Naming things

Today, Faelan decided that my left breast was a girl named P. I. Squirt, and my right breast was a boy named P. I. Drinkin'. Then he declared that they were drinking bottles. "Give me my drinking bottle!"

Storytime

Faelan just announced, "I am going to read Gingerman Boy to you!" He picked up Paul Galdone's retelling of the Gingerbread Boy, realized "it's upside-down," turned it right side up, and proceeded to read. Looking at the cover, he read, "The Gingerman Boy." Turning to the title page, he read, "The Gingerman Boy." Then he opened it up to somewhere in the middle and read, "The fox: 'snip-snap' and he was two-quarters gone. 'Snip-snap,' and he was ten quarters gone. 'Snip-snap,' and he never came out of the oven again. The end."

November 2009 photos

November 2009

October 2009 Photos

October 2009

Really?

Faelan now informs me "It's hard for me to nurse" when we're in an awkward position.

In his sleep this morning, he said "Yep. Yep, it's cold. I need cold. It's cold."

If we say "Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool?" He says "Yes sir, yes sir, sir sir sir." He can go right to the end of that one in a similar manner. "One for aster, one for for for, one for boy live down lane." I think he's trying so hard to say it fast and in the right rhythm that he can't get all the right words in. He also likes to recite "Georgy Porgy," which is emotionally rich for him, and a somewhat scrambled section from Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb: "Good bye Jack. Goodbye Jake. Dum ditty Dum ditty Whack! Whack! Whack!"

We have a book of animal fables from the library out right now. Last night Faelan said "Let's read about stork," so we read The Fox and the Stork. Then it was "let's read about fox," so we read The Fox and the Crow. Then "let's read town mouse country mouse," so that's what we read.

More talky talky

Poking at my cheek with his finger: "Poky cheeky! Poky cheeky!"

"I want to sit in your lap. Lappy dappy."

"My food not is too hot. That onion not is pretty hot. That other onion not is pretty hot."

My word!

These are examples from the top of my head:

"No, don't, Daddy! Don't pick me up! "Don't take me away!" (Usually from me, when I need to do something vital, like brush my teeth without his climbing on my back.)

Looking at an illustration: "That donkey is eating the tree." (Actually, she was singing in front of it, but her teeth were quite prominent.)

"Look! There a woman! Woman sneeze!"

To a pair of marbles: "No, Papiyon! [Papa Leon] Never, ever put that in the vacuum cleaner! Don't! Here, Grammacia [Grandma Marcia], I put you on the wall."

At a farm: "Hi, chicken!"

In the bath, just Faelan and Amity. Faelan bites me out of the blue, then sidles over to the other end of the bath and addresses the air near the wall: "G-ma, I just bite Mommy." (We are working on not biting.) I said, in a G-ma voice, "Oh, no, Faelan, that's not good! Biting hurts!" Faelan said, seriously, "That not good."

Looking at another illustration: "That girl crying. She sad." (She was smiling. Not sure what's up with all the perceived sadness.)

When asked what he did at the playground: "I hit a sad girl. Her brother had to pick her up. Then there was a gentle boy." (We are working on not hitting.)

"Read about kangaroos!" ("Bear Circus", by William Pene du Bois)

Pointing at any number of books: "What that is called?" Or, "What that is that called is... what?"

When the loudspeaker in the skytrain elevator says "Ticket Vending Level": "Ticket Leben Leben! Ticket Leben Leben!" Said with a huge smirk. He knows that's not what she's saying, but enjoying insisting on his version anyway.

When asked what time it is: "Leven-four."

"I do big jump now. Three, five, nine!" He jumps, holding my hand, but it's too high, and he hits his back on the way down. He looks chagrined, then starts to climb up again: "I must do small jump. Boy can do big jump."

"Here me come run for Mommy! Open arms!" He says this, but he's watching Daddy the whole time, in obvious anticipation of being caught, swept sideways, and tickled.

When it is time to put on a diaper: "I must lay down for put on diaper. Open wide!" This is not as helpful as he imagines it is.

