Dear 22 month old Ronan,
Sometimes you wake up in such an upset, tearful, whiny mood that two parents and all the distractions in the world can't make it right. Other days you giggle at the mere presence of a cat in the same room with you, and shriek happily while chasing one. So here is my broadcast to your grumpy NO! self of this morning: butterflies are cool! Kitty-cats are awesome! … Your parents are great and so are you, and we live in the middle of the biggest ever empire of chipmunks!
Illnesses, tough mornings, restless nights, and unhappy toddlers do seem to pass like bad weather, and another morning I woke to a sunny you, happy to enumerate household tools, "help" making cookies and picking tomatoes, and tickled to stomp around the house in your new rainboots and cat hat. It's a good reminder of how our perspective comes from within more than without.
This month you started playing the KNOCK KNOCK game on doors. Here's how it works: you run into a room and close the door. Then you say Knock Knock, slowly and with even pitch until someone comes to rescue you because you can't open doors yet! You are a huge fan of tools, and are more attached to your screwdriver than your stuffed animals. You like to be around when put things together which we've had lots of lately.
You are starting to understand emotion words, and can already extend them to the cats. When I asked you if Gandalf was purring you put your ear to his belly and said "Gandalf purring. He's happy!" You also told me that a big noise was scary, and everything that scares you seems to be in this category. Sometimes you wake up from dreaming saying "big garbage truck make a big loud noise." Noises make a big impression and you like to keep your sights on the vacuum cleaner parts to make sure it won't get turned on.
You know your full name now and say it: Ronan…Wint-ner…Beewy…Norgel! You also know our names, and like to remind us we are not the other children's parents which is sweet. Also, I love it when you call the cat "sweetie pie." It was also pretty cute when you started saying "crazy talk" and "holy moly!" I won't repeat the thing you said to dada. As you gain every more fluency, you seem to enunciate less, leaving us to guess which of even more words you are trying to use.
In September you were a ring bearer and flower boy for our friends' wedding, you sailed on a boat, you met folks at the cohousing community we live by, and made yourself at home in the common house play-room. You played with our new neighbors, got carried up a local mountain with friends, and tried your best to run back down. You became expert at finding Wild Mushrooms and even went on a mushroom quest in the rain. Time may not fly, but when it passes it's really gone. I see 6 month old babies sitting and grinning and think about you at that age with your easy grins and love of swings. When I think back on 1 and 3/4 I'll probably remember you saying "oooh, that a weely big one!" about anything even moderately sized, drag races with the lawnmower/poppers, and running hugs. I'll try not to recall the day you missed your nap when you needed one, or the days we missed ours.
Love you kiddo,
mama
& Co…
This week was one of those grit-your-teeth and get through it, so forgive me for a late monthly update!
David now works across the river, and is enjoying his new job and not being at his old one (at least officially…academic toil never ends). The start of the semester has been unbelievably intense for me, as expected, plus some. This week I've prepared lectures every night because of a few extra I gave outside of my own classes. My 75 person class makes me feel more like an entertainer than a teacher, and I long for the environment of the small and more interactive class. I'm hoarse and tired, and this is the point in the semester where I wonder if I'll make it.
But… the good parts of life are really quite good. Our quality of life here is awesome in terms of town, home, woods, people, child, and intellectual interest. The things we miss cannot be made, and we now have a lovely space for visitors.
P.S. Hey look, I figured out how to embed a video! Here is Ronan on 9/10 saying a quite degraded version of his chant: SPATULA!!!!
P.P.S. Seeing these folks again was a lot of fun...
