Letters and Numbers

Howdy pardners!  I'm fixin' to go to bed!  That means it's time to find a stall tactic.  Lately, I've been wearing my cowboy boots and running up and down the hallway.  Yippy-ki-yay!

Of all the embarrassing photos that I'll be pulling out to show his girlfriends in 20 years, these two may be very near the top of the stack:

His vocabulary continues to expand every day.  There are too many words to try to make a list.  He pronounces many correctly, but some are at least slightly askew.  Here are some of the more notable mispronunciations:

"googles" --> noodles

"ogez" --> oranges

"stawbabies" --> strawberries

"m nem" --> M&Ms

"heptopter" --> helicopter

"umbugga" --> umbrella

"bdue" --> blue

"ba bette" --> belly button

"waf waf" --> washcloth

"pitano" --> piano

"wuwiwa" --> gorilla

"wuband" --> rubber band

"rhinoceros" --> "ahris"

[the Blogger spellchecker just went ape shit]

And of course "Gimma and Kempa" are Grandma and Grandpa. Almost any 3-syllable word is comically scrambled.

He has some amusing sayings as well.  Occasionally he'll say "thank you" and "you're welcome" at the same time, except it comes out "Tank you, Rocco".  For a while we thought that he thought my name was Rocco.  

"Ladies" are any group of persons (including ladies, men, children) that are seen at a distance. 

When he first sees something, it's "right there."  For example, "Daddy's truck right there!" or "Ladies umbugga right there!"

When we are outside, he jubilantly announces "Run!" just prior to "running" (i.e. slowly and clumsily toddling in a serpentine fashion across the yard, limbs akimbo, followed by stumbling and falling down).

Several times a day he wants to "Watch a movie,"  and he particularly want to "watch a movie: shapes," "watch a movie: music," and "watch a movie: Nemo."

He's also making progress with his numbers.  He can identify 1-9 easily, and he's been working on 11-19.  He identifies 14-19 pretty well, but he insists that "12" is two-teen and "13" is three teen.  And really, when you think about it it's hard to argue with the logic.  That would make a lot more sense, wouldn't it?

Why is Daddy Eating All Of My Candy?

It's Valentine's Day!  All of the kids exchanged valentines (i.e. all of the parents exchanged valentines with their kids' names on them).  The names below have been changed to protect the innocent (and me from libel lawsuits).

Here's one from "Kelly" ('s Mom).  Roh Roh!  Is Scooby Doo even on TV anymore?  Somebody needs to tell these people that the 70's are over.

Here's another Scooby Doo valentine (apparently the rights to Scooby's name and image can be got for cheap these days) from Benjamin's teacher Ms. Naya.  She apparently may have told every student that they are her "best friend."  This is setting the kids up for some hard feelings down the road.

This next one is from "Noah".  Yeah, go have a wild Valentine's day!  Set Daddy's truck tires on fire and drive off down the road!  That's a great message for a toddler.  Why not just grab Daddy's shotgun and head to the liquor store for a quick robbery while you're at it?

This next one is from "Kristina."  Believe in your dreams, Benjamin!  Unless your dreams are to dress like a fairy princess when you grow up.  ("Kristina", by the way, is one of the biters in Benjamin's class.  How about if Benjamin's dream is to not come home with bite marks on his leg?  There's a dream to believe in!)

This next one is from "Loralyn."  Peace out, hippy.  "Loralyn" is Benjamin's arch-nemesis, so the whole "Love and Peace" theme of this valentine is just a charade to try to get him to let his guard down.  She's not a biter, but she is a vacant-eyed snot fountain that constantly pushes the other kids and steals their toys and is a perpetual distraction for the teachers.  She opens the refrigerator.  She almost pulled the fire alarm one day.  I'm no pediatrician, but this kid definitely aint right.  "Loralyn" is a short decade away from doing serious time in juvenile detention.

This next one is from "Gabriel."  At least the loveable character on this valentine is from the current decade.  Too bad the greeting makes absolutely no damn sense.

This last one is from "Peyton."  You're awesome valentine!  And what's more awesome than a pig in a life-jacket slowly sliding across an ice-covered lake on a surfboard?

"Peyton" is Benjamin's girlfriend.  They have been buddies since they were in the Infant Room, and they still hang out together a lot.  "Peyton" is always glad to see Benjamin and gives him hugs.  If we lived in India they'd already be married.

The daycare had a Valentine's Day party today.  I got to come and see the children experience their first really big sugar high.  Somebody brought small cupcakes with pink frosting.  That frosting was everywhere.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, and my cell phone camera is horrible.  I think it has like 20 pixels.  Anyway, here is the only documentation of the event.  One of the pinkish blobs covered in icing is Benjamin.

The sugar was already rushing to his tiny brain at this point.  He looks like a junkie getting his metamphetamine fix.  At some point, he may have taken a bite out of the spoon. 

Yes the Birds Are Interesting, but Look at this Stick!

Claire's friend Lindsay came to visit last weekend.  She likes birds, so we took her to the Carolina Raptor Center.  They have a large collection of owls and eagles and hawks and other big birds from all over the world on display.  They had all been injured by various human activities and couldn't be returned to the wild.  So I didn't get that sick guilty feeling that I normally get at zoos (i.e. "Thanks for giving up your freedom in the wilderness so I can stare at you and make noises that vaguely resemble your vocalizations.").

Benjamin had trouble seeing the birds that were in chain link cages, and focused as always on the artifacts in his immediate vicinity, like gravel, sticks, and cigarette butts.  There were some nice "hands on" items (like the plastic eagle egg, below) and they had a table set up with a morbid assortment of amputated bird wings for kids to touch.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The sanctuary staff were giving a talk about vultures as we walked past the vulture cage. They said that vultures were smarter than a 2 or 3 year old child. A few minutes earlier, Benjamin had accidentally somersaulted over a wood fence rail, tiny feet flailing in the air. He was ok, but we had to agree about the comparative intelligence of the vultures.