Moving

Linus and I continue to make two trips per day to the new house.  His new role is to play doorman.  As I go out to the car, he closes the door most of the way. When I return with a box he pulls it open and I enthusiastically say, "Thank you so much doorman. What a great doorman you  are!"  This keeps him entertained and from running free up the block looking for the orange and white neighborhood cat that he wants to befriend.

I painted Linus' room a bright blue. I'm very happy with the color, but Matthew doesn't seem to be sold on it. I painted his bookcases a darker blue, but I don't like how they turned out. The intensity of both the walls and the shelves together hurts my eyes. I'm now going to paint the shelves a light green and hope to create a nice reading nook for him in his room.  I obtained the book cases in 1989 by rescuing them from a dumpster outside my apartment building.  They were my first bookcases and, even though there is a chunk of wood missing from the top front of one of them from one of my drunk college friends trying to open a beer bottle on it (yes, I attended school in Wisconsin!), I've kept them all this time.  Now they get repurposed for Linus.

Linus likes the new house and enjoys jumping in piles of packing paper.  He also likes looking at books that were in storage because when we moved here a year ago he wasn't ready for them.  Now he is and so he got an entire box of new books.  

Longest Sentence

Last night during bedtime stories Linus said his longest sentence to date: "That's a horse sleeping."  I did a happy dance on the inside. I really do enjoy witnessing his language development.

He was a good sport about moving yesterday, but today he wasn't very happy about it.  He brought some more toys to the new house, but then didn't want to play with them.  So after I unloaded a car full of very heavy boxes (we have too many books!), we ran an errand and then hung out together at the old place.

While running the errand I witnessed a hit and run accident and it certainly was a stressful experience.  Colfax Avenue has four lanes, plus turning lanes going in each direction.  A sports car sped out of a side street right into an oncoming SUV.  Between the force of the impact and the SUV driver's defensive driving, he was heading in our direction.  I immediately pulled over into the street parking to get as far over as I could.  Then I witnessed the sports car back up, turn into traffic, and speed away.  The SUV was in a turn lane going in the wrong direction. I called over traffic to ask if they were all okay. They were and called the police. Another car pulled up behind me and we both stuck around to serve as witnesses.  While waiting for the police I almost broke down crying to relieve the stress of thinking that the vehicles were going to crash into us. More importantly, crash into Linus. I held it together and then it turns out none of us were good witnesses because we couldn't describe the driver at all.  Linus liked that the officer peeked his head into the car and said hi to him.

Here is a picture of Linus walking around the new house with my shoes on.  He likes walking around with Matthew's sandals on.  He has also started trying to put his own socks on.

Mowing

Linus has picked up the mowing bug from Bennett.  I bought him a mower last summer when he was interested in trying out Bennett's mower, but he wouldn't share with Linus.  Linus hardly played with it.  On nice days recently we encountered all three of Bennett's mowers in his front yard. (He is obsessed with mowing and somehow ended up with three of them. I forget why.  Dawn ends up mowing neighbors' lawns because Bennett likes to mow alongside her.) So on our walk up the block from Lucero's house, Linus ran up the lawn and grabbed one of the mowers and began mowing. Then Charlotte got home from day care and she joined in.  They were adorable mowing together.

Yesterday I brought the mower to the new house and Linus mows in the back yard while I haul boxes in and unpack.  I'm really glad to have a safe back yard for Linus.

About the walk home from Lucero's house; sometimes it can take 45 minutes to get in our door.  Linus insists on going down her slide a number of times before I can cajole him into heading home so I can make dinner.  Two houses later he encounters Bennett's mowers and dump truck.  We stop so he can play.  Then, as I've nearly convinced Linus to head home, Charlotte comes out of the very next house and the two of them play.  There are only five houses between ours and Lucero's, but boy does it take a long time to get home.