Before nap: "No! I don't! No diaper!" Followed by hysterical tears and flinging self about.
After nap: "I need pink diaper. Pretty diaper." Followed by request for shirt.

After I explained that he could eat walnuts when he was older: "Okay. In the meantime, I rather eat rice."

Pronoun fun, and more

"I'm in your way" means "you're in my way."

He says "pick me up" but also "carry you" and "here me come!"

"Where did you get hurt?" we ask.
"On the table."
"Yes, but what part of your body got hurt?"
"On the corner."

He uses forks, knives, and foons.

Oops

We had to stop and recover our wits on the way home today, so we wheeled into a juice joint. I thought I'd order us something healthy, like wheatgrass, but then I saw raspberries and lost my head. It didn't occur to me until after Faelan had had a sip that a smoothie with raspberries, cranberries, and vanilla yogurt had tons and tons of sugar in it.

Faelan liked it so much that he started growling. His verdict: "It good smoothie. It's good, it's good, it's more good, it's super big good."

Supper

Because it was tasty and weird and ad hoc:

First Course: Kashmiri Rogan Josh from Joel's 50 Curries of India cookbook (Stew meat from our half lamb; sour milk from our cowshare). Whole wheat paratha, Joel-made.

Second Course: Steamed cabbage from Mom's garden drizzled with ume-shiso vinegar and toasted sesame oil.

Third course: Apples gathered from the living room floor where Faelan had rolled them (originally from the CSA).

Fourth course: Brown seed bread (from the farmer's market) baked in the combined sauces from a caraway pork roast (half pig), potatoes & onions, and butternut squash ravioli with garlic cream sauce (Joel-made from scratch).

We have been eating WELL this week.

Surprising utterances today

Looking at a slice of apple dumpling, speaking to Joel: "Thank you, my dear, bringing apple pie."

Crawling towards the living room: "Let's go eat rabbits."

"What is that?"
"Origami for the craft fair."
"Pretty origami."

We must be doing something right

Yesterday morning I was in the bathroom, tidying up and muttering to myself about how I just couldn't pick up after three people every day all day long and ever do anything else, and I was just so overwhelmed, and grumble, grumble, growl, ad nauseam.
Faelan came in and asked, "Talking to Daddy?"
"No," I said, feeling sheepish. "I'm talking to myself."
He gave me a dubious look, thought a minute, and then decided, "Talking to heaven." I was startled, and ashamed, and grateful.
"No," I said, "but that's a really good idea. Thank you for reminding me." And then I did say a word or two to the Trinity, though mostly the Spirit, since I was pretty incoherent. The day was brighter after that.

Things he says in his sleep

"Sit down, sit down there!"
"Oh, Daddy, oh, Daddy, oh, Daddy, oh, Daddy, oh, Daddy, oh, Daddy!"
[whimpering] "I'm sorry."
"Hab it! Hab it!"
"I need it. Need the little one."

June 2009 Video

Talking in Francis's living room, about the cat:

"This is a red ball. I can roll the ball to Tom-Tom."

He does so.

"Here, Tom-Tom. Come down and bite the ball."

Things he says now

"Yeah, I can do dat!"
"I don't yike dat."

"I want you pull on me," meaning "I want you [to] pull me on [the blanket]"

September 2009

September 2009

Ingredients

Lately, Faelan's taken to asking us what's in the food we eat. When we put a bowl of cream of broccoli soup in front of him, he was unimpressed until we told him there were broccoli, onions, potatoes, cow's milk, a bouillon cube, and water in the soup, with cheese on top. "Whoa!" he said, and started eating with enthusiasm.

A few days ago, Joel made grilled cheese sandwiches for supper, and Faelan's was too hot, so he took it apart to cool. When it was cool enough, he ate a little cheese out of it, then put it back together. Then he pointed at it, the tip of his finger just touching the cheesy middle of the sandwich.
"What in here, Daddy?"
"Cheese."
"No." He shook his head, grinning. "Finger in there."
Ha ha.

