One down, 25 to go

E knows the letter O. He handed me a block and said "O" and sure enough it had the letter O on it. Then he did it again. And a 3rd time. That time it was actually zero, but close enough.

The amazing thing is: he figured this out on his own, more or less. He has known about letters in general for awhile but when we tell him about specific letters we tend to concentrate on the "starter" letters like A, B, and C and E (for his name). O? What's the big deal about O?

Cheerios.

That's the big deal about O.

I admit, I'm guessing here but I think he's associated the shape of his cereal (which we call "Oh's" ) with the shape of the letter.

E is BIG on associations. During the Christmas season, if the word "tree" came up E would point in turn to all 4 trees in our living room/dining room, saying "tee" for each one. He does the same for pretty much each object we talk about. If we're upstairs reading about trains, he points toward the stairs and says "choo-choo" indicating that there are trains down there. Same for shapes (he refers to his shape puzzle and shape sorter). Same for animals, people, etc... Mention that he's a boy, he needs to tell you that Daddy is a boy too.

It's like watching the connections form in his brain.

One of his associations has me a bit perplexed. There is a picture of a wagon in his current favorite book. When we see it and I say "wagon" he taps on his head. We call that his noggin sometimes. So, either he is a future poet laureate (and it's about time we get one who thinks poems ought to rhyme) or he's a bit hard of hearing ... Or is this his sense of humor?

Besides O, the small boy can correctly identify the letter E on occasion and tonight he was pointing out J, K, and L (with some help). So, soon maybe E will be the one blogging here.

 

We're going to need a bigger fridge ...

Here is E's first art project from his first full morning in the toddler room.



I'm not sure if I think his teachers are super human or super crazy but they got 14 toddlers (under 2) to do an art project. With glue.

How did they not end up with 14 toddlers glued together?

(p.s. it is a snowman just in case you aren't one of those people who appreciate creative interpretation)

Little snow man

We finally had a chance to let E explore the wonders of snow. The little guy couldn't move in his snow pants; they are about as thick as his legs are long. He was not amused. He much preferred his first hot chocolate; in a grown-up snow man mug. (the mess was totally worth it ...)

Teeth Boo-Boo

E was happily eating mango for breakfast.

Out of the blue, he started crying.

I asked him what was wrong.

He replied: "teeth boo boo".

I guess he's teething again (we're still waiting on those canines).

I brought him a teether from the freezer.

It is a seal with gel filled flippers.

Now E is feeding the seal the remaining mango.

A morning in

I'm under a good bit of pressure at school, so despite no school for little E and the Mav being out of town I tried earnestly to get some work done. I even put on Curious George to help entertain the little boy.

I did get a bit done. But my little helper kept coming by and climbing up on the chair behind me. It was very hard to concentrate with someone giggling and wriggling on my chair. So I gave in.

I asked E what he wanted to play. "Choo-choo". We got down the tracks and took over the living room floor. Then we played cars in the hallway. I think I tired him out: he's sound asleep a good half hour earlier than normal.

Now, to work!

COLD!

I've heard of "too cool for school" but not too COLD for school. All the area schools (including E's) are closed today because it is just too cold. It's -12 right now with a windchill of -31. I think we'll be staying in today.

Pictures

What to do on a cold and icy Saturday afternoon? Stay in and snuggle.





Note E's polished look; he got his 2nd real haircut on Saturday. Other than trying to eat the cut hair as it fell, all went well and he looks quite handsome and respectable.

A Very Useful Screwdriver

For his birthday, E received a set of toy Craftsman tools. He loved these tools even before he had his own set; his friend Miss M shared hers with him when he was visiting her over the summer. With his very own screwdriver, E has the power to ...

protect the toys from any foe (with his trusty shield)


fix cars (just like Daddy; E observed his Dad installing the batteries in his toy police car and decided he needed to "work" on his corvette the next day).


and brave the Toddler room at school! Today was little E's first successful day playing in the Toddler room instead of the Nursery at his school. I'll write more on this later but he was a very brave and happy boy today.

No where to go but up

The toys had taken over. There wasn't even enough floor space remaining for E to play with them. Something had to be done.

We knew that we'd eventually need a toy storage solution. A couple of small bins on the floor worked well for an infant but the great Christmas Toy Bonanza of 2008 overflowed our coffers.

As a stop-gap measure, while we sought out a more permanent solution, we stuffed his toys into his play hut. That left very little room for the boy. Also, it took it up about a quarter of our family room, and while it's very nice for a small boy, I didn't relish the idea of having a car themed tent as a permanent fixture in our main room.



So, we found some shelves at our local ReStore. Really, it's an over TV console but the size and the price were right. We filled up the shelves with toys and books in bright red bins and put the boy's chair where the TV was meant to go.



We couldn't obtain enough of the bins in town so we took a short road trip to get the rest. The other store just happened to be in the same town as a nice children's museum so we made a morning of it.

On our way to the museum we passed a small airport. E pointed out all the "bair-pays" and sobbed real tears of sorrow when he realized we would not be going to visit them. He quickly regained his composure upon the promise of "choo-choos" and had a blast at the museum. I think we'll being going back once he's had a chance to play with all his new toys. Maybe in a year or two ...

17 months old

 

 

 

 

 

Communist Cats and Other News

There is a language explosion going here; new words, sounds, and signs flying at us from all directions.

E has resisted learning animal sounds until recently. He'd giggle when I said "meow" but ignore me when I'd attempt other animal sounds. It turns out he's been paying a bit of attention after all.

Q: (me) "E, what does the cat say?"
A: (E) "MAO!"

I guess cats talk about the former leader of China?

Sheep now say "baa" but cows say "boo". This is also the name of his favorite game, though he sometimes says "pee-boo".

He's added "baby", and "nose", and "bair-pay" (airplane) to his vocabulary. Anything on wheels is a "choo-choo". He asks for "joo" (juice) but will sign when he wants milk (even though he still doesn't drink white milk, only Ovaltine or chocolate milk). He signs and says "fish" at the same time. He's got a sign for yogurt.

He says "Oh" for cheerios and pinches his fingers together (trying to form an "o").

Maybe my favorite of his new developments: the head nod. Only for little E it's not just the head but the shoulders too. Forward, back, forward, back. Smack goes the head on the chair.

Possibly my least favorite is that he has a word for TV already, something like "deev" or sometimes "dee-dee".

He understands multiple part commands, like "go get that and bring it here." He even does it sometimes.

"No" is still the reigning sound and sentiment though; he's master the art of saying it while shaking his head and running the other direction.

Happy New Year

A new year, a new name for the blog.

Since Captain Chaos (aka little E) does not actually eat everything anymore the old title had to go.

We had a happy, and remarkably healthy, holiday and hope you all did too.

We made it back from our southwest adventure with minimal difficulties (other than dealing with an over-zealous security person before my first cup of coffee. Why on earth should I have to take a sweatshirt off a small child before taking him through the metal detector, the same sweatshirt he wore without incident on our trip out? Grrr.)

Our house was still standing. It was neither flooded nor torn apart by tornadoes. There was no ice on the cars. There are, in fact, still two newish, comfortable, and well tuned cars in our driveway. There is a living room full of toys. Enough toys to entertain a small village. Actually, probably a very large village and we are awaiting the shipment of 4 boxes from NM. Our cup, and house, runneth over with good fortune.

I think it's a good start to a great year.