Growing, talking, climbing

Imagine that, I'm the mother of a toddler and I haven't been blogging lately!

Mowgli occasionally makes a soft popping sound of displaced air and then doesn't fit into the legs of his trousers the same way. If I'm measuring right, he's back up to the 90th percentile after a bit of a lag. This despite the fact that he's still largely a fruitarian--we have reached the compromise position that pizza and noodles are also acceptable, and he'll go for yogurt or eggs now and again as well.

Or, as he would like to add at this point, "donut!" It's his best word. I try not to give in to this request too terribly often, but it's hard to deny a young beanpole the odd bit of junk food.

He has the habit of repeating a new word with a question mark, then solidly with an acceptance: "Ambulance," I say, and he echoes, "Am=lan? Ooooh, am-lan!" as though he should have known it all along but just couldn't recall. It's cute. It was particularly cute when we said we had to buy his new Percy toy, not just run out of the store with it, and he said, "Oh, buy!" and ran to the counter. Since there were already people at the counter (they were already grinning at this, too), we said, "No, we have to wait our turn." "Oh, tun!" he said, and grabbed his new toy off the counter to scoot back to his parents. We laughed. Total strangers laughed. And we told him he was doing very well. For his age he's really pretty patient. Of course, that makes it all the more astonishing when he actually acts two and isn't patient at all.

He also loves to go to the local bounce palace, Leapin' Lizards. He'll bounce for three hours solid, right through nap time, given the choice. He also likes to balance on the log in our yard, run races, chase the dogs and cat, and play the up-down game, the last of which is developing great little child abdominal muscles. Mama should be slimmer from chasing after him.

We're managing. He's Thomas-obsessed and Cars-fond, he's addicted to his bedtime books ("More! Read!"), and he's pretty good about washing his hands. In other words, for a twenty-seven month old boy, he's perfectly normal perhaps with a drift toward the well-behaved side. I remind myself of this when he drops food on the floor and then screeches at whistle-style pitches and volumes when a dog eats the droppage.

Exploring the World

Brightly colored toys are all the rage now. We've started on pop beads as a good outlet for Mowgli's desire to pull things apart and feel mighty. This desire has been very hard on his books! Also, ours. We're reading to him a little less now, but I'm trying to make up for it with lots of real-life experiences like textured quilts to crawl on and mango baby food to sample.

Mango was okay. It was worth two wrinkled-forehead moments, but vanished all the same. However, Mowgli prefers his father's Elder Scrolls official game guide. Nummers!

Happy birthday, Grandpa!

Baby Books Leave Stuff Out

The book says Mowgli is the right age to discover his feet. He is indeed doing new things with them, though he's been kicking his bath toys with great accuracy for a couple of months. Now he also grasps the bath scoop between his feet to raise it to his hands, then pours the water inside into his mouth. Yay, baby! Luckily the soap is entirely edible, or so claims the bottle. He seems to like the taste of highly dilute Over-Tired and Cranky formula.

He has also learned to seize his incoming fresh diaper monkeylike with his toes. Then he gives a mighty heave and attempts to fling it across the room. I have learned to swiftly anchor it beneath his butt before he's managed the grab. He's heavy enough to make a good paperweight against his own strength.

Nobody warned me that either of these behaviors were on the list of possibilities. The baby books just have charming pictures of babies grasping their feet or perhaps stuffing those tasty little toes into their mouths. Mowgli appears to feel that these babies lack imagination.