He is Three

At age three he is walking, talking, running, hopping, climbing, talking, reasoning, negotiating, eating everything, temper-tantruming, refusing kisses, sleeping in his own bed, watching television, doing pretend games, making up stories, and everything else. Did I mention he is also talking?

The basics

Height is now at 36 inches, or 1 inch below that darn IKEA ballroom height requirement.
30 pounds.
Hair is still curly.
Eyes still hazel.

I gave up trying to settle him for an afternoon nap. He's officially dropped that. He gets about 10 hours of sleep a night.

Physical Prowess

Dex is now a little boy doing little boy things. Pedalling a tricycle (although more work required on the steering)
He's hopping.
He likes balancing on narrow beams. He loves to walk the low bring divider between our yard and the neighbour's.
Rolling. He can now do a forward roll.
He loves walking.

Memorable Quotes

"Daddy ruined my fun." (Daddy was teaching him how to ride his tricycle.)

"If a store sells llamas, should it be called Llamarama?"

Interests

Trucks and machines are still right up there, but he is starting to show an interest in dinosaurs.

Jokes

He's finally appreciated this joke: "Why is six afraid of seven? Because seven ate nine!" It's actually quite a complex joke because in order for it to be funny, he has to be able to count, AND he has to understand homonyms. Yup. He gets it.

Final words

Sadly, as some of you have noticed, I am slowly winding down my posts on this blog. Since I started my business, I've become more google-able and this blog is starting to open up to people beyond my immediate family and friends.

When I started this blog, I really just wanted to make it easier to share news with friends and family. I knew it was on the world wide web, but without advertising and without promotion, I thought it could happily languish there for years.

But now, things have changed. As part of growing my business, I've been more active on the social media front and I'm now findable. I don't want every detail of Dexter's growing up years or his pictures for all the world to see.

I am looking at blurbing the contents of this blog as I find it is a nice little document of Dexter's early years. We'll see how it goes.

Interview with a toddler

For those of you who don't speak Toddler, here's the transcript of the interview.

Mommy interviews Dex about honey, November 9, 2009

Q: Tell me about honey? What about honey?
A: Bees like honey.
Q: Yeah? And who else likes honey?
A: Andrew likes honey because he’s a bee. And Akila likes them because she’s a bee. And Bin likes honey because she’s a bee. And Katherine likes honey because she’s a bee…and ...(indescipherable)... likes honey because they eat honey.
Q: What about mommy and Dexter?
A: Yes, I like honey.
Q: What about Daddy?
A: Yes.
Q: Daddy likes honey, too? What about Winnie the Pooh?
A: No, Winnie the Pooh is not for eating.
Q: Oh, no, Winnie the Pooh is not for eating, but does Winnie the Pooh like honey?
A: Yes (glances outside thoughtfully).

First bike

A shiny new tricycle! Dex got his first new real bike today with pedals that work and grips on the handlebars. Of course this one came with a little parent push handle, but that's just fine. Still a lot better than the plastic ones he powers with his legs on the ground instead of the pedals.

Toddling home

We walked home from school today -- something we haven't done very much at all.

We know he's got the strength and stamina to walk the distance -- they go for long walks at school all the time -- so the distance was never the problem; It's the timing. Jon has taken him to school on foot, but he's had to scoop him up halfway and carry him if Jon had any hope of making it to work by noon. I have never attempted it because carrying a 28 pound kid while lugging his school stuff was not possible for me. I always had the wagon or the stroller. That is, until today.

