D is for drum!

Well, that was disappointing. I spent way too much time combining five pictures of Dalton drumming on a box into an animated gif; only to have blogger change the format or some such and it won't display. Sigh!

Fortunately, living with a toddler has given me a whole new perspective on time needing to be productive.

I don't quite have Cathy's level of obsessive "keep at some technical problem until it works". However, 2 hours later, I did manage a work around with the movie below. It's not the looped like I really wanted, but it will have to do.




Dalton was in a drumming mood this morning. This was during the good hour and a half of "Dad and Dalton" time after we woke up. Cathy snuck out at 7 am for some uninterrupted time at the fabric store. She was there yesterday in the heat of Black Friday madness. In addition to the long lines and the whining to go home, I'm told the following conversation also occurred.

Dalton: "This yellow fabric would be good for a lion costume!"
Cathy: "It's after Halloween. We're not making a lion costume."
Dalton: "I know that."

(some time passes)

Dalton: "These black buttons would make great eyes for a lion costume!"
Cathy: "You were a penguin for Halloween. We're not making a lion costume."
Dalton: "I know that."

(some more time passes)

Dalton: "Let's pick out a pattern for a lion costume."
Cathy: "We're not making a lion costume."
Dalton: "I know that."

I can't imagine why she felt the need to slip out early this morning. I think she said something about Cricut cartridges.

Dalton woke up pretty much right after Cathy left and yelled for mommy. There was a couple of weeks a year or so ago where he would yell for mommy and daddy, but even then he meant mommy.

He was less than pleased to find that mommy was out and wasn't going to be back for a while. His response was to kick me out of bed and wail for 20 minutes straight. It was actually convincing at the beginning, but evolved its way to forced. We keep telling him he needs acting lessons, but he hasn't caught on yet.

Wow! I don't sound like a very sympathetic parent here. I assure you that I have seen them played by actors on TV.

I did feel bad for him, but I also think waking up without mommy being there is a skill he needs to start working on. Next time, we will let him know it will happen the night before.

He cheered up and we had some fun play for about an hour and a half until he hit his head on the wall 5 minutes before Cathy got home.

Our housekeeper came over and vacuumed, dusted, and scrubbed today. She normally shows up on Thursday, but Cathy pushed her visit back due to Thanksgiving. We cleared out for most of the 3+ hours she was here. Our late morning adventures involved the Mall, Michaels, and Target.

While we were at the Mall, I noticed that Dalton can do algebra. He normally rides the cars and a carousel. The cars cost two quarters and the carousel costs one. Today he asked how many quarters we had. After learning we had four, he stated "I can ride the horse (carousel) two times and the car one time." I was pretty impressed.

Another thing that has been going on is that he is in "a sensitive period for language". That's fancy Montessori speak for he's interested in words right now. He now has about 15 words he can read and spell. It seems that he's picking up an extra word or two every day. Here's my recollection of the current list.

Dalton
Mom
Dad
Fox
Egg
Did
Go
Stop
Dog
Mall
Pool
Papa*
No

Hmmm, I think there are more. Cathy would be able to give a better account, but she's currently trying to get him to sleep.

You might have noticed that we have been teaching him words we normally spell out in front of him. While it is a sacrifice to parental sanity, reseach shows that people learn best when things are most relevant. Besides, I can always talk about the grand excavation that has been sealed and filled with a dilute aqueous solution of sodium hypochlorite.

*Papa will note that he's the first grandparent to make the list. He, of course, has a level of difficulty advantage over Grandma and Grandpa. However, it would be reasonable to gloat around Bana.

Halloween

So I'm a big slacker for not getting this up earlier. Cathy asked Dalton what he wanted to be for Halloween and he said "a penguin". We couldn't find any penguin costumes for sale so Cathy proved her awesomomness by sewing this for him. He was quite the hit at the mall getting many ooohs and aaahs.

We managed to dodge the bullet on the candy handout again this year. He was watching the other kids line up to have things put in bags while we were there, but he didn't ask about it. I would expect that this was our last candy free year.

