Saturday, February 27, 2016

3 Years 9 Months


1) Fuzzy had a good time this month with activities. We went to his best friend's bowling birthday party, where he hurled the balls with great enthusiasm and very little aim. We also went up to Tahoe for some skiing, and put Fuzzy into his first pair of skis for a lesson. Kid seemed pretty thrilled.


2) Fuzzy and Sprout at the playground, on airplane and fire engine rockers, respectively. Some bigger kids got on behind Sprout. Fuzzy turned to them and said, "That's my bwother Sprout. He'll hit you in the face!" Then, with a giant smile on his face, he repeated it for emphasis. "Wight in the face. He'll hit you! Boom!"


Meanwhile, Sprout was angelically rocking and not hitting anybody, but I had to admit, it was a fair warning.


3) On the other hand, on a different day, I overheard the following exchange between Fuzz and a six-year old girl in the sandbox, who had made some sort of remark to Sprout. "Hey! That's my baby bwother, stop bein' ruuude to him!"


4) We were at Target buying band-aids, and I got Fuzzy a box of Star Wars ones (Sprout got Paw Patrol). They way they clutched those little boxes, it was like I'd gotten them the very best presents ever. Over and over down the aisles, I heard some variation of the following refrain: "Hout band-aid! Paw Patol!" and "Mama, mama, I want to show my Star Wars band-aids to Daddy!"


5) Finally, two months to the day after we got back from vacation, Fuzzy went to sleep without my presence in his room. Sadly this turned out to be an aberration and not a trend.


6) Fuzzy is just now understanding that toddler cartoons are asking for his participation. Before when the characters turns to the screen and asked a question or suggested a particular movement, he would just stare at them blankly. Now he gets super involved, waving his arms around and shouting the correct answer loudly.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

22 Months

1) Sprout is putting two words together all the time, and 3-5 occasionally, although generally speaking, these are still not descriptions, but rather orders to his troops, like so: "No Baba, no like dat!"

Or on another occasion, demanding seconds on soup: "Wan hoop. Many hoop!"


2) Also, when he couldn't get a toy to work, I witnessed the following: "Dammit!" Vigorous banging of the toy on the ground. "'Tupid!"

3) We went up to Tahoe for a weekend, and Sprouty got rather annoyed by the end of the drive. When we tried to cheer him up by talking up snow, he sat in his car seat and muttered, "No like it 'no." Over and over and over.  Then we got there, he played in the snow, and after we came in he had changed his mind. "Like it 'no!"


4) Sprout's pronunciation of fish is one of my favorites: fish = hiss. "Mmmm, hiss!"

5) The kid managed to bang my mom in the head with his giant noggin. I told him, "No hitting anybody." Later that night, he was in the bathtub and my mom came into the room. Sprout promptly proved that his command of cause and effect was a little bit...off. "NO BABA, no hittin' anybody!"


6) Fuzzy was invited to a bowling birthday party for one of his preschool friends, and Sprout tagged along. He was super into it, and carried the heavy ball around unassisted. This is fairly impressive, considering the 6 pound ball is a quarter of Sprout's body weight. All the other parents were very impressed, and kept telling I had a bowling prodigy. I am dubious - a lifting heavy objects prodigy, maybe.


7) For some reason, Sprout's way of talking always carries the hint of a threat. For example, the boys were playing superheroes and requesting that I yell for their help. I did, and had them locate various 'lost' items - my phone, chapstick, etc. Each time, they would ceremoniously hand me the item, and Fuzzy would say, "Okay Mama, if you need help, yell for us!"

Then Sprout would come up, poke me in the leg with his finger and hiss, "Yelllll fo' ussssssss!"

Whereas Fuzzy's was clearly an offer of help, Sprouts hoarse hissing felt like a mafia Don explaining to a business owner exactly how things work.

8) First time on big boy swing!

Saturday, January 23, 2016

3 Years 8 Months

1) Fuzzy is still in teenager mode this month, and won't tell Daddy or Baba that he loves them, instead clinging to me with fierce attachment.  However, when said important personages are out of the house, he makes them presents.  We know this is love because he started doing it after watching an episode of Daniel Tiger devoted to the theme that "making something is another way to say 'I love you!'"


2) Fuzz has also taken to saying 'not funny' when he is annoyed with a parental request or command.  When we agree that it is, in fact, not funny, and we need him to go to bed/brush his teeth/sit down and eat, he says, "Stop coppppying me!" in a really aggrieved tone of voice.

3) When he gets even more annoyed, he busts out with, "I'm not your friend!"