It was a beautiful afternoon and he wanted to walk home. So I had him walk beside me while I pushed the stroller. It was actually quite fun. He picked up twigs and leaves and tried to shove them in his pockets. Using a fallen branch (with leaves still on it) as a broom, I watched him sweep crabapples from a neighbour's front walk. I watched him pause and say hello to dogs and their owners. He said hi to the neighbours and cats. He said hi to the roofer standing on a ladder. Life is so busy and the neighbourhood, full of wonder. I had no idea! It was great fun walking with him, but man, did that take a long time!

~~~

Today was also a noteworthy day on another front. When I picked him up, his teacher had something very interesting to say.

"Your son had quite the day today. He didn't want to do things we asked him to including going for a nap. In fact, he said "If I don't nap, Mommy will pick me up sooner."

My. Jaw. Dropped. You see, my standing request at the daycare is that if Dex does not sleep during nap time, they should call me so that I can pick him up and settle him for a nap at home. Otherwise, I have one exhausted, cranky baby and our entire evening becomes a complete write off.

My son's gift for pattern recognition has obviously paid off. In addition to hearing me give this instruction to his teachers, I guess he has figured out that this is a sweet deal. Anytime he wants to get me to come, all he needs to do is fight sleep. Wow. He does not miss a beat, does he?

I did it already

I was making dinner for us while he watched yet-another-episode of Bob The Builder (AAAARRRGH, still can't get that song out of my head!!). After a few minutes, he joins me upstairs.

"Let's go downstairs to shut down the machine before we eat," I said and to my surprise he said: "I did it already."

"You did?" I didn't quite believe him so I insisted on going downstairs anyway.

Sure enough, he had removed the DVD from the player, put it away into its rightful case and stacked up that and his other DVDs neatly on top of the player!

I couldn't believe it! I told him I was proud of him for doing that and gave him a hug. In the meantime, he's probably thinking "I can do all sorts of things, you know -- If only you'd let me."

Note to self: must give the boy enough opportunities to surprise me. It's a great feeling for me and for him.

Fusion cuisine

Dexter's lunch today: peanut butter and honey roti roll and apples for dessert. I tried it and thought it was pretty good!

Peanut butter cookies

Now that I know he's not allergic to peanut butter, we have added peanut butter cookies to our cooking repertoire.

Yesterday, we made our first batch of peanut butter cookies. It was so much fun. I made the batter then got us set up on the kitchen floor where he helped me roll up the batter into little balls, which he later flattened with a sugared fork. He loved that latter part the best and his exuberance shows in some of the finished products! They were the cutest little, unevenly shaped cookies ever and he was ever so proud of himself!

Despite clearing the peanut butter allergy scare, I was still a little reluctant to give him a taste. I gave him a little part of a cookie then waited over an hour before giving him some more -- believe you me, this was a difficult thing to do since he was very excited about the cookies and just wanted to scarf them all down.

Some stress relief

He's good with peanut butter. We've been slowly introducing peanut butter and watching for a reaction. I think we're in the clear -- yay! Of course, he won't be allowed to bring peanut butter sandwiches to school - ever! - because inevitably, some other kid with nervous parents will be allergic to the stuff.

Given his early food sensitivities, to cow's milk and grape skin, in particular, I've been very conservative with the introduction of new stuff. He hasn't tried other nuts yet and he hasn't tried shellfish. This summer might be a good time to start really spreading our wings.

Folders

I just realized I have a folder on my browser called "backhoes."

As I mentioned before, he so loves machines and he is utterly crazy about them. He has books about machines that are dog-eared and held together by scotch tape and hope. Some are really beyond salvaging but I could not bear the thought of throwing them out because despite the ravaged state, he so enjoys looking through them still.

Then we realized that there is an endless supply of machine images available online! Backhoes, stump cutters, excavators, fire trucks -- all there at our beck and call!

Now every time he wants to see something, he just goes to the computer and asks us for the object.

And then we discovered YouTube. He actually asks for YouTube specifically now. Endless short videos on machines. There's a video out there called "Big Trucks in the Canadian West" and when we first started watching it, it was at something like 750 views. Now it's at over five million views and I swear we are responsible for half of that number. Our son tends to obsess.

Because his experience with technology is in this controlled environment, he's come up with some interesting requests. We were stopped at a light last winter and beside us was a dump truck filled with snow. "Look, Dex -- a dump truck," and his neck whipped so fast I swore he got himself whiplash. Of course, when the light changed, the truck moved on. This prompted our son to say "No, fast forward, fast forward."

Banana muffins

This is my favourite banana bread recipe, except instead of baking it in a loaf pan, I pour it into mini-muffin tins so the cooking time is a lot less.

1/2 cup of butter
1/2 cup of brown sugar (I use less)
1/2 cup of granulated sugar (I use less)
2 eggs
2 cups flour
3 slightly brown bananas
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon milk

Cream together butter and sugars until smooth, then add the eggs. Mix well.
Add (alternately) the mashed bananas and flour.
Mix the baking soda and milk and add to mixture. Mix well
Spoon into muffin tin.
Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.
Or pour into a loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes.
Enjoy.

It's a very forgiving recipe and Dex and I love making it together, especially on rainy days like today when we're stuck indoors. Dexter's job is to mash up the bananas and to spoon it into the mixture. It's a bit messy when he helps but he loves it and I love watching him help. When we finally get it in the oven, he takes his little chair and puts it in front of the oven to watch it bake (better than television, I guess) while I clean up.

These muffins freeze really well, too, so we always have muffins in the freezer. Sometimes, I save a bit of the batter and mix in blueberries or chocolate chips with it. The chocolate chip version is reserved for Daddy.

Let's play ball

Here's a picture of him with his bat and ball. He's ready to play.

Exit Plan

We were at Blue Mountain recently and as we're looking out the window enjoying the scenery, I pointed out the gondola. I told Dex that we can take the gondola all the way to the top of the mountain. And he responded, "but how will we get down?" I said, "We'll just take the gondola back down," and as I said it I realized -- hey, wait a minute? Is that a typical question from a two-year old? I mean it's great that my little boy can think things through, but I was just a little surprised.

Temporal experiment

He's been doing a lot of imagination play these days. For one thing, he likes to pretend that he's Norm, our ice cream guy. I'll have to talk about Norm's ice cream in another blog, but for now, suffice it to say that Dex does a lot of pretending. He'd drive around the house singing a little ditty and ask us if we want ice cream.

The other new thing is pretending to go for a drive. He'd pretend to pack up the car (or a taxi) and load it up with books and blankets. Then he'd ask me to get in and pretend to strap him in, so we can go driving. Sometimes we go to Cobourg. But most of the time we go to Blue Mountain.

I really noticed that he's been experimenting with time concepts. He's been using the word "yesterday" which usually means sometime in the past -- could be this morning, could be a few months ago.

Yesterday, during one of his pretend driving trips, he told me to hurry up because "we have to get there by 7:30." I'm not quite sure where he got that. I guess he understands the concept of deadline, but he's not sure about time yet. He also said "we're leaving in 20 seconds" -- another time concept experiment since I'm sure he has no idea what a second is.

Peeing in public

Ah yes, how apropos that the fine points of peeing outside have been passed on from father to son this Father's Day.

We were at waterpark at the zoo today and as we were getting him out of his wet swimwear Dex announced that he wanted to go pee. We were at a bench by the chamois and mountain goat exhibits at the time when he made the announcement. To those horrified that I'm encouraging my son to pee in a public park, I like to say in my defense that I did not expect this. I actually thought it was going to be a quick diaper change -- just pull out the wet swim trunks, remove the wet diaper and replace with a dry one -- but obviously, he had other plans.

"I have to pee," he said so I tried to stand him up and there was this awkward moment when I was holding him under the pits and I was trying to balance him but he wasn't cooperating. I realized then that he's only ever peed sitting down on the potty so that's what he was trying to do! Once we got him on a good sitting position, he actually did his little tinkle on the grass and I was ready to put on his diaper when he said "I have to pee some more."

This time, Dad took over and told him how to do the deed standing up: the importance of finding the right spot, how to stand feet apart, then hold it and point it just so, then pee without dribbling on the leg. Such a sweet little father/son moment.

Father's Day

Ten Reasons Why I Love My Husband

1. Because he understands me.

2. Despite number one, he still loves me.

3. Because he makes me happy.

4. Because he's witty and smart and interesting.

5. Because he's a cat person.

6. Because he doesn't let the little things bother him.

7. Because he makes me coffee in the morning and he knows exactly how I take that cup.

8. Because he's a good dad.

9. Because he's a good son to his parents.

10. Because the harshest thing he's ever said to our son is "No, no, NO, NO, STOP" in escalating volume levels.

Happy Father's Day, Jon.

Taking a break

Dexter's teacher had an amusing anecdote to report to Jon today.

A substitute teacher entered the toddler room. Dexter walked up to his regular teacher and said: "someone is here so you can take your break."

I told you he listens to adult conversation.

Gross motor

You can tell he listens to adult conversations because he comes up with the most astounding responses.

A few weeks ago, in response to repeated calls for "go to the park, go to the park, GO TO THE PARK!!!" for the last few days, I thought I'd come through on the promise when the weather (finally) turned hot. I rummaged through his toy box and found his sandbox toys and emerged triumphant with the small bucket filled with two molds (a bunny and a butterfly), a shovel, and a rake. I held it up and said teasingly "do you know what this is for?"

He smiled shyly and said "sensory."

Most kids will just say "sandbox" but I guess Dex has figured out that playing in the sandbox means sensory time. Let me explain.

At the daycare, they make sure that the children have time for sensory play. This usually means exploring and learning with their hands and other senses. Some days they have water play, some days time in the sandbox, some days playdoh, etc. I'm sure the teachers don't say to the kids "it's time for sensory," but perhaps they say that when talking to each other. Oh, and that reminds me: last winter Dex watched his Dad cleaning the snow off the windshield and he said "Daddy's doing sensory."

This also explains why when Jon asked him last week what Dex did that day, he said "gross motor." We asked the teachers and yes, when it's too cold or too wet outside, they stay indoors for the "gross motor" portion of the day. This usually means bringing out the bikes and wagons and running around indoors. He's outside right now doing "gross motor" this fine, beautiful day in Toronto.

You say potato

We were at a restaurant this morning and as my "Big Breakfast Special" was being placed before me, Dex said excitedly: "plantains!"

He thought the homefries were fried plantains! So cute.

His perspective is a little different than other two year olds. How many two year olds can identify plantains, can say plantains, and would use that as a frame of reference instead of potatoes?

First crush

I was sitting there having dinner with my son and out of the blue he tells me: "I have a crush on Steph."

"What?!"

"I have a crush on Steph," he repeated again with a little smile on his face.

Steph is a beautiful 16-year old who has babysat Dex on a few occasions. We last saw her last weekend when Dex and I were strolling the neighbourhood and happened by their house when Steph's mom was weeding the garden. Dex and I offered to help and as we were pulling out weeds, Steph came out to say hi and helped Dex start a pile of weeds. Did I say she is awfully cute and sweet?

Anyway, I thought this was just the greatest thing so I immediately phoned Steph to let her know about it. Dex was thrilled to speak on the phone with her and he very quietly said "I have a crush on you."

When I told Jon, he also thought this was very cute, except he said "I'm not sure Dex knows what crush means." Apparently, one of the games that Steph and Dex plays is wrestling on the sofa. At one point, Dex thought it was the funniest thing to try and crush Steph between the couch and a pile of cushions.

This still counts as a first crush, right?

Pockets

"I have pockets," he said with delight, as he shoved his hands into his pants pockets.

He's finally discovered them! I thought it was amusing when I used to look at his baby outfits and see pockets. What's a baby going to do with pockets? Hide his cigarettes? Wallet? Car keys?

Now that he's discovered them, I guess I have to be more vigilant about checking pockets before throwing clothes in the wash. I'd hate to see laundered snails and worms in a post-wash stage.

New wheels

Jon ordered this little car last year and it finally arrived yesterday. A couple of hours of assembly and a surprisingly low level of swearing later, it was ready for the test drive. Dex was thrilled but not quite sure how to make it go faster or how to reverse.

Mother's Day 2009

It was a nice surprise when Mom and Dad arrived last Saturday. They're here with us now making this Mother's Day an extra special one.

Being a mom really is a wonderful feeling. I love it. And the one thing about being a mom, I think it made me want to be a better daughter. Getting a reality check on what it takes to be responsible for someone sure changed my view of the world.

Jon was trying to tell Dex last night that Lola is mummy's mommy. Dex was not too sure about that. He smiled ever so slightly perhaps thinking that Daddy was making a joke. I guess it must be a tough concept for a little guy to process.

This mother's day, I'm counting all my blessings -- starting with the cute little guy and of course, my wonderful husband. I'm also thinking of Mom and Dad and trying to imagine them as young parents, wishing we lived a little closer to them so that Dex can grow up with beautiful memories of being with Lolo and Lola.

See you later, Mommy

Another milestone day.

"Byebye Mommy," he said with a big smile and a wave as I dropped him off at daycare.

Today is the first day he has ever said that to me. Usually, Dad is responsible for dropping him off and for months now, Dad has been reporting that he drops Dex off and the little guy dismisses him with a quick wave before running into the playground. This used to astound me because every time I drop Dex off, there is still some drama with the farewells. I usually have to coax him into the playground then wait until he's distracted before slipping off. There's been many a day when I've dropped him off and my last sight is of a wailing child being consoled by a teacher. Until today.

I checked the date. It's almost a year to the day when we first dropped him off to daycare. It took that long to get to this stage. Sniff sniff. Before long, he's no longer going to need his mommy. I need to adjust to this realization. Let me ponder this thought as we head into Mother's Day weekend.

Currying favours

When in doubt, make curry. That's my feeding mantra with Dex. He loves the stuff and we have the stained shirts to prove it! Got some April showers today so comfort food was required. I decided to make him a chicken curry with mushrooms. Served with couscous, it proved to be quite popular. Bye, bye organic House of Mongrel cotton shirt with the peace sign. I don't think I'll ever be able to get tonight's stains out.

Couscous is another mother's best friend. Boil water. Add couscous. Cover for five minutes. Fluff with fork. Sometimes I get a little fancy and add some chickpeas and other stuff, but most of the time, that's all I do. It's awesome stuff and Dex loves it. One downside: I end up cleaning couscous from every fold of his outfit, every crevice of his high chair, the floor, and the entire kitchen. For some reason, the stuff seems to scatter. But, I'm learning: no sense cleaning up too quickly after the meal. Like rice, couscous easily wipes up/vacuums up when it's dry.

