Icky Monkeys

 Earlier this month Ethan found his monkey rain boots in the closet where I've been keeping his next size up clothes. The boots are sized 7/8 and still rather big on him considering he still wears a size 6 shoe. However, this did not stop him from asking to wear his monkey boots every day for about a week. Rain had been in the forecast all week so I told him that if we had rain I'd let him go outside and splash in his boots. By the end of the week we finally got rain so I excitedly took him outside to show him what his monkey boots were really all about. What I overlooked however, was that these were precious monkey boots. They weren't just "rain boots". They were special to him.

We walked along until we found a puddle in front of a neighbors house but he felt shy about stepping in the puddle since he didn't want to get wet. He had fun poking at it with a stick and floating leaves in it though. Finally he got curious enough to get in the water, but unlike the vision I had in my head of my toddler happily splashing his feet in the puddle like he does at bath time he wanted to get out of that puddle quick! Once he was out he pointed down at his "lellow monkey boots" and sadly proclaimed them to be "icky monkeys". We brought them inside and washed them off with soap and water and now they are good as new. He was pretty upset to see them dirty!

Take a picture!

On Friday Ethan and I were playing in his room with his toy monkey. I had my camera sitting in the room from where I was taking pictures earlier in the day and Ethan ran over, got the camera, asked for the "circle" (he wanted the lens cap off) and then shoved his monkey in front of my camera lens and wanted me to take a picture. Once I snapped a quick picture he ran around to the back of the camera and wanted to see "Monkey". Then he grinned. He wanted me to take a picture of his monkey and he was thrilled that I did it. Sometimes he seems so little and sometimes he seems so big.

5- 23- 2012

{Feeding the Ducks)

So I had a conversation with my son the other day and it went kind of like this...

"Oh, no....oh no, oh no"

puts down his slice of pizza

"Whats the matter baby? Eat your pizza"

 "Buggie! Buggie!"

" There's no bug baby." As I look all around for the phantom bug.

" BUG! BUG!" points at his pizza.

Dad takes pizza and examines it. Still no bug

"Oh no, oh no"

"Eat your pizza. There's no bugs" Chimes in Dad.

"No...no... BUG! OH NO....Oh no!

It turns out that any black speck of anything (in this case, pepper in the pizza sauce) is a bug. Even the teeny tiny black banana seeds are "Bugs". And the little holes in crackers? They are suspect. It wasn't until he held up his cracker to the light that he agreed they weren't bugs. Needless to say, he has not been eating very well this week. Which brings me to our next conversation....

Whining at the cabinet door asking for snacks...

"Baby if you are hungry you need to eat some real food. Would you like some banana? Watermelon? grapes?"

"Uh uh" shakes head no to emphasize

"How about some toast until Daddy gets home?"

"Uh uh" shakes head no and points at the cabinet door again.


I note we have one hour until Dad gets home and we can have a family meal. I decide to offer him a few crackers as a compromise and turn dinner time into the eating emphasis since he eats better when he can watch Garrett eat the same food. He loves to copy Daddy and I can already tell that making a point over eating what I offered or going without is not going to go over well since he skipped his nap.

"How about two crackers?"

"'No....THIS!" points to the bag of veggie chips.

"No, baby, that's not real food."

"No.....food! You eat!" points again to the bag of veggie chips.

Hard to argue with that logic. So I agreed to 5 chips and he was happy until dinner time when we tried to make him eat "bugs". He's been so suspicious of everything I offer him. He even looks down his straw on his sippy cup before he'll drink it. But Ethan, Mommy would never make you eat bugs.

And since I am loving the fact that he has started to have conversations with me this week here are two more short conversations....

"Water, water, water"

"When Mommy stops the car, she'll get you your water."

(repeat exactly a few times more.....then a brief pause of silence)

"Sad....Sad....sad....sad...."

{And then much later the same day}

Ethan hears a noise outside and he thinks its Garrett returning home for work. He runs out of his room towards the garage... "Dada! Dada! Dada HOME!"

"No, that's not Dada yet, baby. Dada's still at work"

Ethan stands at the garage door and looks through the cat door into the garage and notices that the garage is stiil dark inside. "I Sad...I Sad..." Walks slowly back to his room.

I'm so glad that he is conversing with me! I can only imagine how confused we would be if he was unable to tell us WHY he doesn't want to eat. I would never have guessed "bugs"! 

Shhh....my little boy is fast asleep...

Or not.

(I had the wrong lens on the camera and no tripod so these are far from technically perfect but I just wanted to capture this sweet toddler moment as it was happening without calling attention to myself. After all, in some ways that's what "perfect" really is about.)