Memory

I am talking to Jessica on the phone. Faelan gets off my lap and says,
"I forget."
"What do you forget?"
"I forget Jessica."

Faelan is sitting at the table, cutting pears slices into little bits.
"I remember!"
"What do you remember?"
"I remember pasyou."
"You remember pasyou?"
"No."
"You remember Pascal?"
"Yeah!"
"You remember Matthew?"
"Yeah! I remember Matthew. I think I should go see."
"You think we should go see Matthew?"
"Yeah. And Briane. Pashew and Briane. At house."
"We should go to their house?"
"Yeah!"

Yoga terms

Faelan knows two, as far as I know: downward dog, and cobra, which has morphed over the last month into "cobra dog."

Conversations with the many-legged

A big fat fly flew into the kitchen and landed on the lights embedded in the ceiling.
"Don't!" said Faelan. "Don't walk on ceiling, bug!"
"Where should it walk?" we laughed.
"Walk on Daddy. Bug walk on Faelan."
"Oh."

Later, a tiny spider rappelled down my hair to the book I was reading with Faelan, and I blew it on to the window sill and pointed it out to Faelan. "Nice to meet you, spider," he said politely. Then he tried to kiss it.

Eh?

As we were walking home tonight, Faelan stopped nursing to say "You know what? This one too hard." Then he pointed to the other one. "This one okay." And he popped back on, on the other side.

Choice Vocabulary

Things Faelan says at 21 months:

"Border," as in, we're going to the border.
"Vancouver, in town," which is what he maintained was written on a business card with a road map of a place in Surrey printed on it.
"Going concourse!" He announced this as we went down an escalator into a Skytrain station.

"Amity," and "Joel," as in "Should Daddy read it?" "No, Amity read it."
"Leaving two minutes!" This he said at home, after I had spent half an hour counting down to the time we were to leave the playground. When Joel asked where we were going, he said, "playground!"
"Pay Cod! Pay Cod," is what he says if I forget to sing the doxology before breakfast. ("Praise God from whom all blessings flow...")
"Downward Dog," which he announced it when he did one on the dining room table.

"Fantastic," about a book that he was pretending to read.
"I don't like it." This he says about Joel's toothpaste and tomatoes.
"I need it." This he says about anything at all which he would like to touch.
"Pick it up!" Meaning, "pick me up."
In his sleep the other night, he suddenly wailed "Mommy! Eat it blueberries! Eat it booo baaaeey!" Which means, "I want to eat blueberries."

Miscellaneous

Last night, Faelan requested a song about "broken glass." Joel figured out that that would be "Papa's Going to Buy You a Mockingbird."

I just learned that my father's father loved P. G. Wodehouse's novels, and that my greatgrandmother's little sister Margaret, known as Auntie, was sixteen years younger than her, went to college in Abilene, married a Dean and moved to Old Glory, Texas, which was originally a German settlement which got it name because its founders wanted to be sure people knew they were loyal to the USA, seeing as they moved there during one of the World Wars.

Singing

Faelan now sings little bits of songs. He'll burst out with "alleluia," "impossible," or "everything grows" at the slightest provocation. Last night he told me, "Daddy singing."
"Is he singing Twinkle, Twinkle?" I asked.
"Yah! ...little star, how wonder what you are."

Updated on the 12th to add that his version of Twinkle, Twinkle now sounds like:
Tinkle little tar,
How I wonder are.
He sings it all the time while accompanying himself on the piano or drum.

We Interrupt this Poem

The other day, I was reading Pirate Story from A Child's Garden of Verses to Faelan. It begins

Three of us afloat in the meadow by the swing,
Three of us aboard in the basket on the lea.
Winds are in the air, they are blowing in the spring,
And waves are on the meadow like the waves there are at sea.

Where shall we adventure, today that we're afloat,
Wary of the weather and steering by a star?
Shall it be to Africa, a-steering of the boat,
To Providence, or Babylon...

