"a million tents and trailers will cover the open desert / your kids will learn again to build fire"

[larryhammer]

TBD is exactly two-and-a-half years old.

Achievements unlocked: doorknobs, blowing a whistle, randomly singing songs aloud (sometimes with recognizable words and melody: "Row Row Row Your Boat" and "Twinkle, Twinkle," most often), moving the wings of an origami flapping bird without tearing or crumpling it, Richard Scarry appreciation, a love of mochi and miso, and a desire to be a "big kid" and change rooms at preschool.

Current favorite book: Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, which has a character hiding on every page -- "Where Goldbug go?" Books are, along with trucks, the most coveted objects in the house. When we visit a library or bookstore, we get reminded TBD gets "Two books!" -- and any more in the pile, we have to explain are ones we're getting. A distant third: the current favored stuffie, which is a pink stegosaurus.

More lispings are resolving: "oh-tay" is slowly turing into "okay" (OTOH, initial k- sound is still usually p-). "What's that?" is still favored over "Why?" -- and when asked of something already well-known, it's our cue to ask back so that knowledge can be shown off. I haven't been recording (read: remembering long enough to jot down) the better bits of conversation, though this morning, there was a grasping after past tense, correcting "I do that" to "I did that."

It's not clear how much of our explanations of Halloween are understood, especially the part about some people finding spiders scary (TBD has been known to thank spiders for eating flies), but we plan a short trick-or-treating costumed as a redonkulously cute ladybug. Next year, there will be more to build on.

---L.

Subject quote from "The Fall," Peter and The Wolf."

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

Ah, finding Goldbug! An honored tradition.

Yay TBD!

[larryhammer]

I don't remember this one from growing up, though I had a few other Scarry books (including one with a page of starlings where I had to read out every single vocalization -- it was important!).

---L.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

It just keeps on getting better from here! *g*

[larryhammer]

*G*

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Toddler! Toddler! AGH SO CUTE! *faints*

[larryhammer]

*eeeeeeeee*

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

At this stage, information just keeps flowing in. It's fun, exciting, scary, frustrating, and wonderful for both parents and toddler.
The best part, as sartorias said, "It just keeps on getting better from here!"

I'm just going to list a few favorites:

Bill Peet, especially The Pinkish, Purplish, Bluish Egg
Mercer Mayer's Little Critter and Little Monster
The Berenstain Bears books, especially The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree
The Monster at the End of This Book...Starring Grover! This one was great for eliciting tons of giggles from toddlers, as Grover worries about the monster and it turns out he is the monster.

[larryhammer]

The Monster at the End of this Book is already in the library, and has been appreciated for a while. Berenstain Bears didn't take, the last time we tried, but TBD may have been a little young yet. Will look for those others.

---L.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

TBD may still be a bit young for the others. It's been a long time since I had toddlers, so I was just listing books that my kids found particularly entertaining, early on. The Spooky Old Tree was Ian's favorite when he was 3 or 4; when he taught himself to read, this was the book he used to demonstrate his newfound skill.

[larryhammer]

Heh -- The Monster at the End of This Book was the first book I read All By Myself.

---L.