Saturday, September 24, 2011

What a sense of humor this kid has already. I had him all wrapped up in a towel after his bath and then threw him on the bed for fun. He said, "Oh no, Abraham broke all to pieces!"

Then yesterday he was singing "What a Wonderful World" (which he learned at library story time, complete with sign language) and I told him I would be right back, I had to go to the bathroom. He immediately changed his song and sang, "What a wonderful pee pee!" And then cracked up. Who knew potty humor started so early!

Friday, September 23, 2011

Cute talker

You always hear about how routines and schedules are good for kids, especially young ones, as it lets them know what to expect and helps make transitions easier and such. I've been getting some concrete proof of this lately, now that Abraham is so much more talkative and expressive. We've never kept a strict "schedule" with him, just some general guidelines, like, he usually naps about 12:30-2:30 these days. But if I need to put him down a little earlier or even an hour or more late, then he's fine with it. Lately, though, if we're out in the morning, when I tell him that it's almost time to go, he says, "Go home, eat lunch, take nap." He knows the routine and likes it. He'll also tell me if he's ready to take a nap. When he wakes up in the morning, the first thing he says is "eat food." One day we had dinner much later than usual, around 7:30 when I came home from a meeting. For the next week, on days when I worked until 9, he wanted to eat as soon as I got home. Just one exception to our schedule made him think we had changed things up permanently. It's so interesting and cute.

His talking has really exploded this past month. He can seriously narrate events and experiences. When Anderson gets home from work, he asks Abraham what he did today, and Abraham will tell him pretty accurately. The super cute part is that, if he is repeating something that someone else said, he will use a really high-pitched voice. For instance, he might say: "Abraham color floor. Mommy [high-pitched] noooo." Cracks me up.

Other things that are funny:
If he is looking for something, he calls to it saying, "come out!"
He tells me to sit next to him while he's playing, and then says "closer."
He likes for me to pretend that a toy is sad so that he can do something to make it happy.
He's still writing songs but now also sings along to things that we listen to. I wish I could get this on video! But the camera/phone distracts him. Nothing warms my heart more, though, than hearing my 2 year old belt out: "Wilco will love you baby!"

Thursday, September 22, 2011

I ran across the idea today of keeping a one-sentence journal, to make it easy, sustainable, no pressure to come up with paragraphs each day or find the time to write. Just jot down a sentence each night that tells a little something about what happened during the day. I like the idea a lot, because there are a lot of random memories that I want to keep track of, but they don't necessarily lend themselves to an entire blog post. Or, I just don't have time to write a long post, even if I have ideas. But if at the very least I jot down a sentence each night, that's something. And knowing me, I'll probably have a hard time limiting myself to just one sentence! See: the paragraph you just read. Here's today's sentence(s):

I asked Abraham if he wanted some pita bread, and he said, "No thank you, mommy." First time he's ever said that. And he absolutely learned just by example, not me trying to teach him manners. So cute! He also calls one of his girl figurines "little miss muffin." Instead of muffet. I love it!

In other news (see? impossible to write just one sentence once I get started), I'm getting all crafty lately. Abraham's birthday party was a big success (I'll post pictures here soon, but you've probably seen them on FB already), so now I want to have a fall party! In all my spare time, I know. I also NEED to write more, and want to some. I've got these poetry ideas, but that stuff takes time and space. You can't write a poem in 30 minutes when you still have to do dishes and can hear a toddler running upstairs. At least, I can't. Maybe some people can. Tell me your secrets! I also want to bake more, especially now that it's fall. In fact, Abe and I made a sweet potato spice cake just the other day, that I sort of made up. I mean, I loosely followed a recipe. But that recipe didn't call for sweet potato. Or any of the spices I added. Or coconut. It was yum and reasonably healthy and real food.

And in kid crafts, I really want to make a quiet book! This seems like such an awesome (time-consuming, difficult, talent-requiring) project that you could really personalize for your kid, and would teach them things while keeping them quiet - a practically unheard of combination! Not sure that I can actually pull it off, but I'm dreaming about it. Maybe by the time Abraham is in high school I'll have one finished...

And that's a wrap! (Maybe next time it will be a rap. Groan. I know. I can't help myself.)

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

conversations

Early one morning:

Abraham: Get up! Peanut butter jelly sandwich!

Me: *groan*

Abraham: Sorry Mommy.



On our way out to eat brunch:

Me: We can get pancakes and eggs and bacon! Or sausage. Do you want bacon or sausage?

Abraham: Bacon AND sausage!


His first use of the word "and"! Haha. My little carnivorous baby!