At that point, Faelan got up, climbed into the laundry basket, and started rocking it back and forth. "Boat!" he cried. "Boat!"

August 2009 photos

August 2009

Math Resources mentioned in the Teenage Liberation Handbook

Logic books by Raymond Smullyan.
Anno's Math Games (I, II, and III), Mitsumasa Anno.
Mathematics: the Language of Science, George O. Smith.
The I Hate Mathematics! Book, Marilyn Burns. (I don't have fond memories of this one)
The Joy of Mathematics, Theoni Pappas.
The Mathematical Tourist: Snapshots of Modern Mathematics, Ivars Peterson.
Mathematics Made Difficult, Carl E. Linderholm.
Remarks on the Foundation of Mathematics, Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Overcoming Math Anxiety, Sheila Tobias.
Mind Over Math, Stanley Kogelman and Joseph Warren.

All the Math You'll Ever Need: A Self-Teaching Guide, Steve Slavin.

It is possible to learn math without ever opening a math textbook.

Quote for the Commonplace Blog

Instead of saying... Try..
"I like the way you..."
saying nothing (and just paying attention)
"Good drawing! I love those pictures!"
describing, rather than evaluating, what you see: "Hey, there's something new on the feet of those people you just drew. They've got toes."
"You're such a great helper!"
explaining the effects of the child's action on other people: "You set the table! Boy, that makes things a lot easier on me while I'm cooking."
"That was a great essay you wrote"
inviting reflection: "How did you come up with that way of grabbing the reader's attention right at the beginning?"
"Good sharing, Michael."
asking, rather than judging: "What made you decide to give some of your brownie to Dierdre when you didn't have to?"
- Alfie Kohn, Unconditional Parenting, p. 157

Adults in the workplace, meanwhile, are most likely to burn out not because they have too much to do but because they don't have enough choice about what it is they're doing.
- Ibid, p. 168

Playing With Food

We were eating leftover black bean and rice soup, chicken, and zucchini for dinner. Faelan fed some soup to his little wooden bus driver: "Driver eat it! Oh no! On table! Driver lick it!" Then he pointed to a little curl sticking up out of a big piece of chicken: "Oh no! Crying baby! Crying baby!"
"Oh, that chicken is a crying baby? Why is the baby crying?"
"Milk!"
"He needs milk?"
"Yeah!" So another piece of chicken comes and give the baby milk. "Crying baby!"
"Now what does the baby need?"
"Chicken!" So we feed the baby some chicken. (Cannibalism! Ew!) Faelan points to another piece of chicken. "Crying daddy! Crying daddy!"
"Oh really? Why is the chicken daddy crying?"
"Milk!"
"Do daddies drink milk?"
"Yeah!"
"...mommy milk?"
"Yeah!"
"Really? Oookay." So a third piece of chicken gives the daddy chicken some ... chicken milk? I seem to recall that some of the chicken family also ate zucchini, but my recollection is becoming confused.

"Do you want to take a shower?"

"No, take a bathtub."

In the bath:
"What are you doing?"
"Drinking water out faucet."

Tyranny of the Telephone

The phone rang while Faelan was napping, and he woke up to say "Ringing." He blinked a couple of times, then said, "phone." He half sat up. "Mommy talk!" Then he fell back to sleep.

Half an hour later, it rang again, and this time he opened his eyes and shouted "Oh no! Oh no! Phone ringing! Mommy phone!" (Meaning my cell phone.)
"Should I answer it?" I asked.
"Yeah!" he said sleepily, with a look of relief.
"How about some more milk?" I asked, hoping that he would drift off to sleep again. He burst into tears and mumbled something about being carried. "Do you want me to carry you to answer the phone?" Tearfully, he nodded, so away we went. Then he was fine.

Verb Conjugation!

Last night, we were playing catch with Francis and Mariko. Faelan yelled "I get it!" when the ball rolled under the furniture. When we tried to help him, he said impatiently, "I got it." Later, taking the cart home, he was having some trouble rearranging things so he could push instead of pull, and one of us offered to hold it for him meanwhile, but he said, "I getting it."

