Summer: Ronan!

Feeding the chickens

End of 1st Grade Self-Portrait 

In comparison to pace of change in a toddler, Ronan seems to always be just Ronan, until I look back at pictures from a year ago and then it becomes clear this little boy is growing up fast.

Some highlights of Ronan at 7.5:

Humor:
A few months ago (but never written about here), Ronan started loving excerpts of Monty Python films (esp. the quest for the holy grail) watched on YouTube as right up his alley.  And then there was the night we cracked up over all the most ridiculous place names we could find.  The favorites: Itchy bottom, Middelfart, Butt of Lewis, Suckerville Maine, and Nowhere (where are you from?  Nowhere.  No where?)  Ronan's laugh may be my favorite in the whole universe, it is so delighted, whole bodied, and pure.  One day Ronan came to my office after camp and watched Tom and Jerry cartoons and I just took a video of him laughing so I will always have that sound.

Mad Scientist:
Now that he has a desk in his room (with an all important booby-trapped desk lamp) Ro has been enjoying doing experiments in his room.  So far he has melted tar with his lamp, mixed glue, green dye, flour, wax, and other ingredients to "make plastic", and somehow actually made something resembling plastic.   He heats the mix with a magnifying glass and his lamp, dries it with the air conditioner, and I ignore the green stains on all the surfaces of the room. 

Spy:
Ronan is loving learning about codes of all kinds, mostly thanks to extended family members.  He's been swapping book codes, writing alphabet codes, and sharing ideas with his friends.  He's even enjoying learning about the history of code use.

Math:
Ro continues to amaze me with his desire to learn new math ideas and the speed with which he picks them up.  One night he wanted to know what the total of all the beads on his abacus was, and I showed him how to write down the large numbers representing each row complete with commas in the right spots, and how to add large numbers on paper to figure it out, neither of which he had ever done before.  AND THEN HE FIGURED IT OUT!  The next night he thought was so cool David taught him to do problems with carrying of digits, and now he does them for fun at bedtime.

Projectiles:
Oh my goodness is our house ever full of nerf guns, foam crossbow launchers, felt ball sling shots, and darts galore.  Enough said.  We've come a long long way from "no gun toys in the house."

Quotes (old!)
R: Mom, can you search google for "largest coprolite"?

R: Stop playing with my fart putty, mom.

In this age of ever improving (but fallible) voice recognition technology, Siri gets a quote this time too.  Here's an item on my to do list that I can't figure out for the life of me.  "Credit fish load dinner bake."  Um, yeah, that.

Summer: Orion!

The kids are changing fast.  Here are bits and pieces I've scribbled down on the backs of shopping lists, on my phone, or in my brain.  Part I: Orion!

O can't make a kissy face, so blowing out candles is entertaining

Orion is two!  He's been singing Happy Birthday for months for friends so when it came time for it to be his birthday he thought it lasted for days and days.  We totally supported that vision of his birthday by providing three different muffins/cupcakes, and by having celebrations at daycare (they did that one), at the daycare potluck on his actual birthday (made a rhubarb cake), at home that morning (rhubarb muffin), with an actual cupcake a day later, and with Tata and Boo a week later.  

About a month after his birthday, Orion gave up his last (almost token) nursing session in the mornings, shortly after we moved his crib to his own room.  He's now used to that and we hope we are now on the gradual road toward better sleep.  At bedtime* we all do tooth brushing together, and D and I alternate doing O and R's bedtimes.  Orion gets a sticker for going to bed from awake in his crib the night before (this is only a few weeks old and man those stickers make him proud of it), we read books, rock in the chair with a song or two, then he lies in his crib for a long time asking for everything under the sun (mama arm, Rion pet mama, no hold hand, no blanket, big bed, Rion own room).  He likes to stroke our arms when he's tired in a way that's really sweet.

Orion has the strong autonomy streak I expected but didn't see in Ronan at this age.  He wants to climb up into the car by himself, climb up into the car seat by himself, do the buckle by himself, etc.  This makes transitions slow, but mastery fast.  O is a confident climber and a bit of a dare-devil.  It probably helps that he's tall for his age -- still in the 98th percentile for height.

Tantrums came on the scene within a week of turning two, and sometimes the world is so upsetting there is nothing to do but lie face down on the floor and cry.  This is pretty infrequent, and usually after just a few seconds of anger he wants comfort and then can move on.  Unless it's really inconvenient--in which case, of course, all bets are off.

O's articulation is getting much easier to understand -- sometimes painstakingly clear in a way that shows just how hard he's working at it (he says backhoe loader with such concentration and care).  Other words are still adorably obscure until you know them, like dando dige (which is sometimes Daniel Tiger and sometimes dandelion), pankpank (which is both pancake and blanket), or fuffuwhy (butterfly).  

Personal pronouns have come on the scene:
I can't  
We are home
You reach it

O in the O! (A few months ago)

Found her (on O's first phone call chat I kept hiding and telling him on the phone where to find me)

Some phrases I hear a lot:
is that?  (=what is that?)
Mama watch
Mama come here
Up on mama
Oatmeal and applesauce
Do self, Rion self

And sometimes they get strung together in more interesting ways:
Whip cream please.  Lil bit more.  Mama help last bite.  One more.

July 3:
A: Do you see moon up in the sky?  
O: Orion reach it!  
A: Oh, it's much too high.  
O: Orion ladder


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*Super mundane, but I wish I'd documented this the first time so I remembered what to expect.  In this case, maybe this will show us how far we've come?