We finally put up all the Christmas decorations this weekend. Connor and Josie loved the tree, ornaments and singing Christmas songs. Okay, so it was Connor who sang the songs and Josephine mostly smiled and did the 14 month old bobbing dance. You know the dance. And don’t act like you aren’t doing it in your head right now.
It seems Connor’s teachers were saying (and if it sounds like bragging that’s because it is) that Connor knows the words to all the Christmas Carols and a Beatles song. In some cases he’d lead the class in a spontaneous round of Frosty, Rudolph, or Santa Claus is coming to town. But here we are, a couple days passed epiphany, and it’s time to start the new year. So we put away the tree, decorations, and are phasing out the Christmas videos. Nita is even putting away the Christmas and Halloween books so we can have some “new” books next season.
Connor is really getting excited about pretend play. It seems every day we’re given new characters, lines, and scenes to play. He is also eagerly anticipating the first snow. We may not get one this year. In fact, we hardly ever get them in back to back years and we did that last year and the year before. But we’re preparing nonetheless. We have a scarf, a button, and plenty of hats. Connor is confident that once we build a snow man and put a hat on his head, it’ll come to life. Did any of you have a similar scenario? I’m interested in hearing how it played out if it did.
Connor is also pretending to be daddy a lot lately. He sits in the “daddy” chair, holds daddy’s coffee, puts on daddy’s shoes, etc. I’m pretty tickled to see the three year old reflection of myself. And of course Josie is knee deep in the act now too. She wants to mimic everything Connor does and be everywhere he is. I’m sure you veteran parents remember this but it is uncanny how you kick yourself for not being more stringent in enforcing certain policies to the oldest. By that I mean, what the older one does, the younger one follows quickly. And now you have to undo the behavior twice, when you could have been a little stricter on the former initially. In any case, it’s all part of parenting on the fly isn’t it? Some of this you can anticipate, and some of it you learn as you go.
Josephine has been walking for all of three weeks and has decided she’s ready to run. Connor and I play this game of monster chase in the house and now Josie is trying to play with Connor. The minor problem is she’s still pretty slow and falls a lot and Connor just runs laps around her. It’s pretty funny to watch him when he approaches a doorway she’s still going through and he’s deciding whether to turn around and run back, or wait for her to go all the way through. At least he doesn’t push her down/out of the way…yet.
I heard a really funny quote from a Doctor regarding potty training. Start when they’re 2 and they’ll be trained when they are 3. Start when they’re 3 and they’ll be trained when they’re 3. But Connor has been doing great lately and was the talk of the preschool when he ran toward a teacher on Monday and shouted, “I have to POOO, I have to POOO!!” And he made it all the way to the potty. J Nita said he did the same thing at the library the other day during story time. So I think we’re pretty close. One almost down and one to go. I have seen lots of kids in my life holding themselves running toward mommy or daddy and saying they have to go to potty. It’s always been cute and kind of funny, but I had no idea how I’d actually feel when it was mine. And you know what, I feel pretty darn good about it.
Finally, the train. Connor, as we all know, loves trains. While it’s cold out (okay for those of you north of Oklahoma, I know you are all rolling your eyes right now, but for us, it’s cold, that’s why we live here. So we can golf year round), we have to find interesting places to get some exercise. Going to the mall is one of those places and riding the train is a special treat for Connor and now Josie too. Josie has picked up her brother’s love of trains and now can’t wait to play on the train table at home or ride the mall train. This time, with Connor and Josie being the only passengers, the Conductor, let Connor and Josie inside the engine. They rang the bell, and blew the horn. Of course they came home singing “I’ve been workin’ on the railroad.” Catchy little tune, I swear I’ve heard it somewhere before, oh well. Maybe it’s just a coincidence.
No comments:
Post a Comment