Kevin Sable

Among the funnier things that you say on a regular basis now, you seem to think that Uncle Kevin and his dog, Sable, are one unit.  You always call out, "Kevin Sable" to address him, even if Sable isn't on his lap or nearby at the moment.
Nana Linda and Grandpa came last week to stay with us, as she just retired and wanted to help us have a garage sale this past weekend.  She was here for Mother's Day, too, so that was happy for all of us :D  We hope they can come back again soon.  During the garage sale, you stunned me by reading what I am going to count as your official first recognized words (not memorized like the books)--on an advertisement on my computer, you saw two bubbles that said "Yes" and "No", which you read very plainly.  So proud!
Your number recognition is also improving--yesterday I was teaching you about prices where it says '99' at the end and you pointed out several in ads today (correctly) :)
A really cool thing (that you INSIST on being the one to do now) is that you are able to "fix" the TV.  What I mean by this is that for some odd reason, ever since daddy installed the Chromecast on the 8th input, the display for the Uverse channels (input 7) comes up as an 'display error' problem when we turn on the TV.  The strange solution to this is to change the input to 8, leave it there long enough to be recognized as the Chromecast, and then cycle on through back to input 7.  (By the time you read this, this may be the strangest sounding tech thing ever lol...)  At any rate, as complicated as this is, you not only know how to do it, you get upset if we do it instead of letting you.
Last for this entry, we've been teaching you nursery rhymes and songs lately.  You now know "Row Your Boat", "Pattycake", about half of your ABC's, "1,2, Buckle My Shoe" and sort of "Alouette".  You also randomly sing some of the songs from the music videos we have on the playlist channel, one of which daddy dislikes (but mommy and uncle Kevin like) called "Never Win" by Fischerspooner.
Love you lots and will try to write again as soon as I can...

Such a brain :)

I could write a lot more right now, but I need to be in bed sleeping, so this will be short.  I just wanted to say that that you are really amazing me (and daddy) with your amazing little brain--you seem to be acquiring knowledge without us even knowing where some of it comes from!  Tonight, you looked at my computer and saw a news story pic someone had posted that showed a pregnant woman's belly.  You pointed and declared, "It's a baby."  O.O  You haven't been around anyone pregnant, we have never told you this, and don't think it's been in any of those cartoons you watch lol, so have no idea how you know this!
Now, on the other hand, when you looked at my receipt from Meijer and spelled out the store name (it's in all small case), I knew this was from playing that letters game on your phone.  Love my little smart guy!  At bed time, you read a book you had not been interested in before: My First Adding Book.  It's a very simple book with things like "1+1=" on one page, then a flap with the amount in objects and the number answer under the flap.  You read this like 10 times and really seemed to be soaking it in :)

I do it!

Ah, my little independent guy.  You want to do everything these days and you get quite irritated if we do something that you had your heart set on doing.  If this happens, you whine, "I dwwwooooo yehhhht" (I do it) and throw a fit.  This includes, but is not limited to: flushing the toilet (when mommy or daddy goes), anything that has to do with laundry, pouring soda for yourself from a can into a cup, eating, using the sponge in the kitchen, and getting into your car seat.  Sometimes we have no idea why you're even saying it, so we just have to assume it's a toddler thing we can't grasp.

You have also become quite the talker, counter, singer and dancer.  You now sort of know how to sing "Row Your Boat" and you attempt to sing along with a lot of the songs in the playlist from the music channel videos.  This is also where the dancing comes in--oh how we love watching you dance!  You are so into it, and you really do move with the beat for the most part.  It's cute, funny, and adorable.

As implied above, you still love to clean.  I would love for this era to last, am going to enjoy every second of it for the time being.

Uncle Kevin has been taking really good care of you while daddy and mommy have been busy with everything; we appreciate him so very much, and you have a ton of fun with him :)

Today we went to the gym for the first time in a while, which was great for all of us.  You kept practicing saying "to the gym" and "kids' zone" as we were en route.  In the afternoon, you got to 'help' mommy make cookies (i.e. you were the taste-tester for the batter at all stages :)).  Tried a new recipe--oatmeal cookies with mini chips.  MMMM.  You love them and so does everyone else in the house, so we will make these again for sure.

Thanks!

Lately you have been repeating soooooo much of what we say, but then, it seems you also recall what you see in your favorite TV shows as well and use those phrases, too.  Two days ago, when I came home from work, you asked for my phone and when I let you have it, you proclaimed, "Thanks!" and ran off to the living room with it lol.  Later, you asked for ice cream and the same thing/same reaction.  

