Nathan's Yarn Doggy & Sun Hand

I was crocheting one day while Katie was sleeping (the only time when crocheting is remotely possible), and to keep Nathan happy I gave him his own bit of scrap yarn and one of my extra hooks. To my surprise, he did not start poking in and out of the yarn with the hook (as he usually does under such circumstances); instead, he started walking around holding one end of the yarn and dragging the rest of it in a clump behind him. He started calling, "Come on, doggy" and leading the "doggy" to the kitchen to get some "cereal"--which is what he believes dogs eat. Now, if the yarn is put away, he sometimes asks, "Where Nathan's doggy?" and thus a new friend/toy is born.

Another fun story: One day, I was in the kitchen with the kids. Nathan was playing with the magnets on the fridge and I wasn’t paying too much attention to him because I was feeding Katie. I heard him saying things like, “train” and “sun” and then he kept repeating “sun” for a while, but I’m not too sure how long or if he said anything else because I was focused on Katie and I was just happy that he was playing by himself so well (that is, without destroying anything). Suddenly, he got really excited and started saying, “Hand! Hand, Mommy, hand!” He was kind of insistent this time and kept repeating himself, so I looked over. He had arranged some of our rectangular word magnets around one of our large circular magnets so that it did indeed look like a hand—all of the words were sticking out lengthwise on one side of the magnet and there was around, but not necessarily exactly, five of them:

He put his hand up to it and then wanted me to put my hand up to it. As I looked at it, I realized that he had probably been trying to make a sun moments before and he often makes "trains" out of the rectangular words. That would be why he was so surprised and excited about the hand: he wasn’t expecting it. I was really impressed that, in the first place, he recognized that he could try to arrange rectangles and a circle into the shape of the sun and, in the second place, that he recognized a second object while he was making the first. Of course when we color, I’m the only one actually drawing shapes. He just draws lines. So, I really appreciated being able to see that he does recognize shapes (beyond just naming them off when Mommy points to them on the paper) and that he could put 2 and 2 together that way. It is just so wonderful to watch his mind develop and to see his excitement. These moments and the moments when he runs to give me a hug and tell me he loves me...Well, what can I say? It's cheesy, but these moments are my life's greatest treasures.

What happens when you give a 2 year-old cereal and then get distracted?

The Answer: He'll finish eating as much as he wants then leave the bowl (partially filled with milk and cereal fragments) for his 1 year-old sister to find.

What will she do when she finds the bowl? The answer to that question is pretty obvious even without the photographic evidence.

What will Mommy do when she finds milk all over the floor (notice the wet rug), bran flakes smeared on the linoleum, and one little Katie with a bowl in her mouth?

The answer: Laugh her head off. Take a picture. Remind herself never to leave Nathan or Katie alone in the kitchen.

Nathan Learns Photography

Lately, whenever I pull out the camera to take a picture (of Nathan/Katie cuteness or my amazing track building skills), Nathan insists that he get a turn to take some pictures. Usually, he ends up pointing the camera at the ground or at least tilting it downwards, missing entirely the object he wants to photograph, as he tries to look at the digital screen on the back of the camera:

Here he was trying to take a picture of Mommy (sitting at the computer desk).

Well, he is only 2. But with a little coaching from Mommy (and, in some cases, a little last minute intervention to tilt the camera back up), his photography skills show great promise:

Well, who hasn't cut off an extra head here or there? In a photograph, I mean.

Watch out National Geographic, here he comes (in about 20 years). He's got a camera and he's not afraid to use it.

Our Latest Creations

Nathan loves his trains...almost as much as Mommy does

Nathan has a nice train train track collection thanks to his Aunt Tresa & Cole & Rshard. And he loves to play with it. In the beginning, I would get a bit bored as I dutifully blew the train whistles when Nathan directed and as I built simple loops for his trains to go around again and again...and again. One day, I decided that it would be fun to try to use all the track pieces. As I got going, Nathan did too and he started placing a few pieces of his own. This threw off my groove a little (as he had the curves twisting in all the wrong ways or hills where I hadn't planned for hills) but thus our new game was born: Now, whenever we pull out the train tracks, I let Nathan start to build for a minute and, as soon as he tires of that and moves on to conducting his trains, I attempt to use every track piece without moving a single piece that Nathan has laid. I love a good puzzle!

Now, with his 2 year-old attention span, Nathan sometimes gets tired of playing with the trains before I do. That is, he gets tired of playing trains by himself while Mom plays with the track. I have to remind myself that the trains are really for him--especially when he *gasp* breaks a part of my track. Luckily, all it really takes is for Mommy to make all the train noises again and we're back in business: bonding as mother and son and enjoying our time together.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Kearl!

Curious George Up Close...Almost

Well, I took Nathan to the Betty Brinn Children's Museum last week for some good fun & bonding time while Daddy was home to watch Katie. To our surprise and delight, not only was the new Curious George exhibit completed but they had a real live Curious George and Man in the Yellow Hat walking around the museum! Nathan was so excited when he first saw George: we were sitting at the lunch tables, finishing our sandwiches, when across the way Nathan spotted him. He started calling, "George! George! Hi, George!" I asked if he wanted to go see George and he said "yes." Trying to be a responsible mother, I told him once he finished his sandwich we could go say "hi." So, he started calling, "George! Finish sandwich, George. See you minute, George." (Of course, this was all slurred in his 2-year-old speech but I didn't know how to reproduce that in writing.) When he was done, we walked over to say hi, but as soon as we were close Nathan ran off to look at the nearby motorcycle. Confused, I coaxed him back and we followed after George, who was now by the trains, Nathan calling out, "George! George" as we went.
As soon as we were close again, Nathan stopped calling, backed into me, then ran to play with all of the trains. This was the best picture I could manage while trying to keep an eye on Nathan.

Since I had no luck with the live George, I convinced Nathan to pose with the statue (the picture up top), but, as you can see, he still wouldn't get too close!

All was not lost, though. Just as we were getting ready to leave, we ran into them again. I was already holding Nathan because I was having a hard time convincing him it was time to go. So instead of trying to run away, he just held onto me tighter. He was still intimidated by what was, after all, a very large monkey but he talked to The Man in the Yellow Hat and even gave George a high five. It was a pretty exciting day.

Here are some other things we did:

We were playing with blocks when Nathan discovered his true ambition to be a weight lifter. Look at those muscles!




Nathan floated in a little boat on a stream in the woods. Notice his loyal dog at the shore:






Last, just a look at how much Nathan loves his trains. This was taken in the large model train they have near the entrance of the museum. The laws of gravity haven't been sent topsy-turvy; I just didn't notice I'd flipped the camera to get a better shot. I hate it when I do that.


For those of you who may have some trouble deciphering my son's dialect of toddlerese, he keeps calling out, "All aboard!"