~~~

I have the phone number of the nearby Caribbean restaurant programmed in my blackberry. Sometimes when I take Dex to the playground after school, I order before leaving the playground (vegetarian roti -- please pack the roti separately), take the long way home and pick it up. It's actually quite funny, because I just roll by with the stroller or red wagon, wave to the waitress and she comes out to the curb with my take-out order. I hand her the money, she runs back to get me change, she ooohs and aaahs over how cute Dex is, and we're off. You can say it's our local roll-by restaurant. And yes, Dex loves the veggie curry and roti.

It's my potty and I'll cry if I want to

Our otherwise excellent potty-training adventure had a minor setback in February when we went to Nova Scotia. During the 18-hour train ride, Dex asked to use the potty a couple of times, but we discouraged him. (By way of defense: ever been on one of those trains? It's pretty tight in there and even if we did manage to fit a parent and two-year old, I didn't think it would be safe to hold a toddler hovering over that gaping hole of a toilet seat while the train was moving.) Unfortunately, after that trip, we noticed that he stopped asking to go.

Now, more than a month after that incident, he is finally getting it again. He's been going consistently in the morning and at night. And for two nights in a row, we had a number 2 special. Yay!

I can't wait for warmer weather when we get into heavy duty training -- less clothes and more time outdoors in case of "accidents."

This morning, apparently, Dex told his dad that he doesn't want to wear diapers anymore and he just wants to wear his underwear. This is going to be an interesting summer.

Outdoor snack

We had our first barbecue and potato salad night last night so summer is now official for us! The temperature hit the 20s so we took advantage of the heat and sunshine. Here's Dex having a muffin snack on our back porch yesterday afternoon.

"It's popping"

There was a fine drizzle of rain falling when we woke up this morning. Dex looked out the patio doors and said "it's popping." I looked and I knew exactly what he meant. The rain was so fine we couldn't see it falling, but we could see the effects of rain -- the pools of water "popped" every time a drop of rain hit it. Where would we be without little children to help us see the world more clearly?

More juice

I was wondering why he was off his milk in the morning. Usually, he would drinks big gulps of milk during breakfast but for the last few days, he'll have a tentative sip then ask for juice.

"Apple and grape juice, please," he'd say.

I didn't really think much of this until this morning when we said something about "nice colour" and then I realized. Ah, yes, he likes the juice because he likes the colour especially after the egg-colouring event!

I guess that also explains the appeal of Kool-Aid.

Colour theory

Perhaps inspired by our egg-colouring activity over the weekend, Dex has been into playing with coloured water big time. This morning at the breakfast table, he put in a request for "another glass" and when that was delivered was followed by a request for "another glass - the big one."

So in front of him this morning was his little juice glass, plus a little bigger regular sized glass and another short, wide mouth glass. All he wanted to do was practice pouring his juice from one different-sized vessel to the other. I convinced him to drink his juice instead of playing with it but on the promise of replacing the fluid -- some splashing was happening and I dreaded the clean up. Instead I filled one glass with water and when the protest started, I brought out the food colouring and put in a couple of drops of yellow. That got his attention.

"I want green," he said. So we talked about what would turn yellow to green and we decided we should add some blue. A drop of blue into the yellow and he was thrilled with the result! He started drinking green water and began his fluid transfer from one vessel to the other. That was our art and science activity this morning.

I hope food colouring is really not that harmful because I have a feeling drinking coloured water is going to be part of our regular ritual from now on.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! We hope everyone is happy and healthy this holiday weekend.

Here's some pictures of Dex colouring eggs last Friday. For comparison, take a look at his photo from last year. Quite a difference a year makes!

This year he is a little more active with the egg colouring. He was able to use a spoon to dip the eggs in the coloured water and he was more interested in experimenting with the coloured water rather than the eggs. "Look Daddy, I'm changing colours. Adding red to yellow!"

But one thing did not change: our success with keeping the eggs intact after this activity was the same. None of the eggs survived crack free. Pictured below is this year's batch. I had to cook and colour some more eggs later that night so we have eggs for our Easter egg hunt the day after. Dex was very excited that the Easter bunny came to visit us this year.

Knock knock

Knock knock
Who's there?
Lettuce
Lettuce who?
Lettuce in! We're hungry.

That's Dexter's first knock knock joke courtesy of Chirp magazine. He's been telling this joke to everyone for the last few weeks now and he knows it's a big hit with the adults. The adults are also very forgiving of the delivery, because sometimes, Dex forgets the "lettuce" part and he goes straight for the punch line. But that's okay. That just seems to add to the hilarity. Then this afternoon he came up with this:

Dex: Knock knock
Daddy: Who's there?
Dex: Apple
Daddy: Apple who?
Dex: Apple in! We're hungy!

It was too funny. I guess we learnt three things from this:
- Comedians are made, not born.
- Kids at age 2 do not understand homonyms.
- Kids at age 2 understand the anatomy of a joke.

Two years old - part 2

Developmental milestones

We are most certainly in the "No" phase. He says no, even when he means yes. But, it's a one way deal. He loves saying it, but he hates hearing it. "Go to the park," he'd say, and we'll point to the teeming rain and say, "No, honey, there's a torrential rainstorm outside." Saying "no" just makes him go ballistic sometimes. We are learning to say "later" or "after the flood, thunder and lighting has subsided, maybe."

Self-sufficiency. He is pretty good at removing his hat, coat and shoes (thank goodness for velcro!), but we still need to work on putting it on. At night, as long as we hook his pajama top over his head, he can usually loop his hands through the sleeves.

Fork, please. He now wants to eat with a fork and knife like everyone else. We still insist he use the spoon for scooping stuff but he loves having the fork and butter knife. He wants to butter his own toast now, too. And, he is also pretty good at using chopsticks (the training kind, see photo).