Tonight, you were in the kitchen, coming down off of your stepstool and said, "Nice and slow" as you descended (we didn't teach you this, so thankfully it's a good phrase lol).  But the best one lately was later--you were fascinated with Sable in Uncle Kevin's lap.  You went over a few times to see her, pointed out her nose, ears, etc.  Then, at one point, you wandered over, crouched down and said, "Sable, WAKE UP!" We all cracked up so hard!  Poor doggie, she was just trying to catch some zzz's.

Boo!

Last week, cousin Ricky spent his spring break with us and thus got to see a lot of you.  Since you like to get 'puh-rised' (surprised), he started doing so by saying "Boo!", which cracked you up and you have now taken happily to saying as well.
Mommy has been working a ton, so there isn't always much for me to report, sadly.  Today I got the most time with you in the evening when I got home from working.  We did laundry and housework--fun, huh?  Actually, you really like it--wish it were going to stay that way lol (mommy can dream, right?)  As usual, you caught us off guard for a moment and started the washer load again (you do this far, far too often) when it had finished.  When I came to stop it (thankfully before you opened the door, for a change), I turned it off and went to run the rinse/spin cycle, as I never had figured out how to make it run just a spin cycle.  Well, guess what? You pushed a button and voilà, there it was--and a simple little thing, too.  So thank you for discovering what we need to use because of you lol.
At bedtime, we read some books as per usual.  I took out one that we don't normally read called "Hop!"  You seemed to like it ok--your favorite part was the "What's that sound?" page where a bee is flying over the bunnies.  I made a bzzzzzzz sound and you giggled.  I sure do love that giggle of yours.  When we read "Flip, Flap, Fly", you were very attentive--I just know you were working on memorizing it like you have the other books.  You cracked both me and daddy up, though, when you confused the words "flip, flap, fly" with the part from "Are You My Mother?" where it says "Down, down, down, plop!"  So, this version tonight had the mama helping the baby bird 'plop, plop, down' :D

Dad Turns 40 Tomorrow!

Hey, buddy!  It's Dad.  I know I don't write here often, but some days seem to offer prime examples of life with you that are worthy of documentation.  Today was worth mentioning partly because of you being you, but also because it's the very last day of my thirties.  Yep, your old Daddy turns 40 tomorrow!

So how did we spend the last day of my (30 <= x < 40) decade?  We had a lot of fun!  When you woke up this morning, I was just about to take a shower.  I asked you if you wanted to join me, and you said "take a shower!" and then immediately stepped into the bathtub and stood there waiting for me.  I insisted that you sit on the potty first to see if you needed to pee.  You happily cooperated and sat down, but as usual there was no pee to be had.  We'll just have to keep working on that.

As we were drying off after our shower, I asked you if you were hungry and what you thought we should have for breakfast.  Without hesitation, you simply said, "peanut butter toast".  (Actually, in your pronunciation, it was "pay bay toast" but we've discovered that I am especially proficient in translating Avery-speak.)

When we got downstairs, the first thing you did was grab the toaster from the cabinet and take it into the living room.  Then you grabbed and handed me the bag of bread, saying, "Bread.  Open bread."  So I did, and handed you a slice.  Then you brought me the peanut butter jar.  "Pay bay...open," you said, and I did.  Then you ran in other room and put the bread and peanut butter jar on the floor near the toaster.

This is progress.  Three days ago you
mangled the bread while doing this.

Then you sat down and looked at it, seemingly confused as if you realized something was missing but wasn't sure what.  I let you ponder it for a while before I asked, "Do you need a knife?"

"Mife!" you exclaimed in your "a-ha!" moment.  I handed you one and you went straight to work spreading peanut butter on the bread all by yourself.  You only needed help folding it in half.  The rest was your work entirely.

You ate your "pay bay" sandwich while you watched Bubble Guppies, PAW Patrol, and Wallykazam -- your three very favorite shows.  In the meantime, I sat with my laptop doing some work for my job.  After your shows were over, you were hungry again, so all by yourself, you got the popcorn popper out of the cabinet (all three parts of it), the bag of popcorn kernels from the counter, and the large popcorn bowl.  It took four trips between the kitchen and living room, but you successfully gathered everything needed to make popcorn with the air popper.  You handed me the bag of popcorn and said, "Open".  It was obvious what you wanted, so I helped you measure out the right amount.  Then you took over and put it in the popper, put the popper together, and moved the bowl in place to catch it.  All that was left was to plug in the popper, so I did that for you.

When the mail came, we went out to get it like we always do.  (You get mad if we get the mail without you.)  It was a gorgeous spring day -- sunny and around 60F.  After we got back inside, I sat down to get some more work done, but you kept looking out the window and saying "mackinside".  After repeating this a few times, you were getting frustrated that I wasn't doing anything about it.

