jump_5

jump_5
Originally uploaded by doctorlizardo

Music

Limelet has become smitten with performing music of any kind.  His main musical idol is Raffi, and he uses a tennis racket to pretend he's playing along with the Raffi concert video.  He also does all the bows, dancing, and hand motions, as well as copying Raffi's banter with the audience.  Limelet played with a child-sized guitar at a party the other evening.  He was completely enchanted by it, and wept heartbrokenly about leaving it all the trip home.  We're getting him one for Christmas.  In an odd coincidence, we found a little toy drum set placed  out at the curb for trash on the way home.  He's been playing it with chopsticks, and of course wanted to take it to bed.  (For once I said no!)  He also has been playing his little keyboard (garage sale) and "playing" the microphone. 

 

I wonder which thing(s) he'll settle down to?

Ages

It's  been ages since I last blogged, and I don't even really have any pressing excuse.  It just seems to take forever to do all the endless lists of stuff that I've been saving up to do "when I'm done with my PhD."  And daily home maintenance takes forever, too, though you wouldn't know it to look at my house.

 

Anyway, we took Limelet to the Adventure Farm last weekend, which is the last weekend it's open for the season.  He loves it, especially the conveyor belts that feed the goats, the fuzzy chicks, the giant trampoline-pillow things, the fries, the water pumps, the...anyway.  We like it, too.  It's big enough to be interesting, but small enough not to be overwhelming.

 

Limelet is doing really well.  He actually likes daycare now, and yesterday when I dropped him off he smiled and blew me a kiss.  He's also become much more outgoing with others.  At the park the other day he asked a slightly bigger boy if he wanted to go down the slide together, and started a conversation about the giant slide at the Adventure Farm. 

We both have our (regular) flu shots now, which is good (Daddy still needs his).  Limelet asked the nurse if she was going to give him a shot--he was excited about it.  I tried to warn him that it might hurt, but he was still a little taken aback by the ouch.  Nevertheless he was very brave, and then at bathtime gave Daddy and me scores of "shots" and insisted that we say "ow" and otherwise act like it hurt. 

 

Guess it's a good thing I got him a doctor coat and kit awaiting for Christmas, although he still wears his firefighter outfit every. single. day.  At least now he wears the nice shiny and sturdy new one I got him instead of the flimsy, hole-ridden one with the buckles falling off that he'd been wearing for months.  It took Halloween to get him to wear the new one, but now he likes it.  Limelet's such a big boy now, not even very toddler-like anymore. He's moved on from using the term "ducka" to "construction vehicle," though I don't know exactly when that happened.

 

His mood has also been very good generally, and even his sleep isn't too bad since we gave up on trying to get him to sleep earlier than 10.  If it wasn't for that bloody late two-hour-long nap at daycare, we could do it, but it just won't work with that nap.  This means that we never have even the hope of an hour or two to ourselves.  However, it also means that he won't wake up for four hours in the middle of the night, and then have a screwed-up sleep schedule for three or four days, to be repeated ad infinitum.  We just all go to bed at 10 (we usually read after he sleeps, if only for a few minutes), and then all wake at 6:30 or 7:00.

 

His eating habits are as strange as ours. He loves sardines and cous cous, but doesn't particularly like peanut-butter sandwiches.  Figures.  The other day when I picked him up from daycare I brought him a hot homemade whole-wheat waffle and a sippy cup of herbal tea to have on the ride home.  He loved it.   He also always wants his own tea when we have ours, so I usually make him some decaf.

Now We Are Three

Limelet is three today!  We will do his birthday stuff tomorrow (balloon store, presents, cake) as it will be Saturday, but we did get cupcakes for his daycare class today.  It turns out that his little "best friend" in class has a birthday the day before his.

 

Limelet definitely speaks two languages now: English and American.  The other day I was in the kitchen with him and he told me he wanted to peel a buh-neah-nuh.   Then TheLimey walked in and Limelet told him he wanted to peel a buh-- he stopped himself-- a bih-nah-nah. He also sometimes drops his terminal r's on words and not at other times, depending who he's talking to.

 

After three weeks of trying the earlier bedtime of 9 or even 9:30, last night we gave up and went back to 10-ish.  If Limelet wasn't getting that bloody two-hour nap (and so late in the day!) at daycare, I'm certain we could do it.  But that nap just tips it. 

 

If he goes to bed even as early as 9:30, it's just too early--Limelet wakes after just one sleep cycle and then stays awake for 3-4 hours. That usually means he goes to sleep at 9-9:30, then wakes up at 1-2am, struggles  to go back to sleep for an hour, an hour and a half (he really tries--just can't close the deal), then he's simply broad awake until 5 am.  And therefore so am I.  It's exhausting It's also meant that TheLimey has had to go sleep in the office just to be able to get to work, because he can't be going to sleep at 5 am and getting up for work at 6.  It really ruins the entire day to for me and Limelet be up the entire night, and has a ripple effect into the next several days.  It messes with his daycare attendance, wioth my routine (such as it is), and everything.

 

It's maddening, because everything else about the daycare is really great.  Except that they're ruining our lives with this frikkin' naptime!

Big Boy

Yesterday when Limelet went potty, he stood up!  Just like that.  Apparently they've already taught him in day care.  I didn't know they'd be that throrough, but--it's working.

In other news, he's sick (home yesterday and today with congestion and fever), so his dental procedure for tomorrow has been canceled.  Rescheduled, rather.  I really wanted it over with, but it can't be helped.

Verbaltude

Limelet seems to be undergoing a verbal development spurt.  This week.  He's suddenly started sounding a lot more grown-up in his speech, though I think some of the things he's yoinked from daycare "teachers," or us, or even videos.  But ya gotta start with something, right?  He says things that make us, his parents, look at one another in perplexity (Where did he get that phrase? We don't say it!) 

 

The other day we heard that he told another child "stop your tears."  ??!!  It has to be something his teacher says, as neither of us says that.  The daycare teacher told us about it with pride, as evidence of his growing confidence with other children.  Well, we don't want him to be downright mean!  I hope he wasn't too mean. 

 

He's also suddenly started asking "why?" about everything all of a sudden--I don't think he really knows what why means, but he gets that it evokes a response about whatever we're discussing.  And he says it with such feeling.  For example, TheLimey and I were discussing the tuna roll I had just made for dinner.  Limelet:  "Tuna roll?  Whyyyy?"  It was pretty hilarious.  Finally, the other day he spouted back something I've said occasionally for years without even thinking about it.  "Mama, I want da other nursie.  Dis one's tapped out."  I couldn't stop laughing.  My laughter made Limelet laugh while nursing, which was also funny.

Oh Yeah...It's Potty Time

Limelet has been peeing on the potty several times a day most days now and is usually dry overnight.  I was going to use that one-day method of potty training that uses positive reinforcement, but he's just grown into it himself before I got around to it.  The one thing I did do right was to scuttle his kid-potty and get a wide, stable footstool for use on the big-people potty.  He just did not want to use that little plastic one, especially since the potties at daycare are normal toilets (though a bit small).  He climbs right up and sits down.  It's very cute.  He even did a poop on the potty for Daddy last weekend, while I was napping.  Yay Limelet!

 

Basically, this means that when he ages out of diapers we'll be starting a whole new diaper cycle with the new one, for about a 6-year-long stint of diaper changing.