Life in the Boonies

Now it is hard to keep Timmy in the shopping cart so we let him walk with me holding hands.  At Costco today, he explored and then found a place inbetween the furnitures and the boxes of the furnitures and hid in there.  I could not fit in there so I told him to come out.  I’m leaving… Going to the car… Nothing worked.  So I left.  Well I hid behind something.  He waited patiently.  No panic.  Then he slowly came out.  Then he saw me, and back he went giggling.  Well I’m not playing peek!  Let’s try again and find a better hiding place.  Well it didn’t work.  I’m not fast enough to get to him when I hid to far away.  Well now he thinks it is a wonderful game.  Finally Nat comes along and snatches him up before he saw him coming since he was looking for me.  Back in the cart he goes.

At home he opened the cupboard and decided that was a good place to hide.  Except you can see him sitting in there with the door mostly closed.  I took several pictures and then he comes running out to look at the camera.

He hid at the foot of our bed with the comforter over his head.  The bed is just about his height so you can see a little head lump if you looked carefully.  He was under there for a long time.  Nat comes in and after awhile says, where did Timmy go.  This whole time Frank is jumping on our bed of course.  We found him soon enough.

Timmy also found the secret space in our closet that is a weird shaped storage area cuz it is under the staircase.  Now he goes into our room and hides in there.  But now we know about his secret spot.  He also hides in his room’s closet that has the funny room with all the stuffed animals.

The two boys plays tag in the house except they don’t know how to play tag.  One runs into my room and the other runs after the first one.  Then one runs out and the other runs out after.  One ends up in the kitchen and the other on the couch.  Repeat.  Lots of laughing and stomping.

Frank is starting to feel the little brother’s presence more as Timmy is mobile.  Often Frank screams “No Timmy!”  Timmy gets to Frank’s toys and books and we are not ready to share unless it is on our own terms.  That means sharing with Timmy Timmy’s toys.  Frank likes to help bring toys to Timmy but not have Timmy go after his.  We are working on not screaming.  So the next best thing was to drag Timmy away from the vicinity.  One morning I saw Frank dragging Timmy by both legs.  Timmy kept trying to scoot forward but to no avail.  I wanted to see how they resolve it so pretended not to see in case Frank thinks that is acceptable behavior.  Timmy didn’t cry and Frank didn’t scream so all was good.  If all incidents can be that easy, just looking the other way. One time Frank did pretty good where he took away his toy but proceeded to give Timmy a bunch of toys that belonged to Timmy instead.

Frank likes to play with Timmy.  We were getting ready for our camping trip so we put up a play tent and Frank was in there doing his bulldozer puzzle while Timmy was chewing on an electronic book.  I hear the book music and thought it was Frank.  They played nicely side by side. One time Frank wouldn’t let Timmy on his mat so I took Timmy and moved to a different room telling Frank Timmy doesn’t want to play with him unless he shares the mat.  Frank eventually gave in cuz he really wanted to play with Timmy.

The new thing with Frank is piling.  He makes great big piles of stuff.  First it was on the floor.  I have to make a mat for him using a blanket.  Then he empties all the toy bins and dumps everything on that blanket.  Then we advanced to the table.  We make a tent by putting a blanket over his table.  Then he dumpts all his books and toys under the table into the tent.  Then one day daddy made a tent on the couch by putting the blanket over the back and using a broom as a pole.  Then everything got piled on the couch.  You would think the blanket is a culprit but now we have a play tent and there are no blankets in there but all the books are.  And at camp, while everyone else played ball, Frank swept a big pile of dirt and grass under the table.  One thing for sure, he is focused and dedicated at the piling task.

Frank sings many many songs.  He even changes the words sometimes.  He often quotes stuff from the books we read.  If I quote something, he can pick out the book that it came from.  He also talks in sentences.  We are working on the pronoun me and you.  He still says mommy carry you but when I ask him carry who?, he corrects himself and says carry ME.

Since we let Frank sit with us at church there has been two funny incidents.  One time Pastor John was demonstrating something and he took a twenty dollar bill, crumbled it up, threw it on the floor and stumped on it.  When we returned home, Frank did the same thing to the one dollar bill grandpa gave him.  Another incident was when Pastor John was telling us a story and when he said then we called the doctor…  Frank leaned over to daddy and whispered “and the doctor said no more monkeys jumping on the bed.”

Talking

• Frank saying cako (Costco) piya as we go to Costco for shopping.
• In the car, Frank says red stop, green go. He tells us what color the light is. Then at home, he practices in the backyard. He repeats red stop, he stops on the tricycle, green go, he goes on his tricycle.
• A few surprising new words: camel (picture of camel in Just So Stories), seagull, toad (picture of toad in A Pacific Alphabet), purple green ball (his favorite soccer ball), almost, full (when told to eat his dinner).
• Just yesterday I put Frank in the car seat and he said ouwei and I said it’s not ouwei. He stopped to think and then said “tight”. I smiled and loosen the seat-belt and asked “How’s that?” Frank said “better”
• A few days ago around 5 o’clock and time to get Nat from the Bart station, Frank told me “shoe on, five clock, get daddy.” He tells daddy “daddy shoe on (getting shoes for daddy in the meanwhile), go park, two swing black (referring to the park near Safeway with 2 black swings)”
• Frank got a strawberry plant few weeks ago and it already had 2 berries on it. We told him big one for him and small one for Timmy. We have to wait til it is red to eat it. 2 days ago we were looking at the plant and a bird had taken a bit out of the small one. Frank was so upset saying Timmy, strawberry, bite, birdy, one. I told him to go tell daddy to see if daddy can understand without knowing the context since I saw it with Frank. Daddy understood. “timmy, strawberry, birdy, one bite”

Singing

• Five little duck - he hummed the tune, no words while working on his birday puzzle.
• ABCs - Since he has been singing the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Ba Ba Black Sheep, he already had the tune down. He says the alphabet, especially the first few. Then one or two in between and some are not very intelligible.
• Music Together songs - We took this music class a month ago and there is a music book and CD. We play the CD and practices the songs on the piano with the book. Last night, Frank sat at the piano and flipped to the beginning, started to sing and play the piano. He played random notes but he was clearly singing the song on that page of the book. As he flipped pages, he sang the song on that page. Half way through the book, mom made him start over so she can record the singing. All uninterrupted he went through about half of the songs in that book and sang something that were words in the song. Roll that Little Ball and Great Big Stars were the two songs with the most words and the best tunes.

