Spring! What with all the snow in March (even after we headed South) I can't say that it's here, but you can taste that Spring is coming. The annual bulb show was the first promise of it, then the maple sap started to run and the sugar houses sprang into action. All this was accompanied by an exceedingly helpfully-timed visit from grandparents, partly overlapping my time out of town. P.S. thanks for picking up Ro from school every day!
Ro continues to amuse us with his adult-isms that are uniquely child at the same time. He doesn't talk like a three year old, heck he doesn't even talk like my college students. He talks a stuffy British butler of yesteryear.
3/23 It's awfully warm outside. I've made quite a lot of chalk dust. That barking noise is dreadful.
3/23 [Wakes up and toddles out of the bedroom]:
I was noticing that there was a loud vrooming noise and I was wondering what it was. And I wondered if maybe it came from somewhere near the front door.
3/29 I want you to read me a book presently
He continues to be fascinated with space. He's watched the Mars rover video many times and went through a phase where he wanted to see the shuttle takeoff every day before he put on his shoes. He enacts space travel regularly at home and is quite instructive:
3/17 We've landed on Mars. You can feel free to move about the spacecraft.
In the past months we've started exploring streaming music more (first on Spotify, now Mog, which may make this sound hilariously dated in the future). Ronan has playlists of his own and can navigate by the album icons to find specific favorite songs. Current child chart toppers in this household:
- M.T.A. (Kingston Trio version)
- Baby Beluga (Raffi)
- You are My Sunshine (Elizabeth Mitchell version)
I spent a few days in DC for work, then 2 weeks later we all headed back for spring break at the lake house for 9 days (via L&P's house...hi!) which was lovely as usual. Ro made the transition to regularly sleeping in a twin bed at the lake house, which became particularly amazing when he started getting up on his own and heading to play with Aunt Betsy rather than waking his folks. Ro got loads of attention from loads of family!We took walks, flew a kite, baked, and lazed about. We celebrated D's 37th birthday and Oma's 80th! We seriously decompressed: I may have watched more TV in a week than in all the last year. And we enjoyed several outings, including a trip to an alpaca farm! (a million pictures are here)
Ronan has always been fairly uncomfortable around dogs, but after a week with three of them he made peace with the smaller ones (not so much with the friendly, energetic big one). He used the dog door, walked grownups on a leash, and bossed the dogs around. But there was no question: if we asked him what animal he would get for a pet he would say an alpaca (in fact he did say this). I think we were all tempted to take one home. They don't smell, their fur is incredible, they are gentle, they don't spit on you, and the brown one was just so snuggleable.
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| Alpaca kisses... |
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| ...and hugs |
Since our return, Ro has regularly opted for his "big bed" and we are now woken by him climbing into our bed instead of monitor cries. But most remarkable? He finally sleeps with a blanket!!! As in a real twin sized one, not some scrap of fabric we drape over him while he sleeps and hope he won't wake up screaming about. In fact it's not one but two blankets, once of which has a cool embroidered solar system. I've snuggled with him in there more than once for bedtime stories and it's cosy indeed.
So this is three: a child who asks for hugs and is happy to take the toy chainsaw to your leg.
So this is three: a child who asks for hugs and is happy to take the toy chainsaw to your leg.
2/1 You're my hugging sweetie
3/17 The green one won. Hey "one" means two things! [any day now he'll start punning]
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| XOXO |
[Jeez, I'm already flashing forward to an empty nest!]
