bloon_1

bloon_1
Originally uploaded by doctorlizardo

Now We Are Two

Limelet is 2 today!  But we're having his celebration on Saturday.  Well, I may give him a prezzie tonight, and I did take cookies to his day care today.  But the day of kid fun stuff will be Saturday.

Odds

I keep forgetting to write--okay, wait, I'm not forgetting, I just don't have the time to do it.  

Do-over:

I keep not having the time to write about all the stuff I think that I want to keep a record of, like the time recently when we were visiting some acquaintances and Limelet saw the father (or grandfather now, I guess) coming up the basement stairs towards him bearing a big, (sharp) metal trailer-truck toy from the '70s for him to play with.  He was so delighted that he clapped his hands and was frozen to the spot in open-mouthed ecstasy.  We sure had a hard time prying him away from that truck later when we had to leave, I'll tell you that. It was traumatic.  But the earlier part was great fun.

I may have mentioned before that Limelet is now completely obsessed with contruction vehicles (or tucka beeps).  I would say that tucka beep is the phrase that most often leaves his lips during any given day lately.  (Daddy says doggo beeps, but that's his take on it.)  He also runs to the front windows (Limelet, not TheLimey) when he hears a siren, because he wants to see the la-la tuck.  He now knows the nearby hospital as the la-la 'ome, because that's where the la-las live, of course.

It's been quite a while since he said  a-a-a-a-pole (apple); he now just says appole.  He's developed a lot of pronunciation skills in addition to increasing his vocabulary.

In the past couple months he also developed a strange nursing quirk.  It started as him wanting to stick his hand into my tummy folds while nursing, and gradually developed into wanting to rest his thumb or finger in my bellybutton.  In fact, now if he can't reach my bellybutton, he tears at my waistband and loudly demands but-ton.  I imagine that I've allowed him to develop a behavior that will later be some bizarre f#t1sh.  (Apologies, future girlfriend/wife!)  I guess some kids have to play with their mothers' hair while nursing, so it's not objectively strange in that sense.  It's just conditioned association.  But--button?  Really.

Earlier this year he was highly amused by a Youtube video featuring a cartoon blowfish humorously deflating.  Recently I got him a video of 1930s Disney animal cartoon shorts, and one has a blowfish that inflates, is subsequently eaten by a penguin, repeatedly inflates while inside the penguin, is popped out of the penguin, and wriggles off in an inflated huff.  That cartoon makes Limelet laugh his little behind off.  But again, I worry that somehow this will develop into one of those truly odd inflation f#t1shes.  (If you don't know what I'm talking about, consider yourself lucky.)

Limelet started his new day care last week and seems content with it.  He didn't cry when dropped off by either of us, and he is sleeping and eating fine while there.  I think he is still a little leery about the separation aspect, but is becoming more at home with the whole concept.  I will be happy when he's been there a few weeks and it starts feeling familiar to him.  

It certainly seems a lot less chaotic than the chain daycare we were using here (though in Michigan it was  slightly less so), and all the kids in his "class" are new, so they're all new together.  They do have great toys there, small class sizes,  tidy rooms, and a cute little teeny toilet for training.  It's especially awesome that it's only a few blocks away.  (The day care, not the toilet.)  There is also going to be a nursing home in the same building, so apparently they're looking into doing some sort of intergenerational granny-nanny thing, which might be nice.

Even if my contract is not renewed or updated or something, we'll likely keep him in the same facility, now that he's in.  The only bad thing so far is their inflexibility about scheduling, but we'll deal with that later, right?

Leaps and Bounds

I can hardly even keep up with all the changes in Limelet during the past month or so.  He's exploding in a flurry of development.

He's talking up a storm these days, and immediately mimics everything he hears.  Not always understandable to others, but it's getting to be more so.  A few days ago he started pronouncing nursie as nursie instead of nehnie.  Well, he still says neh-neh for shorthand, but says nursie as the more formal version.  However, he does appear to have somewhat of his Daddy's accent for now, so it comes out as nuhsie.  

He also generated his first complex sentence the other day (if I remember my high-school grammar, which is doubtful).  Correct me if needed.  I hate not knowing. 

Anyway, we were out walking with Limelet in the stroller, and a motorcycle went past.  He reported motorbike.  I gave him a few squirrel peanuts, which he loves to shell and eat himself.  He tossed one on the sidewalk and exclaimed Bah-bah mobike eh peadut, linking those two disparate events and objects with an and.  I was ever so proud of him. He even says squirrel now (koi-oi-o).

Limelet had to go to Kindercare a few days a week for several weeks until a space opened up at the new, really cool daycare that is associated with the College and is only a couple blocks from home and work.  Poor thing has had so many transitions lately. He had diarrhea for several weeks around the time of moving, especially the week we were packing.  I think the tension and stress and unpredictability got to him.  He got over the worst of the transition to Kindercare just in time to be moved to the new daycare, but we really want him there.  It's a lot nicer, and way closer (walk a few blocks instead of drive five miles).  And because it's subsidized, it's even a bit cheaper.  I hope we can keep him there through kindergarten, as they are apparently developing kindergarten classes, too. I want some stability for him.

He seems greatly recovered from the move now.  He loves the new place and seems noticeably happier.  Possibly because his parents are happier, I don't doubt.  It's a million times easier to take care of him there, as there is space for him to play while one cooks or tidies up a bit.  He can walk out into the back yard and play with twigs, balls, or the neighbor's doggie.  Even the bathtub is bigger and easier to bathe him in!  I instituted a policy of us all simultaneously doing activities that we were having trouble getting him to do, such as brushing teeth or eating breakfast.  It has worked extremely well.  He appears to be very socially influenced (by us).

He's still obsessed with balls, especially basketball (ba-bawh).  He calls American footballs eggy-baw, because of the shape.

Certain odd things--words, phrases--have struck him as especially funny, mainly things in his videos (which he does watch maybe half an hour from time to time).  1. Bunny character talking while blowing dandelion fluff, "breakfast time - pffff; lunchtime - pffff; teatime - pffff; suppertime - pffff".  Especially the "teatime" part.   2. Arthur Aardvark begging for his puppy to be allowed in the house, "Please please please please please!" 3. Two mouse characters  saying to one another "Twelve?" "Twelve!".  He asks to see those segments over and over, and talks about them later.  I think they just strike his fancy as interesting or unexpected sounds.