About a Little Man

What a busy few weeks it has been…. We are now all in our work/day care routines and have settled into our roles. Reshen still enjoys preschool, or as he calls it “Pam’s House.” He is learning so much there… he can recite days of the week, can sort of say his ABC’s and can count randomly to 20 (not always in the right order). Really he is just a mimicking machine and has memorized most everything. He might not fully grasp the concepts, although he does know that the ABCs are letters and will point them out, and he knows that numbers are for counting. He is such a smart little guy!

He loves to dance and is lately enjoying the Spanish mode of his Learn and Groove Music Table. He turns it onto the Spanish Alphabet song and dances away- preferably with me and in a circle. Mommy can’t do this for long or she gets dizzy. If I change the song to English he says “No” and turns it back to Spanish. It must sound more festive to him ;-) He also tries to sing along with it, which is quite funny to hear as he has no idea what he’s saying.

Reshen went to his first parade this weekend. It was the Celebrate Shoreline parade; just a block away from our house. Reshen had a fun time, except for the noisy firetrucks which scared him and made him cry. He normally loves firetrucks, but these ones were just too loud and close to him. There are really only two things he doesn’t like- water over his head and getting startled by loud noises. He really liked the marching bands, though, and the decorated buses and tractors. He sat there on the curb so sweetly and would crane his neck to look down the street and ask: “What coming, Mama?”

Reshen is *really* into cars and trucks right now. He has so many toy cars at home and plays with them *all*. His favorites are construction trucks, but his bus and little cars get a lot of use too. He’s always pushing them around on the floor and making them go down ramps and slides. He’s a boy through and through.

He’s also very into balls, and man can he throw! He has a drawer stocked with different sizes and types of balls and he will empty it one-by-one, giving each ball a good throw. He also likes to get fancy by bending over and throwing the balls between his legs. Unfortunately, throwing does not end at balls and we’ve had many talks about what you can throw and what you can’t. I know it is hard for a 1-year old to grasp, but we’re trying to get the point across that it’s *not* OK to throw a heavy, hard toy at mommy or daddy (or Chancey).

Our boy has an incredible memory for his age. My parents visited almost 2 months ago, and he still mentions it and pulls stuff seemingly out of the blue. He says things like “Gamma hold you,” “Gamma bath,” and “Gamma, Gampa, sit by you car,” and even today he said “Gamma shower,” when we were in the downstairs bathroom. These are phrases I haven’t prompted him to say at all. Something in the situation will just suddenly jog his memory and he’ll have to tell me about it. He also still talks about Luke and Lucy and even the “sleepy rides” we used to take with them in the stroller. When he sees a car that resembles Rik’s (Lucy’s dad), he’ll exclaim “Rik car!” Sometimes he asks “Where Lucy go?” That’s always a sad one for me, as I know he doesn’t really understand why we don’t see them anymore. He also wants to go and see “Gamma” sometimes. It will be easier when he’s old enough to understand time and distance a bit better.

One of my favorite times of day with Reshen has always been our bedtime routine. I still hold him and rock while he drinks his before-bed milk and we listen to his bedtime music. It’s such a sweet and comforting time of day for us both. He snuggles next to me and I give him kisses while he drinks. It’s just a nice quiet time for us to reconnect at the end of the day. After his music is done playing I sing him a lullaby that goes like this:

La La Lu
La La Lu
Oh my little star sweeper
I’ll sweep the stardust for you
La La Lu
La La Lu
Little soft fluffy dreamer
Here comes a pink cloud for you
La La Lu
La La Lu
Little wandering angel
Fold up your wings
Close your eyes
La Lu Lu
La La Lu
And my love be your keeper
La La Lu
La La Lu
La La Lu

Anyone recognize it? It’s the song Mrs. Darling sings to her new baby in Disney’s Lady and the Tramp. I’ve always thought it was such a sweet tune and am happy to sing it to my own boy. He loves it too. In fact, depending on how tired he is, he often sings along now, in his sweet little voice. Occasionally he even asks for more, which I happily oblige.

Sometimes after we’re done singing, he will initiate conversation and we’ll talk for a little while about his day, etc.. I always love to hear what he has to say, especially when there are no other distractions. He loves it and so do I.

After he is finished with his milk and we have sang and rocked and talked a bit, I lay him in his crib (he’s almost always still awake now), and make sure all the proper stuffed animals and blankets are in there. He’s become a pack rat and likes to have a variety of “friends” in his bed. He is often happy to go to bed now (versus the bedtime troubles we used to have) and will often play or talk in there for 15 minutes before falling asleep on his own. Of course, we still have evenings where he will begin crying for me and I have to go back up there, but for the most part bedtime is so much easier than it used to be. He is also still sleeping through the night most of the time. Teething or illness or a change in daytime routine will always throw this off, but for the most part he is doing great. He is still an early riser, though… although it has been a tad better lately- 6-6:30 a.m. instead of 5-5:30 a.m.. Actually I don’t want him sleeping much later than 6:30 on the weekdays anyways, because we need to leave for daycare at 7:15 a.m.. I just wish he understood weekends and let us sleep late on those days. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll be wishing I *could* wake him up in another 12 years ;-)

As usual, his language is doing great. Now that he’s at daycare, he picks words up there and talks about events that happened there and I have no idea what he’s saying because it’s out of context for me. When I can’t understand him, his forehead wrinkles as he searches for another way to tell me. He’s pretty good about finally getting me to understand. For awhile he kept telling me “Hair cut, Pam’s house.” I was really confused by this one, as it was obvious that his hair hadn’t been cut, but he kept insisting and pulling at his hair. I asked Pam the next day and she said the kids play a game where they pretend to “cut” each other’s hair…. One little girl especially likes to pretend to “cut” Reshen’s. It must have made quite an impression on him as he still talks about it.

Some other funny phrases he says often:

“What (insert animal or object here) say?” He’s so into knowing the sounds things make. If it’s something that doesn’t really make noise (or I can’t think of what it is) I’ll tell him it’s quiet.

An example:

Reshen: “What dillo (armadillo) say, Mama?”

Me: “Mommy doesn’t know, bubby.”

Reshen: “Dillo quiet!”

He asks what *everything* says- even apples! Funny kid.

He calls all people “guys” if he doesn’t know their name. Even women. He told me “Guy help you downstairs TumbleBus.” “Guy hold you Tumblebus.” I thought it was cute that he was telling me about his day on the Tumblebus, assuming there was really a man working with them. I find out later that there are no men working on the Tumblebus though… he was referring to the women as “guys." We’re working on that one!

He’s really into cleaning up, which is nice. I have no problem usually getting him to clean up his toys, if I help. We sing the clean-up song and he happily plays along. He likes to put things away in their correct spots too. He’s always asking “where dis go?” He will even go into another room to put it in the right spot- such as a sippy cup going on the kitchen counter. I wonder how long this enthusiasm for cleaning will last? Oh little man, you always keep your mama guessing...