Bird Songs

Linus is very interested in birds right now.  I checked out some birding books from the library. One of them is about 250 pages long and has a player. Linus likes to push to hear each bird's song and I tell him about the bird on each page.  In the picture he is showing the book to Matthew.  He has a number of nature books and when we read them he points to every bird and says, "That's a..." and expects me to know what every bird on Earth is.  He makes a good whippoorwill call with the right inflection.  I think I'll assign him to bird feeder duty at the new house. 

Today I met the neighbor on the south side of us. Her kids are one and three.  New friends for Linus!

Snow Angel

As I mentioned in the last post, Sunday was snowy.  Matthew took Linus out in the sled while I started dinner.  He pulled Linus over to the new house and back (about six blocks round trip). He helped Linus make his very first snow angel and snowman.  Here are the results. I leaned out the door to take pictures and when I got cold I gave the camera to Matthew.

I've only been able to take two car loads of stuff each day to the house because I play with Linus while we are working.  At this rate, we'll be completely moved by the end of the year!

New House

We closed on the house Friday afternoon and the owner got out by 6 p.m. yesterday. We went to dinner with Martha and Bill to celebrate and then went over the house to show them around and for us to explore all the nooks and crannies that are now ours. Linus gleefully ran from room to room, hiding in closets and calling out for us to find him. What will soon be my craft room has French doors and he likes to close the doors and peek at us by smooshing his face up against the glass.  I'm currently contemplating what color to paint his room.  Nursery Green?  Chesapeake?Douglas Fern? Once Upon A Time is a beautiful, rich green, but it is too dark for his room.  I'm also admiring Paddington Blue, but it is also too dark.  

Yesterday it was 74 degrees and today it is 30 degrees and snowing.  I've been told that these wide fluctuations are pretty normal for here.

Here we are at our back door.  It was too dark on the front porch to get a picture of us up front. The other picture is of Linus doing a happy dance. Or else he is just twirling around being an energetic toddler.

Story Time Promotion

I decided to move Linus up to the next level of story time at the library because he wasn't really getting anything out of Book Babies any more. We attended Tales for Two on Monday.  He had so much fun.  In between reading three books, the librarian led the group in doing the hokey pokey (Linus' first time), jingling bells to a song about bells, and several songs with movement involved. He stayed sitting by me while other kids sat up front together.  Before I know it, he'll prefer sitting with other kids over me.  When we got home, he pulled himself onto the couch to read the penguin book he checked out while I made lunch.  He also got a book about whales and one about puffins.  He now knows how baleen whales use their baleens to catch krill. I gloss over the page that addresses whale hunting.  I narrate that page by saying that the men are out in a boat to look at whales.  I'm not ready to introduce him to the practice of hunting.

To see a whole bunch of pictures depicting his visit to the library this day, visit the album.

Golden Moments

There are times each and every day when I'm dazzled by Linus' cuteness, intelligence, sweetness, or wit.  Some examples include:

* The bright, exuberant smile that bursts from his face when he first sees me each morning.  Wow! I get such a rush from it.

*Listening to his chatter when we are in separate rooms and he is talking to his toys or himself.  Charming.

*His sensitive soul is revealed by his constant awareness of togetherness.  When we eat an afternoon snack together across from one another at the table he says, "Eating snack. Together."  Or when we snuggle up next to each other under a quilt on the couch to read books he points out, "Reading together."  Togetherness with him is pure joy.

*The genuine appreciation he expresses when he effuses, "Thank you!" for some small thing I've done for him, like bring him a cup of water.

*The other day at the park he fell down and scraped his forehead on pavement. I scooped him up and attempted to soothe him with hugs and kisses. He kept crying and saying, "Hug.  Kiss." When I replied, "I am giving you hugs and kisses sweetheart," he said, "No, goose." He wanted one of the geese to comfort him!

Here he is having a blast at Barrett's birthday party. The kids were popping bubbles that the adults blew for them.