So I tried to figure out what you were saying.  "Mackinside?  You mean 'back inside'?  We are back inside."

You repeated more slowly, "Maggin...side."

"Maggin?  You mean wagon?  Wagon ride?"

You were glad I finally got it.  "Yeah, wagon side, yeah!"  You ran into the living room and pointed at your jacket ("green coat" you call it) on the coat rack.  So we put on our jackets, got the wagon out of the garage, and I took you on the loop around the neighborhood.  When we passed the schoolyard where all the kids were playing, you wanted to get out and join them.  I made you stay in the wagon and told you we could go to the park instead.  So you sat back down and enjoyed the ride around the rest of the subdivision.

When we reached the intersection where we had to decide on a direction, I asked you, "Do you want to go home or to the park?"

You thought hard about this decision, repeating, "Home or park...home or park..."  Then you pointed in the direction of the park and said, "Park, OK?"  I was extremely impressed that you knew where we were, because neither home nor the park are visible from the intersection, and I had given no indication of which of four directions home and the park were in.

So I pulled the wagon to the park.  The sky had clouded up by this point, but since we were only a few blocks from home, I didn't worry much about it.  We ran, climbed, swung, and slid non-stop for over an hour.  The video shows about two minutes of that.

You actually asked to swing today.  I guess
you've gotten over your dislike of swings.

It's probably worth mentioning that this trip to the park was significant in a couple of ways.  First, you went down the "big slide" (the tallest slide in the bigger-kids' area) all by yourself several times.  You also enjoyed swinging in the baby swings, which is something that you weren't crazy about last year.

We also had a minor disagreement over the springy-rocking things.  I said the one on the left looks like a dinosaur.  You insisted that it's a dragon.  We agreed, however, that the one on the right is a silly-looking horse.  But silly or not, you enjoyed riding both of them.

We invite the reader to weigh in on the
debate: is this a dinosaur or a dragon?

Eventually, the clouds grew darker and it started to sprinkle.  Even though you were still having a blast, you didn't put up a fight this time when I said that it was going to rain so we had to hurry home -- fast, fast, fast!

Finally, the last thing I'll mention before posting this is what just happened right now as I was writing it.  Some fire truck sirens rang out in the distance, and you ran to the window, spread the curtains, and shouted "fire truck!" as you tried to see if you could spot it.

I said, "Yeah, that's a fire truck, but it's too far away for us to see it."

You were quiet for a moment, and then you softly said, "Rescue."  You probably learned that from watching PAW Patrol.

So tomorrow I venture forth into my forties.  By the time I'm out of them, you'll be twelve!  Crazy!  But man, we're going to have a great time getting there!

Playdate with Chelsea 2

This morning, I got you up slightly early so that we could go on a playdate once again with Chelsea (and her mom, Jessica).  The last time we did this was in November--oh how time has flown since then!  We met at the same place as last time, the play area of the Woodfield Mall.  You LOVED it there--tons of kids around and fun stuff to play on.  Chelsea explored quite a few more things than you; you preferred mainly to go down the slide over and over again.  I was so proud of you for playing nice with the other kids, taking turns and such :D  Unfortunately, Chelsea was on the tired side, so we stopped playing long before you were ready and headed to the Rainforest Café to have lunch together.  You enjoyed this, though you didn't eat very much (think your runny nose is still affecting your appetite, plus you started to show signs of being sleepy while there in the somewhat dim lighting).  You two didn't really interact a whole lot, but more than last time.  You actually gave Chelsea a hug while you were both on the slide together (so sweet!)  We were going to take our picture all together, but you were getting fussy and Chelsea was tired, so we called it done just shortly after leaving the Café.  Then I took you to daddy, whom we met up with at his work so that I wouldn't haven't to go out of my way before heading to a lesson.
When I came home after that lesson, we played for a bit, then I had to leave again.  When I returned from that, you were getting fussy and obviously needing a nap big time, so we put you down for one, despite your loud objections.  I'm glad you gave in, because daddy wasn't feeling super energetic (thus needed a break) and mommy went to lie down and have a nap as well.  I got up long before you did and went back out once again for my last two lessons. Upon my return, daddy reported that you had been quite the handful once you got up from nap.  You decided to fling rice all over the living room, which really made daddy upset and had to clean up, of course.  You were still full of energy for the rest of the time we let you remain awake--and you ate a bunch of mac n cheese with us for a dinner, too.  At bedtime, you read your stories/books very well.  Mommy seems to be coming down with what you have, so she's gonna head to bed now.  Love you lots, little guy :)