Oh, this is fun.

Blueberries

"Mommy eat it," Faelan says, putting the blueberry to my lips. When I open my mouth to eat it, he snatches it away and eats it himself, laughing mightily. This happens ten times, then I snap one up. This is hilarious. He tries again, I try again, but he now clamps down on the berry so I can't get it, and back it goes to his mouth. Once I do get one, and his fingers go in to get it back. Faelan 3, Mommy 1.

More talking

Francis made a pasta sauce with ground bison for supper tonight. As she was eating it, she said to her lodger, Mariko, "I like the meat." Faelan, eyes still on his fistful of pasta, said thoughtfully, "Like the meat too."

We checked out a library book called "Our Cat Henry Comes to the Swings." Faelan requests it by saying, "Cat coming swing."

Leaning a pair of walking sticks against a desk in front of a laptop: "Together, leaning 'puter."

Ha! Whenever we ask where someone in a book might be going, the answer is "Playground!" (sounds like gaygown)

He also likes "Help Mommy clean laundry."

Photos July 2009

July 2009

Pronunciation

Maytoto - tomato
Checaca - Jessica
Keeneenee - Zucchini
Sihtehter - Sisters

Cumumber - Cucumber

Gaygown - Playground

Um one - Another one / other one

Another Speech Update

Faelan was clinging to Joel's leg with four limbs.
Joel: Faelan, what are you doing?
Faelan: Climbing down Daddy leg.

Last night, we were out on the deck watching fireworks and found a little ball that the upstairs dog uses as a chew toy. We said we'd have to throw it up on the neighbor's deck for the dog. "Later," said Faelan. "When?" I asked. "Tomorrow," he said. "Daddy do it." This morning, he woke up, opened his eyes, and said "Dog barking, ball, throw." "Oh yes, I said, "Daddy will do it soon." He nodded, and then added conversationally, "booming! Booming fireworks!"

This week, he has started to say "Can do it!" when I try to help him with something he's ready to try himself, and "Have it?" (meaning "may I have it, please?") He also talks about "own plate," "own table," "own pants," and sometimes "me plate" or "you plate," both meaning "my plate," which he also occasionally says.

Sometimes we ask him what our names are, just for fun. Sometimes he says his name is Water or Daddy or Dog. Last night, he named us Daddy Cat, Mommy Cat, and You Cat.

When I say that we're going to the market, Faelan says "Meet Daddy!" Then he says "Call Daddy," and takes out his toy phone. His calls go something like this: "Hello, Daddy! Hello! Hello! Home. Work. Home. Market. Meet." And then he hangs up.

Speech update

When I asked him what he wanted to do: "Take bath!"

When I told him to say goodbye to Amanda: "Bye bye, 'Manda."

When he found out that the piece of metal on my finger is called a ring, he held my hand and ring-finger up to his ear: "Ring! Ring! Hello?"

June 2009 photos

June 2009

He is officially talking in sentences.

Amity: Faelan, do you need to use the potty?
Faelan: Bathroom!

He grabs a duster and runs to the bathroom. I take off his diaper and he sits on the potty chair, then picks up the duster and pushes it around on the floor, sweeping up a bunch of toast crumbs. Don't ask me why the bathroom floor is covered in crumbs.

Amity: What are you doing?
Faelan: Duster! Cleaning!

There is a pause while he pees, then points to the floor in front of the potty chair.

Faelan: Pee down there. Clean it.

He swabs the duster around in front of the chair.

Not very hygenic, but definitely communicative!

May 2009 Video

May 2009 Video

April 2009 Video

April 2009 Video

May 2009 photos

May 2009

What he's talking about now

He likes to announce that he is going up a hill: "Hill. Steep." He also points to a ladybug crawling on a wadded up blanket and says "Hill."

