learning names and plurals

mosey, if you are reading this someday, know that i am so proud of you, and i'm impressed by you every day.

these past few weeks, i've been noticing how he learns people's names. i can see how he's been practicing his skill, because:

• we taught him to call my dad "harabuhjee" but he calls him "ah-bbah" pretty regularly because that's what i call him
• we taught him to call shane's sister "aunt ree ree" but he calls her "keri," well, because that's her name
• he calls shane and ed by name when he's telling us something like, "there's ed," but when he talks to them, he addresses them as daddy and grandpa
• i think i mentioned that he calls me "honey" and "sweetheart" from time to time (copying daddy), but he called me "helen" for the first time ever the other day, and it was so cute. 
• people generally don't call nana any other name but nana or mom, so i imagine he might not learn "linda" as one of her names. 

pluralization. most of the time, he does it right, but you know, there are some hard ones like ocean (which is so big that it seems like we really should be saying, "look at the oceans") and fish (especially when there are such enormous tanks full of them at the aquarium). oh, and corns. :)

lovelove,
mummy

went back to work yesterday

i went into the office for the first time yesterday since two weeks ago (i've been working at home). when i got home, the first thing Mosey said to me was, "i'm happy to see you!"

best thing, ever.

lovelove,
me

the throw up... oh, the throw up

i have a lot to catch up on since i last wrote. basically, we've been on a 15 hour drive to maryland, a 7 day cruise to the bahamas, and a 15 hour drive back to the big ATL. a whirlwind that has involved 3 enormous suitcases, 6 loads of laundry, and a lot of fun memories.

one memory that was not-so-nice, however, occurred yesterday morning a few hours into our drive back home. we had gotten up quite early and, to my great surprise, were able to get on the road by 6:20 am. we stopped for chik-fil-a, filled out bellies with yummy food, and got right back into our car. well, before too long, mosey was sort of whiny, and shane went back to check on him and that's when it happened.

the throw up.

chicken, fruit, hashbrowns, and apple juice. everywhere. on mosey's clothes, in his car seat, everywhere. it was so much throw up that we had to strip him completely naked (even his diaper was wet) and start from scratch. his car seat had little bits in every crevice of every buckle and strap.

the first thing he said was, "i make a mess." his little tear-filled eyes looking so sad.

it took us about 30 minutes of team work, using water bottles to rinse out the car seat, extra towels, diaper wipes, and clothes to get clean, but we made it. and just about 13 hours later, my hero husband took the carseat to the car wash and pressure washed that thing spic and span. and the vague aroma of throw up is finally gone! :)

lovelove,
me

how our baby sleeps at daycare

how did we get so lucky?

shane invited mosey to go outside with him to walk our dog, and he got pretty excited about the idea. while shane went to get something from our room, he told mosey to go and get his shoes on. mosey started toward his shoes, but once he was nearly there, he turned right around and went back to where he was playing, saying to himself, "first, clean up!"

he dutifully put all his toys back in his toy box and was ready to go and put his shoes on. :O)

also, later on, he was playing with some toys and accidentally stepped on his pig toy, and he said, "oh, sorry, pig."

how did we get so lucky? i just can't believe it.

lovelove,
me

heartless

there certainly is a part of my heart that has become more tender since having mosey in my life. there is also, however, a part of my heart that has become very hard...

this morning, as we were about to leave the house, i foolishly asked mosey, "do you want to wear your white shoes, or your black shoes?"

he chose the black ones, and i put the white ones down, and he screamed, "whiiiiiiiite shoooooooes, moooommy!!!!"

so i said, "you want to wear the white shoes?"

and he said, "yes, mommy."

so i put the black shoes down, and he screamed, "blaaaaaack shooooooooes, moooommmy!!!"

this went on a few times too long, as i was mistakenly thinking he would actually settle on a pair. i decided we would go with white shoes, and he started bawling his little eyes out. i stood up to pour my coffee in my to-go mug while he stood with his arms in the air, clearly in real anguish about the shoe situation, "mooooooooommmmmyyyyyyyyyy!!! uuuuuupppppp, mommmmmmyyyyyyyy!!!"

i said, "you stop crying, and i'll pick you up, buddy." i packed up the rest of my things, put on my shoes, and put on my jacket while he continued crying, and i continued telling him, "stop crying, buddy, and i'll pick you up."

heartless... but not really in a bad way, i think.

thankfully, just around that time, we heard a siren and he perked up, "fire truck, mommy! do you hear it?"

i picked up the child and made it to the van without too much more drama.

lovelove,
mommmmmmyyyyyyyy

he told me about his day

during dinner tonight, mosey (for the first time in his life) told me about his day. perhaps he's told me before and i've not understood. in fact, that's probably very possible. but anyway, tonight, he told me:

• moses take a nap, mommy.
• connor running.
• simone in blue chair, be nice! and the...
• i played trucks, mommy

connor and simone are classmates, and i'm fairly sure the simone thing must have been a little spat they must have had. wow, this child was really telling me about his day! it was sweet and lovely.

also, yesterday, we were driving home, and i had a window down. we smelled a fire, and he said, "smell candle, mommy!" candle is what he calls all fire (candles, fire places, matches). "fire" is one of those interesting words that mosey can't seem to learn, even though he definitely knows how to say "fire truck" (one of his current obsessions). a bit later, he stuck his little face in our christmas tree and said, "smell christmas tree, mommy!" love that kid.

lovelove, 

me

he remembers

i think that because mo's still a toddler and because so much of what he says is still hard to understand, i sometimes forget that he's a little real person. one of the ways it comes out is that he remembers things and asks for them. the other day, i told him we were going to dry him off with his lion towel, and he said to me, "where's the octopus, mommy?" he has a towel with an octopus on it, but we hadn't used it (probably for a few weeks!) because we'd been in heavy rotation with the lion towel. i guess he wanted to have the octopus back. i was so impressed that he remembered that we had that towel, with nothing (to my knowledge) that made him think of it. 

the other thing that he remembers is that we had two matchbox cars that we kept in the car, a yellow one and a blue one. well, because they're so small, we actually (probably) lost the blue one... i think like a month and a half ago. but he faithfully asks me, every time i put the yellow car in his hand, "where's the blue car, mommy?" he remembers.

he also is rather quick to learn people's names. two teachers have remarked to me that they didn't know Mo knew their name (or even how he learned it because they didn't teach him their name), but he just started using it one day. one of the ladies isn't even a teacher in his class... in fact, even i don't know her name. wait. moses knows something i don't know! mind. blown.

lovelove,

me