My Clean House

Don't know if anyone else remembers this, but Joseph's most favorite thing to do when he was 3 years old was to sweep. He spent hours at Anna's house sweeping her floors. At the end of the day she'd greet me and make sure to tell me that he wanted to be sweeping.

Would you believe that G's new favorite thing to do is mop? I gave him a long cardboard tube, thinking that swordplay was imminent, but NO - it quickly became a mop. He got out his bucket and spent today sweeping & mopping the kitchen... moving chairs, getting under the oven & everything. Just like I always do. (ahem)




He's wearing no pants because it makes the potty training easier. Speaking of which.. I'm reminding him to sit every so often and we've had no accidents. But how do you get to the point where he notices on his own that he has to go? That's only happened a couple of times. And how do you get to the point where you trust him enough to let him in the car without diapers? Is that the point of pull-ups? I don't remember this stuff!

Party

Today we got to celebrate Molly Rose turning 8!

The First "I love you"

... goes to Joseph!

As part of our bedtime routine, I always take G to say goodnight (Bon Nuit) to Joseph. I remind G to say "I love you," and tonight he very clearly looked at Joseph and told him: "I love you" (I-uv-oo, but you get the point).

1,000 times a day I tell G to say something - "Please Mama" "More please" "Thank you" - and G shows no interest in saying any of it. But love for Joseph made the cut.

If you're counting, I think that brings us up to 6 English words in G's spoken vocab. We had "Mama" "Dadesh" (Joseph) and "Ah yah yee ah" (alleluia). I think we might also have "book", but am waiting to confirm. He definitely understands lots of English, so he should be speaking more soon. He's still babbling tons in Kreyol and it's so so cute. I wish he could keep his language.

In other news, potty training has begun. It's a beautiful thing.

A Dream Come True & A Bloody Lip

Today was finally nice enough that we got outside for a walk! I wasn't thinking that G would make it very far, but I figured that we'd walk towards the park.

Not long ago, a playground was built by my house. I was so excited that "G's park" would be finished soon after he came home. And then excited that it was finished before he came home. All last year I drove by that park and watched zillions of children playing, and dreamed of the day that G would play there.

Today was the day!

We don't have sidewalks in my neighborhood, so we had to walk in the street the whole way there. Every time a car approached, G would scream scream scream and cling on to my legs. The screams didn't sound fearful; it was almost like he was trying to scare the cars away. Then, as soon as the car would pass us, G would wave & say "Bye-Bye." Very weird.

He loved marching in the muddy gutter water and on the melting ice.

He wiped out 3 times. In the muddy gutter water and the melting ice. While wearing his dry-clean-only coat.

But we made it to the playground! G was pretty happy to be there. He walked up & around the little hills. He got on & off the rocker boat. He watched the other (Russian?) boys play. When the boys approached him, he pretty much ignored them. He never made a move to go on the big jungle gym thing. I didn't push him 'cause it was way past nap time. But I did put him on the swing before we left and he LOVED it. He screamed in delight as if he were cresting a roller coaster.

I've heard people say that when you adopt a toddler, you miss so many of their "firsts" - smiles, steps, etc. But there are so many other crazy firsts that I do get to enjoy. Today - the first swing experience - was one of those awesome firsts.

I was sad to have left my camera at home. So when we got up the driveway, I told G that I'd be right back and went to grab my camera. It took me under 2 seconds, but of course he freaked out, rushed the porch steps, stumbled, and banged his face down the concrete and onto the rocks. Screaming.. bloody mouth.. Looks like he scraped the outside of his lip and bit the inside of it. He's intrigued by the resulting fat lip. I'm just glad that this happened after the knot on his head has subsided.

I don't remember Joseph ever banging his head or fattening his lip. He never broke a bone or even had stiches. Somehow I think that G may provide a different experience.

Profound Thoughts

Lately I notice myself saying things that really should be recorded and shared with the world. Significant statements like:

"No. That's the toilet. We don't play with the toilet."

So much wisdom being shared around here.

If you had some clay

... wouldn't you make sure to stick it to your forehead?

My Key to Sanity

Have I mentioned that G wants me to hold him every second of the day? He's actually gotten better to where he can be down playing... as long as I'm within arms' reach AND am paying complete attention to him.

But I've come up with a secret weapon. It buys me at least 15 seconds of freedom and has never failed.

I just have to hand him an item and ask him to take it to the recycling (or to the garbage if I'm already near the recycling). The joys of having such an important job to do - - THAT pries him off of me every time!