Fun times abound around here with a toddler just bursting with language development and a baby trying desperately to increase his mobility along with their two schoolgirl sisters.
Mighty Mouse is speaking in short sentences and two word phrases these days. He says things like "garbage can", "Mommy bed", "Daddy bed", "Baby fweeping (sleeping)", "sooting, dead deer (shooting dead deer)",
Mighty came up with a game that he plays with any of us who he can catch at the moment. It is called "Ice Cream". I'm wondering if Grandpa Bob had anything to do with this. We are supposed to knock on his door (or dresser or wall - anything wooden) and ask for ice cream. He then says, "Yeah!" and runs over to his ice cream store (behind his chair in his bedroom). Then we ask "What flavors do you have?", and he answers with "Yellow!" or "Green!" or "Hot!" or "Fork!". I suppose yellow and green are obvious, though I'm not sure what they taste like (lemon and pistachio?), but the 'hot' ice cream I have yet to figure out. "Fork" means that I'm not supposed to lick it like a cone but instead eat it with a spoon. We do this over and over and over.
Mighty has another game. He takes the longest Lincoln Log he can find at the moment and announces, "Sooting!". Then he goes to find either his giant giraffe/goat (it depends on the moment what the kids decide it is) or one of his brother's little duckie stuffed animals. He lines himself up with the animal of choice, points his "weapon", and says, "pht!". Then he stops for a moment, runs up to the animal, checks it, and announces, "Got it!". He's started dragging Gertie the Giraffe Goat away....he says she's "sweeping" (sleeping). So I know he doesn't completely understand the hunting idea yet, but it certainly is hilarious to watch him play it. He did see Mike's deer in the shed this year. Hanging. He hugged it and said, "oooooooh". Oh dear. Yeah, he hugged it repeatedly. And then I washed his sweatshirt. It is so easy to love this little, tiny man.
Did I say "little, tiny"? Hm. We've started calling Mighty Mouse "Thor Boy". Tonight he was in his room while I fed Manly Mouse in the rocking chair in there. Thor Boy stood on his bed (his mattress is on the floor) and then fell down on his face in a plank position. He did this repeatedly, giggling everytime his head would hit his pillow. A few times he'd get too close to the wall at the head of his bed, so I'd tell him to move back. Soon that became part of the game with him purposely standing too close to the wall and laughing as I said, "Noooo, move back!".
Sunny won the number game today (pick a number between one and ten, closest to the one I chose gets her wish), so she got to make a receiving blanket with me tonight. The girls were both so very excited. We bought flannel fabric on Sunday; I try to refrain from shopping for anything other than groceries on Sunday just because I don't like it to become just another day where we run around all crazy-like, but this time I made an exception. So we bought the fabric, and the Laughing Lumberjack who appears every morning in December now (think Elf on the Shelf, but with a Toomey twist) announced this morning that the sewing would begin tonight. We are making blankets for newborn kits that the church is packing up for mamas throughout the world who have nothing. Literally nothing. Not nothing the way we over here have nothing. But honestly, truly, having their baby on a dirt floor with no blanket to wrap him or her in - that kind of nothing. The girls are horrified that babies face those circumstances (we should all be), so they were ridiculously, amazingly, over-the-moon excited about sewing these blankets with me. Sunny's turned out quite nicely; not perfect, but it's soft and sturdy, and some baby will feel loved wrapped in it. Miss Mouse will hopefully get to do hers tomorrow, and then I have one to "whip up" (we hope) myself....my sewing skills and the words "whip up" don't necessarily always go together. But it was fun tonight sharing my semi-skill with my daughters and knowing we are doing something loving for a mama and baby who might not feel much love or softness in their lives.
Manly Mouse is desperately trying to get more mobile than he is. He's quite good for 7.5 months - he can sit sturdily, although he does do a face plant if he gets too distracted and his head overbalances his body; he can flop to his belly purposely to get closer to a toy or object of desire, and then he can sit himself back up from his belly. This works best in one of the carpeted areas of the house; I'm sure if he could he would tell us we could have waited on our kitchen project a bit and left him some nasty carpet for traction. I think he'll forgive us.
Manly has outgrown his little teething bracelet. I didn't know children did that. I definitely didn't know they did that at 7.5 months. My chicken-legged little boy has become a "Thor Baby" reminiscent of his big brother. He's going through a very mommy-oriented time, which can be tiring on the one hand, but I will eat up every moment of it. Soon he'll be running off to explore, and these days of sobbing, sad baby comforted simply by my picking him up will be memories. And my arms will be weak and flabby then (tongue in cheek there....).
Anyway, we've almost finished our first semester, and those are just a few of the activities that have been going on at our house-o-fun. We're so enjoying our new kitchen/living area; there just aren't words to describe how functional it is now. We're enjoying each other's company even on these long, dark winter days.
