Two and one half

Ronan is 2 1/2.  We are 2 1/2 in number (or so we say when reserving restaurant tables).  It's pretty clear that there are not 2 1/2 active brains in the household at any given time, but such is the parenting life.

Ronan has been trying on identities this month and often announces he is someone else.  We've heard "I am Eric" (a teacher at his school who leads songs), Chris (the music room teacher), Talia (neighbor), and Dada.  But it's just as often a role instead of a person:

4/26: I am a sister too
4/27: I need a washcloth said the American Eel.  I am an American Eel.
5/1: I'm a cooking man.  Yeah, and I'm an eater man too!
5/9: I am a man and this man is playing some music on his little phone.

A year ago this time, language was simple and direct: "mama up", "go outside", "coffee--yucky!"  Today he found a moth over his crib and proffered "yeah, it's like the white moth on the leaf...that you showed me when we had a picnic on the back porch...yeah, and I liked it."  Ronan sounds like two going on five.

Increasing linguistic sophistication makes it all the more clear that Ronan hasn't moved on from the command form, and there's little he enjoys more than bossing around his parents.  We've been working on politeness and he is starting to get it.  Now when he wakes up in the morning the first thing I usually hear on the monitor is "Mama, please come" or "Dada, please come."

This month we had a great visit from CA family!  Ronan eats up all the attention and was enamored of the big silver (transformer) van, grandparent daycare pickups, and much more.  

We all made it to a spring festival in the hills which was quite the day.  Ro got to feed donkeys, camels, and goats, pet bunnies, ride a pony, watch a may pole dance, listen to some fun music, and climb into a fire truck.  Heck, it was kind of cool to have an excuse to climb into my first firetruck!

  

I have three seniors graduating this spring and they all love Ronan.  We got a lab T shirt so they insisted he needed a wee version (right).

 

A few more quotes (all from May 20):

R: Dada makes nice foods for me and then he gives them to me, and then I grab them and I eat them and then that is called giving things to RoRo!

D: are you a Ragamuffin?
R: Ragamuffin lives at Smith College.  Yeah, and he eats Frisbees.

(the morning after he kept me up from 5-6am)
R: Mama, are you happy?
A: Yeah, but I'm tired
R: Mama, you were talking in your whiny voice.   (!)

 

Autonomous as he's striving to be, Ronan still says "I want to be up on you" more than anything else.  I'll take the cuddles while I can get them!

 

Bye bye May!

As usual, more pictures here: Picasa 2+ photos 

Another month, another month-day

  Dream Ronan.................................................Less dreamy Ronan

It's almost summer!  The weather has been lovely and the end of the semester is in sight.  Life continues binky-free, though bedtimes have gotten harder and a lot later.  I'm writing this in a darkened bedroom with a child who is wired and tired and refuses to sleep (and is coming up with every imaginable excuse for why I need to pick him up).  Just a second ago: "I need my sunglasses."  I had an easier time ignoring that one than "I need to go potty."


Potty training is new this month!  Just a few days after I started a chart to remind myself to fit manuscript writing in around everything else at work, Ronan helped make his first potty chart.  A week later D started a running log.  Ronan's chart is definitely the coolest, and also the most full!


   (Guess which is which)

Also new is complex rationalizing.  Ro understands that arguments are powerful, but not quite how to structure a logical one.  Witness: "I cannot eat my yogurt because Maile might be scratching something."

On Easter, Ronan had his first egg hunt, which he loved.  He helped dye the eggs and was just a little competitive about finding them before his buddy Ethan.  Since the weather warmed up he's been spending a lot of time outdoors, helping plant seeds, riding his bike and riding it some more.

  Egg hunt!.................... Balance bike............................................Fort Forsythia

Finally, D got a drum kit this month which Ronan enjoyed greatly.  

  Making music

The mouths of babes:

3/26 (With me in the changing room while I bought some jeans):

R: Mama, are they too tight?

R: Mama, is it comfortable?

[The fire alarm went off while we were in the store and it was not a disaster.  Progress!]

3/28

R: It's a gor-geous sun

A: You're gorgeous

R: No you're gorgeous

A: No you're gorgeous

3/28

R: I miss my binky

A: Your binky is gone.  Do you miss it?

R: Yeah, and I miss Tata and Boo

A: They're coming to visit you

R: Yeah, and I will say Hi Tata and Boo!

