We had pork chops for dinner last night. I peered into the oven to watch them cook and said, “Did you know that pork is a mommy pig? It’s a mommy pig! We’re eating a pig!”
What??
Okay, so maybe I need to work on my sensitivity toward animals – here are some cute pictures of me to make up for it.
For a while I have enjoyed reading and then reciting the stories that I know, but now I also like to re-enact them and I make up my own stories that go along with my play. You can often hear me chatting away as I make up stories and scenarios with my toys. People notice a ‘grander scheme’ to my play when they play along with me because there are now often certain places where playmates must sit, objects they must hold and things they must say.
My parents and I went to visit my friend Bea and her new baby sister Claere – more on that trip later. But here I am acting out the Three Little Pigs with Bea – she is under the table in the ‘house’. Or at least I am acting out the Three Little Pigs – she might be playing another game…!
With my babies I carry out a whole ritual of changing them, finding a poopy diaper and taking the diaper to the toilet to shake it out (we have cloth diapers for those of you wondering what on earth I am talking about). Now I have also added a component where I wash the diaper and often the clothes in the ‘washing machine’ which is usually the laundry basket in my room. Then I can wash the baby with a damp cloth and dress him or her in new diapers and clothes. The other day Mom and I decided that those babies hadn’t had a real bath in a long time so for one bath I brought girl baby with me and two days later it was boy baby’s turn. I spent a long time washing the baby with bubbles and water, covering the baby with washcloths and floating it in the water. All the while I was chatting to the baby and completely ignoring Mom who got a peaceful moment to sit beside the tub and read a magazine! At one point I picked the baby up with her head on my shoulder and put a cloth over her back. Then I bounced her in my arms and said, “Oh I know baby, you are so heavy and hungry, there there.” And then I made the baby something to eat using my various pouring devices.
I’ve also become more interested in dress-up and in being characters who are not myself. Dad and I have a game where we tell the story of Jack in the Beanstalk and act out all the parts – we climb on the spot and pump our arms to run. My whole family played this over and over one day. We took turns with who would be Jack, the giant and the mother and each character had their own lines and actions. We used lego for the magic beans and the beanstalk.
Here I am after discovering my parrot and pterodactyl suits in the toy chest. This is the first time that I initiated putting these outfits on. And once on, I wore them for hours – even to dinner. The toy chest is now officially the ‘tickle trunk’ and we are slowly acquiring new things to put in there like a feather boa, scarves and various hats.
Last night I found the ghost finger puppet on the floor of my bedroom. Instead of getting ready for bed, I zoomed around the room being a ghost. Finally, I responded to Mom’s requests to come over and get my pjs on. But then only to stop in front of her and say, “I’m going to scare you with my whooooing.”
A final example is when we went to visit a new little friend just a few streets from us – she is four and has lots of fun toys. We really got into her dress-up box and came back to the adults as pretty wacky looking fairies. I let her deck me out in sunglasses, necklaces, a sparkly purple skirt and crazy hair band. Her outfit was a little more traditional on the old fairy front. Then we used her shopping cart, mesh bags, toy cash register and toy food and had wonderful shopping experiences.
It has taken a long time, but the cut on my chin is barely visible now. There is a small scar there that shows up most when my face is cold. But it could still fade some more.
Two nights ago Mom and Dad realized that I had been sitting in my bed reading for about an hour and a half. They were down in the den thinking I was blissfully asleep until I called out because one of the covers of my books had come off and I couldn’t get it back on. It was 10 o’clock.
Lately I have been asking for the light to be left on so that I could read books after being tucked in. I told Mommy once at nap time and then again at bed time that “When you leave I’m just going to jump up and yell and then read a book.” Mom told me that she wasn’t going to come back if I yelled, but that I could read a book if I wanted. OK. But I guess she didn’t think I would be reading that many books…
My book shelf has no back and it borders on the foot of my crib, so I can easily reach through the bars and grab new books to read. I have been found asleep with about 5 of them scattered around my crib or open on my chest.
So now, Mom and Dad say that I can read for 15 minutes and then they are coming back up to turn out the light and put the books away. But they are also both remembering the days when their parents yelled at them to turn out the light and go to sleep – albeit it wasn’t when they were two! But I think I might be getting my own reading lamp soon.
I have a very inconsistent pattern of eating. One day I will eat up a whole bowl of something and the next I will turn my nose up at it. The exception here is for sausages and wieners. My parents have learned to not offer these foods very often because there are no limits to the amount I will eat. I can definitely eat two full sausages and more than that in cut-up wieners in brown bean sauce – if you let me. The brown bean sauce is important – I often ask to eat beans and wieners, but the beans are left lonely in the bowl at the end of the meal.
Guaranteed winners are also now oatmeal (because it has syrup on it) and pancakes (see syrup) and also toast with peanut butter, jam and honey. Yes, it is essential that all three toppings be on the toast – and visible mind you! None of this, the honey is underneath the peanut butter business! I need to know it is there.
I am also tricky with the cajoling that Mom and Dad do to get me to eat more. I have learned that having to go pee is a great interruption to a meal and that it is then easier to leave the table – since I am already out of my seat.
I have also learned to manipulate the request to eat ‘x’ more bites before I can be excused. For example, Mom and Dad may think that 3 bites of peas means that I scoop my spoon into my peas and have three full bites. Not so. I will carefully and individually stab three peas for my three bites.
The same happened last night with the spaghetti. I was asked to eat two more bites and so I picked up one long noodle and nibbled the end of it. Coyly I looked at my parents and said, “Like that?” Of course, their response was negative.