4) To complete his lexicon of hateful teenage behaviors, the kid has also taken to yelling, "I hate that!" to a variety of things he loves - mushrooms, rice, etc.  I'm telling you, the Peachy household these days is a real land of sunshine and roses.


5) However, occasionally we do get gems like this:
The Pit: "What job do you want when you grow up?"
"I want to drive a combine harvester!"
"Oh, you want to be a farmer?  What are you going to grow?"
"Corn!"
"What should Sprout be when he grows up?"
Fuzz, with intensity, "A ninja turtle!"

6) We went to visit Dina and Noam overnight, so that The Pit and I could go out to dinner to celebrate his birthday.  Noam put Fuzzy in same bed as Sprout that night, and Fuzzy proceeded to hold Sprout's hand and shush him when he cried.  When I went in there in the morning, they were hugging and kissing each other.


7) Sadly, the above-referenced night was the only time since The Pit and I returned from a 10-day Caribbean vacation sans children (in December) that Fuzzy has fallen asleep without my physical presence in his room.  Prior to the trip, he used to demand three "Twinkle Twinkle" songs, followed by a goodnight story, and would then happily roll over and let me leave his room.  Those halcyon days are gone - ever since our return, should I try to ease myself out, there is a flood of hysterical tears, and an insistence that I have to hold his hand until he falls asleep.

Saturday, January 16, 2016

21 Months

1)  So many many new words this month, I've lost count.  My favorite may be the way he's adopeted Fuzzy's pronunciation of animal - "aminal."


2)  Fuzzy got a remote-controlled car for Christmas.  Sprout and his similarly-aged cousin were both scared of it, but their reactions were very different.  Sprout's cousin jumped back, and ran to his mom in tears.  Sprout also jumped back, but instead of running to me, he then ran toward the car, grabbed it in both hands, and proceeded to smash it as hard as he could against the floor...over and over and over.  Toughest baby on the block, indeed.

3)  Sprout is putting words together into small sentences, but less to describe things, and more to give orders.  "No sweep dat woom!" or, "Mama eat dat!"

My favorite Sprout command was a very short sentence directed at one of his toys.  "Eat!" {shoves robot feet into an apple}.


4)  My sister and brother-in-law got the boys a bouncy house for New Year's, which we keep in our garage.  Sprout is obsessed with the thing, and it is his new favorite activity.  He's picked up the language very well: he points his finger in the general direction of the garage and commands, "Bouncy hoss!"


5)  Sprout has started to call himself by his actual name, although his inability to pronounce Ss hampers the situation somewhat.  He replaces the problematic sound with an H, so for purposes of this blog, he is now Hout.

He also sometimes says, "me!" - principally when I ask, "Who made this mess??'
Then he glances up at me, grins slyly, and says, "Bandeet!"  Which is Russian for 'bandit', which is exactly what he is.


In other naming news, Hout now refers to his brother by his almost correct name, omitting only the R sound.  No longer is Fuzzy referred to as "Mine!"

6)  I present the first real conversation we ever had.  To set the scene, Sprout is picking his nose in the middle of the night while I change his diaper:
"Boooooger.  Bick boooooger!"
"You have a big booger stuck in your nose?"
"Yeah."
"Did you get it?"
"Yeah.  Eat dat."
"No, don't eat the booger, that's gross."
Indignantly, "Hout booger!"


7)  When a toy or something no longer works, Sprout plaintively brings it to an adult and wails, "Woooking!"  By which, of course, he means, 'not wooking,' or in English, 'not working.'  I have to do a lot of Sprout translation around here.

8)  The kid is starting to pick up an uncomfortable amount from his brother.  When I'm washing his hair in the tub, he has taken to grabbing the washcloth and throwing its across the room, while firmly announcing, "Nuff!".  It's clearly not enough, because at that point, I have barely even touched him.  Try explaining this to Sprout though.

9)  On the plus side of copying big brother, Sprout is beginning to potty train himself.  He now says 'poop!' and wants to go to the potty...although most of the time it's not poop.  He's a clever one though, saying 'pee' wouldn't generate quite the frantic amount of activity as when he declares 'poop!'.


10)  In a really adorable development, Sprout has taken to screaming "YEAH!!" when we suggest he do something (and he wants to do it).  His level of enthusiasm for throwing a paper towel in the trash or heading to the grocery store is very impressive.

The kid also goes "um um um" when he doesn't know the answer to a question.  This is both charming and singularly ineffective at getting grown-ups to leave him alone.