4/11

R: I like family hugs

4/15 (D blows nose)

R: (runs in) Is there a rhinoceros in here?!

4/20: (Josie crying, Ro toddles up on his bike) 
R: It's okay Josie, I'm here

4/21

A (carrying Ro across campus): You're heavy

R: Yeah, and I'm so so pretty

4/21: Thanks for knowing me there was a bumble bee

4/21

A: I graded two labs

R: I don't want you to cut those up with a grater.  Then the cheese won't go in it cuz it's smashed up with the grater.  Grate cheese!   

2 and 4

B&B livin' ............................................................... Bulb show

2 years, 4 months and back from vacation! Busy month, as usual. Things I would like to write about more than you want to read about them (if I had more time...):

Growing up

Tonight we took away Ronan's binkies. Or rather he gathered them all up into a little pail, handed them over, and got a nice toy. There were tears at bedtime and the first request in months to have some bedtime songs after his poems (lately he won't let us sing). I went through the whole sequence and he was asleep by the end. The whole process made me surprisingly sentimental, both for the time when we sang those songs to put him to sleep, and for his now past era of pacifiers (which he has so delighted in). We had a lot of talk about growing up and how some parts of it are hard to do but they happen anyway. Cross your fingers for all of our abilities to sleep this week!

Type-casting toddlers

Since last August when a certain family member got us a book on Myers-Briggs types and kids (who would that be?), I've suspected that Ronan is a budding INTJ. By his second birthday I was sure that at least for now that's the best fit. Other INTJs in Ronan's life include his dad, Grossvater, Oma, Aunt Betsy, Uncle Brent, and probably others, so he'll have plenty of company and bad role models (wait, I mean good ones).

Sleep positions

Did you wonder if Ronan still sleeps like this? He does! I kind of wonder if he'll sleep this way at 36.

P.S. If you're the last person to see the cartoon on baby sleep positions, here you go!

P.P.S. Lots of recent pictures uploaded, but now Picasa is part of Google+ and I've set it so you have to be logged in to see them. My fav.

P.P.P.S. Our recent vacation started with a trip to the shoe store after D discovered he had left the house with one running shoe and one work shoe on (!). Be warned: this is the perfect example of something that can happen to you if you have kid(s). I fared much better -- having left the house wearing flip flops for a weekend on a farm.

Quotes this month:

2/25ish

Ro: I'm gonna eat this and see how it tasted. Ooh, I LIKE it.

Ro: (to mom) Hey, we cleaned up. And dada will say Ooh, you cleaned up!

Ro: Can you put some mustard on me?

A: OK (pretends)

Ro: It's a good thing I have an umbrella!

2/29/12

Mama, get up out of your chair.

3/8/12

Daddy, do you want to talk about Brent and the rocket ships?

3/12/12

(R to Dagobert): you come over here my friend

R: I did not drop that on purpose. No, not at all. No way Jose.

R: I need a hug. I bonked my head and I bonked my teeth and I'm covered in cement.

3/18:

R: I bonked my head.

D: Can I give you a kiss and a hug?

R: No, right now beer feeling me better.

3/23:

Hear my words, I do not want any milk.

Mama, are you up to no good? (coached, I'm sure)

3/24 (past tense is still rule-based)

Looking at hands: I growed up to be a flower!

The dead bug does not move. But I blowed it and it moved.

3/26:

You are not coming in. I am in my lab doing something special.

It's always in the 70s in March here, right?

Vignettes (2 yrs, 3 months)

Camara Trap!

I always thought it would be great to be the kind of field biologist with an excuse for a camera trap -- set up the motion sensitive trip-beam and see what wild-life comes by. I've ended up with a strange permutation of this with my iPhone. Picture after picture that looks like this: a toddler peering down, operating a touch-screen like he was born to it. When Ronan finds my phone he knows how to turn it on, find the camera, change it to front-facing mode, and snap away.* He hasn't figured out how to glam for it yet.**

*He also knows how to turn it on, scroll three pages until he finds flight-control, and start crashing airplanes.