All of that said, I am quite an adventuresome eater. I’ll try pretty much anything once – especially if it comes with a dip. I am a fan of mild curries and rice and will ask, “Is this Indian food?”. And I also now like perogies and dim sum dumplings. A favourite is definitely still the Korean bee-bim bop. Peas and corn top the veggies list, but you can persuade me to eat squash and yam when you say it will give me good eyesight like an animal. Soup must have crackers in it. And speaking of crackers, I will eat as much goat cheese as you will give me – but just the cheese. So I lick it off the cracker, or the spinach leaf and then ask for more. I do this with salad dressing too. When I am asked to eat the actual lettuce or spinach leaf I remind my parents that, “I always just spit this out like last time.”
The other day Dad gave me a raw mushroom to try. I said “I don’t like this mushroom. It is too gooey and sour.” But Dad kept eating them, so then I wanted to try the one that he took a bite from. My response was, “It’s pretty good, but I still don’t like it.”
I’m really into play doh right now. I got some for Christmas with a whole assortment of tools and cut-out shapes. My favourites are the family – the mom, dad, sister, brother and baby. Essentially playing with play doh involves Mom or Dad making these characters and then making beds, blankets and pillows – and eyes, don’t forget their eyes! I then assemble all the pieces and put everyone to bed. Mom did find it interesting a few days ago when I asked her to put…ahem…the private parts on the Mom and Dad. I was quite specific so Mom obliged.
Last night I was playing with Dad and we started by taking the play doh out of its containers. There were some remains from the people from the last round of play. One woman was a little mangled. I told Dad that it was “wicked, ugly and old.”
Well, that is what all the wrinkled women in the fairy tales are!
I am a real fan of singing as you know. But after Christmas I have taken it up a notch and written my own little ditty. One night we were just sitting at the table and I came out with this. The pointing is important – you have to point at each person as you say the lines. And if I happen to be singing this one and either Mom or Dad is not there – instead of saying ‘you’ I say ‘Daddy’ or ‘Mommy’ – you’ll see what I mean.
Oh, and yes, we were eating carrots that day…
One time Mom and Dad asked me why I was a carrot too. I replied because “you’re my honey” (pointing at Dad) and “you’re my honey” (pointing at Mom)…”and I’m a carrot too” Obviously!
I am getting more and more interested in crafts. I am particularly fond of stickers right now and I will spend lots of time peeling stickers off their backings and sticking them on paper. I like to line stickers all up in a long row, or put them in groupings of similar stickers. For Christmas Auntie Shannon and Uncle Jeff gave me two books about wildlife. You can read about the animals and then put the stickers on the white outlines of the animals. My parents and I worked on these on the plane and for a few days afterward. They are great. And yesterday Mom and I got some new puffy animal stickers from the craft store. With these we (meaning Mommy) drew habitats and other scenes and I put the animals in the pictures.
At daycare and now at home I am also working more on my letters. I can always recognize ‘A’ for Anneke and yesterday I even spelled out all the letters of my name when Daddy held up a piece of paper that said A-N-N-E-K-E. I like D for Daddy and M for Mommy too. And the letter O is also a favourite. I was getting the B and the D mixed up – so now Mom taught me that the B has two bellies and the D has one big belly. That seemed to make sense.
Mom wrote out a bunch of letters really big on separate sheets of paper and I traced them with my bingo daubers – I was very proud of my art work.
I do a lot of cool things at daycare too – on Monday we used fabric paints and each decorated our own t-shirt. And I often come home with elaborate paintings. One day it was really cold and we couldn’t go outside. So the teachers put large pieces of brown paper on the floor and then all my friends got our rubber boots on. We stomped in white paint and then walked all over the paper to make really cool pictures together.
Here I am at home with Mom and Dad painting a huge cardboard fort. Mom and Dad got a new headboard that came is a great box. We taped it all up to make an ‘A’ frame fort and then we painted it. It stayed in the playroom for a whole week – but then we had to put it out with the recycling. It was taking up a lot of room, I guess.
Since we got back home from Ontario we have had two really good big snow storms. Just two nights ago we woke up in the morning to a winter wonderland – everything was just buried. So Dad got up and went outside to shovel the sidewalk. After getting bundled I went out to help him. I really enjoy helping Daddy shovel. I have my very own plastic blue shovel and I push it along the sidewalk until it is very full. Then I lift it up and tip it to the side – just like Daddy does.
The first picture is not quite accurate of my current shoveling expertise because I am using just the head of my old red shovel – it broke off its handle and that is why I needed to get the new blue one. I picked it out at Canadian Tire myself.
“Oh look, a dead fly. Maybe a giraffe with eat it. Or a camel.”
“It’s okay when I am sitting in my bed to pick my nose and put it in my mouth when no one is looking.”
The other day we were riding in the car – Dad was driving and Mom was in the passenger seat. I started talking and Mom looked back at me and responded. I said, “NO! I am talking to Daddy!” So Mom had to turn back around and I repeated myself so that Dad could answer.
Mom and Dad often say things when I am not quite behaving as they would like. Mom often says that she is getting frustrated with me. And they both often ask if I am listening to them. So, of course it is natural that I now use these terms.
Daddy often teases me by saying things that I know are silly or wrong. So I say, “No! Stop saying that! You’re frustrating me!”
And the other day at daycare Mom was trying, for some unknown reason, to convince me that I didn’t need my boots on – that I could wear my inside shoes out to the car and home. I was repeatedly trying to explain to her that it was cold out and my boots were necessary. Finally I just had to say “Do you hear me?”
I’ve now also started clarifying things. So if someone is pointing something out to me or asking me something I will ask “….is that what you mean?” Like, “the little boy in the book, is that what you mean?”
And when I am happy with what I have done or said – especially when I put puzzle pieces in the right spot I say jubilantly “I’m right!”