"what does that mean / i really remind you of money / she said who am i / to blow against the wind"

[larryhammer]

TBD is two years and ten months old, and as of last week suddenly looking, moving, and acting like a three-year-old. Next to actual three-year-olds on the playground, I can't tell the difference. Above and beyond this, I've been getting glimpses of older-child face in certain moments and moods, which is a little startling.

Forgot to mention last update: there's now a marked preference for using the right hand for many tasks, including screw-top containers -- which is another new achievement unlocked. Also unlocked, since then: taking a DVD out of the case, putting it into the player, using the remote to start the movie (this is the hardest part), and then putting everything away and turning it all off. We are starting to sort objects by color (such as bowls or plates), and getting more accurate with counting small sets.

This kid sooo wants to grow up already. We've been informed that when dressed in a dragon costume, TBD is a grown-up dragon, not a baby dragon. For a while, every kind of interesting truck, we were asked whether you have to be a grown-up to drive it (as opposed to just a "bigger-bigger kid," as with a pickup).

We spent half this past month sick, which meant far more TV than usual, possibly more even than reading. Media consumed the most includes My Neighbor Totoro repeatedly, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (favorite character: Katerina Kittycat, to which both Janni and I are all Of Course, since Henrietta was our favorite as a child meow-meow), and nursery rhymes from the Little Baby Bum channel on YouTube. Oddly, I've been banned from singing "Low Bridge," aka the Erie Canal Song -- the prohibition has been repeated every bedtime for a month. Other songs are still welcome, and sometimes TBD can repeat one after hearing it just a couple times.

We've made the acquaintance of some invisible friends: Gina, Dhowie, and Hahee. Gina is human -- she's at the same preschool and sometimes comes over for a play-date. Dhowie is capable of hiding in very small spaces, and sometimes seems to exist only in order to ask, "Where's Dhowie?" Hahee is more shadowy and has little discernible personality, that I can see.

Talking, talking includes more, and more complicated, complete sentences. Pronunciation sometimes is a struggle: "shoulder" and "stroller" are hard to resolve, and they are very different means of travel. And then there's some idiosyncratic names for things: ramen and udon noodles are both "ramen" -- oops, made the wrong one. Another developmental milestone: enumeration by exhaustion -- "I want that one and that one and that one and ... "

Didn't write down many good conversations, though:

TBD: "I'm a baby grown-up."
Me: "That's right."
TBD: "You baby grown-up?"
Me: "No, I'm a grown grown-up."
TBD: "Yeah."

TBD: "I want to fly on a top like Totoro."
Janni: "Me too. I would love to have one of those."
TBD: "Target?"

Would that we could get one there, kid -- would that we could.

---L.

Subject quote from "I Know What I Know," Paul Simon.

Comments

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Wow. Three.

[larryhammer]

This.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Utterly adorable!

[larryhammer]

SQUEEEEE

[gwynnega]

Sounds like a baby grown-up to me!

[larryhammer]

In many ways, yes.

[mount-oregano.livejournal.com]

Can I sing The Erie Canal Song? I learned it in grade school.

[larryhammer]

Not in front of TBD -- Janni has also been forbidden to sing it, when we've asked.

[janni.livejournal.com]

Though the first day Daddy was banned from singing the Erie Canal Song, I was specifically asked to sing it. Not since, though.

[larryhammer]

That's right -- forgot that.

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

Heh. My child wanted to be grown up at four, and now that she understands responsibility better (e.g. the responsibility to oneself not to suck one's thumb and displace the two adult teeth coming in), she wants repeatedly to play baby. Swing, pendulum, swing....

Hope everyone's feeling better!

[larryhammer]

We swing back and forth between straining to grow up and playing being a bao-bao who can't talk (and needs reassurance).

[harvestar.livejournal.com]

Awesome imaginary friends! Mine were just doubles of me, but there were up to 100 of them.

[larryhammer]

Were they numbered?

[galeni.livejournal.com]

Definitely a person now, even at first glance. That age is when I found mine much more interesting and fun. Good work.

[larryhammer]

We've heard that from people, about the age. (We've also heard that from people about every other age ... )

[galeni.livejournal.com]

Well, except 11-13. Those are the Hell Years. Lots of smarts and hormones, too little autonomy or savvy.

(My two are now 27 and 29.)

[larryhammer]

:-)