**If Ro turns out like the my side of the family, years from now he'll chastise me for using pictures of him taken from this least flattering of angles ;)

Deep Questions

Ronan often volunteers that he likes us (and occasionally that he doesn't), but I decided to explain more about the word love. I asked him once, "Do you know what love is?" and was treated with a repeat of that question for days on end. He'd ask it a few times a day, hearing different answers, and then put this gem together:

Ronan: "Mama, do you know what love is? Love is when you really really like. I really really like you."

Overheard on the monitor

There could totally be a twitter feed (or whatever you call them) for this topic. Here's what I've heard recently:

1:30am: Is this my car binky?

3am: Do I like coffee?? Ooh! I DO like coffee!

9:15pm: I wanna be up on mama. I wanna be up on dada. I wanna be up on mama. No I wanna be up on dada, not mama!

Are you happy?

Ronan is always asking "mama, are you happy?", "dada, are you happy?", or proclaiming "I'm happy!" Sometimes he says this when he looks more tired than anything else. It's been interesting to have this little happy-check in our lives. At 7:30am, pre-coffee, we usually manage to say something like "right now I'm pretty sleepy, but I'm happy to see you." I'm not sure where this comes from, but Ro does seem to be pretty tuned in to other people's feelings. He particularly notices when other little kids are crying and points it out.

Moral compass:

I always envisioned toddlers as impulsive and reckless with an ounce or more of death-wish thrown in: climbing unstable structures, grabbing things they aren't supposed to, and getting into everything. Much to my surprise, I'd have to say that our kiddo is careful. He's deliberate in his actions, prefers to avoid potential hazards, and occasionally cautions us to be very careful while we use that really sharp knife. When he started using scissors at school I wasn't surprised that they told us he was really interested, or that he would carefully snip paper bits forever. It comes in very handy sometimes: he runs to the end of the school path, stops before the parking lot and shouts "wait!" or "stop", holding his hand out.

It's particularly something I notice because I'm not a rule person. Ronan wants to know right and wrong and should and shouldn't. He'll ask me if food is good, or if he should put something in the trash, and he remembers all the rules. The flip side is that we often get told by our toddler "no, you should not do that." When he climbs the stairs he likes to say "I'm almost grown up." I'm inclined to believe him!

Shy

Ro clams up around new people in new places, but this is when we get to see a little gesture we used to get more often at home when he talked less. He gives this odd little shy smirk and lifts one shoulder to his ear that looks like the gesture version of blushing.

This month's quote board:

1/24: D: Do you want some more tortilla?

R: No, thank you for asking, but I had enough. (We did not teach him to talk like this!)

1/26: (After running in circles): Hey, the room is spinning around!

1/26: Mama, is this perfect? (referring to stomp rocket placement)

2/4: Hi mama making a fire.

Hi dada pushing buttons on the computer.

2/5 (showing off to babysitter Hanna): I have two lawnmowers, one green and a yellow one.

2/8 (sings): Hush little baby don't say a word... mama's gonna go to work work work.

2/9: I'm on my bicycle. And I'm riding ALL the way to California!

2/9 (In the car)

R: Hold on!

A: We don't need to hold on -- we're wearing seat belts

R: I was hoping you are holding on to the steering wheel.

2/20: We're going on a dragon hunt! I'm gonna be in my cave. Are you coming on a dragon hunt?

2/22: (Holds up a lego tower to his eye like a telescope). Ooh! I see raccoons in the mudroom. I am going to get them so that they will eat some cat food. (Returns with arms outstretched).

Ronan and Friends

A: Mama has some friends coming over today.

Ro: RoRo has friends too!

Ronan and friends

Our trip to California was so lovely it was hard to return. Ronan still talks about driving, flying, or taking a train to Nana and Papa's house almost daily, plus he thinks he gets presents all the time. We miss people, weather, old haunts, and being on vacation!

While we were in CA, "Ronie can do it" began to turn into "I can do it" (and other I phrases), a transformation that is now complete. Gone are the days of "that feels Ronie better." He quickly discovered the incredible power of the phrase "I want", and for about a week started every sentence that way. This week has brought more linguistic diversity but the hallmark toddler talk is gone. (Ever notice how Elmo on Sesame Street refers to himself in the third person? Ronan is now older than Elmo!).

Grownup friends too!

One of the concepts Ro has been exploring this month is pretend, and I have to say it's tricky. He knows that invisible items are pretend, and he knows that a statue of a horse isn't a real horse, but it's a different kind of pretend than something that doesn't exist. This has led to quite a few questions like "Is this real mama?" Well, it's a real object, but it's pretending to be something else. Confusing!

