Three and a half!

So much happens so fast here in summer!  May transformed the landscape: there are flowers and leaves everywhere, we run into neighbors on the street and at the common house, and people linger outdoors as much as possible.  We moved our picnic bench onto the porch and ate dinner outside.  The nights got warm, but the days were dry.  I almost forgot how bitter I was about April!  (I know, all you Californians are bored by weather talk...)

DEVELOPMENT

Ro turned 3 and a half this week -- a fact of which he is quite proud.  He couldn't wait to get there (all his classmates are older than him) so we celebrated with a mini cake with half a candle in it (the half candle was his idea).

Ro's class

Part of the mixed-age classroom dynamic is that the 3-year olds learn from the 4- and 5-year olds.  5-year old boys happen to be excellent at creative insults and the threes are practicing name calling of their own.  Ronan was awarded the dubious accolade from his teacher of being the most creative name caller of his gang.  "You ceiling fan!" he'll cry.  "You sticker bum!"  We've shrugged off a few instances of "stupid goat" and the like, and so far he doesn't seem to realize these are any worse to the grownups than "you fupple-whap".

Ro has gotten very good at counting, and his generic very large number is always 55.  Units remain more elusive, so he might say he is 55 long, the Eiffel tower is 55 inches, and he'll be a grownup in 55 minutes.  Apologies to those of you over 55, but your age is an inconceivably large number.

He's asking questions that show just a hint of how he puts things together.  He knows about bones and blood, and asked whether because your bones are inside your skin they are all messy with blood.  We talked about how blood travels in tubes and now he shows us everywhere he can see his veins and when he falls inspects to see if the pipes have broken.

Ro is very interested in problems.  I may have ignited this with a bedtime story, but it's taken on a life of its own:

R: I have a problem.  It's an itchy bite.
A: Sorry sweetie!
R: So what's your plan for a solution to the problem?

A: Want to go to the new frozen yogurt store?
R: I want to go to Go Berry
A: I thought we could try the new store.
R: I have a solution.  The plan is today we can try Go Berry and tomorrow we can try your frozen yogurt store.

He is mostly not napping, but has had some stunning early bedtimes, falling asleep in my arms at 6 at a restaurant (and sleeping through dinner, the drive home, and the transfer to bed) and also at home.  The same has happened to me, since parenthood began.  

Comings and Goings  This month we visited friends and used their excavator to move dirt and rocks from one place to another.  Ro got to help articulate the arm and was quite taken with it.  We attended a gymnastics birthday party, took after-school trips to the park, restaurants, music together classes, and friends' houses.  A bunny raised her pups on the school playground, there was a school bike rally, Ro has started swimming lessons again and was just promoted to the class with 2-3 year olds (from the babies section).  

School yard buns

David traveled and so did I, spending a few great days in Cali after giving a talk.  I returned home to good work related news and the end of the semester.  I just got a FitBit pedometer (so let me know if you have one), which is how I learned that I logged more steps watching a couple toddlers for an afternoon than the day I went for a three mile run!

Ro's best bud...moving in a few months!

Listen with a toddler.  In May, Ro has gotten into Irish bands, sea shanties, and the donkey song on his Music Together CD.  Top hits:

1) The Unicorn (Irish Rovers) -- I loved this as a kid
2) Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore 
(many versions: Kitchen Party, Thile/Marshall, High Kings)
3) South Australia (Hootenanny/Nields version)


QUOTES:

A: Are you all done [eating frozen yogurt]?
R: No, 'cause I didn't get a rain freeze.

A: You got the long side of the wishbone!  You get to make a wish.
R: I don't wish anything.  Except I wish I could be at Nana and Papa's house.

[D is struggling to change Ro into a pull-up while he's asleep.  Ro stirs just enough to say:]

R: Dad, you're really nice!

D: Ssshh, I'm just putting a pull-up on you.
R: Yeah!  That's why you're really nice. 

D: Do you think that the bigger you get, the more stuff you can remember in your head?
R: Yes, and I lock it in my mind.

R: Dad, do you know a fact?  My fact is I would like to sit in this chair.

R: Mom, I want you to know that I always get to choose everything and that's for real.  So you have to do everything I say.