Toddler Crafting

Linus made a birthday card for his friend, Barrett. She turns two this Saturday.  I started by giving him a piece of paper folded in half. I showed him some pictures and he chose the ones he wanted me to cut out for him.  Then I showed him how to use a glue stick.  Ooooh, he loved this part! I quickly ran and grabbed his play dough place mat to work on so glue wouldn't get on the table.  After he stuck down a few pictures, I asked if he wanted to try cutting.  This was pretty interesting to watch. I sipped coffee and watched him make a go at it.  Then we held the scissors together to cut.  He glued pictures of flowers and butterflies on both the front and the back.  Then I instructed him to write or draw for her on the inside.  I told him he would give her the card and present (a book) at her party on Saturday. He said she would say thank you.  I don't know about that, but it is okay if she doesn't because Linus will probably say thank you for her.  I let him pick out the wrapping paper and I let him put some tape on the present, even though it didn't end up being anywhere that it was holding the paper closed.  He was very proud of it all. I asked him where we should put it to keep it safe until Saturday.  He ran and put it in his treasure box (the shoe box with stickers).

Back to the topic of thank you. A woman at the store yesterday commented on how polite Linus was.  Be still my mothering heart.

Outdoor Fun

We've had some nice weather and been able to play outside with our light-weight jackets on.  (Sorry Wisconsin folks who keep getting blasted by winter.)  Linus likes to play with this ear of Indian corn and pretend that he is a squirrel eating it.  As we walk up the block, he stops at Anna's and rides on her porch swing.  Then we tend to encounter Bennett mowing the lawn with his toy mower.  Linus is always excited to see Bennett, but Bennett doesn't play well with Linus. He tries to run him down with the mower.  Then we head over to Lucero's yard and Linus plays on her Little Tykes playset out front. If they are home, Anna Louiza and Lucero come out. The kids play and Anna Louiza and I talk about craft projects, thrift store finds, books, the kids, etc. Sometimes we sip wine -- if it has been a hard day and it is getting close to 5.  

Reptile and Human Friends

We took Linus to a reptile program at the library yesterday.  He was very excited about getting to pet a gecko. We also pet a large snake. He wanted to pet the tarantula and didn't understand that one can hold it but not pet it.  (It would release some of its hairs into his skin and it would itch.)  We ran into my friend Cheryl and her kids, Lena and Gabriel. Gabriel is four and Linus thinks the world of him.  He watches his every move.  Lena is just a couple of weeks older than Linus. When we saw them enter the presentation room, Linus got very excited and started running toward them. About halfway to them, he turned around and ran back to me to breathlessly exclaim, "Friends!"  and then he ran back to them.

Here he is petting a snake, showing Lena the dump truck on his shirt, and the kids climbing around in front of the library.  I just love the tulle under Lena's skirt!

Neighborliness

Wednesday it was in the 60's here and all the neighbor kids were out playing together in the afternoon.  Then it started snowing overnight and we ended up with a couple of inches of snow by mid-day on Thursday. We bundled up and went out to shovel.  Linus tried out the big snow shovel, but gave up on that pretty quickly.  I explained to him that I was shoveling Anna's sidewalk because she is out of town for work and can't do it herself. He proceeded to use his mittened hands to brush the snow off of her porch steps, railing, and porch swing. I tried to capture this gesture of kindness with the camera, but the camera battery gave out in the cold.

Valentines

Last year Linus mostly played with his Valentines and this year he has been excited to receive them.  Thank you to everyone who sent him one.  Here he is all excited about getting one in the mail from Aunt Sara and Uncle Billy.  They got an extra squeal out of him because there was a sheet of stickers inside the card.

Stickers

Linus likes playing with stickers. Up until fairly recently he has been good about only sticking his stickers on his shoe box treasure box.  He learned to stick them to his shirt from the bank and the caucus.  Our credit union always gives him a sticker and I planted an Obama sticker on him at the caucus.  One day last week I was working in the kitchen and he was quiet. I knew to go check on him and found that he was applying sticker after sticker to his sweater. I didn't stop him; instead, I took some pictures and went back to making dinner.