Cathy was critical of her work in that she thought she made the costume too large. I think it looks great. If it is too big, maybe he'll want to be a penguin next year.

We're back!

We had a good time visiting Cathy's parents in Florida this week. Cathy's Dad picked up on part of our reason for going right away. FREE DALTY SITTING! For some reason, our immediate logging on to the computer or reading books as soon as we arrived (while letting Dalty run amok) was a tip off. Go figure.

I goofed around too much on the computer, Cathy got some good grading in, and Dalty had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa.

Cathy also got to visit her friend Ligia and her one week old daughter Isabel.

We also established that Dalty is still not ready for all day car rides. We spent two days getting down to Florida and two days coming back. I'm going to have to think about whether we drive or fly next time. That TY got to join us made it worthwhile for this trip. I don't know if I'll feel the same way next time.

The most we drove in one day was about 6.5 hours. That's 6.5 hours of driving. We paid for it with perhaps 50% of that time again on various stops. Dalton has figured out that all he has to do is say "I have to go potty" and he gets a stop. We haven't dared try pushing that one as cleaning the car seat is a Herculean task.

Jack-O-Lantern

We went to the Pumpkin Festival last weekend and picked out a couple of nice ones. When we got home, Dalton and I immediately carved this one and he and Cathy baked the seeds. Dalton was reluctant to pull the guts out because they were "icky". This from the kid who is often coated in a layer of mud when picked up from school. Go figure.

Probably 20 seconds after we finished this one, Dalton started asking to carve the other pumpkin. Cathy and I have been able to hold him at bay so far as we'd like to not have two pumpkins rotting in the house at the same time. We're driving down to Grandma and Grandpa's house this next week so the pictured Jack-O-Lantern is going to need to go in the trash soon (or come with us God forbid).

I've been appeasing Dalton by telling him that Grandma and Grandpa would love to carve a pumpkin with him each day while we visit. I'd love to help, but I'll be grading :)

Hide and Seek

Dalton and I played a little bit of "Hide and Seek" yesterday. It started with one of our more familair games. I guess I'd call it "Dad wins tug-o-war and runs around yelling woo woo." This one works pretty much like the title. Dalton and I play tug-o-war with a birth card of his that has a ribbon attached (you will have to ask him why). He lets me win and then I run around the upstairs with it yelling "Woo! Woo!" while he chases me giggling. Yesterday I decided to get out of eyeshot and hide somewhere. He would come into the room looking for me calling "Daddy! Where are you?" I'd wait until he left the room and then yell "Woo! Woo!" until he came back and eventually found me.

At one point, Dalton decided that he was going to hide. He told me to wait until he was hidden and then count to three. Dalton then went off to hide in Gram's room (the guest bedroom). Cathy was up and following him around to make sure he didn't go anywhere off limits like the bathroom closet. After counting to three, I headed out in the hall towards Gram's room. Cathy was there and said, "Maybe you should try the bedroom (master bedroom)." I assume that she was trying to draw things out for extra suspense. At that point a little voice chirps in from the guest bedroom "Gram's room!" I started laughing and wandered in. Dalton was not in sight so I exclaimed, "Where's Dalton?" My reply came from behind the bed, "Behind the bed!" He's clearly got the counting and hiding part of the game down, but I'm not sure he understands what it is all about.

Today's picture really has nothing to do with "Hide and Seek". I wanted to get a picture of the actual game or of tug-o-war yesterday, but he was having none of it. This is him after his first bath of the day. Surprisingly, I got him to willingly let me wash his hair (on the 2nd bath). I can't remember how I did it. I really need to write things like that down.

Some people watch TV instead...

And of course, you should see the floor.

In goes the dump truck

It's an iconic scene. A parent desperately trying to get an infant or toddler to eat something plays "in goes the ___". We haven't tried this much with Dalty although I can't say what goes on at school. Apparently he feels deprived as last night he started playing it by himself. "Dump truck, dump truck, in my mouth" This is sung to some tune that I can't exactly place.

Note the infant chair (with tray) that he's been insisting on sitting in for the last week despite having unfettered access to adult chairs.