I turned them off

One way we get Stuart to listen - or at least stop what he's doing and pay attention to what we're telling him - is to tell him to turn his listening ears on. And he literally acts like he's turning them on, and of course we make a big deal out of it and he's doing a great job being a good listener, etc. etc. Well the other day I told him to turn his listening ears on, and he did. Then he looks at me, smiles, and says "I'm turning them off now." It took all I had not to laugh and thereby guarantee he would do it again. What a wonderfully sassy little two year old he is - sometimes we wonder if he's just too smart for his own good.

Another example - after eating dinner, I usually say go right into the bathroom to wash your hands and face, don't touch anything. Well the other day he was running his hand along the couch, and I reminded him not to touch anything, he explained that he was just touching it with his knuckles not his hand. I then explained that after eating dinner, your whole hands are dirty, including your knuckles. So now after dinner on our way to the bathroom to clean up, he says, "my knuckles are dirty too, why?"

The trajedy of hair twirling

I was awoken yesterday morning around 6am by a crying toddler. I rushed into his room to see what was wrong and he was sitting in his bed with his finger in his hair. When I asked him what was wrong, through the tears he explained, "my finger got stuck in my hair". Yes he had done so much twirling of his curly locks that his finger was stuck - very stuck. After some maneuvering I was able to release it without cutting any hair (I have resorted to cutting out the knots before). He was fine after that, but not interested in going back to sleep, oh well.

Order and Food

As I was telling a friend these stories the other day, I realized they should be posted. Stuart has two things that confirm he is our child, a sense of order to the world (from dad) and a complete love of food (from me).

1. We were walking into daycare the other day and he saw the shoes outside the infant classrom (you can't go in with shoes on), and he looks at them and says, "that's not right" and proceeds to turn a shoe around so it was pointing the same way as its mate.

2. When I pick Stuart up from school, he gets very excited and shouts "cinnamon bread after school" - okay he usually does say "momma" first (but not always), then the cinnamon bread, then the hugs. But food is clearly his first priority!

Why?

It has finally happened, this week started the why questions! For the past month or so we have gotten, what's that? I've quickly learned that's much easier to answer than why. Now conversations go something like this:

S: [looking at a picture in a book] What's that?
Me: A snail.
S: Why?

Not quite sure how to answer that one, and a response like "because that snail is going to school with little miss spider" only leads to another "why?" The truth is, I have no idea why miss spider or the snail are going to school, but don't tell :)

Shorts and short sleeves

It was scheduled to go up to 80 today (yes in MN) so I decided to dress Stuart in shorts for the first time in a while. He was pretty excited, but a bit confused. He was in his carseat this morning and I looked back and he was tugging on the bottom of his shorts, then he said, "pull my pants down." Yes he thought either I had put short pants on him or his pants had gotten pulled up in his carseat. I then explained that they were shorts and they were supposed to be um, short, and that we wear shorts to let our legs get some fresh air - he liked that explanation and proceeded to repeat that his legs were getting some air. He does the same thing with short sleeve shirts too. He'll wash his hands and say, pull my sleeves down, then laugh and say "I'm wearing short sleeves." This just serves as evidence that winters are too long around here - he forgets what shorts and short sleeves are - but that he is also a creature of habit, when we wash our hands we push our sleeves up and then pull them back down, even if we're wearing short sleeves :)

Name Game

First, Stuart has started spelling his name - "S - T - U - A - R - T spells me!" He has also been really into the name game. If you don't know what that is, check it out here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_Game
He makes requests like, do Daddy next. But he also takes it upon himself to start it now. This morning he tried Mickey, it went something like this: Mickey mickey mo mickey fo fickey bo mickey MICKEY! And yesterday I said the word better for some reason and he belted out: Better better fo better mo metter better! Pretty amusing.

Big Boy Bed

We made the transition to a big boy bed this weekend - it's a toddler bed, essentially a crib with a lower front rail. All in all it went smoothly. We made a big production out of saying goodbye to the crib and taking the front off (it's a convertible crib) and putting the new rail on - it was very exciting. After "testing it out" Stuart declared "I love my new bed and Mickey loves it too." Mickey Mouse that is, his trusted sleeping companion. My concern was that he would start getting out if he woke up rather than staying in bed, but so far he has stayed put until we come to get him - hopefully that will continue! In keeping with the big boy theme we also put on big boy underwear - with the Thomas the Train - over his diaper. Needless to say he was beyond thrilled. He has been using the potty for a while now but we haven't pushed it because he didn't seem ready to really be potty trained, but I think we'll start encouraging it more. A big boy bed and big boy underwear - every little boy's dream!