a little corporate

Ok, it's blurry, old, and a bit dark, but how great is that expression?

Weather was blessedly cool (well, 26, which seemed a lot less sweaty and tiring than 30) yesterday- quite windy in the AM, and Evadnie dressed Nolan in chinos and a blue pinstripe oxford shirt, both items a bit short in the limbs already. When I came home I thought he looked adorably Jethro-on-casual-Friday, although unless you watched after school TV in the mid 70s or prime time in the 60's not sure you'd get that reference. Just was looking for a picture of Jethro to add and came across this tidbit- whatever happened to Jethro? well....

n late 2003, Baer attempted the redevelopment of a former Wal-Mart location in Carson City into a Beverly Hillbillies themed hotel and casino, but was unsuccessful in his attempt due to building code conflicts and other developers on the neighboring properties.... The plans are for a 40,000-square-foot gambling area with 800 slot machines and 16 tables that would be flanked by various eateries, including Jethro's All You Ken Et Buffet. The project also would feature a showroom, cinema complex and a 240-room, five-story hotel.^[2]

Anyway, more Nolan-isms:

"I'd like the perfect cup of tea- pip pip cheerio! (based on a Backyardigans episode)

Pouring his own juice "No help- baby do it!"

Calling fruit snacks "lollipops"- and arranging them in a row before consumption, with discussions of the colours and flavour. Connoisseur behaviour or what....

Loves getting out the "flour" and measuring cups to make pancakes (which he kind of pronouces as "baocakes", very exotically). He likes rituals like this, and gets very upset if things don't go right (like if I forget the banana slices to press into the pancakes, once a cause of a full face down Floor Collapse Of Despair).

Getting ever more into drawing- likes putting faces on things- and play clay, last night did a couple of very creditable worms ("Wormens", again from the Backyardigans) that I helped make fetching little faces on- Nolan held his little self created friends up to look them in the eye and just BEAMED at them, and carried them around until they got smushed (this batch of play clay was a little too soft, my bad for not measuring attentively in the manufacture).

Lying on the couch with his leg up in the air, he said "Mommy leg?" so I put my leg up in the air, and he said "Bigger?" Yep, sure is - "Mommy is bigger than Nolan". "Wookit Mommy fish and baby fish (referring to a mirror he got from Aunty Anica and Uncle Jeff) - Mommy fish is bigger too!"

It's time to get serious about potty training: Evadnie has him in the habit of doing a BM on the toilet but when I casually say "Why don't we put you on the potty for a pee" he always considers briefly and says "No, thanks". Too busy I think. To be honest, I bet he'll be fine for the preschool as he is amenable to others more than his parents in this regard, but maybe I'll try again to get him in the pullups that have a wet feeling liner so he pays more attention. Nolan objects to pullups, and ask for "the white ones" ie real diapers instead, but also sometime streaks through the house gleefully, yelling "no diaper!!!" as I watch his escaping little bare butt. This never fails to make me laugh, but I try not to let him see as it's probably positive reinforcement for naked defiance, so to speak. (Hahaha. Get some sleep, schmuck.)

Reflections on Sleep and The Wiggles

Early morning awakening again. Hey- I slept in, it's 0510! Nolan is asleep (in the big bed) in full "baby surrender" pose, on his back, head to one side, arms loosely flexed on either side if his head, froggie style (or scratch my belly style if you have a dog). This makes him look more like he did as a baby and less like the toddlerchild he is now.

We watched Pinnochio last night -lots of smoking, drinking and drunkenness, a creepy old man who is stealing "stupid boys" for nefarious purposes- not the cleanest Disney I've seen. Nolan got a little tense during the whale scene, when Monstro goes after them for revenge rather than food- I'm good with talking about the pretty fish underwater, then explaining that Gepetto is catching fish to eat because he is hungry, but to explain that the whale is in a murderous rage because they made him sneeze?? It did make me realize how sanitized kids viewing fare is- my reaction was initially to protect him from negative imagery- but then again, the world really is like that so might as well see it in a more controlled way on old Disney....Gepetto even had a clockwork figurine of a woman with big forearms smacking the bare butt of a child on her lap in time to music.