Knock. Knock. He is turning out to be quite the kidder. Now that he knows his books backwards and forwards, he's starting to improvise. He is purposely filling in words with either nonsense, or words that are hilariously out of context (...and on his farm, there was a backhoe ee ii, ee ii ohhh). He also told his first knock, knock joke a couple of weeks ago.

Vocabulary is pretty darn good. "Good language skills, especially for a boy" said the woman at the park. I think he certainly meets the 200+ word vocabulary milestone. He can say "hydraulic" and "articulated" and he even knows what they mean (his obsession with machines continues!).

He is singing! He spontaneously bursts into song and we can actually recognize the melody. His favourites: Old MacDonald, Down by the Station, and the day's current favourite: "There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name-O. B I N G O...."

Shapes, colours, letters. He's got the basics down pat. Last night, he sang the alphabet song and sometimes he recognizes letters when we point them out. He still can't read, but it's freaky because he's memorized a lot of things and it appears as if he's reading them. He knows his basic shapes and colours, too.

Discovered DVDs! When we took the train to Nova Scotia mid-February, we brought along a portable DVD player. He now understands how DVDs work and a version of the Mighty Machines is always in the DVD player downstairs at all times.

First imaginary friend. He woke up one morning last week and told his dad that he has a dog. His name is Emma (apparently, he is not constrained by conventional naming rules) and he is green and white (but sometimes, he is black and white). He is this small (thumb and forefinger held 5 cm apart) and he loves to cook. Dex walks him everyday. Some days, Emma disappears because he goes to the market to buy sausages.

Finally, things are changing so fast. It's getting tougher and tougher to keep up with the changes!

(Part 1 of this post is on physical changes.)

Two years old - part 1

When we first took him home, I was aware of every passing moment and took note of every minutiae of daily life: how many diaper changes including colour, consistency and sometimes, velocity of discharge; how often he nursed; how long he slept; every gurgle/smile/cry/laugh; the fine texture and length of his hair; every bump on his skin; the size of his fingers and teeny weeny nails. The first year seems so long ago now and the second year, well, what can I say? It's as if someone hit fast-forward and here we are two years and one month after his birth day and I could barely imagine him as a needy, gurgling, sleepy baby. At two, he is definitely a little boy with little boy interests and he continues to fascinate and give us boundless joy.

But let's not glamourize the days. There are difficult ones -- when he's sick or teething or aching in parts he is unable to express -- but even at the busiest, most exhausting day, at the end of the night, when Jon and I are alone chatting about the day's events, we would remember something he said or an expression on his face that would just erase everything else.

I can wax poetic on this some more, but I feel like such a cliche. I am so overwhelmed with this mothering thing, I sometimes need to remind myself, "Shut up already. These feelings are nothing new -- every parent has felt this and here I am carrying on as if I invented motherhood." So I'll just stop now and give highlights of the last two months:

Physical changes

Serious growth spurt the last two months. Pants are suddenly shorter, shirts are suddenly smaller and won't go over his head. Some days, we send him to daycare looking like the Incredible Hulk, wearing pants that are too short and shirts with sleeves that go up to his elbows and strain at the seams. It seems to happen overnight.

Skis for feet. In the last two months, he outgrew his size 7 shoes. When we were at the shoe store last weekend, we got his feet measured only to be told that he is already at the top of size 8s so we had to get him 8.5 shoes! This means, he's done the jump from the infant to the toddler, which means, ohhh, I don't know about another $10 or $20 price difference per pair...

Eyes are hazel. We need to get his passport photo done. We really should have done this sooner, but part of the delay has been trying to decide the eye colour. In the end, we decided to just call it "hazel." The left eye has more green, the right eye has more brown.

Big noggin. We need another set of t-shirts (see point one above). He outgrew his toque over the winter!

Last set of molars coming in. It's tough to get a good look, but for sure his last two upper molars are breaking through. Can't tell if the bottom ones are coming in as well, but knowing his pattern of sprouting them in sets of four, they are also on their way. It would be great to get this bout of teething done.

28 pounds -- nearly six times his birth weight! I'm not sure how tall he is. Must measure him one day.

Getting stronger. He can now scale the blue wall in the playground. It's a climbing wall with holes to use as footholds or for grabbing.

...to be continued

Birthday cake

Our little boy turned two today. Here is the birthday boy eating cake at Poppa and Nana's last week. Two year old update coming soon!

Jump

He can jump! He's been working on this lately and today is the first time he actually got it! I think he was more surprised than we were!

Tonight, like other nights, he needed the aid of his step stool to practice this skill. Facing me while standing on the step stool, he placed his right hand on my left and his left on my right, then talked himself through the jump: "Bend," he said as he bent down on his knees, "take a deep breath.... and jump." On that final word, he launched himself off the step stool and landed with a soft thud on the rug. He even remembered to bend his knees a little as he landed.

He did the jump with dad first, but Jon was not sure whether he lifted Dex off or if Dex pushed off on his own. He did it several times with dad, and by the time it was mommy's turn to watch, there was absolutely no doubt. He really, really did jump. Another skill to add to his list.

23 months

He is a little boy. As much as I still think he is my baby, I do get daily reminders that he is all grown up.

Last Saturday at lunch, we sat there eating our grilled cheese sandwiches from our own plates: Jon, me and Dex. He is pretty much self-sufficient at meal times now (some meals more than others). Sure, we still need to bib him and cover his lap to minimize the post-meal clean up, but he would sit there and eat his sandwich his way -- alternating between dipping it in ketchup before biting and digging out the cheese with his index finger, munching away until it gets down to the crusts that he then leaves uneaten on his plate. He even participates in the conversation -- telling us about backhoes and dump trucks, whatever random thought involving construction vehicles flit through his mind at the moment. He sits there chatting away, taking sips of milk from a glass to wash down his meal. If he wasn't sitting in a high chair and if his face wasn't smeared in ketchup and covered in bread crumbs, I could have sworn we were dining with a kid older than the 23-month old that he is.

Less than a month before his second birthday. He's still on the move. He's still growing like crazy. Highlights of the month:

- More words and phrases: now saying "I don't know," "probably," and "maybe."

- Using "I," "me," and "you" more often, interchangebly, but often used correctly.

- Experimenting with more present tense/past tense words (do and do-ed it, throw and throw-ed it) and singular/plural (mouse and mouses).

- Now eating grapes with peel. He's outgrown this allergy/sensitivity!

- He is working on his jump. He tries to push off with both feet but only succeeds in doing a silly tip toe step dance. He doesn't get the idea of having both feet off the floor at the same time. Not yet anyway. He's very close.

- Can take off his hat and gloves by himself but we need to work on removing the coat and boots.

- Potty training is going well. He's done both a number 1 and a number 2, but the number 2 was only at the daycare.

I'm sure there's more stuff to report, but I better post this now. It's been sitting in draft form for the last two weeks and he's having a birthday soon!

Mouses and Leafs

We're getting some interesting word play. Last week, "five mouses," "throwed it," and "leafs" were uttered at three separate times by Dex (the last probably in reference to a hockey team rather than as the plural of leaf!). He's really picking up on the language rules.

Poop, poop, poop

A red letter day! When I picked up Dex from daycare, he had something very interesting to announce -- "pooped in toilet," he said. I exclaimed in delight. We then did the high five-down below-fist bump celebratory hand ritual, shook the tambourines (it was percussion hour at the daycare), and jumped up and down in joy. Judging by his big smile, he was awfully proud of himself, too, and appreciated the praise. Time to buy some big boy underwear for my son!

"Ciao baby"

That's the new phrase Dex picked up from Carmen when we visited her deli and butcher shop last Friday. He earned big points from Carmen when he correctly identified the package of pasta I held in my hand (orrecchietti) and that it means "little ears" in Italian. Carmen was so delighted she gave him a slice of ham which he, of course, devoured instantly.

Pomegranate

More words never, ever uttered to Jon while he was growing up:

"Okay, you don't like pomegranate this morning -- let's see if the kiwi is ripe yet."

