Today Micah told me, several times, that he wanted me to have the sun.
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Today, I did not shower until 11am. It took me three hours to drink a red bull. Micah asked me to read him a book, snuggled up, and peed on me. The only errand I wanted to run did not get accomplished because he fell asleep as soon as we got in the car.
I also had three hours of nearly uninterrupted play time with him. We tickled. We laughed. We invented several new games. I sang "Part of Your World" about 18 times (it's his favorite song). Micah has always had a strong personality, but in the last few days, it has deepened in complexity. He is definitely going through the transition from "baby" to "child" and while it is very, very frustrating at times, it's also amazing to watch. We have watched the same 8 - minute clip on YouTube about assembling a toy fire truck, I don't know, at least a dozen times today. I keep putting it back on because he's not just passively observing anymore. He watches intently, and reacts to what happens. He finds his toy fire truck and points to the parts as they are assembled: wheels, ladders, hoses, etc. He is growing up & it's so exciting to watch. Then he asks for a yogurt snack, eats it with his hands, and wipes said hands all over the sliding glass doors. He is a toddler, after all. There is an episode of the kids' show Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood called "Love Day" in which they talk all about how to show people you love them. In a musical number, Daniel draws a heart on the screen, picks it up, and gives it to his mom (and later his dad). This afternoon, I was practicing shapes with Micah, and drew a heart (among other shapes). He pointed at it, and I said, "Heart!" and he almost tackle-hugged me. Then he tried to pick it up off the ground. Obviously he could not (I drew it with chalk). Remembering the episode, I grabbed a piece of paper and cut out a big heart. He excitedly grabbed it and colored red chalk on it, then handed it to me. Then he ran inside and asked to watch TV. I love you too, little man.
After watching Micah attempt to eat a piece of yellow chalk, I decided it was a good idea to offer him a banana. He is currently halfway through with banana #2.
I'm starting a new post series called "Today's Childhood" where I will be posting very short posts every day with something I want to remember. Often I have a moment that I want to share/remember, but it's not really long enough to write a whole post about. It's just a funny thing that happened. So here's the very first one.
While getting ready this morning, Micah found his fire truck pajamas and requested to wear them. Me: Micah, jammies are for sleeping. Are you ready to go back to sleep or do you want to go downstairs and play? Micah: *looks at jammies, goes over to the bed, lays down as if to go to sleep* Me: Micah, it's 9:30 in the morning. Don't you want to go downstairs and play with your dump truck?? Micah: *squeezes eyes shut* Micah has a book with the lyrics to "The Wheels On The Bus." It's adorably illustrated with anthropomorphic animals and it even has actual wheels on the front and back covers so you can roll the book when you're finished reading/singing. I taught him all the hand motions and even made up a verse to include him (the Micah on the bus says "ah ah ah!").
