A gremlin ate my baby! (23 months and counting)

            I start to get a little anxious as I watch Silas's eyes fall upon the ball another little boy has whipped out over by the slides at the park. We have been swinging and babbling to each other. He has been carefully watching each parent and child interaction, pointing out to me details he has words for like "baby" or "football" or "weeeeee"..wait thats what he says when he is swinging. Anyway, my sweet little baby boy has discovered that possession is possible in all things. I've used that to my benefit. If he can "own" something, so can other people. So I calmly repeat over and over, as I see him cut over to the kid with the ball, " no no Si, that is HIS ball, not yours. He gets to play with that ball." I would say 70% of the time, this tact works great. He gets it and leaves it alone after giving the ball a longing look and drags himself away. That slight anxious feeling I get, well, when that 30% hits and he might be overly tired, or his little brain is too busy working on other things to fathom "understanding", thats when a melt down threatens. The crying begins and as I cary my limp, and I mean completely limp, noodle of a child over to another part of the park to try and distract him, I look at that sad, ridiculously dramatic little face and wonder WHEN the gremlin ate my baby!!!!!

     

      He is a full blown toddler. Don't get me wrong, we love this age. But it is most definitely a bi-polar stage in development. I struggle with the concept of ownership and a strong part of me doesn't want him to cling to that idea at all. It's all of the Marx and Engels I read as a teenager. But I learned pretty quickly that socialism in the animal kingdom can be bad news bears when it comes to basic animal behavior. I tried to be friends with my first dog and treat her a social equal….that was a big mistake!! Toddlers are on the same mental level and another part of me is acutely aware that this idea of possession helps him delineate between objects and allows him to more deeply understand the concept of sharing. Please don't misunderstand my previous comment about socialism, by the way. I'm still a flaming social democratic liberal. I just know when it comes to animal basics, and we are animals, common ownership for the greater good bypasses hierarchy; an all too cerebral concept for my almost two year old.

That's right, I said it, almost 2!! And it is awesome!! Andrew and I LOVE this age. We love every age, so let me elaborate why this one is so freakin' cool. He is TALKING!! We can finally communicate as human beings have evolved to do. He tries new words every day and he is forming 3 and 4 word sentences now. His version of english is still absolutely precious and a far cry from clear diction. It is the strangest thing though. When he does ask for something or tells you something, often times if you don't over think it or even try to hear him entirely, you know exactly what he just said by the inflection in his voice. If you over think it, you get confused. Its a little bit like listening to a drunk person. You know what they are getting at.

playing disc golf with daddy 

Of course all of these new language skills means he gets extra clingy from time to time and being sleepless happens at least once a week. All totally worth the progress this little man is making. Beyond speaking, Si is on his way to that baby yoga stage. Where the toddler can and does assume every yoga position while in the throws of playing. They appear more coordinated than most adults.

I think getting into these boots counts as athletic.

downward dog?

Ok, I don't have any awesome pictures of Si wielding his body like a pro. But I promise he can and does. His newest dance move is jumping. Thats it, jumping. So the trampoline about to be erected in our backyard should really facilitate all of his new sweet moves.

We visited some family and Si got to hang out with a sweet little thing named Layla and my girlfriend's wily 4 year old, Hayden. He loved it once he got over all of the new people. A little apprehension crops up in this other wise typically brazen boy around new people from time to time. Once he warms up though, he is on the move.

adorable!!

A few holidays have come and gone (Halloween, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving in case you weren't sure). As you saw from the above photo's, Si was a fluffy puppy dog. I'm sure it is the one and only time he will be something cute and fluffy. He will likely be a ninja next time or a soldier or something real and slightly violent. Again, a gremlin ate my baby.

He hit up discovery place for the first time on this weekend and really enjoyed it until he got SOOO tired and just had to go to sleep.

Veterans day is for my main squeeze. I found some old pictures of him that are fantastic! Thanks for the service sweets!

Last but not least, we hit turkey day. We visited family in southwest virginia for this one and had a great time. mmmmmm foooooddddd. I apologize for only having pictures from one half of our family visited. I tend to forget about my phone when I come to see family like this. So all of these pictures were taken at one time when ,for a second, I remembered I might want some memory of this later on.

Its been a good month or so and I can soundly say for Andrew and I that we are grateful the semester is drawing to a close. A break is definitely needed. We are already listening to Christmas music! Si doesn't know this but the entire month before he was born, all we listened to was Christmas music. So now, every time I start listening to Christmas music absurdly early, I think of my life in anticipation of him. We love you little boy.  

Until next time!

Flash back!