Pronouns

It used to annoy me when people spoke about themselves in the third person and/or when they speak from the point of view of another being. I thought there was absolutely no excuse for people with serious pronoun deficiencies. Partially, I think, because it irks the editor in me. Too much repetition and too many passive sentences. But aha, oho, who's got pronoun problems now?

"Would Dexter like to have breakfast with Mommy," I'd ask Dex instead of "Would you like to have breakfast with me?" Throughout the day, I rarely say "I" or "me" or "you" to Dex.

A feminist analysis of this would probably say that this is contributing to my loss of identity but let's not go there for now and look at a more basic reason. Young kids don't get pronouns. They are barely aware of the difference between them and mommy and daddy. Think about it: the word "me" changes according to the person using it. When mommy uses it, it means mommy and when daddy uses it, it means daddy. What a strange word and quite a complex concept for a baby!

Part of the maturity experienced by the kid at the toddler stage is the growing awareness of this separation between them and caregivers -- a scary yet empowering time. I think understanding the concept of "I" and "me" precludes some understanding of volition, too, so as they get more aware of this separation plus their power to influence outcomes, the concept of "I" also starts to develop.

Back to pronouns, Dex said "me" the other day instead of "Dexter." I think he's starting to get it. He's certainly experimenting with the use of it so let's see where this goes. Sounds like mommy is really enjoying her little social science experiment.

Staging

Another one to file under quirky things my husband does. According to Jon, there is is this sweet spot on the kitchen counter. It's by the sink, at the lower right hand edge. I did not know about this special spot.

I think the first time I discovered a knife with a smear of peanut butter resting on that spot, I just automatically gave it a good rinse before putting it in the dishwasher. But then, it kept happening. Sometimes it's a water glass, sometimes a teaspoon, but often it is a butter knife, obviously used but just resting there at the edge, the blade part hanging over the sink, and the handle resting on the counter.

I seethed silently over this for a while, then one day, I snapped. Waving a knife caked with cream cheese, I screeched: "Honey, dirty dishes and flatware go in the dishwasher. Clean ones get put away or can drain on the drying rack!"

Given his reaction, I might as well have taken that knife and plunged it into his kidney. He was so hurt. "But, that's staging," he said, referring to that sweet spot.

Well, I have news for you, pal. There is no staging. It is binary: Clean. Not clean. Nothing in between!!

No, thanks

He is ever so polite. Instead of just saying "No!" as most toddlers do, he says "no, thanks." (His daycare teachers are doing such a good job of raising him.) He still says no a lot, but he is very polite about it. That interviewing technique of not asking yes/no questions I picked up from my previous life is coming in handy now, but I must admit I still make the mistake of asking the wrong questions. Honestly, these little guys do not miss a beat. If you ask the wrong question, you get their honest response and you don't get another chance to rephrase.

"Would you like to go upstairs to brush your teeth?"
"No, thanks."
"Let's go get your diaper changed and get you ready for school."
"No, thanks."
"Let's read that book later. Right now, we need to sit down for breakfast."
"No, thank you."
...and so on and so on.

Even under duress, this "no, thanks" pattern seems to continue. At the hospital, as he was getting an IV inserted, he kept telling the nurses "no, thanks, no, thanks, no thanks..." as he was crying his eyes out.

22 months

Less than two months before he turns two!

Here are the highlights for his 22-month post, mostly around the increasing dexterity and language fluency.

"Watch me do stuff"

He can string beads! For months, he's been playing with this string and wooden bead toy but he was not able to do it himself. He would try, but then he'd give the string back to me and say "Mommy's turn." I would hold the bead and he would put the string through. However, a couple of days ago, I left him on the floor with this toy, and sure enough, when I looked again, he had three beads strung through. He was ever so proud of himself, too. "Show Daddy," he'd say and walk around the house with his string of beads.

He loves jigsaw puzzles. His Nana gave him a puzzle at Thanksgiving and back then he would just pick up the pieces and twist the hanging bits off. Suddenly this month, he started to want to put the puzzle together and like most tasks involving pattern recognition, he's very good at it.

He's trying to put on his socks and shoes. He can pretty much take off his shoes, hat, gloves, and scarf by himself, but putting them on requires a bit more work. He's close to being able to put on his own shoes (thank goodness for velcro) and while he's an expert at removing socks, he's still working at putting it on.

"Listen to me speak"

Reading lots and lots and lots. He got several books for Christmas and what he likes to do is to sit down with one and have us read to him over and over again (can we say OCD?). He's memorizing it, you see.

The language skills continue to amaze us. He received several books this Christmas and he is especially fascinated by the Dr. Seuss ones from Ninong Richard. He is at this stage where he loves the sound of words so rhyming and saying nonsense words seems to amuse him very much.

He's telling jokes. Ask him about his joke and he will say "eaglePiper," and he'd laugh and laugh. He made up this "joke" one day while looking at his animal book. There was a picture of an eagle, and I guess somewhere nearby, he saw his favourite teddy bear, Piper. He put the two words together and that must have just sounded so hilarious to him. It's very cute. It's like he delivers the punchline without giving us the backstory. Oh, his second joke is "poop, poop, poop." He made that up while we were reading Dr. Suess's ABC book. It goes, "Big P, little p, what begins with P?" I guess he associated poop with "p."

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2009. Had a great pancake and bacon breakfast with my boys and we're lounging around trying to decide what to do today. It's minus 10 degrees outside but the sun is out so it might not be so bad. Maybe we'll take the little boy on a short ride in his brand new red wagon then play in the backyard a bit. Time to teach the boy how to make snow angels!

Happy New Year.

Oh Christmas Tree

We had the most beautiful Christmas tree this year. It stood a towering half-metre tall and it came with the lights already on! All we had to do was plug it in. Dex was almost as tall as the tree which made it really easy for him to decorate it. Not that this effort took much; We only had one ornament to hang on it.

East Coast visit postponed

We were supposed to have a low key Christmas: a trip to rural Nova Scotia to visit Poppa and Nana, where there is not much to do except visit, relax, eat, and watch my son delight in the company of his grandparents.

But things started to derail two weekends ago. We took one of our cats, Cinnamon, to the vet because he started puking a lot and was refusing his food. I wasn't too concerned (he's gone through this spell before) usually from something he ate outside. He usually bounces right back after a couple of days. This time around, refusing the food lasted longer than two days so Jon rushed him to the vet on the Friday night. He arrived home later with no cat. Cinnie was quite dehydrated and needed an IV. They were also doing a bunch of blood work, x-rays and other stuff to find out what's wrong. By Saturday ($1,500 later, if I might add), we still did not know what was bothering Cinnamon but he was obviously benefiting from the drugs and the IV.

The next day, because our vet was going to be closed on the Sunday, we had to move Cinnie to the Emergency Cat Hospital in another part of town where he stayed another night. Luckily, his condition improved overnight and by Monday, we had Cinnie at home with a fistful of pills (antibiotic, antacid, anti-nausea), plus an IV that we can administer in case he goes through this again. The diagnosis: feline leukemia. This is not good news but at least now we know what we are dealing with. We thought about canceling our trip but within days, Cinnie improved (back to his normal self, really) and we felt better about leaving him in the care of a sitter for a week while we're away.

Dexter's turn

One day before our scheduled flight, I got a call from the daycare at 3 pm. Dexter has a bit of a temperature, was coughing all day, and in fact coughed so hard that he vomited. Off I went to the get him. Of course, this was the Friday Toronto got its worst snowstorm yet (25 cm in a day) with howling winds and whiteout driving conditions. The five-minute ride to the daycare took half an hour because I needed to shovel a path to and clear the car.

By the time I got to the daycare, Dexter was doing a little better. His temperature was under control, but he was still wheezing. I wanted to take him to the hospital but with the snowstorm, rush hour, and impossible driving conditions, we decided to go to a clinic that was a bit closer. The doctor confirmed what we dreaded: he had a touch of asthma brought on by the cold. And to top it off, surprise, surprise, another ear infection (his sixth this year). We went home with the antibiotic and the puffer, plus the doctor's advice NOT to travel with our sick baby.

