California Retrospective

And they don't know What you hold dear And they can't see That it's not California here -Hem (song lyrics)

Ahhhh, California. You saved up those tulip magnolia blossoms and sunny days just to taunt us, didn't you? (Massachusetts returned the favor and saved the snow for our return, thanks!!).

We spent three weeks visiting folks in California during the college's winter recess. Classes weren't in session, my lab students went home, and D technically works in CA anyway. During that time I slacked on updating this blog (including when Ro passed 13 months) but nobody noticed. We were too busy actually seeing many of the folks who read this page! Oh, and there was an itsy bitsy time change, a cold of DOOM*, and a lot of not sleeping.

*This actually prompted me to purchase a home-use otoscope for future close encounters of the infectious kind.

Ro was too young to understand that Christmas is (for the foreseeable future) a day that is all about him, but he loved being the center of 6 adults' attention. He got some amazing handmade gifts among other great entertainments, and it's fun to watch him explore everything. For example he just spent a long time playing with a flashlight that cycles between several different modes (including a red lantern base). He switched modes for a good couple minutes, then was thrilled to discover that the flashlight beam can be projected on a far away wall.

We had some great baby dates with Aalto, Ezzie, Moby, and Sasha, and my old mom's group kiddos. It's especially neat to see how folks I knew before they had children are living now. The changes in all of our lives have been profound and very similar even as our babies are not!

Ro and Ezzie ........................................................................................... Moby feeds Ronan

Ro finally added a noun to his spoken vocabulary in California ("Ball"), and also uses names we gave him for many family members (mama, dada, nana, papa, tata, Uncle Blair). He knows who each one is and can say them all (well, except Uncle Blair) and loves to pick everyone out in pictures (which I just had to look up the sign for).

Ro also stood on his own for a few seconds for the first time in California -- a feat he did not repeat until just a few days ago (but for longer now). Clearly many more changes are to come!

Green Christmas before a White Winter

Welcome 2011

We kicked off 2011 by attending as much of the multi-day New Year's Eve party at our best friends' house as we could manage, seeing lots of friends and hanging out with Ronan with lots of new places for him to crawl and things to see. He loved it there and so did we!

Balls with bells.....................................................................Ro meets baby A (5 mos)

Both Christmas and New Years were reminders of the best environment for watching babies -- a large group of people hanging out and doing what they're doing. I imagine most babies for most time have grown up that way and it's too bad such circumstances can be tough to arrange in the modern world. I like them too!

Spending so much time with everyone in California really highlighted what is missing in our new home out East. Just remember...we have a spare bed!

A Ro by any other name...

Ronan knows his name! He's probably known it for decades (jeez, ma) but today he decided to show off this fact by pointing to himself whenever I say it.

This kid is also wicked good at animal identification. One of the weird things about board books is that he sees a wide variety of animals he's never met in real life, frequently. And while I'm not sure if he knows what pants are, he can distinguish between zebra, horse, kangaroo, giraffe, cat, dog, duck, owl, elephant, and sheep. (Sometimes I suspect he's memorizing them based on where they are on the page...all the sheep look so different from each other and yet he knows).

Ronan is by and large a fairly quiet kid, so it always tickles me to hear him talk. He likes to make animal sounds (and has just added Rawr to the list) and tonight he started saying "ni-ni" when we say "night night."

Five words

To be perfectly honest, part of me is still waiting for Ronan to say his first word. I think I had in mind that it would be a noun, like "kitty" or maybe "ball." Because that's what first words ARE, right? Wrong again. Ronan actually uses FIVE words now, so it's time for the denial to end.

In order:

1. Uh-oh (typically said before dropping something…for months now)

2&3. Mama and Dada. He's said these for a while but he finally sorted out who is who in the last couple weeks.

4. No (started as nuh, but is now most definitely no, often with great feeling)

5. Down ("dow"). For now this is reserved for going down stairs.

For each one I could get lawyerly and say it's not really a word, or maybe he doesn't have a thoughtful and complete understanding of its meaning. But that's silly too, because Ronan already articulates many nouns and other words as signs (in order: milk, food, more, cheese, water, bath, kitty). Wow, that could make a very dangerous first sentence!

Then there are the single-purpose words, like he says "Baa" when he sees a sheep, and "Lalala" when he spies his favorite book (that's right, it's Moo, Baa, La La La). He also says "no" when he wants you to read Where's Spot. Is he here in the closet? No… there's a snake in the closet. Is he under the bed? No...there's an alligator under the bed. I think it's supposed to teach your child the animals and perhaps not to go blithely searching through cupboards, but I credit/blame that book with teaching Ronan the word No. He chants it sweetly on every page.

Living with a child who says No is not quite as fun as the before-time (before he said no to everything you offer). On the one hand, it's great for him to have more ways to express his preferences. On the other, his preferences don't count for everything. On the third hand, no doesn't always mean no (it turns out), but if you suggest that he might actually want something he's said no to you are likely to regret it just a little. That's okay...he's also working on "ya ya ya," the loveliest of ways to say yes!