"The winds awaken, the leaves whirl round, / Our cheeks are pale, our hair is unbound"

TBD is three years and four months old. Hello there, obvious preschooler -- where'd you pop up from? And when did you start asking multipart "why?" questions with subordinate speculations?

Achievements unlocked this month: somersaults, putting on velcro'd shoes (sometimes asking whether the first one is going on the correct foot), undoing buttons (still working on fastening), unlocking the front door with keys, knowing that if you have 1 of something and then 2 more that's 3 things, and making simple puns ("Uncle Bret's name sounds like bread -- Uncle Bread!").

We can reliably enumerate up to 8 objects now, before losing track of which have already been counted, and sometimes up to 11. We're still working on counting to 20 (the mid-teens are confusing). Not clear whether any new letters are recognized, but some numbers seem to be.

Longer stories are now in play: TBD is starting to request and sitting through a chapter book with limited pictures, if read in installments. (We started with a Junie B. Jones tale. 'Cause we found one at the bookstore, that's why.)

Play-acting now encompasses being a superhero while wearing a paper mask (you pick up a lot of those as a toddler - it's an easy craft project to decorate one). The main job of a superhero, btw, is to tell bad guys, "Don't be mean!" and if they don't stop being mean, take away their sword. Or sometimes put out the fire that's burning them -- games shift quickly around here.

We've been informed that the rule of the road is "Don't crash!" This is what police officers tell people when they stop them.

Talking, talking continues:

Janni: "What did you put in your underwear?"
TBD: "A flashlight."
"Why is there a flashlight in your underwear?"
"You do it."
"I don't want a flashlight in my underwear."
"I'm looking for someone who is lost."

(pointing to picture of a family eating pancakes)
TBD: "Lookit. They left the syrup open."
Me: "You're right. I wonder why."
"Maybe because it's hard to open."

(pointing to picture of ants carrying a slice of watermelon towards their nest)
TBD: "How they going to get THAT down [the small tunnel]? :laugh: Maybe they bite off little pieces."

"It's a rumblestorm. Why?"

"When you draw, you see what happens."
(that is, you find out what you've drawn)

"We're going to someplace." (sees me in the kitchen) "Uh oh, this is a cooking place. Let's go." (heads to bedroom)

So it goes.

---L.

Subject quote from "The Hosting of the Sidhe," William B. Yeats