"Tiny Ban-Dave Fing-Joe"

In case you can't translate, the title of this entry is "tiny band-aid finger." With a Simon-ese accent, it comes out sounding a little different. He woke up this morning with a cut on his hand - I think from his own fingernail, because there's nothing sharp in his crib - and a spot of blood on the back of his hand. I blotted the blood off with a damp tissue and told him we'd put a band-aid on it. "Ban-dave" was his response. We went through 3 ban-daves today, because he kept playing with it and picking at it.

Singing

Today we got:

"Jesus me this I know
for the Bible tells me so."

(he left out the word "loves" - but that's the whole first line otherwise!)

and soon after:

"Baby song!" He announced.
"Rock-a-bye baby in the treetop"

What a guy. My little singing Simon.

Simon's Enthusiasm

Yesterday Simon and I were in my car, waiting for a red light to change. From the backseat he says:

"Oh.

My.

Good.

Ness.

Big truck."

I laughed so hard at his exaggerated emphasis - I almost peed.

Dream Big, Baby

Simon and I were hanging out the couch - putting our winter gloves on and taking them off, pushing the button on a musical snowman gift bag to make it sing, and wearing funny hats - when he suddenly begins saying "Thank you people. Thank you people."

I think he was practicing his award-acceptance speech. We'll have to see what award shows up for him.

Giggle, Giggle Little Star

Tonight we put Simon to bed quite late for him. He didn't nap, which usually means he's super sleepy by 7PM or very soon thereafter. Tonight we ended up going out for a quick errand and then feeding him dinner & getting him to bed afterwards, so it was about 8:30PM. Needless to say, he was slapstick silly with sleepiness.

He insisted on reading The Family Book by Todd Parr (called it "Mommies Book" and paused on the page with "Some families have two mommies or two daddies" saying "two mommies two daddies" - that's my little PFLAG-er!) and then, of course, it was time for songs.

We did the Grandma Lizzy song first, then it was time for "Tinkle Tinkle." This time, however, we had a hard time with it. When I got to the third line (up above the world so high) Simon started to giggle. By the time we were "like a diamond in the sky" he was gut-bursting laughing, and Adam & I had a really hard time not laughing out loud too. By the final phrase Simon was just looking up at me and cracking up with the most bubbly, silly, sleepy hard laughter that Adam & I couldn't even remotely get through the rest of the song. We just cracked up with him.

Oh, my tired kid.

Well, then Simon wanted us to sing it again b/c we didn't get through it that time. He starts singing it to us, so we joined in, and still laughed through the whole second half, but were able to sing through the laughter this time. We ended with the "Grandma Lizzy strong song" which was (thankfully) giggle-free, and he was conked out about a minute after his head hit the pillow.

Love him.

Grandma Lizzy & Jesus are in Musical Cahoots

When Simon was a very small baby we sang to him a lot. Sometime after that we stopped singing, and never made it part of the bedtime routine. When my parents were here a little over a month ago, that became the routine b/c it's what Grandma Lizzy loves to do. Simon ate it up.

So now every night we have time for songs. Sometimes we still read a book or two, but we read a lot during the day too so that gets skipped periodically. But we ALWAYS have songs. Simon gets very particular about whether or not he's sitting in mama's lap or daddy's lap, and the other parent has to be sitting in just the right place on the floor in his room - either next to the crib or on the hippo picture on the floor rug. Sitting on the elephant or the giraffe is strictly prohibited - only on the hippo.

During the Christmas season we sang lots of Christmas carols, and a periodic Santa or Rudolph or Frosty kind of song. But ever since my parents were here we have regular requests for the "Grandma Lizzy song" or "Grandma Lizzy strong song." Fortunately, we know what he means. The Grandma Lizzy song is "Jesus Loves the Little Children" but we have to substitute his name in for the word "children." The Grandma Lizzy strong song is "Jesus Loves Me" because of the line "they are weak but he is strong."

Then we get requests for "Grandma Lizzy song again." And again. I think partially it's stalling, partially he loves to say & think about Grandma Lizzy, and partially he likes hearing his name in a song.

Now he's getting to know a few other songs that have become regulars, so we get requests for "Tinkle Tinkle" (of course it's Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star) and "Little Spider" (Itsy Bitsy Spider) and "Baby Song" (Rock-a-Bye Baby).

And as of a week or two ago, Simon has begun singing the songs to us. Sometimes in the middle of the day, out of nowhere (as far as we can tell) from his carseat or high chair or just dancing in the living room to his own accompaniment.

"Yes, Jesus loves me" he'll sing over and over.
"yellow black and white"
"tinkle little star wonny wonny what you are up abba so high diamond sky" (this one he will do by far the most completely)
"Jesus of the world"

We just shake our heads and smile and say "whose kid is this?" My answer? His Grandma Lizzy's. :)

Where's Mommy's Little Piggy?

Our good friend Stina is a photographer. She lived here in Silver City for a while, but recently moved away to pursue other endeavors. Upon leaving, she gave us a CD of photos she'd taken of us and some of our dear friends. Below is a pretty old picture - maybe almost a year old - but I had to share it. Stina took this photo through the glass check-out counter at the Curious Kumquat, where she was also part-time employed.