This reminds me of a video that had me in stitches earlier this week.  Conversations with my 2 year old (video)  This could also be titled life with a three year old!  

April 2013

Egg hunters

Late April and the landscape is finally emerging from its cocoon.  The snow is gone but the ground was bare and brown for weeks.  We wait for the nights to stop freezing, for the grass to turn green and the trees to unfold their leaves.  When it finally happens it feels like the view at the top of the mountain, or coming up for air.  Not only is it the end of a long winter, it's the end of a long year of teaching, meetings, and waiting to breathe.  First we heard the spring peepers in the pond by our house, then the daffodils and forsythia started to bloom (first in town, then up here).  Now it's crisp, 60s and 70s, sunny and glorious but not humid.  In other words: our two weeks of California weather.

Now that the days are long and warm we see our neighbors again, we go to parks after school, we plant seeds and go for rambles. 

Our mornings have collected rituals.  Ronan goes up to his big black telephone, picks up the receiver and calls "Hello, Vitamin and Gummy Bear Delivery Service?  I haven't had my vitamins yet today."  We deliver vitamins and continue the phone conversation.  Ro moves his step ladder around the kitchen to help make coffee, to set up cereal, or to watch whatever is most interesting.

Ronan has been delightful all month.  He's comfortable at school, he is surprisingly polite and well mannered (um, thanks daycare!), and he's both amusing and snuggly.  Other than the whole waking up twice a night to pee thing, I'd be happy to stall at this age for a good long time.  Of course Ro loses it, predictably, around bedtime some nights.  When we had a dinner party he started crying woefully and finally announced that "the Alison who is not the lab-Allison ate my spinach crackers" [from the communal bowl].  Life can be hard, kid.

We have all finally gotten used to the lack of the midday nap (and no nap after school on the drive home).  He falls asleep by 8 or so, and we have our evenings back for work and rest which makes for more relaxed parents.  In the morning he wakes us up by climbing into bed and talking to us until someone gets up.  

Since last month we celebrated the festival of the oviparous fairy rabbit (as D puts it) with egg dyeing and hunting.  I took Ro to the festival of the young child where he got a henna tattoo from his teacher and got to use a fire hose.  We went to see baby animals and not-so-baby turkeys.  Both D and I had stints of parenting solo as he went to a meeting in DC and I took a quick trip to Michigan to give a talk.  Ro and I planted seeds after choosing packets from their pictures at the store.  This may have been a mistake!  Of course Ro selected the variety of pumpkin that is bigger than the toddler in the photo.  But it should be fun...I've never grown giant pumpkins before.  With our luck (and the timing on the packet), we will have enormous ripe pumpkins long before the appropriate season.  We've also seeded peppers, sugar snap peas, basil, and chard, which seem a little more straightforward.  This year we can really get our community garden plot going after sheet mulching last summer.

Ro entertains himself with friends so well we often let him do so with little supervision,  resulting in some amusing outcomes.  On one occasion he and his friend were in his room when she shouted "Help Ronan!"  We ran upstairs to find the two of them in his bed in a dark room, completely naked except for his shirt, which they apparently needed help to remove.  The thumps overhead last weekend at another friend's house turned out to be the sounds of synchronized headboard leaps onto the bed.  OK, now we know.

RoQuotes:

4-4 R: Hey, remember when we went on the big wooden swing at the playground in Germany?  We had to walk through the forest to get there.  [wait, that was almost 2 years ago!]

4-18 [looking at my old flip-phone with a tiny microphone logo on one key] 
"Hey look, on the zero there's Siri"

Tonight we had a burrito picnic outside

4-19  R to D:  You're never gonna get lost.  'Cause if you start to blow away, I'm gonna get a net, and tie it to a stake, and throw it around you, and pull you back down.

4-21  
A: what a beautiful day! 
R: yeah, and a golf cart!

4-21 
A: do you see the steeple? 
R: indeed I do

4-21 [listening to T&B's rock mix] They said roll all night long!  That's not a good idea because then they'll never grow big and strong!

[stereo]: Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jumped over the candlestick
R: woah, that's not safe!


[any time, when upset]: You're never going to be my best friend anymore!

Older quotes:

3-2
A: How many pancakes would you like?
R: 10!
A: One, two, or three
R: Why can I have only three?
A: That's how many will fit in the pan
R: Well, you could do them one at a time!

