Tomorrow G is 22 months and he said:

"Mommy's noodles are all gone."
and
"Mommy rock-a-bye up in hammock too!"

This is too much to take! So *that's* what all the spazziness was about. Now that he's broken the Talking Barrier he's back to a much more pleasant version of himself. I always forget about the nastiness that precedes a developmental leap, but there it was and there it went.

*Sigh* I love this.


ETA: In the interest of not throwing up a new post everytime G says something amazing, I'll just add it here:

"Daddy took a sticker off my sticker chart and said sorry." !!!!!!!!!
"Anneva loves doughnuts."

Today's thought:

"That tree has a big top."
- Graham

My BABY said that!!!!

Ewwww, toddlers.

So Graham has gotten to be quite a challenge. Lots of very exciting things have developed, and lots of difficulties have ensued. A particular un-favorite is the wonderful game of "I want that, no I want the other thing, no I want the thing that I wanted before." This game never ends well. He also is still in the Hitting Phase. It seems to have gotten worse. We are not spanking, but man do I want to sometimes. This is, I think, probably the reason I don't spank: I don't want to spank out of anger, and once I'm not angry anymore I don't think spanking is the solution it seemed to be when I was pissed. Plus, do I hit him for hitting? That makes no sense whatsoever! But, ugh. He is trying my patience and on my last nerve a LOT.

Ok, fun things. He's got the 3-word sentence down pat, and some 4's: "Pablo eat bugs, gross!" and "Rainboots go outside now." Puddles are "cuddles." He can pretty much do all his ABCs and count to 12 (sometimes) although he always skips 4. He is beginning to be able to recognize some letters, we've had good luck with B's and O's. He calls the alphabet letters "C Ds." He has finally started calling Anneva "Nina" instead of "Nonny," my dad "Grandpa" instead of "Baba," and I am no longer Mama. I'm Mommy. I feel a little sad about that, until I hear him yell "Nick! Nick!"

In other news, we took a trip to the Emergency Room this week. Monday night he fell, a short fall, but one that left him a little rattled and without apetite. Then overnight he got really really sick. Like puke all over everything 6 times sick, like so sick and tired he was vomiting without really waking up to do it. Tuesday morning I put it together that he may have a concussion and we had to go get a CAT scan. Well, as it turns out it was strep throat. So here is where you learn what I learned: strep can make kids throw up. Who knew. It was a pretty terrible lesson, and an expensive one.

I want to post some about the Bradley childbirth educator workshop I attended last weekend, but that will have to wait. It was so amazing, I just can't do it justice right now. I am really excited to start teaching though.

Nunu's Drum Party - Fun!

Monday night Graham and I stopped by our friend Carol's grand opening of her new performance space, the Lowry Lab Theater. There was this great performance by a Japanese drum troupe, and Graham was very impressed, especially because they let him bang on the big drums before their performance. Melissa (who G calls Nunu) and Amy had a hand in the event as well, which led to Graham's excited reminder this morning:

"Nunu's drum party - Fuuunnnnnn!"

Graham has been pure delight lately. I am perpetually dumbfounded by his near-constant happiness. His most-used word is "happy" by a long lead. He is so affectionate and sweet, and a little sensitive. I don't know how we got so lucky. I want to gush about him constantly.

Curious George visits the Toy Store

I took Graham to the toy store today to meet Curious George. Graham was very excited to go, but when we got there he reacted the same way as he did when he saw "Sharky" at Underwater World: he panicked. But while Sharky never did grow on Graham (the huge teeth, maybe?) we decided to just hang out on our small plot of carpet near George's feet, while about a hundred small bodies wormed around next to us, some screaming with pleasure and some just plain screaming. It was a real scene. Eventually I couldn't take it anymore, so we went off into another part of the store and decorated a monkey mask. We tried to sit down for a storytime, but there was too much commotion going on. And Graham finally said, "Hi Monkey?" so I took it as a sign that he was ready to Meet George, which you have already seen. He did learn a new word today: Lap. "Hi Monkey lap, hi monkey lap." It was a big hit afterall. And the boy will be getting a Curious George Treasury for Easter, but don't tell him that.
Other new efforts include calling Daddy "Nick," and just today he is saying my name "Nessa" and he is "Gam." I am seeing every day how important the people we know are to him. He has a little song that he sings, where he runs down a list of friends we've seen lately, and it's so pure-hearted and exhuberant it's just heartbreaking.

Ballet and Buns

Last night, Anneva and I went to see the Eifman Ballet of Saint Petersburg's production of Anna Karenina. We were both really floored by it. It mixed Tchaikovsky's music with really dissonent, electronic pieces and the dancers were apparently like totally double jointed. At one point, Anna seemed to balance on the post of a brass bed, in toe shoes. Anneva and I turned to each other like What?! The love scenes were really amazing; it's so incredible what emotions can be communicated through movement and gesture. And then the end: we seriously couldn't breathe. I have never ever ever in my life seen anything on stage as wild and white-knuckle and heart freezing as the way the corps set themselves into the form of a train for Anna to throw herself in front of. There were oh, like eight curtain calls. People were freaking out.

And then we went into the lobby, even though we both wanted to just sit with it for a minute, and there were brownies.
Free brownies.

Yup.

Graham has had a really fun day today: he went to "school" with my mom, and then we all went to the bakery for hot cross buns and the cashier gave Graham a cookie. It's so cute when he says "bun" I can't stand it. He can eat hot cross buns every day for all I care, as long as he says Bun (pause) peeeas.... Then we saw a train, which was a very big deal, and after naptime we got groceries. It was Babyfest at the grocrey store. He had to point and waive at every one he saw. And after dinner he got a bath, during which he said "monkey hat" (Curious George) and "bubble bath." We managed to avoid a bathtime poo, but it seems inevitable at this point. I am ready with small fish net.

Oh, and the job. Totally couldn't tell if I'll be called in for round 2 interviews. Could. Not. Tell. We'll see. Cool place though.