Odds & Ends

I got back from my LONG (well, 2 day) business trip on Friday night, so Elias and I have been spending extra close cuddle time together this weekend. It seems he talks so much more now, although I'm not as good at understanding him as I wish. I find quite often that he is just reciting lines from one of his books or a song. Some common ones that I did figure out:

• "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.