He loves it. Possibly a little too much. His favorite two verses are the horn that goes "beep beep beep" and the driver that says "move on back!" and started requesting those verses by doing the hand signals very emphatically until you sing the appropriate line. This was fine. This, I could handle. Then Grandma came. Grandma taught Micah that there can be other verses! You can make up verses about ANYTHING. Which has opened up a world of exploration for Micah and frustration for me. The airplane he flies up in the sky! The doggy he goes woof woof woof! The red ladybug he flies around! The yellow ladybug he flies around! The front end loader he scoops up dirt! You must sing about whatever object Micah has indicated. If a truck goes by, don't say van! Make sure you use the correct color ladybug because HE KNOWS NOW AND HE WILL CALL YOU ON YOUR SHIT. I've started saying "I don't know any songs about [insert object here]" because I can't instantly come up with a line about a purse, a windmill, a vacuum, or a cement truck. Most of the time, it works. Sometimes, it doesn't. Maybe he's just trying to train me to become a filk song writer. When Micah was about 9 or 10 months, he started pointing at objects and exclaiming, "AH!" This became a running joke in our family, because though he babbled with all the appropriate consonant sounds for his age/development, the only distinct word/sound he made was "ah!" For months, most of my day was filled with some variation of:
*point* "AH!" *point over there* "AH!" *point out the window* "AH!" Needless to say, it got old very, very quickly. Especially when he screamed "AAAAHHH!" excitedly Right. In. My. Ear. Luckily for my eardrums, the "AH!" phase has faded in recent weeks as he is trying to copy the actual names of things. This makes for an entirely different, but equally as draining game: *point to ottoman* Me: Ottoman. *point to toy horse* Me: Horse. *point back to ottoman* Me: Ottoman. *point back to horse* Me: Horse. And back, and forth. And back, and forth. This is repeated about a dozen times a day with any combination of of objects. Sometimes the objects are related and sometimes they are not. Sometimes the names sound similar and sometimes they don't. But the reign of a new word has been coming the last few days: Dahma. I have no idea where it came from. My best guess right now is that he's trying to say "That one!" but every time I get convinced that is what it means, he goes and uses it in some way that clearly does not mean "That one!" Sometimes, all I can do is look at him & say, "I got nothing, kid." We took Micah to the Renaissance Festival last weekend. Jamie and I have gone every year since we've been together except last year, because we were concerned about a little baby in so much sun/heat. We actually went two weekends in a row, which we have never done before. Two weeks ago, we went with another family whose younger daughter is six weeks older than Micah. They are best, best friends. She brought fairy wings. When she took them off to sit in our stroller, Micah insisted on putting them on. It was adorable. We ended up going back this past weekend because one of our very best friends was performing with his fencing group. That's McKenzie on the right (having the pole hammer pointed at him). It's actually not just fencing that he does-it's called HEMA: Historic European Martial Arts. It includes fencing swords, but also daggers and shields and all sorts of other things. This is the first time we've seen him fight in person. He won every match we saw. He is amazing. I felt like such a proud mama watching him fight after hearing him talk about it for so long.
Micah thoroughly enjoyed both days. He liked hanging out somewhere new with his bestie, but he also sat in awe the entire time we were watching the sparring bouts. I guess the clash of steel draws in even the smallest spectators. Jamie's grandparents are in town for Passover, so we have been going over to the in-laws' every day. It is so wonderful to see them, and I love having so many people to entertain Micah. The only problem is that we basically aren't home for over a week and it's a little exhausting (and hard to do laundry). But Micah loves his grandparents and though it takes him a little while to warm up to his great-grandparents, he loves them too. But he is a toddler boy, and has a tendency to make a mess. He loves to eat and wants to share everything you have, and that makes quite a messy toddler. See the Chocolate Mousse Incident: But he also tries to be helpful and put things away when he is finished. And really, he's such a happy kid. How can you say no splashing to such a cute face? So I do a little bit more laundry now. Clothes can be washed. Having happy, thriving children is much, much more important.
Most small children I have known (and some older children as well) have what many refer to as a "lovey." It's usually a blanket or a stuffed animal to which the cold is unusually attached, and ends up being the bane of every adults' existence. Every parent knows the panic of searching for the lovey at bedtime, with an over tired child who can't remember where it got left. Enter my son. Light of my life. Heir to my kingdom. Do you see those two balls with him? One us pink & one is green. When I took this photo, he had been carrying them non-stop for about six hours, plus or minus about 15 seconds.
They came in one of those sets where you put the balls on the top & hit them with a hammer, and they go rolling through a little maze and come out the bottom. The balls are just big enough for Micah to hold in his hand, and he gravitated toward them immediately. It's been almost a week and he hasn't missed a day, though I did quickly impose a travel rule, that the balls can come in the car but they must stay there-the balls do not come in the store with us. He has accepted this rule so far. We'll see how long it lasts. In the mean time, I'm contacting the manufacturer about getting more. And tomorrow's mission is to make him a little pouch so he can carry them & have use of his hands. |
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August 2015
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