Bill (Matthew's uncle) watched Linus today while I was at the house inspection.  Leading up to it Linus told me he was going to share his cars and books with him.  Both were happy when I returned four hours later.

Cupcakes

A cupcake and cereal bar opened up near us. We visited it on Saturday when it felt really good to be outside.  We let Linus choose his own cupcake and he pointed into the case and said, "Sprinkles."  They were served on cute little plates.  Here is how Linus ate his.

Toddler Bed

As I write this, Linus is napping for the first time in his toddler bed.  We set it up for him this morning and he helped take apart his crib.  We are borrowing the bed frame from our neighbors, Juliana and George, parents to Alex and Max.  

I leaned into his room and snapped a couple of pictures. I'm feeling weepy about this change.  As Matthew started taking apart the crib, I reminded him of how I had to go to the bathroom every three minutes as we set it up for Linus' arrival.  And I still remember how I felt about moving Linus from the bassinet to the crib.  Anna Louiza marvels at my sentimentality when it comes to Linus.  Words can't convey how I feel about him growing up.

Cat Sitting

Linus has been feeding Lucero's kitties while she and her family are on vacation.  He takes this responsibility quite seriously.  Each day when I say it is time to look in on the cats, he marches himself to the door and is ready for business.  When the kitties start to eat the food he gives them, he says thank you on their behalf.  He relishes the opportunity to scoop the food into their dishes.  Since Matthew is allergic to animals and we can't have any furry pets, I'm glad our neighborhood has numerous cats and dogs for Linus to play with and learn about.

Super Tuesday

Yesterday morning, some of the other stay-at-home moms and I were emailing one another letting each other know that it was fine to bring our children to the caucus and that many of would be there.  The crowded gym overwhelmed Linus a bit at first, but then he got his bearings and got into it.  Whenever the crowd cheered and applauded, he clapped.  When we broke out into our precincts, he was pretty well behaved. Towards the end he got tired and we barely got to participate in the very last part of business.  The second I was counted for the congressional race, we got out of there. 

Linus has heard the Yes We Can song so many times that when I sing parts of it he says, "Computer."

To see more pictures from the caucus visit this album.

Got Milk?

Last night Linus was sitting in my seat at the table having milk before dinner.  I came in and saw that he had his monkey's hand through one of the cup's handles and he was helping it drink.  It was pretend, so all was well and good, until I came by again and Linus said, "Monkey. Wet." I looked and saw that Linus had put the monkey's mouth in the milk and it came out with a milk mustache and beard. I took it into the kitchen to clean it up and tried to laugh silently so that my laughter wouldn't encourage Linus to continue dunking the monkey.  Matthew gently explained to Linus that the monkey could only pretend to drink.

Yesterday Linus strung together three words on two occasions.  He said, "Mama do it," and "See you later."  This morning he said, "Mama reach it."  

Linus is also trying out the objective personal pronoun "her."  At the grocery store he kept pointing to women and saying, "Her." I can tell he is thinking about gender from the way we have discussions like this: Linus pointed to me and said "girl." I said, "Yes, I was a girl. I grew up and became a woman."  He said, "Woman." Then he pointed to himself and said, "Boy."  I said, "Yes, and Matthew is a man."  He pointed to my mug and said, "Girl." Then he pointed to his cup and said, "Boy."

Opinions

Opinions -- Linus has them.  I took him shoe shopping today because I was having a hard time cramming his onto him.  The Stride Rite outlet didn't have any brown leather ones, which meant he got sneakers.  There were only three pairs that had shoelaces.  I eliminated one choice, showed him the remaining options, and he chose tan suede with trendy orange stripes on the sides. They do look cute.

On the way home I sang songs.  My repertoire included Old MacDonald, Twinkle Twinkle, ABC, and The Wheels on the Bus.  He joined in on Old MacDonald and ABC.  He started getting ahead of me at parts of ABC. It is adorable how he says v and y.  Once he gets better at it, I'll get some video in front of the computer for you.

Here is Linus helping me pin my current quilt project.