Ronan has also been asking us whether something is good to eat, whether a milk bottle he finds out is still good, and whether he will like a food. He tried his first ginger snap the other day and it went something like this.

Ro: Are Ginger Snaps good dada?

D: Well I think they're good. You might like it.

Ro (tries it): Ooh! I do like it!

As Ro gets older, he also gets more independent, which has its perks. This weekend we played a card game with friends for 45 minutes while Ronan played on his own and visited. Amazing! We've been blessed with two sets of visitors this month, mostly timed on either side of the week-of-crazitude (I burned the midnight/4am-oil working on grants, D wrote a bunch of code for his paper coming out, and I got the stomach flu on top of laryngitis). This weekend we all lazed about so effectively I almost feel recharged and ready for the semester to start next week.

No snow yet! And mama's big gloves......................................Snow! And chopping wood!

Winter has taken a long time in getting here, but we finally have beautiful powdery snow. Ronan wasn't a huge fan of our sledding attempts this morning, but the sled came in very handy during his nap for towing chopped wood to the wood pile. Now it's time to settle in, drink tea, and get ready for the new semester!

Quotes:

Jan 7, 2012: [After milk delivery] That's the milkman. Just like the muffin man.

Jan 8: [Ronan up on me, running in our driveway]

Ro: You like running

A: Do you want to run?

Ro: Yeah, but right now I'm in the street. [He knows he can't run in the street!]

Ro: Would you like me to sing you a song? Miss Molly had a dolly who was sick sick sick…

Jan 14:

A: Mama is getting sick

Ro: You should have some gummy bear. You should have one of mine.

Jan 14: [pointing to his wooden horse] Is this real mama?

Jan 16: I wanna stay on mama the train. Hi momma down low!

Jan 18:

Ro: Thank you!

D: Thank you for what?

Ro: Thank you for you!

Favorites this month:

things: workbench, horse "Sarah", stomp rocket, apron, and rabbit "coffee" mug

books: Richard Scary's ABC book

poems: Shel Silverstein's Boa Constrictor and Sarah Cynthia Silvia Stout

phrase: Oh rats!

foods: raisins, gummy vitamins

nonsense: Pretend poops are called foofs

The mouths of babes

Just cleaned off a pile of tacked up notes on the refrigerator: in lieu of a baby book, Ronan may have some stapled together shopping list papers filled with early words, phrases, and events. Perhaps the scientist in me can't pass up the opportunity to collect data, or maybe just the proud mom. I'm not sure what to do with a slip of paper telling me that Ro said or signed five new words last January (bottle, snow, mug, do, cracker), and by the time he is fluent enough in language to read those sheets, words will not be big news to him. The later sheets, however, are keepers.

This month's "shopping list":

11/25: Ronie do work with voles, and spin them around and sit on them!

[I promise, this is not condoned behavior towards small rodents]

12/2 [looking at the moon]: There a bit of sun in it.

12/3 [looking at a picture of a chicken]: It's full of eggs!

12/6 [upon waking at 2am]: Ronie want to go to lab with Mama and Emily

12/6 [singing]: Flies in the butterknife, shoo fly shoo!

12/8: Ronie see two stars and one is blinking! [one was an airplane]

12/8: That a wild egg. [the kind birds hatch out of!]

12/11

Dad: Time for dinner!

Ronan: No! Ronie watching voles.

12/12

Ronan: What's that?

Me: It's a badger (stuffed animal)

Ronan: It's a special kind of doggie!

12/13

Me: What did you do at school today?

Ronan: Ronie pooped!

12/17 [after a kiss]: That feels Ronie better

Ronan has been coming to work with me after daycare some evenings. He's fascinated by the lab, partly as that place I go when he goes to school. Partly because there is a big toolbox there, assorted toys, and Emily. He's developed quite a crush on her and she's showed him how to use some of the lab tools. On Friday they identified all the magnetic surfaces he could stick things to, and she taught him how to pipet (picking up water from one cup and squirting it into another).

Ro is enjoying conjugation these days, and I do mean enjoying. This morning he found every excuse to use tickled, ticklish, and tickling, which he says like "tickle-ish". I was (and got) tickled!

