Fair and Equal

Yesterday we went to Target and Erik was a good listener so at the checkout, I bought a little $1 box of 6 choc chip cookies. I told him I would have 2, he could have 2 and Adin could have 2. When we got in the car and I gave him his 2, he told me, "Next time we have a treat with six treats, I have all of them because I like sweet things." I told him I like sweet things, too, so maybe I should have all six. No, he said. "I'll have three and you can have two." I suggested I could have three, he could have two and Adin could have one. "No, we can all have two." pause "but I want the most."

I just brought a bag of garbage out to the curb. When I came back in, Adin was in the kitchen, with the Better Homes and Gardens cook book open to a picture of three different types of cookies, saying, "Mmm. Mmmm. Mmm."

vocabulary burst

About a month ago a friend posted on his blog that his 15 month old daughter had some unusual vocabulary words. I thought to myself, "Wow, Adin is 14 months and he's barely saying anything yet." Not that it's a problem but just being aware of how much Erik said at 15 months.

Well, what a difference a month makes! Last Thursday I jotted down all the words, signs and gestures that Adin is doing right now.

duck
night night (waves)
banana
more (says occasionally)
hi
no (shakes his finger back and forth)
outside (says 'side')
milk (signs)
mama
Erik
Adin
Papa (or bapa or dada)

things he's said or signed once
cracker
shoe
go
help
yeah

Pretty impressive! He's so amazing how much he understands. I feel like I can give him any instruction in our daily routine and he understands. Get your shoes, change your diaper, go downstairs, give me a kiss,... It's not always perfect of course. Today I told him we were going downstairs and he went straight to the door to the upstairs. But still quite genius-y, don't you think?

Bon Mots

I have been writing down funny or agrammatical things Erik has said. But I write on whatever paper I can find, rather than in a book, so I don't have them all together.

Tonight I went to garden and lost track of time. I got back just after bedtime. While I was washing my hands, Erik came into the bathroom. He said, "I heard the door and I said to myself, 'hmm, Is that Papa or Anne?' " Very cute inflection on the "hmm", too. He does usually call us Mama and Papa, but will sometimes use our names if he hears others do it.

He was asking me if I heard a sound. I said, "I heard it earlier but I don't hear it this exact minute." He said, "You hear it later?" Neat how he processed that.

If I find my other scraps I'll post them, too. Joe is going to put our pix from our trip to the Landscape Arboretum online. Start preparing yourself for the cuteness now!

Good teeth

Erik had his first real visit to the dentist today. He went in January, just to sit in the chair and meet the dentist. He was a little nervous, but I told him she would count his teeth and tickle them with some tools. He brought along a stuffed bear so she could show him on Mr. Beeps before doing anything to him.

They are working on the road we take to get to the dentist so instead of taking 3 minutes it took about 20. We just crept along. I think that made it harder for Erik, he just sat there thinking about how scared he was.

We got there about 3 minutes late, so they were ready for us. Margo, his dental hygienist, came out and talked to Erik and she was obviously fantastic with kids. She showed Erik the chair and the booster that Mr. Beeps would have to sit on, and Erik could sit there too. Once I saw he was ok, I had to go around to the other side of the partition for my own cleaning, which was hard. But I could hear him chatting with Margo and he could see my feet.

She told him about the magic chair and had him say "abracadabra" to make it go up and down. He got a big kick out of that. Then she put a "napkin" around Mr. Beeps' neck and one around Erik's. She put sunglasses on Mr. Beeps and took a picture of them together in the chair. It's so cute! Margo had Erik say "Magic Chair ride" or something to make it tilt back. When he got a little freaked out she tilted it back up til he was comfortable.

He let her count his teeth and polish them with tutti fruity stuff. I guess there were monkeys on the head of the cleaning tool and Margo told him they would spin around so they could get some exercise. He thought that was hilarious. They didn't take x-rays or give him a fluoride treatment, because he's so young.

Margo gave him a little prize, a notebook. Then the dentist checked him out and gave him a big prize, a plastic guitar! He was thrilled and so am I.

Erik in a talent show

We just returned from a week at Camp Arcadia in Northwest Michigan (the LP). I will have some fun stories to put on here, but in the meantime, here's a video of Erik with his little class performing in the talent show.

The class was called the Ark and Erik loved it because he loved Miss Janice, the teacher. They did coloring sheets, heard Bible stories, sang songs, made bead necklaces, and went on field trips. They went to the Craft Shop to fingerpaint, went to the kitchen to have cookies and went for a hike in the woods looking for animals. Imagine Erik's delight when they found Jodie, the Puppy Girl. Miss Janice showed the kids how to put a treat in their open palm and Jodie would lick it right out of the kids' hands. Afterward, Erik got to hold Jodie's leash and walk her around camp, although, I think Jodie was leading Erik more than Erik was leading her.

While Erik was in the Ark, Adin was in the nursery. Adin did great, he was calm and happy and I was never paged to come get him.