Nick now knows his right from his left, although like using his fingers to count, he probably needs his feet to tell the difference. We practice right and left each time he puts on his shoes.This month, he's been given clearance to climb to and from the crib. We removed one side, replacing it with a 8-inch high bumper, and put a step for him to get out freely. With that, we secured the entire room by removing everything from the walls that would be enticing to climb, turning face-to-the-wall the furniture that he could use for climbing, and gating off the closet and door to exit the room. Still somehow, he pulled drawers from the lower dresser one day, carried them to the door, stacked them, and climbed over the gate. I know this because his mother had gated him in with gates 6-feet high when I came home from work that night. And he's broken one gate so far. He knows to stay in his bed at night time, but jumps out at daybreak and throws open the door to his room, yelling, "Happy Day, Mama!"
One of our father-to-son bonding activities is sharing a yummy bowl of ice cream. He still calls out loud, "ice cream!" after each bite. It's the one thing I can lure him with almost every time. Favorite new foods this month: tomato soup, Mama's homemade chicken soup, and western hash browns (known as 'potato noodles'). Mama made him an angel food cake, too, which he declared as, "Best cake ever!"
With linguistic perfection still on the horizon, we've been slow to correct some of his 'close but not quite' interpretations because they're just too darn entertaining. When he says 'music', it still sounds like 'moose tits'. And he calls his vitamins, 'Spider Mans' since the two sounded similar (but coincidentally there's old Spidey on the bottle, too.) He seems to be getting louder with age. Some days, he yells so much, he's hoarse for a couple days (which can be a pleasant alternative on occasion, I admit.)
I don't think we've spent money on a 'new' toy in months. He gets some re-treads from the resale shop (like his John Deere tractor), and is content with many of my old toys recovered from the attic. An old bag of spools (yes, those little wood cylinders for thread) have entertained him for almost two weeks. In one video, you'll see he built a microphone and began introducing us like a TV talk show (perhaps from days of endless footage of Walter Cronkite on TV; thank goodness we didn't let him watch any Michael Jackson coverage). He also loves his Tinkertoys, which he calls, 'back-togethers' because whatever is torn apart, he wants put back together. He's also coloring and painting more, with water paints. He makes paintings of his own hands (with his hands), and paints his face, his ears and anything withing 5 feet of the brush (not on the paper, literally paints ON them.) On his own, he paints, 'rocket trails' and 'happy faces'.
Favorite books this month: "The Grouchy Ladybug," and Dr. Seuss' "Sneeches" (which he calls Sneechers). He insists, "Read it again!"
One morning he awoke early while I was getting ready for work; I opened the bathroom door so he could see me at the sink from down the hall (sitting at the gate in his doorway). I shaved while we talked. That evening, he wandered off, down to the half-bath, climbed up to the sink, turned on water, and was splashing his face with both hands, as if to shave. That just amazes me.
Click here for 31st month pictures.
- Jason