He points to the place on my breast where the blender threw hot vegetables down my shirt last week and says "Burn." Last night, he got all excited and kept repeating "Bambay, bambay!" He pointed at the burn and at the shoebox we keep first aid stuff in, and at one point he picked up a kleenex and held it to his chest, but we didn't get it until he said "bambay, bambay, BURN!" and thrust a finger towards the wound. At that point we figured out that he was asking us to put a bandage over it so that he could nurse without worrying about touching the burn. When Joel got the gauze out, he was greatly pleased, and then showed him where to put the next piece of tape.

At meals he says eat, food ("poo"), soup ("poo"), please ("peee"), thank you (something like "dik doo"), more, good, and all gone, and names foods as they appear, or as he thinks of them. Kiwis are "kiki."

I have been practicing a song which has a full-page chorus of "Hallelujah, Amen" and he likes to sit at the piano with me, playing random notes and singing "Lulah, lululah, amen."

If we pass anywhere near a playground, he starts in with a hopeful "Ging-go, ging-go!" until we either stop to play or it is out of sight. Yesterday he stopped playing to have a snack, and then stood up and waved: "Ging-go, bye-bye." I guess it was time to go home.

Wake-up Calls

If I get up before he does, he'll wake up in the morning and shout "Mommy! Mommy! Milk!" This morning, for a change, he shouted "More! More! More! More! More!" Yesterday, I had not gotten up and was laying right next to him, but he evidently felt that moving his head two inches was too much, so when he wanted to nurse at six in the morning he lay motionless with his eyes closed as he yelled at the top of his lungs, "Hey! Hey! Hey!"

April Photos, 2009

April 2009

March 2009 Video

From 2009 Videos

Things I forgot he has been saying

Go! Come!
Bye-bye, hi, hello
Heavy (he lifts a lot of things)
Chair, cup, knife, spoon
Glasses
Up, down

"Up chair" (I want to sit up in that chair)
"Come book" (i.e., read me a book over here in front of the couch)

What has he been saying?

Sit down!
Book
Please, thank you
Milk, good, nurse, more, other side

Airplane, car, truck, bicycle/motorcycle ("seeko")
Downtown (yes, really - no idea what it means to him)
Boom, beep, honk

Sky, star, moon, cloud, dark, snow
Cat, kitty, bird, grrrrrrrr

Umbrella, jacket, hat, pants
Upstairs, downstairs, stairs
Breakfast, supper, tasty

Cucumber, zucchini, orange, onion, tea
Eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, head, chin, cheek, elbow, knee, toes, teeth
Pee, poop
Water, shower, bath, hot, cold

The most complicated configurations so far have been on the order of
"bye-bye, Daddy" and "orange, please."

Most of these words don't sound standard yet. Orange and onion both come out something like "ongnang." Milk can be "moe" or "mill" or "mih."

March Photos

March 2009

More February Photos

February 2009 (Cindy's Camera)

Latest Words

Breakfast, Cheese
Baby, Bead
Neigh
Ow, Whoa
No, Yes

February Video

Be sure to turn the sound up.

February Photos

February 2009

January Video

January 2009: piggyback ride, kisses, running, at the park, in the rocking chair

Words of the week

Mama

Out, Down, Up

Oatmeal

Nose, Mouth, Eye, Ear

Diaper, Towel, Sock, Shoes, Boots

Dog, Duck, Quack

Jan 09 photos

January 2009

New Words

Book
Out
Banana
Moo, Meow, Woof, Baa.

December Video

December 2008: snow, Faelan's first birthday, Christmas.

Next Words

Okay, as of December 29th, Joel is Dada for sure.

Also, when he says "me-me-me-me-me" in a high-pitched voice with rapidly closing and opening fists alternating with waves, that means "cat."

Some words he has said once or twice and never repeated: hot, blue, roar, maa (what a goat says), night-night, out, door, diaper, bottle.

Photos: December 2008

December in Texas

December 2008 in the Pacific Northwest

Faelan's 1st Birthday

Christmas Eve in Duvall

Christmas Day in Duvall