Six

The not so surprising thing about a child in daycare is that he will suddenly spout some random knowledge that you're pretty sure you haven't taught him. The Scoot and T have been working on "two" and it's adorable to see the T hold up two things and say "two," but imagine my surprise when he suddenly counted to six out of the blue while we lazed in bed on Saturday morning. Imagine my even bigger surprise when he did it again later while counting pieces of chalk into a toy pot at the knit shop.

Ten Little Ladybugs is one of T's favorite books right now. He likes it because the bee has a bucket of honey and, in fact, he asks for the book by the name "honey" and proceeds to talk about the bee, the bucket, and the honey once we get to "Five little ladybugs flying near a hive ..." Believe it or not, I haven't been stopping to count the little plastic ladybugs on each page. Instead we focus on the animal/insect and often T will fill in the blank if I pause to let him do so. I especially love when he fills in the "hophopper."

T likes to play fill in the blank with nursery rhymes. In Sing a Song of Six Pence He fills in money and honey without fail! I've really got to get that on video because he says these words so perfectly.

The Pied Piper

Have I mentioned that T is REALLY into music? On July 31st we attended a Pioneer Day celebration where myself and T's aunt E played some fiddle music with a little improvised band (violins, flutes, and guitars) for a very hot mid day hoedown. One of the early attractions was a bagpiper who came out and played in a large open space in front of the barn. Said space was empty except for Mr. Bagpiper and this cute toddler who stood about five feet in front of him watching in wonder for minutes.

This awesome photo was taken by Chris Nascimento with a telephoto lens, so sadly there wasn't room for Mr. Bagpiper, but it is highly focused on my favorite subject.

T finally wanders back to Mom, in the crowd.

Later at the Hoedown, T didn't want to leave and every time the music stopped he asked for more - even though it was way past his nap time and he could hardly keep his eyes open.

Camp Erin Bear 2012

The knit shop I frequent, Knitting Bee, sponsors an annual event to collect teddy bears in hand knitted outfits for Portland's Camp Erin kids. Camp Erin is a free bereavement camp for kids ages 6-17 who have lost a loved one, and each child receives a bear when they arrive at the camp. This is my first Camp Erin contribution and my first ever Teddy Bear outfit.

Moke and Sdeam

Monday was a sick day for T. He had a fever on Sunday and had to stay home from daycare with me. He was in a pretty good mood most of the day so we went out for some shopping and met Aunt E and cousins S and A at the school for lunch and some play time on the playground.

T plays dress up at the Nordstrom Rack on Monday morning.

After visiting T's doctor we stopped by my favorite toy store, Piccalo Mondo, on the way to the pharmacy for antibiotics. Piccalo Mondo has a lot of demo toys for T to play with including train, car, dollhouse, block, and random gadget set ups. Unfortunately they are near the back of the store and the garden/beach tools are at the front. T is fascinated with all things house/yard work and quickly latched onto a child sized plastic rake (he rakes our yard with the enormous adult size rake while I water the garden). T was raking the store's doormat with vigor and I couldn't pry him away from his obtrusive post in front of the door. He kept saying "moke" ... "deam." I looked all around to see where the smoke or steam was, but I couldn't figure it out - no smokers, no nasty car exhaust, no restaurant chimneys. Finally, I looked down and realized that every time he smacked the doormat a little cloud of dust billowed up. I know from experience, that he has much sharper eyes than I do and that if he's talking about something he really does see it (even if I do not) or something very much like it. He never ceases to amaze me.

At the doctor we found out T had and ear infection as well as sores on his throat and tongue. Within 12 hours of starting antibiotics he was back to his old silly self. I'm so glad our pediatrician is so awesome about working us in for same day appointments. T was in such a good mood on Monday morning I figured he was on the mend, but his mood declined over the course of the day and he woke up from a good 2 hour nap in foul spirits. I talked to the nurse at 3pm and they gave us an appointment at 3:30. Amazing! I was surprised to see that he still hasn't put on any weight - he's been in the 23-24lb range for months. He's getting taller, but seems to be on a weight plateau. He's still got a little layer of baby fat and eats well, so I'm not too concerned. He's a very active little man.

The Shopping Cart Nano and Other Fantasies

Last weekend I took T to Costco with me. As soon as I stuck him in the huge Costco shopping cart he started moving his hands back and forth across the handlebar. I asked him what he was doing and he said "Nano." He was playing the piano, duh. I totally got it once he told me. I love to laze in bed in the morning and I'm slowly training T to enjoy it too. Sometimes we talk as we laze. Yesterday morning he started saying "pop ... pop" and then he'd clap his hands. Once again, I asked what he was doing. "bubble, pop!" clap. We continued popping imaginary bubbles for a few minutes before getting up and starting our day.

Where's the Banana

T loves "Goodnight Gorilla." We've been reading it near daily for months and I almost always ask "where's the banana." He's very good at finding and pointing to the banana on any page, but recently he started pointing to his tummy and saying "tummy" instead of pointing to the banana in the book. He also used to say "RAWER" when I asked "what does the lion say?" Now he says "op'n it." Apparently the lion has evolved from making standard animal sounds to asking the gorilla to open the cage door.

Domestic Duties

We had a great time visiting Oma and Opa in California last weekend. T got to spend A LOT of time outside and learned to say a few new things:

• His name, Yay!
• "Toy"
• "hard work" - Opa drained the small pond in the Atrium in honor of our visit and T enjoyed playing in the concrete basin. He especially enjoyed asking people to get into the basin so he could take their hand and pull them out. It was hard work
• "go go go go go" - I first heard this when I walked outside to see The Scoot pushing him around the backyard on a riding toy. He was saying "go go go go go" repeatedly. I found out later that he learned that watching the Tour De France with Oma, Opa, and The Scoot.

Oma has a lot of fun toys. Some of them are real toys and others are tools that can be used as toys. T liked Oma's "lawnmower" toy just as much as he likes the one he has at home. He also spent some quality time with the broom and rake.

Thankfully T is fascinated with airplanes, so the trips to and from CA were quite painless. He slept most of the way there and although he was awake for the whole return flight he was really well behaved. We didn't even have to pull out any toys.

Mowing the walkway in Oma and Opa's back yard.
San Mateo, CA
June 28, 2012

Raking
San Mateo, CA
June 29, 2012

Rotate it

Last night T cried out, so I went in to his room. He was still lying down in his bed so I patted him on the back to calm him down. A few seconds later, he asked for some water. He usually sits up to drink, and I prefer this because it doesn't spill, but this time he was too tired or lazy to sit. So I fumbled around for his face to try to find his mouth in the dark. I fumbled for quite a while as he was also moving around and I may have poked him in the eye a few times. I gave up and simply placed the sippy cup near his face. He drank a a few small sips and took a break. Then he said "to-tat-it" (rotate it). I nearly busted out laughing. It was so cute to hear him say that while he rotated the sippy cup to position the spout to fit better in his mouth. I wish I had an audio recording of him saying that phrase.