R: See what happens when I smile?  You smile too!  That's 'cause the pipes inside us are connected!

Pictures: New pics are at the bottom of this album.

March flurries bring April showers?

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.

Dinosaurs are starting to gain some of the same cachet for him and I understand the kid appeal.  He's fascinated with danger and scary animals, and since dinosaurs aren't alive any more, adults don't downplay their scariness.  That and we all know giant lizard-birds are just cool.

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:

1. M.T.A. (Kingston Trio version)
2. Baby Beluga (Raffi) 
3. You are My Sunshine (Elizabeth Mitchell version)

If you think the MTA song wouldn't be a standard child favorite I'd be with you on that.  But I've been taking him to a local farm's Sunday barn-lunch-bands recently and the authentically crusty bluegrass group is charmed enough by our music-obsessed toddler to humor his requests to play M.T.A. every time.

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.  

Alpaca kisses...

...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.

More Quotes:
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]

XOXO

3/22 When I grow up I'm gonna be a vet for dogs.  I'm gonna be a vet for dogs and cats and when I come visit I'll give the cats some medicine.  And when I grow up I'll have a car.  Yeah, and when I'm not there and you want me to visit you can call me on the phone.
[Jeez, I'm already flashing forward to an empty nest!]

Snow!

Snow Snacking

February's theme is SNOW!  On the 8/9th we got the biggest single dump of snow we've seen since moving here.  About two feet fell overnight, drifting to well above our 3-year old's height.  Our front steps disappeared entirely.  I towed Ro to the neighbor's house on snowshoes for some good stair sledding.  We've also had some good park sledding, yard sledding, and lots of "snow snacking."

Kids are funny and particular about things.  Some things in common: wholesale attempted boycotts on the vegetable food group, for example.  Some kids like to run around naked, some carry the same giraffe everywhere.  Our child refuses blankets.  

Ro has actually never slept with a blanket.  As parents we drank the sleep-sack kool aid so Ro spent his first year zippered into his own personal sleeping bag.  And the next year.  At some point he graduated to a sleep sack with foot holes but he had no interest in a blanket.  In summer we just let him go with PJs.  But now that it's cold and he's too big for sleep sacks he is still a blanket-free boy -- at least when he falls asleep.  Most nights we sneak in and blanket him after he's out.  If we don't he will happily sleep without one and happily wake up cold as a rock.  (Or grumpily wake up, but that's independent of blankets).

He also likes to dunk his english muffin in a glass of milk as if it were a cookie.  But I'm hopeful that's a passing fad.

D has been taking Ro to swim classes on Sunday mornings this winter.  Ro is not actually swimming or anything but he's getting more comfortable with the water.  This makes bathtime easier since he's willing to actually be in the water (on his stomach!  sitting or standing!).  His retro snow suit is making him more comfortable in the snow.  He can topple in a drift and stay mostly warm and dry.  See, he's a cosy snow angel!

Ro has a big bed now and has slept in it 2 of the last 3 nights.  He's so proud of it he couldn't wait to show his babysitter when she came, but I wouldn't be surprised if he opts for his crib sometimes for a while yet.  He likes to pretend he's a baby sometimes and upon discovering that babies wear onesies he insisted that he wanted to wear one.  I found an old one that still barely fit and he happily crawled around in it repeatedly.  But seeing him in a onesie made it clear just how much NOT a baby he is -- long legs, underwear, and all!

Our babysitter is back from her semester abroad and Ro has fallen in love with her all over again (she is pretty awesome).  The last time she came he asked for days afterwards when she was coming back.  He wanted to build another big messy fort with his "rascally" pal.  For our part that means we got a great night out last week for dinner and some live music at a guitar shop/bar.  Interesting combo!  



RoQuotes:

R: Cheese Louise [sic] that's fast

R: We are in the "Space Whale" [my car] and I want to call daddy's car "Homo sapiens" (later he wanted to name it Sylvia)

R: Dada, what's "meaning"?

(He also recently asked what's "proving" and now likes to prove things to us)

R: Mom!  You're sitting on the moon.  [I sat down for coffee on the red couch where he was playing with legos D made into a lander]
A: Oh, should I not sit here?
R: No, you don't have a space suit and it's too far away.

