Dancing versus Dishes

GH is doing the breakfast dishes.

I am playing a CD on the computer and I started happily dancing away. I said, "Come on, B! Dance!"
To which he replied, "No! I am playing ball."
So I said, "Well, I can dance and you can play ball, ok?"

And he said, "Go wash dishes with Papi!".

Hmmmm....maybe he doesn't like my cool moves?

:-)

Slow Down, Mommy! Slow Down!

This week, my 27, almost 28 month old has begun correcting my driving. He (fairly randomly although sometimes perhaps accurately) has been shouting out "Slow Down, Mommy! Slow Down!" as we make our way through our day.
He certainly comes by his backseat driving naturally and as amusing as is it now it may not continue to be so as time goes by...

Today, driving home from the aquarium, in between his commentary regarding my driving skills, with his little brown stuffed horse in hand, he told me "Get bigger, ride a horse." Meaning, when he gets bigger he wants to ride a horse. I told him I thought that was a great idea and he said "Yeah!" in this tone of voice like "Duh!". It was too sweet. I can't wait to see him up on a horse.

On another subject, he went through a period the last 2 months or so where he would only watch a certain show during dinner and finally the last two days he let us watch a different show...hallelujah!

Once again, I am just sharing little tidbits from the week. I feel sure there is more I'm forgetting- I guess if I think of something I will post again!

Stealing Kisses and Making a Fast Exit

A few brief stories from this past week:

At the aquarium this afternoon, I was sitting about 20 feet away and B went up to a little girl about a year younger than him and planted several kisses on her! I thought it was just too cute. Of course when I realized what was going on I walked over and said "Have you found a new friend?" Her parents did not seem that pleased about it. Oh well.

Interestingly, for the past few days, he has been suddenly fascinated with "EXIT" signs, like the lit-up emergency exits inside stores. Every time he sees one he points it out and yells "Exit" and then he usually talks about the color of the letters. I am most bewildered about the origin of this sudden interest. We don't remember pointing one out to him. But they are apparently his new favorite thing.
In other news, he has a "doodle-pro" magnetic drawing tablet that we've been keeping in the car and the other day as GH was driving, I sat in the back with him and I was making letters with him. I showed him that "W" upside down looks like "M" and "Z" sideways looks like "N". He thought that was hilarious. Sometimes he draws a letter and tells us what it is - it doesn't always look correct, but I love that he tries. He did a "C" this afternoon that was pretty good!

Last night, GH asked B to pick up some of his toys, and he immediately responded "Papi, stop messing [with] [B]'s life!" We burst out laughing and made him repeat it because we couldn't believe what we'd just heard. Sure enough, the second time was more of the same! We were especially amused because neither of us say this kind of thing, so we have no idea where he came up with that.

I need to go get him in bed. I just wanted to catch up a little with the latest happenings before I forget it all!

Go, Dog, Go! Sleep, Dog, Sleep?

Everyone knows there are two types of people- the night owls and the early birds.

I come from a long line of night owls, and apparently B has inherited these genes as well. He gets plenty of sleep, don't get me wrong, 9-11 hours per night, 1-2 hour naps most days (especially on days following the 9 hour nights).

It's just that he's not at all interested in going to bed at a "reasonable hour" for someone his age. On average he is asleep around 8:30-9ish, but many times he has been up til 10:30, 11, 11:30...
This schedule has advantages and disadvantages, of course. Less alone time for DH and me on B's late nights, but we all get to "sleep in" a little on the mornings after.

For Christmas, B's Godfather gave him the Dr Seuss book, "Go, Dog, Go!" - one of my childhood favorites as well. I still clearly remembered reading about the "big dog party" at the end; it just fascinated me somehow as a child, imagining all these dogs on top of a tree. B absolutely loves it and we read it usually at least once per day.

There is a certain page in the book which talks about how "Night is not a time for play. Night is a time for sleep." This is great in and of itself-now B has taken to quoting that particular passage, so he is hopefully absorbing that message to some extent. The associated illustration depicts a long line of dogs all sleeping in a row in their big bed, except one lone dog whose eyes are wide open.

When I ask B who that wakeful dog is, he responds with his name. It cracks me up every time.

It is so true.

To make an omelette...

So, we all have our little ways of doing things, right?

Most of the time when you're living with someone, you can put up with a lot of their quirks. They feed the toilet paper roll under, no problem, you quickly reverse it, problem solved.

But then there are the things that you can't "fix". Ingrained habits we all have, but which may get on our most loved ones' last nerve.