Thank you nurses and doctors

Saturday. After half a day of using the puffer, Dex was not showing much improvement. He was still wheezing, not eating much, and when he did eat, he usually vomited. We decided to take him to the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital. Thanks to SARs, respiratory problems are treated as urgent so our wait at Emerg was short. After looking at Dexter's X-ray, the doctor recommended that we get admitted, but suggested we go to Toronto East General Hospital which is much closer to our house. We finally got to Toronto East by 2 am and I finally got Dex settled in for a sleep by 3. He has a respiratory virus that developed into bronchilitis and pneumonia. That's in addition to the asthma and the ear infection. Poor, poor boy.

It was Dexter's turn for an IV. We stayed at Toronto East for three nights. Thanks again to SARs, the respiratory infection meant that we were in "isolation," which basically meant being in a private room with lots of nursing attention. Dex got to watch a Thomas the Tank Engine video for the first time, and we did so over and over and over again. We couldn't do much about the virus, but Dex got some relief from the blockage in his bronchial tubes and the ear infection.

Home again

By the time we got home on the 23rd, we had a day and a bit to get ready for Christmas. We didn't really decorate our house since we were not going to be here so we had to make the house look festive and pronto. Jon, bless his heart, stopped by Canadian Tire for the $9.99 mini-tree special and got us some groceries (the fridge was completely bare because we were going away). He also put up the Christmas lights both indoors and outdoors to make the house look less Jewish.

On Christmas eve, Dex and I made paper chains to hang on our tree. We also cut out a carboard star and wrapped it in tin foil then pegged it to the tree with a chopstick. We also made garlands of cranberries and popcorn. With the Christmas music in the background, our house looked festive at last. Once Dex went to bed, Jon and I ran around the house looking for things to put in his stocking (we were going to buy most of the presents in Nova Scotia instead of carrying it with us on the flight). In the end, Dexter's stocking was full to the brim: books, raisins and oranges, and little toys Jon picked up at the last minute on the way to the grocery store.

Jon and I had very little in our own stockings, but the sight of our little boy excited on Christmas morning was enough to warm our hearts.

Merry Christmas

We are happy to be home for the holidays and we are grateful for the reminder to appreciate what we have.

It's not quite how we envisioned our son's second Christmas. Had we been at Poppa and Nana's, Dex would have seen the best tree ever that Poppa himself would have chopped down from his woodlot, shaped to perfection, then decorated by Nanna with antique ornaments. Had we planned to stay home for Christmas, we would have probably spent a small fortune on a perfect balsam, trimmed it with European-made, hand-blown glass ornaments with handpainted winter scenes and other expensive, precious things. We probably would have had more Christmas trinkets and decorations and certainly more presents under the tree. Quite the contrast to what I call our Depression-type decorating.

But you know, our son believed that Santa dropped by the house and left him with oranges and raisins and he's just fine with that. And in the end, after the harrowing two weeks, that's all that really mattered.

Every Christmas is special, but I think I am going to remember this one the most. It really brought back the true spirit of Christmas, as corny as that sounds.

One of the highlights of the holidays for me so far is watching my beautiful son, on the night before Christmas, standing side by side with his dad, looking at our humble tree with the most exquisite and magical look of innocent wonder.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from our family to yours.

Elf wanted

On December 1, the first Monday of the month, I looked in my mailbox and found three Christmas cards! Three! That means those friends must have sent the cards in November! Then on subsequent days, more cards, some with newsletters (with the family photos they must have had taken months before), started arriving. How do you people do it? You know who you are! I bet your homes are also nicely decorated and presents neatly wrapped under the tree. I'm so jealous.

Need. To. Get. Organized.

Broccoli milkshake

I made my goodnight pasta special tonight. This time around, I made it with the small round pasta, broccoli and some cut up leftover sesame-orange chicken from last night. Also, instead of stirring in the egg at the end of the cooking time, I just cracked one in the soup and poached it. I served it with the grated parmesan and Dexter just devoured it. He inhaled the first bowlful, but then he got a little distracted and started playing a bit, as he sometimes does.

For some reason, he thought it was a good idea to stir his milk with his spoon. There's only one problem: his spoon had gobs of mushy broccoli and pasta clinging to it. By the time I realized what he was up to, he had all sorts of broccoli and pasta at the bottom of his glass of milk. Actually, the resulting concoction was kinda neat -- it looked like green-ish bubble tea. And you know what, despite the ewww factor, he still drank it.

I had lunch with a girlfriend today and she was telling me about her son who does not eat fruits or vegetables. Not even irresistible fare like pears, grapes, or yams. Nope. Nothing like that. And that was what I was thinking about while I was watching Dex play with his food. I figured, if my son preferred to drink his broccoli in milk rather than in the soup today, who cares? He was still ingesting it. Why let my sense of taste ruin his love for the food.

21 months

Our boy is sweet. He cuddles his stuffed animals, kisses them a lot, pretends to change their diapers, reads to them, and pats them to sleep. He is always trying to hug the cats.

On the emotional front, the new thing I noticed was the empathy. One day Cinnamon, one of the cats, was hacking away trying to pass a fur ball or something disgusting, and Dex just stared at him. Later, he would pretend to cough and say "Cinnamon fur ball" with a worried look on his face and I would have to spend some time reassuring him that Cinnie was okay.

And then there was that time at daycare. There was a bit of a scene down the hall because one of his friends was having a loud temper tantrum with the whole works (flailing, and squirming on the floor, etc.) while his mother spoke to him insisting he put on his coat. Dex was staring so I said by way of explanation that "Owen was having a bit of a meltdown because he was tired." Well, that must have struck a chord because he still says "Owen meltdown" quite often. When he does, we talk about how when we're very tired, sometimes, we have a bit of a meltdown. Of course, now that he knows the word, he tries to use it. One night he was in a bit of a bad mood and resisting something we asked him to do and he announced "meltdown meltdown." We had to explain to him that if he can say that he is having a meltdown, he is most likely not having one.

In general, emotional development seems to be a focus at this age. He uses words like "scared," (they were reading a lot of Halloween stories with that word), "excited," "happy" and "sad."

The only other significant change is on the language front. His vocabulary seems to expand at an exponential rate. His extensive grasp of construction vehicles and processes is astounding! He also seems to grasp grammar rules. We've heard him say sentences in the past tense and he certainly knows the singular and plural forms of words.

On the cognitive front, he continues to demonstrate that he understands concepts like "same" or "different." He likes matching things up. His memory also amazes me. I mean, I know that he memorizes his books, toys, and stories but I never thought he applied it to real life situations. One day, we were sitting on the front steps and a car pulled up to park at the end of the street. I said out loud, "I wonder who that is," more as a rhetorical question than anything and to my surprise he answered "Tony." Tony is a neighbour who lives down the street and the car parked almost right in front of his house so yes, that was a very good guess. I just did not realize that he knew which neighbour lived where. We've walked up and down our street lots of times and when the weather was nicer we often saw our neighbours sitting on their front porches so of course he must know who lives where.

He continues to be active. He loves kicking the ball, riding bikes, and playing in the sandbox. It is so cute watching him run around the playground wearing his too-big-for-him two-piece snowsuit with the sleeves and leg cuffs folded up. He now wears size seven shoes. He's been sleeping well at night, at least 10 hours, and drinking lots of milk. I think he's having a bit of a growth spurt.

Ni hao

We were in bed telling stories as part of our pre-bed ritual last night when Dexter started blurting out random Mandarin words.

ni hao
xie xie
zai jian

One of his teachers speaks Mandarin and she's been teaching her little sponges a few phrases. Jon said that one more word and Dex would surpass his Mandarin fluency level.