R: Mama, you're walking in my lake!   [the middle of the floor]

A: It's okay, I have special lake walking shoes

R: Oh, ok.

R: What are you making?

A: Cookie dough

R: Well, let me test it to see if it's delectable.  Testing is a good way to find out!

A: Look at the beautiful sunset Ro!

R: Yeah, it's because all the colors mix together

A: It's kind of yucky when it's grey out

R: But you're happy when skies are grey!

A: I am?

R: Yeah, cuz I make you happy when skies are grey 

[he loves the you are my sunshine song]

Pictures: (Ro's third bday through the present) are here 

January (in February)

Where did the snow go?

Someone aptly compared living with a three-year-old to having a live bomb in your house.  You ask them to to calm down and hang out for one second while you make some coffee, but when you turn around there is a smoking hole in the floor where your child once was.  A friend described it as like participating in a hostage negotiation situation.  Can I put on your socks?  OK, how about the left one first?  No, no, that's okay, we can do the right one first.  I'm going to touch you now, are you ready?  I tried to warn you!!!

That was pretty much our introduction to three years of age, starting 1 week before the magical date and followed by a phase so specifically parent-directed that only the designated "right person" was allowed to talk to him.  The depth of fervor that can be summoned for a particular plan is amazing, especially when that plan is: request different specific things until you find one your parents can't provide and then blow up.  Since those early weeks of three, things have gotten much better again and our lovely child not only speaks to other humans, he is positively delightful.  Just not this morning, which is what reminded me.

&Co…
January could be a do-over except I wouldn't want to risk it.  After a flu/cold, a second endless cold plus sinus infection, and the stomach flu I was ready to hide for a while.  Instead I had a grant due, our sewer grinder broke (twice) leading us to cancel a visit with friends, and my computer failed so badly I had to surrender the whole machine to tech services and limp along with a loaner through the first day of teaching.  During this time, D and R also got sick, D had (and has) crazy release deadlines, and R is starting to give up his midday nap at school.  I've decided this means February will be all sunshine and fluffy bunnies.  Hear that New England??  No more getting so cold you freeze underground pipes!

Here's what was great about January (besides that whole visiting cool people thing that I wrote about last month):
1) Flying lesson!  As a Christmas present (thanks sweetie) I got to fly around the bay area and Ronan got to fly "the pretend airplane" in flight school's immersive simulator.  He only crashed a few times.  I didn't crash the real plane thanks to an awesome instructor and the fact that flying a cessna is pretty easy as long as conditions are good and someone else tells you what to do.

2) Some CA friends came to visit us before a convention.  Fun!

3) We discovered a cool local B&B when our sewer grinder failed.  I never would've stayed there otherwise since it's only 10 minutes away from our house.

4) Grant submitted, woot.  And a postdoc started in my lab!  Classes have begun and I'm excited to finally teach a seminar (on my fav topic).

5) Everyone is now healthy, we have a kickass wood stove (not new, but ever appreciated in the winter), and on days Ro naps he is a total snuggle bug.

6) I just installed a fuzzy steering wheel cover.  Apparently I'm not supposed to admit this, but I LOVE it.  I'm terrible at remembering to bring gloves to the car and now I don't have to.

Oh right, this is a blog about Ronan. 

Ro is doing well according to his 3 year checkup (which happened a little late).  He's 30lbs and 34", and he impressed the doctor with his articulate pronunciation of stethoscope (or the fact that he brought his own).  

He's in seventh heaven when he gets to sit in the car and push all the buttons.  And he is thorough!  I usually don't figure out how to undo everything he has switched or activated until the next afternoon.  He likes to watch Land Before Time II on netflix (#1 isn't available), and has started quoting it at apt times, saying things like "tonight we feast" as we settle down to dinner.  He likes Thomas too and will emphasize points by saying things like "cinders and ashes, I have to go pee!"  Current favorite book: The Gruffalo's Child (Julia Donaldson).  It is not our favorite book because you can only read the same story for so many nights in a row before you want someone to lose the book.

