Life with a 17-month old

A: Good morning Ronan!

R: Hi mama!

A: Are you ready to get up?

R: No! (flings self back down onto mattress)

This morning Ronan slept in until 9am for the first time and when I finally got up with him he was as cheery as could be. He fed himself a blueberry yogurt for breakfast (messily) while I made coffee and did dishes, and then we played for a couple hours until we both went down for a nap. Sleep is so lovely!

This last month was my favorite so far (illness notwithstanding) and I have a feeling that may continue to be true for a while yet. The more interactive and expressive Ro becomes the more fun it is to watch him learn and grow. He continues to be a fundamentally cheery person with strong opinions and few fears. He likes to be carried a lot, so it's a relief that I can again hold him (at least for brief periods of time).

It's clear that while every child develops at a different pace, Ronan is a "words first" kind of guy, and I think he takes after both of his parents in that way. Living with Ronan right now is like living with a parrot (or rather ein Papagai...that's one of the words he knows in German but not English). He loves to use two-word phrases -- both repeated phrases and new constructions. Mustard-bokbok(eggs), water-puddle, mama-shoes, dada-hat, maomao-foot, up-dada, byebye-horsie, yucky-trash, yummy-noodles, milk bottle, beer bottle, mama coffee, hot mushrooms, not poopie, big umbrella, RoRo-boots, sweet potato… (Many words are probably only intelligible after experience: noonoes = noodles, oshes = shoes, ohgoo = yogurt, umpupu = computer).

He's starting to understand counting and plurals, and repeats one, two, three. One morning I was carrying an old and a new sippy full of milk and he said "two bottles" including the "s" on the end of bottle. I think that adding "s" to plurals is actually easier for him than noting that there are two or more, which is interesting because all of the asian foreign students in my classes do the reverse: they write "many neuron does." He's certainly learning rules in many domains.

Speaking of rules, Ronan's favorite books at the moment are no-no-yes-yes and yummy-yucky by Leslie Patricelli (he asks for both by name). He's totally interested in learning about rules and distinctions (what is trash, what is clean laundry, what is dirty, what do you eat). Having learned a rule, however, (e.g. "no biting") he sees inherent humor in flaunting it. He will bite your shoulder, then when you disapprove he will say very clearly "no biting" (smiling all the while). Hilarious!! Some people never outgrow this stage of humor. We just got him "potty" and "binky" by the same author, and an anonymous one of us recently wondered aloud whether she might have one titled "no you may not bloody well bite me you little punk."

Music

Ronan loves to hear us sing and is always asking for more songs. This week he started repeatedly singing his own song that merges part of the tune of "twinkle-twinkle" with the words "oh-hi-oh-hi-oh-hi-o." A little Gillian Welch influence?

Our own repertoire is slowly expanding as we get bored of singing the same few songs, but as he gets older some of the additions have had to get new words. For example, he really likes the song "What shall we do with a drunken sailor", but "put him in the rigging, let the gulls pick his eyes out" is just a little too gory for babies. And "put him in the bilge and make him drink it" sounds like we condone both the use of both force and playing in the potty. And so:

[To the tune of drunken sailor]

What shall we do with a sleeping Ronan (or baby)

What shall we do with a sleeping baby

What shall we do with a sleeping baby

Earl-ai in the morning

Tickle his toes until he wakes up

Tickle his toes until he wakes up

Tickle his toes until he wakes up

Earl-ai in the morning

Way-hay and up he rises

Way-hay and up he rises

Way-hay and up he rises

Earl-ai in the morning

Cuddle in his sleepsack with a bottle… (repeat)

Change his diaper and put him in a onesie… (repeat)

Pack his snacks in a little kid backpack… (repeat)

Climb in the car and we're off to school… (repeat)

When he's at school he can kiss Ella… (repeat)

Ronan wearing his daddy's old sweater!

While our daytime songs vary quite a bit, night-night songs are just a few:

• O wie wohl ist mir am abend (a German round)
• Now I walk in beauty (a round with two tunes)
• Go to sleep little baby (from O Brother Where Art Thou, a few words changed)
• Yellow Submarine (the Beatles tune but slowed way down)
• Seal Lullaby (text from Kipling, my own tune, though apparently there are many arrangements)
• Twinkle twinkle little star/little bat

Weather here is still lame...apparently "April showers" last most of April. Some of the more intrepid trees are starting to get leaf buds (just not the maples and such yet) and it's slowly sinking in that the spring I'm used to from CA (i.e. February) doesn't really happen here until May. I expect May will be lovely, with warm weather, fluorescent green leaves, and lots of time in Ro's favorite place "backyard" / "outside". Right, East Coast???

The first of (hopefully) many afternoons in the backyard