Stars needed

For the last two weeks, he's been lining up his "babies" (his teddy bears and assorted stuffed animals including: Piper, his favourite teddy bear; Teddy, a smaller bear; Sydney, a floppy eared dog; Sam the monkey; Duckie; Grover; Ox, his ugly doll; Naughty Naughty Keifer, another ugly-doll-like thing; Horsie; Doggie; Sophie the giraffe; Tad, a talking frog-thing; Baby, a musical teddy; Dino, a green dinosaur, etc. etc.) and insisting that I change their diapers.

It's a funny little ritual. He will take the babies one at a time and insist that I wipe their "bum-bum" and "change their diaper." I would, of course, play along, and once we get to the end (pardon the pun) of the babies, I will say "now, it's Dexter's turn." But oh no, no. The babies might need to be changed, but no, not Dexter. He will protest, resist and procrastinate until I finally insist (read: forcibly hold down a crying, squirming boy) it's his turn at the change table.

The last few days or so, he would actually stop in the middle of play to rush upstairs to "change babies." We figured it was his way of letting us know that "somebody" had filled their diaper -- in fact, all the babies apparently, except for Dex, of course (wink, wink).

Did someone say potty?

Last night, I just had his dinner ready and as I was rounding him up to strap him to his high chair, off he went to go upstairs to change the babies. I rushed in after him and when we got upstairs, I changed one or two babies. He wasn't really into it and it finally occurred to me to ask him if he wanted to go to the bathroom. Surprise, surprise: He allowed himself to be led to the bathroom and once there, he actually allowed me to remove his diaper and to let him sit on the potty. Wow!

Believe me, this progress on the potty training front was totally thrilling. Quick -- I tried to jog the memory to see what else I should be doing. I read somewhere that I should have some reading material just for sitting on the potty so that he gets positive reinforcement. I scanned the horizontal surfaces within arms reach: not looking good. Here's the paltry choice:

- Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics by Nick Herbert
- The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
- Dropped Threads 2, edited by Carold Shields and Marjorie Anderson
- Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
- Barrel Fever by David Sedaris
- Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson
- Sharp, a Globe and Mail freebie magazine with Ewan McGregor on the cover
- Design Within Reach, a catalogue for mid-century design furniture and accessories

As you can imagine, only the last two had pictures so I reached for those first. The Eames chairs in the Design catalogue only held his interest for half a second so we moved on to Sharp Magazine where (1) he noticed the motorcycle behind Ewan, and (2) ads for Porsche (inside front cover) and Audi (centre spread). We talked about the cars for a bit but then that wore thin and the only other thing I could reach was the David Sedaris book with a cover photo of two guys in hats with their tongues out. That entertained him for the rest of the potty session.

While ooohing and aaahing over the car ads, my little boy had a quiet tinkle. I was so proud of him.

And not only that, later that night, after dinner, he wanted to sit on the potty again for a #2 -- too late, of course (the diaper was already mighty full by the time we removed it) but still, I think we're making progress.

The report from Daddy is that Dex also sat on the potty first thing this morning. I think we are on a roll!

So, things to do today: upgrade the reading material in the bathroom to include toddler-appropriate books, and buy gold stars or stamps to reward Dex every time he sits on the potty. Yaay!

Healthier bones and teeth

I forgot to mention that Dex is now drinking whole milk!

For the last couple of months, I've been slowly introducing whole milk to his diet. I started by giving him a splash of milk with his usual soy milk, then increased the ratio bit by bit, week by week. Last week, I started giving him whole milk straight up and I am happy to report that he has exhibited no adverse effects. No redness. No signs of irritation around the mouth, his previous reaction to the stuff. I think he managed to outgrow the sensitivity/allergy to dairy. Yay.

This new development is a relief to me. I've been worried about the long term effects of insufficient calcium in his diet. The soy milk I've been giving him did not have a lot of calcium but that was the choice I made. I got to be the expert nutritional information reader in my time and basically, with soya milk, the trade off is calcium versus sugar. Most soy milks out there have so much sugar. The brand I decided to give Dex had no sugar, but alas, as I said lacking in calcium content. I mean, I wasn't sure he was deficient in calcium (we made sure he got yogourt or cheese or broccoli and other calcium-rich foods on a regular basis), but I still worried (this seems to be a recurring theme with me on this blog).

Now that he is able to drink milk, he is drinking it by the jug! I swear he drinks half a litre a day. Maybe now the legs will start growing.

Snow!

He wanted to see the snow first thing this morning. Here he is staring at the back porch.

Night night

It's too bad I already documented elsewhere that he has already said his first sentence because another one was said today.

"Daddy's home," he said when he heard someone downstairs. He repeated it a couple more times as Daddy was climbing up the stairs.

He was having a tough time sleeping and we were in bed at the time. Funny, as soon as his daddy joined us in bed, Dex was asleep within minutes. Sure looks like someone really missed his daddy last week.

Sticks, stones, snail shells

Little boys, or maybe kids in general, are such magnets for things we take for granted. Dex is a curious one and every time we go for a walk, he always picks up a small object or two as a memento -- a smooth pebble, an acorn, part of a snail shell, a small broken bit from a plastic toy, a leaf, a twig, a dead bee.

"Would you like to show that to Daddy."
"Yeah," he'd always say.

So he'll clutch the object in his little fingers (he hasn't discovered pockets yet) for the rest of our stroll for me to pry off from his warm little fist once we get to the house. Jon's gotten used to the sight of these offerings at the front step. Usually after a day, I can sweep them off the porch and Dex wouldn't miss them, but the dead bee was a source of fascination for days.

Good night soup

Since Wednesday, Dex has been waking up at 2 am screaming for Mommy and Daddy. At first I thought it was because we have disrupted the order of the universe (Jon left for an out-of-town conference that same day), and then I thought it was the ear infection (yup, ear infection #5 in 20 months), or the other set of molars coming in, but in the end, I decided it must be a combination of the three. And, because I was rewarding him by taking him to bed with me instead of settling him back in his crib (how can I not take that warm little body in bed with me when he's upset), he figured he had a good thing going.

But last night, I decided to deal with the mid-night waking by concocting my magic sleep potion: chicken meatball soup with pasta. Carmen from the butcher shop told me this is what she made for her kids once they started eating solids. It goes something like this:

- Boil a bit of pasta. I use the tiny ones, acini de pepe or stellini, just enough to fit the bottom of my cupped palm -- not too much because pasta expands a lot.
- Then I add my chopped vegetables: carrots, mushrooms, peas, celery, potato, zucchini -- whatever I have in the fridge.
- Then I add my meatballs. I now make a big batch of chicken meatballs, freeze them, then take out a half dozen or so for each soup serving.
- Add a little bit of herbs: basil, tarragon, parsley, whatever I have on hand.
- Then just before it's ready, I stir in a beaten egg.
- To serve, I grate some parmesan cheese and stir it in. That's it.

Dex loves this soup. It turns out a little differently each time. Last night's version was more risotto-y in consistency than soup, but that was just fine for Dex. He ate six meatballs plus the pasta and all the vegetables.

And for the first time in a week, he slept through the night again, a full 11 hours! Amazing.

Before I went to bed last night, I checked in on him. There was my beautiful little boy in a Jesus pose in his crib, perspiring a little as he digested his meal. Georgeous thing.

One step ahead

If one of the metrics of being a good mom is being one step ahead all the time, I'm afraid I'm going to get a less than stellar evaluation at the end of the year. There goes my bonus, I guess.

A friend just told me she is putting up her Christmas tree since Halloween is done. Another friend just got family photos for her annual Christmas misssive. In contrast, here I am still trying to figure out when I can print out some Halloween photos for the grandparents maintenance program. And downstairs, in my kid's book box is his Easter bunny book. On a positive note, I guess there is no need to put away the Christmas books that we've had all year in Dexter's room.