When I started to write this a few days ago I wrote that he is totally potty trained.  The upside of this is no diapers.  The downside is that when he wakes up at 5am to pee, so do we.  He is particularly unautonomous at going to the bathroom and requires adult assistance every time.  (At night this is understandable since he's in a crib and half-asleep).  After I recently demonstrated to him what the pee-pee dance looks like (the crossed-leg wiggle) he invented the poopy dance which consists of spinning in circles.  Alas, in the last few days he's had his first ever accident at school, his first accident at home since summer, and a lot of avoiding the potty for mysterious reasons not related to discomfort.  Toddlers should seriously come with diagnostic manuals!

Braindana model

Ronan has the self-restraint of an alien being…if you give him two yogurt covered raisins he will save one for later, entirely of his own accord.  I am staring at one of his "saved" treats, and the only thing keeping me from eating it is that it's his, and I don't want to feel like a terrible mom.

RoQuotes from January:

A - What did you do at school today Ro?
R - I waited for you to pick me up.

[The jelly jar lid is missing]
R - I know, let's find it on a map!

1-20:
D - do you think I'm good at taking care of babies?
R - well, I could teach you

R- mama?
A-  yes?
R - when I say mama, say "pardon?"  (repeated often in many combinations)

R- hey mama, let's break the rules together.

Favorite words of the month: delectable and scrumdiddlyumptious

Some older quotes I found floating around:
10-27-12:  My brain wanted to think.  And it thinked!

10-28-12: D- Ro, want to water some plants with me?  R- First I want to play some lovely music [followed by harmonica hyperventilation]

10-28-12: Papa, see that box with the blue light on it?  Papa, that's called an amplifier.

11-13-12: 
D [turns on radio]
R- What's that?
D- That's a Haydn symphony
R- After that one I want Beethoven Nine Symphony


And if you're still reading, I heard this psychology joke yesterday...

Q: What did one psychologist say when he met another?

A: You're fine, how am I?

Unbaked sun power

Kneading "sun bread" dough

Happy Holidays

Santa and Ronan

Ronan is finally of an age for some of the stories around Christmas, so the web of lies (ahem, stories) has begun.  Initially skeptical that Santa Claus could come down our wood-stove pipe, Ro now knows half of "The Night Before Christmas" and left cookies out for "St. Nick" in two states.  He even sat on Santa's lap willingly, after seeing his best friend J had done the same.  Santa brought East Coast Ronan a mini-trampoline.  On the West Coast no one could keep track of all the bounty.  

On the flight out he was so excited he overcame shyness to talk to each pilot.  He charmed more than one grandma with his enthusiastic announcements he was going to see his nana and papa.  And he handled the long travel day at least as well as his parents if not better.

This December has come with a too-large dose of sad news and it makes me want to squeeze my little one extra tight.  I've had plenty of chances to do just that while we were both home sick on a short trip to Tahoe with friends, including naps on mama like in his early days. 

The more I get to know Ronan and the more he grows the more I wonder at this small person whose ways I know better than my own.  It makes me wish I could meet the three-year old version of all of my friends and family, to know you all in this way.  To see what delights and frustrates, to gather a rowdy gang for a party, and to be three myself, so that I don't have to chaperone!




RoQuotes:

A: Let's have a conference.  A family conference is when we all get together and talk about what's going to happen next.  Want to have a family conference?
R: No, because if you want I can tell you all by myself.  We're gonna watch television, and after that we're gonna go to Talia's house!

DP: Somebody's a little tyrant
R: It's meeee!

R: You know something?  I'm a hug monster.
D: Hey, did you know that I'm a hug monster too?
R: That's convenient!

A: Ro, do you know what you want to do when you grow up?
R: I want to be an A, just like you.  So I can be your mommy.

R: I want the blankey-blank video.  
[not a euphemism but a recording of a friend saying blankey-blank!]

R: Mama, did you hear that catastrophe?  When my lego skyscraper fell down?

Album Covers

Ro has to release an album some day, just so he can use this as a cover, right?  I know, by then there won't be those funny things called CDs with cover art, or he'll be in the kind of band that requires a violin or else a half-naked lady on the album front.  But it's not the only front-runner for an awesome band.  Awesome band name suggestions will be entertained.

FWIW, he's pretty good at drums for a toddler, and plays a mean kazoo!