Anyway, this IS relevant to the sleep line of thought- N was somewhat restless and talky in his sleep- he's quite Saxinger that way- and seemed to be saying "No! No! numble...." and woke up saying "Mommy?!?" urgently twice but fell right back asleep- ? nightmare from the show maybe?

The Wiggles are experienceing a revival for N - he was off them for quite a while but now is enjoying them and can sing all the words quite well- he wasn't quite linguistically limber enough before. I specifically like the earlier less polished videos, where they still had sweat stains, suggesting that it a) wasn't the first take b) they didn't have an army of stylists with powder for noses and fresh shirts and 3) they couldn't yet afford armpit botox.....they seem more sincere then, in the later shows it's all slick and maybe overchoreographed, and the segments seem more forced. I guess it's predictable though.

Interestingly, Nolan also used to make me get up and dance to the Wiggles with him, and now shades of teenagerhood- he occasionally asks me to go away so he can dance in peace, unoberserved. If he starts burning incense in there I'll know something is up....

What's he saying?

A few incidents lately reminding me how expressive Nolan is getting, and how increasingly funny.

- last night we went "in da bwue stroller" for a walk and ended up at the park by playchool, where we played: "mommy come in too da beeeeuuuuuutiful widdle house!", "come on up Mom, Wolly Slide!!!" (this is a slide with rollers- pretty fast!), and he spent a long time running around with a "Widdle giwl!!!"- a cute near 4 year old who was running around on the hill. For Mike, he'd also stand at the top of the hill, say "I'm on top of the mountain!!", and roll, run, or run backwards down.

As we were getting ready to leave, I heard a gonging sound and a cry- he had run (into the sun, so probably misjudged the height) under a metal slide and knocked himself in the head badly enough to fall down, which was scary. Mike saw it and picked him up but a few moments of cuddling and assessment later he got up and weaved towards the swing saying "wanna lie down on the sand"....-mystified and still pretty concerned I followed him (his gait got better) and he headed straight to a group of I'm about 15-16 year old girls, who were lying on the sand under the swings and powwowing about important issues and texting on their cellphones.

He approached saying "Hi! I have an owie, way down on the sand" and laid down right next to a pretty dark haired girl. I explained, "Hi this is Nolan, that loud gonging sound was his head on the slide, he's 2 and a half" and they were duly concerned and fussed a bit which he clearly enjoyed, including mentioning a few times how cute he is, and how nice his curly hair is. When we left them to their discussions, he came willingly and said a sweet "Byeeee!" but while I was putting him in the stroller said "I wanna go back to da pwetty girls".

Hmmm. 1) we are in trouble 2) I should scope out under the swings a bit and if I see them again ask if they babysit 3) Pwetty girls may trump Mommy. At least after a head injury?

He has been fine since, although I am always paranoid about incidents like that - this is the third lifetime significant head smack, which probably isn't bad for a toddler- and tend to wake up and check vitals.

Other funny things
- the editorializing at night- he'll enumerate activities of the day "Anna went to da park, and had a snack, and pwayed with cway...." as he winds down
- the scary scary voice he uses sometimes, first starting after hearing Steve read "Good Night Bird" on Blue's Clues with a gravelly little bird voice. He started using the funny bird voice but now does a big deep gravelly voice which is sort of Exorcist (I look at him to see if his eyes are all rolled back or maybe glowing red). This voice should not come from such a little guys mouth, and he quite likes the reaction.
- Will eat carrots now, but not cheese any more.
- we have a game watching Thomas the Train where we look at the engine's faces and guess if they are Happy ot Not happy (sad or mad). This is an interesting thing to do but has gotten confusing lately cause I won't know if he's testing me or confused himself. He tests with colours too - like "That's the gween one mommy" when it's blue, so I'll say "It's pink!" and he'll counter "No, ummm, it's red!" and giggle.
- Kissing it better. When he gets rambunctious I still sometime will clutch an injured part (say he kicked me flailing his feet around) and say "Oww, you gave Mommy an owie" and pull a "sad" face. He immediately will get concerned and assume a professional tone- "It's awright Mommy, let me see. It'll be OK (patting me). Kiss!!!!!" and kiss it better. And likely go back to dangerously flailing his legs in the air. This is good - empathy- and bad- kissing absolves the guilt of the injurer and magically heals the injured.

We'll see.