Holidays seem to come screaming around the corner startling me into action at the last minute. This year, I actually forgot it was Halloween until that morning and had to ask Jon to stop by the store to get some candy for the kids. The funny thing is, every time a holiday goes by and I scramble to prepare at the last minute, I swear to myself that I will be more prepared for the next one. Must decorate the house! Must bake holiday-appropriate cookies! Must send some cards! Must dress up Dex in cute bunny costume, spooky costume, Christmas shirt, etc! But no...Let's see, Dex is now nearly two and I have yet to live up to that. I like to attribute part of the cause to my little preemie. He showed up two months early and I haven't caught up since. But, even I know I can only cruise on that excuse for so long.

It's hard to believe that corporations used to actually pay me good money to organize things, plan things, budget for expenses. Unfortunately, I guess that job skill is not transferable to the domestic sphere. But then again, we usually get what we pay for!

20 months

I've noticed while washing his sippy cup lately that it's showing signs of wear -- the painted image of a sea turtle is flaking off, the rubber on the tip cracked and worn, the handles sporting scratches, etc. -- and thought, I really should get him another one. But last night, the light bulb went off in my head! Wait a minute...why, these signs of degradation are not from normal use, but the deliberate work of a saboteur (I see teeth and fingernail marks!). And then I realized, OMG, he's been trying to tell us something. He hates his sippy cup! He's tired of it. It's too baby-ish. He's trying to say "hello, people, I can drink from a glass, you know." And yes, that's just one of the signs that my baby is turning into a little boy. He's 20 months now, you know.

He's figured out that he can no longer stand under the dining table without hitting his head. He's getting too tall. In fact, his eye level is above the table which means we really should remove any tempting objects lest he decides it's worthwhile to climb a chair to help himself. This also means I can no longer make things "disappear" by moving it to the closest horizontal surface. He's getting too tall and clever for that. He can move furniture and he knows all about object permanence, you know.

He can tell stories. One night, when his grandparents were here for Thanksgiving, we walked home, met dogs and looked at the moon. Now, weeks later, he still tells me about that. Of course it comes out as "Poppa, Nana, doggie, ears (he touched the dog's ears), gentle, soft, moon." We know what he's trying to say because of the expression of joy and wonder in his face as he's speaking and signing the words. Every night now, he insists on looking out the window before bed to see the moon. When he can't see it, he says and signs "where?" And then he'll say, "hiding, clouds" because we told him the moon is still there, we just can't see it because it's behind the clouds.

He reads along and sings along.

Us: "In the great green..."
Dex:"..room"
Us: "...there was a telephone and a red..."
Dex: "...balloon..."
Us: "...and a picture o..."
Dex: "...cow..."
Us: "...jumping over th-..."
Dex: "...moon."
and so on and so forth.

It is also very funny to hear him complete the chorus of the songs we are singing. One of these days I'll post a wave file of that.

He's growing up. His language skills are very good and I am absolutely amazed at the exponential progress on the physical, verbal, and social front. He can, among other things, and in no particular order:

- run (usually away from us rather than towards)
- kick a ball (with greater and greater control)
- sip from a straw
- drink from a cup or a glass
- identify lots of things: animals in his picture books, fruits and vegetables, everyday objects, construction vehicles, etc.
- speak in sentences, occasionally
- finish stories
- tell stories
- swear a little
- animate toys (make them do things rather than doing things for them -- articulate teddy bear limbs, push a picture of a car on the floor to make it move forward while making car sound effects, etc.)
- say Daddy instead of Dada and Mommy instead of Momma
- freestyle breastfeeding (our term for when he assumes various weird non-traditional nursing positions -- let's leave it at that, shall we?)

He now has 16 teeth -- that's almost a full set. By the time he's three he should have 20 teeth. Theoretically, he should have an entire year to grow another set of four molars, however knowing his pattern, he'll sprout the next four molars in the next few weeks. (He's drooling big time again these days.)

On the emotional front, lots of changes there, too. He's adjusted quite well to being in the toddler room. He still loves visiting his infant teachers and runs over to give them a hug when he sees them in the corridors of the daycare. But he knows he's with a new class now and he loves it. The report from Daddy is that when he drops him off, he is now as likely to run towards a group of kids (because of course we're always late for playground time!) as much as he is interested in running to the teachers.

Some emotional adjustments are also becoming evident. Now that he knows he can influence outcomes (as noted last month), he is likely to protest or resist when he does not want to do something. We call these episodes tantrums.

As well, he is showing signs of possessiveness. Last weekend, we had friends over when we carved a pumpkin. We just got Dex his first pair of snowboots that morning and when our friends tried it on their son, Russell, well -- Dex did not like that very much. There was an "episode" (please see paragraph above.)

But overall, things are going well. He is a healthy, happy, bright boy and I can't believe he is growing so quickly. Only four more months and he'll be two! Yikes. Where did the time go?

Echo

We really, really need to watch our language these days.

Yesterday, Jon was setting the dinner table while Dex and I were playing on the floor. Jon must have done something or forgotten something from the kitchen and he said "Oh, crap." Almost immediately, one little blockmaker said "oh, crap." I tried not to laugh. I was not successful.

And then there was the time when I was cleaning his shoes. When he plays in the sandbox, he gets sand everywhere and I mean everywhere. I usually like to remove his shoes outside the house and give it a good shake to minimize the trail of grit on the floor. I was there shaking one shoe saying "look at this -- god, look at all this sand" as a steady stream of the stuff poured from his runners. And, of course, Dex imitated me. He removed his other shoe and was pounding it on the floor, shaking it while saying "god, oh god."

First sentence

We were playing with his blocks two days ago and he said "Here, I'll show you" as he picked up a piece and connected it to another. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what he said. I tried to get him to repeat it, but he wouldn't. First sentence or product of my fertile imagination? Don't know. Jon is positive it's the latter but what does he know? I think he's just jealous because he had a dream when Dex was just a wee baby that the first sentence Dex said was "I'm wearing blue."

Cold turkey

Yes! I remembered the cranberry sauce. I put it on the table as we were setting it, which -- duh -- makes so much sense, I don't know why I never, ever did that before. That's the good news. The un-good news is that I was slightly disappointed with this year's sauce. I let it boil down a little more than usual so it had a more jelly consistency than the jammy one I prefer. Oh well. I can always use the boy as an excuse. He "helped" me with the preparations. He helped me wash the cranberries and helped me place them in the saucepan. He also insisted on supervising the rest of the sauce-making process which made it difficult for me to move around.

Thanksgiving dinner was very nice. The turkey was perfect and my timing was even pretty good. I had everything ready for a 6:30 dinner. Of course, the last 30 minutes of that was slightly chaotic but that's the thing with a turkey dinner. I find that no matter how prepared I am, everything comes together in the last 20 minutes as the turkey comes out, gets carved and as gravy gets made. Those movie scenes where the table is all nicely set and the bird is ceremonially carved at the table? It never ever made sense to me. When I see that scene I think some of those vegetables must be awfully cold by the time you get that turkey carved and passed around.

Despite our best efforts, lots of turkey leftovers today. Turkey barley soup and turkey pot pies will get made tomorrow so I can get some much needed fridge space again. Dex loved the turkey (dark meat especially) and he loved the squash and stuffing. Not too fond of that pumpkin pie, but that's okay. He was happy with an apple for dessert.

Thanksgiving

We are having a nice visit with Poppa and Nana this Thanksgiving weekend.

The cranberry sauce has been made and hopefully, today is the first Thanksgiving I remember to bring it to the table for the meal. The cranberry sauce is the first thing I make for Thanksgiving and inevitably, the one thing I forget to take to the table in the frenzied preparations for dinner.

Right now, I can smell the turkey cooking and the giblets simmering on the stove. Jon and his dad are out running around looking for squash and potatoes (apparently potatoes are hard to get this year). Dex fell asleep on the stroller on his way home from the park and rather than move him, he is out in front of the house being watched by grandma who is sitting on a Muskoka chair reading a book.

It is a beautiful sunny day in Toronto and we are thankful for family and good health. I was also going to add good fortune, but the last few weeks have actually put a major dent in that little nest egg of ours. Oh well. There may be tough times ahead, but we will always have family and that is all we need. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.