First game of catch (throw) ........................... Morning "coffee"

Terrific Two!

Practicing the single-eyebrow lift
Ronan turned two years old today. The concept of birthdays is still a bit confusing at this age (especially since he shares this day with his grandpapa); he thinks it is everyone's birthday. His friend Josie stopped by and thought it was her birthday, which seemed to clinch it. Ro does know that birthdays come with a special song, you get to make (and eat) birthday cake, and oh boy presents!

It's amazing to consider what it might be like to be a toddler learning what to expect from the world. Sometimes it's your birthday, and sometimes every house has a pumpkin. Sometimes the moon is full, some times it's crescent, it's "way way up there", and sometimes we can't find it. Snow falls from the sky, your parents dress you up like a cat, and it's all perfectly normal. Or as perfectly unusual as everything else. Watching Ronan figure out our customs and habits gives me culture shock.


The cake was ugly, but it tasted kinda good!
Ronan loves to be involved in whatever we are doing. He knows where most of the dishes get put away, he cracks eggs and helps ladle ingredients for cooking, and while cleaning up is not his forte he at least announces when "Ronie made a mess!" Since we've been in a continuous state of moving for most of Ro's lifetime, he's also had the opportunity to get involved in some home maintenance projects. This is his current VERY FAVORITE thing. It started last month when he got really interested in screwdrivers and ownership, and assigned all the tools to owners (mommy got the yellow lighter and the blue screwdriver, daddy got the red lighter and red screwdriver, Ronan got the yellow screwdriver and the red ELECTRIC screwdriver). The electric screwdriver has been a big hit and Ronan has tried to unscrew every screw in every hole in every device in the house by now. Fortunately his dexterity is still in the "could use improvement" range.


The beloved electric screwdriver, about to "fix" the piano
The screwdriver first found it into Ronan's hands on a sick-day. Weeks in which we balance two jobs, meetings, and days without daycare are the weeks I don't remember afterwards. I vaguely recall Ronan playing with that screwdriver FOR HOURS in between bottles or cups of milk and tylenol doses.

Ronan is really starting to play with pretend objects more often. This is sweet to see, so rather than describe it, here is a video (unedited...you get the point after a little while):

As Ronan becomes ever more talkative, his words are becoming better than mine at conveying his mindset and growth. So here is a selection of "house quotes" from Roneo:

11/1 (decided the pumpkin was a battery): Oh! A big orange halloween battery!
11/1 (sitting in laundry basket/boat): RoRo is happy. RoRo get outta the basket and stay happy!
11/6 (screwdriver in hand): Mama sit here and see Roni fix it
11/18 (We shared a muffin but he lost it when I ate some): That not yours mama! Please don't eat that!
11/19 (Looking up my shirt): Mama's not poopy!
11/21 Ro have Califower up a ladder and on a plate. It yummy! And eat some broccoli.
11/21 (Staring at a pit): What that avocado thing?
11/21 Roni already got a bib on. And Ro already got a fork and a knife.
11/22 Put onna sweater and now he's not naked!

11/23 (Measuring a carrot with a measuring tape): 99.7!


Orange-shirt boys...................................................Bike trail with mama

Who is Ronan at two years old?
Like most toddlers, Ronan is joyful, temperamental, shy, bold, and runs circles around us. Ro at two has a serious streak, likes things to go his way, and does not yet understand that not everyone knows what that way is. (Don't worry kid, you've got time). He loves to engage in mechanical problems, loves picking up new words (proudly calling his yellow screwdriver eine gelbe bohrmaschine today), and has such an extensive lexicon for tools that one of the students who works at his daycare learned some from him.

He is getting less afraid of loud noises as he exerts more control. He loves the book "the best mouse cookie" wherein a mouse falls asleep while baking and burns all the cookies, partly because he can admonish the mouse that he should have had a smoke detector. He then reassures himself that "that smoke detector not going to go beep." If you didn't know about the noise thing, you might think it really odd that he has memorized the location of all the household smoke alarms and notices the alarm boxes in the places we go.

Ronan's smiles melt me, and I can't imagine being more attached. At night when we tell stories, sing songs, or just rock in the chair this little monkey grabs on and sinks in. The future holds many wonderful developments and achievements, I'm sure, but the feeling of that yielding hug is second to none.