More and Baby

utensils

a little sample of Atticus's eating-utensil skills, and some zoning out into space

Swing

swinging--pure joy

We seem to be experiencing a little bit of what they call a language explosion. Some of the new words Atticus has begun saying in the last week include "hi," "hat," "ball," "bath, "bib," "hug," and "purple." I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting a few.

Photo I took the other week but forgot about. Atticus has a risky habit of wrapping cords around his neck. There's not much to worry about with the garden hose, I don't think, but when he loops a mouse cord around his neck a few times, we're none too pleased.


This is such a cliche. What are the odds the clean laundry would produce six clean days, all of them without their partners?

Today Atticus made quite a fuss when Chris left for work. He clung to him so tightly and pitched a fit when I peeled him off. The poor thing is paranoid that Chris is going to disappear again. When I pulled him out of the car this afternoon though, and he saw Chris's car in the driveway, he applauded and squealed.

Oh, and one other note: Atticus likes to clean up! I won't lie and say he never leaves toys or found objects strewn about the house, but he does often make an effort to clean up after himself and others. As he walked by my nightstand this morning, he paused to pick up a magazine that had fallen the night before, placed it on top of the night stand, then resumed walking. I've seen him do this kind of thing with other objects too. Such an endearing quality in a boy, I'd say.

I forgot about a few other words Atticus is saying: "hot" and "banana" (more like "nana").

And that when he's ready for bed, he waves and says "bye bye" to who or whatever is around--if Dad's here, he's the recipient; if not, the cat and the furniture are the recipients.

Tonight Atticus tried to feed his dinner to Sabine, and we're talking the good CSA bread here and cheese that he specifically requested. He must really love that cat.


He couldn't wait until he got out of the tub to read.

This morning he clapped after I wiped his nose. It was that runny.

Long overdue update... my evenings have been non-stop, what with doing all the cleaning and childcare in addition to all the cooking; and last week was rough--many night awakenings for Atticus, what with teething and his dad gone; and I'll admit I've been catching up on Dexter.

Lately I've noticed a surge in Atticus's ability to communicate. He's picking up more and more signs, gaining the courage to try his hand at enunciating words and animal sounds, and is a pro now at using head nods and shakes to communicate yes and no. He now initiates bath time many nights by signing "bath" when he's ready. This has resulted in more enjoyable baths and evenings all-around because it's helped me to avoid waiting too late to start the bed-time routine. He also initiates book-reading and bed time much of the time by signing. Several times now I've been nursing him and reading to him, and he's halted things to let me know he's ready for his bed. And reading has become his favorite pastime--he wants to read in the mornings as soon as he wakes, in the early evening as soon as we return home from daycare, and before bed. His favorite book at the moment is the audio book Jean recorded for him.

He's saying "baby," "bye bye," "more," and "night;" and he woofs, moos, ribbets, bahs, and makes lion and elephant noises. ("Baby" is my absolute favorite--he says it so sweetly and innocently in such an angelic voice, you'd think he could never do anything wrong.)

He loves water play at daycare. One of the women told me that she squirted the toddlers with a water gun, and that most of them didn't like it, but Atticus adored it. He stood in place, and closed his eyes, smiled, and sort of trembled with joy.

I've been informed that he does not like play-doh, so we're working on that. I bought some and while he was weirded out by it at first, he does now pick it up and run around the house with it.

Last week, for the first time, he waved bye to me when I dropped him off at daycare. There was a huge grin on his face. Sometimes when I pick him up from daycare and ask him if he's ready to go home, he shakes his head "no." ha

Chris ditched us again, so we made the best of it by going to the zoo today. Normally, zoos make me sad, but with a small child, they're much more tolerable. We began our day by taking a ride on the zoo train, which runs outside the zoo actually. Atticus thought it was awesome. We rode around the little lake in Reid Park, checked out the ducks, etc. At one point the driver stopped the train to chitchat with us (we were the only passengers), but Atticus promptly let him know that no stopping was allowed.


The zoo has a mini water park area. I didn't pack Atticus's swimsuit, so he ran around fully clothed. The cow that spit up water from its mouth was a big hit.


Perhaps an even bigger hit though was this little wooden bridge. I guess they're doing some construction of some sort. Atticus went back and forth across the bridge over and over again. He even laid down on it a few times. Before we came to the bridge, we watched the elephants for a good five minutes. If you don't have much experience with toddlers, that's a long time. He was mesmerized. They are kind of like dinosaurs, aren't they? After the bridge, we lined up to feed the giraffes some carrots sticks that cost a dollar a pop. I placed them on the giraffe's tongue while Atticus watched.


Later in the evening it rained again (the monsoon season kicked off last night!). We celebrated the rain.