Monday, July 30, 2012

Limpics, Compassion Fruit, and Maginacon...

I know, I am still behind in getting pictures up.  For now, just trust me that B is getting cuter everyday (and I didn't even think that was possible!) and we are having a busy but great summer.

B's "little" personality is also getting bigger and bigger everyday!  He is in the middle of a huge verbal explosion with new words/phrases/and sentences everyday.  He still has a cute toddler lisp and a hint of Ethiopian accent, so some of his new phrases include "limpics" (olympics), "compassion fruit" (passion fruit), and "maginacon" (imagination!).

He had his first bad dream the other night (I think brought on by the creepy baby in the Olympics Opening ceremony).  All he can tell us about the dream is "der was a baby...der was a girl...girl with eeeyyyyeeeessss. baby fell off the blue bed...der was a baby...etc."  he was really freaked and took almost 2 hours to fall back a sleep, plus he's not too sure about the blue bed (his cot in our room) right now.  Even when he's sleeping in our bed he will startle awake out of sleep and stare at the blue bed resting at the end of the bed with huge wide eyes and tense shoulders.  My poor baby!  The good news is, he called out for us when he had the dream (a HUGE first for us/him!!!), and he now says "mommy and daddy made the dream go away...it was just maginacon".

Tonight at dinner he asked for compassion fruit (he didn't like what we were having:-) We don't have any compassion fruit of the tropical or compassionate version in the house, but sometimes we really need both!

B LOVES the Olympics.  His favorite sport so far is synchronized diving:-)  He believes in full participation and interactive TV watching, so he talks back to the commentators and performs the dives with the divers.

He stands up straight with arms out at his side or above his head (whichever they are doing on screen for the dive), says "ready 1-2-3, ready go" with the divers jumps around on the floor during the dive, and then propels himself backwards into the sofa and says "splash" right at the time the divers enter the water!  Then he claps with the audience:-)

He also loves swimming and gymnastics.  In general, he just loves the "limpics".

Monday, July 9, 2012

Family, Relatives, and My Baby...

We are taking a bunch of vacations this summer, venturing out of our cocoon and spending wonderful times with friends and family.  Slightly confusing for B as "extended family" is a tough concept for a 3.5 year old and B was getting a little stressed...but we found a solution this weekend end that works for us right now.

1."Family" is Mommy, Daddy, and B
2. "Relatives" are grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.
3. "Friends" are other people who are close to us

There are a few childhood friends that kind of fall between friends and relatives, but for the most part these categories are pretty cut and dry.  B totally gets this and thinks it is super fun to say "Baby V is my cousin, she's a rel-a-tive", etc. I could see it click in his mind and am so glad that he's starting to understand this!

B's new favorite game (right up there with "mommy and daddy will be stayin' right there") is for us to say:

"Is Baby V my son?"
         "No"
"Is Finny my son?"
          "No"
"Is Graham my son?"
          "No"
(and so on and so forth using any child we have ever met)

His grin gets bigger and bigger and his giggles higher and higher pitched until the whole thing culminates in:
"Is B my son?" and he throws himself onto the ground and then into my arms, laughing hysterically but very relaxed and with a huge grin and sparking eyes.

Yay!

Later this week I'll start uploading some really cute vacation pics.  The past week was B's first time swimming (in 2 pools and a big lake).  He LOVES it! Throw in some watermelon, hot dogs, homemade frozen yogurt, corn on the cob, fresh blueberries (all of which we've had in the last week), and an upcoming trip to the beach and a fair, and that's the pretty awesome all-american summer we have planned.  I keep thinking: "wow, it feels like such a long time since it's been summer", and "I don't remember when the last time I wore this [article of summer clothing] was" and then I remembered...right, I spent ALL of last summer in Ethiopia:-)