In our household, a major issue is the technique employed for cracking eggs. Really, you ask? Seriously? I am afraid I must say yes.

I crack my eggs on the rims of bowls or pans. That is just the right way. My dear husband, on the other hand, takes the egg and cracks it - I am not kidding you - on the underside of my kitchen counters. Ugh. This little habit of his has been grating on me for months now.

Then just in the past few days I have seen this miraculous product, the EZ Egg Cracker, advertised. Many people may claim that this is a superfluous, even useless product. But this I dispute this as an oversimplification. It may be a sanity preserver or in the most extreme case, a relationship redeemer.

More Funny Moments with B

Driving home this afternoon from the aquarium, we were stopped at a red light.
I turned around and blew B a kiss and he said something, but I couldn't catch what he said. In the meantime, I noticed the light had changed.
As we drove on I kept asking him to repeat himself because he had said a phrase that I hadn't heard him use before and I was interested to know what it was. I had him repeat several times...
Finally, I translated what he had said: "Light is green!"
I burst out laughing.
I asked him, "Mommy turned around to give you a kiss and you were telling Mommy that we needed to go because the light had turned green?"
And he's like "Yes!"
I just thought it was hilarious.
:-)

Mashed 'Tatoes!!

We made homemade mashed potatoes while my parents were here for the holidays.

Ever since then, every morning if I ask B what he dreamed about he says "Mashed 'tatoes!" And laughs. When I then ask if he wants to eat mashed potatoes, he quickly says "no."

So I don't get the joke or why he always claims to dream of them, but I love it. I think it's too cute!!

The things they say

Lately many interesting things have come out of B's mouth. Some super cute, some that make us want to hide...Here is a sampling:

"Have a good day!"
And its newest variation : "Have a good day, stupid!"
And lots of "stupid" in general. ugh!
"Damn it!" *cringe*
"What [are] you doing Papi/Mommy?" spoken in a high sweet voice. love this one.
"No!" also "Nope!" and "buh-BYE!"- same meaning...
"Get up, Papi/Mommy/bullzaturners (bulldozers)!"
"Ow! Ow Ow!"- not when he's actually hurt but when we are doing something he doesn't want to do- get in the car seat, put on his shoes/jacket/hat, etc.
He refuses to hold my hand, yelling (in public) "Dry skin!". *cringe* again.
When I ask him my name, he knows it (not perfect pronunciation, but we understand). However when I ask him what Papi's name is, he usually responds with my nickname for my husband. Very sweet.
He has known his middle name for at least 4 months now and if you ask him his other name he tells you.
He started saying "yucky!" a few months ago and I told him to say "No, thank you" instead. He actually does most of the time now.
Today, we were eating mongolian bbq at the mall and I was encouraging him to eat other things besides just noodles. So I asked if he would eat an onion and he said "No, thank you!" So I made a big deal out of eating it and said it was yummy and a few seconds later he said "Mommy eat onion. [His name] eats noodles!" Super cute.

A couple of months ago we were all driving along one evening and we saw a personalized license plate that said "A J Bug". So my husband and I were conversing about what it might mean and B just started cracking up. saying "Itchy Bug". So now Itchy Bug has been an inside joke for our family, and he cracks up whenever we say it.

"Up high, Papi/Mommy!" when he wants to be picked up.

"Big Bobba Boom" could mean that something scares him or that he got hurt.

"Poor [B]." This one also cracks us up and he says it appropriately, like when he falls down or something.

"Love Papi/Mommy...although usually he only says spontaneously "Love Scotty/Mocha"- our cats...

Calls McDonalds "Pancakes" because for the past few months for a treat sometimes we go there for breakfast.

Funny News

So we were just watching the late local news and the reporter made a comment that just cracked me up.

There have been gang problems for years in a town of about 150,000 near here. For whatever reason, these problems tend to spike every year at the beginning of the year.

Anyway, there were a couple of shootings earlier this week in a certain shopping area of this town I'm talking about and then another today in broad daylight. 3 people dead. So obviously that's not the funny part.

But, the reporter was doing a piece about what could be behind the string of recurring violence in this particular shopping center. She said she interviewed local police and they advised her that "no one should be concerned about [...] shopping center because ***there is no more violence there than anywhere else in [city]..."***
OKAY, does anyone else see the bitter irony in his statement??!? I was practically rolling on the floor. Umm, no fewer than THREE people have been shot and killed there in the past few few days, but hey, don't worry! It's no more dangerous than the rest of our beautiful city!

Needless to say, we moved far out of that city WAY before B was born.
Terrible.