjoyed traipsing around with the gang, trying to keep up with the big kids. The second house we came to was un-manned, with only a bowl of candy on the porch. Elias quite naturally took the candy in his bag he'd gotten from the first house, and started to put it in the bowl--aw, my little Robin Hood. He did get the hang if it, strange as it is, and had a lot of fun. He got tons of complements on his costume--one car packed with teenagers even stopped and all inside oohed and aahhed, and declared him the costume winner of the night. With all the stairs in that neighborhood, and the missed nap, and the crying, we were both pretty tired after a couple blocks, and parted company for home. He slept in an hour later than normal (2, really, considering DST) and we both took very long, deep naps today.