Reading

• It has been weeks, months, probably really just days since I had to read The Lorax. Our new favorite is “The Elephant’s Child”. Our library is having a puppet show on the Just So Stories so mom took the book out to read a few of them to Frank to familiarize. He immediately liked that one. We read “The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo” first and Frank did not like it at all. He always tells me when we flip the book, “no roo”. We did manage to read “How the Camel Got His Hump” and half of “The Cat That Walked by Himself”. Frank only wants “mommy read da” - da xiang is Chinese for Elephant. So we read it and read it. Sometimes Frank goes off to do something towards the end of the story but if mom stops he comes back and says mommy read. He likes to say Baboon. Every time I read to that part he repeats that. Now I pause and wait for him to say it, heehee.
• Another new favorite is The Pacific Alphabet. It has beautiful pictures and things that start with the letter hidden in the illustration. I personally love trying to find them and pointing them out to Frank. This is where he said toad rather than frog on the T page.
• Daddy still reads Goodnight Moon at bed time and nap time if he is home. Mommy sometimes have to read Bats at the Beach but now more frequently she has to read “I am Not getting up today.” Expect now we have been to the library and borrowed new books about trucks and trains and now that is what nap time got.

Playing

• We started Tumbling classes again and Frank loves it. He doesn’t just go straight to the trampoline, even though that is what we talk about when I tell him we are going to Tumbling class. He follows directions well. He has done the rings, the bars and somersaults just like the teacher shows him. Even on the trampoline, he does open close (legs) and then sit down like the teacher says. This week he even walked on the real balance beam while holding my hand. There is only one other boy in this class so we get alot of personal attention too.
• SOCCER. Frank loves ball. He kicks it while running now. We played and played in the backyard with him repeatedly saying nani getit. Then he ran too fast after the ball and fell face forward. Nosebleed! First one ever. Good thing it was on the grass area too. We plopped down on the floor and read stories to keep it from bleeding. The next day first thing in the morning he wanted to go out and play, but the grass was all wet from sprinklers. I guess the fall didn’t hurt so much that it scared him from playing. So we played inside after cleaning up. Then he liked bouncing it off the coffee table. He is able to catch it when I bounce it to him.

Frank’s third zoo trip was plenty of fun. This time we visited the Oakland Zoo with several other moms and their kids. We all piled into the car and zoomed out before 9. Dropped daddy off at work and arrived at the zoo before they were open. Timmy nursed while Frank read his zoo flip book in the backseat. We met a new mom and after I introduced Frank he corrected me by saying “Nani”. He does that alot now, everytime we call him Frank, he says Nani, as if we are saying his name wrong. We saw flamingos. Pink says mom. Frank signed white pointing to another bird in there. Oh, they are called the African Spoonbills, pictured right. Spoon says Frank. He liked that bird, heehee.

Then we saw giraffes, elephants, zebras and camels and lions and tigers. One tiger was resting and other one was walking around so Frank said nite nite pointing to resting one and morning to the other. We also went to the children’s area for lunch. They had a rope spider web structure that everyone climbed on. Also a lily pad thingy in a pond for jumping around on. Frank was good for awhile then he jumped right into the water and was wet from ankles down. Right next to the sign that said no wading. Oh well. We quickly moved along. It was really crowded (spring break). We saw some alligators. They were so still some kids thought they were fake. On our way back we saw more monkeys and then the train went by. Of course then it was “choo choo” non-stop so we had to do that. Good thing the other two moms also had kids also obsessed with trains. We waited in the loooooong line. The kids were playing peek-a-boo and tag and then they needed snacks. Frank learned to do jumping jacks from Nathan. No major meltdowns from all 6 kids the entire time at the zoo - a miracle in itself. Then it was looking like we might make it on, but only room for one so we waited instead. Then we were all first! So Frank got to sit in the first row. The whistle was so loud it scared him the first time. Then he was prepared so we had a great time. Great views. Then it was 3ish. All the kids were running down. Bathroom runs and bye-byes. Timmy was great. He enjoyed some views and slept some and nursed twice inside the park and once more in the car before the drive back. He must have been over stimulated cuz he cried awhile in the car before sleeping and woke up while the car was still moving and cried some more before getting home. Then we were all exhausted. What a day! Timmy slept 5 hours straight that night.

So many new words these days it is hard to keesp track. The last few nights bedtime story has been Bats at the Beach (read by mom) and Goodnight Moon (read by dad), as requested by Frank. He says mommy bat beach, daddy moon. Frank likes to point out what everyone is doing or where everyone is. He says, “mommy eat, nani eat, timmy (signs waiting), daddy byebye” at the breakfast table. When I’m driving he can tell me if Timmy’s eyes are open or closed. Not 100% reliable yet cuz often he wants Timmy to be “morning” when Timmy is “nite nite” so you can’t tell if he is saying what he wants or what Timmy is doing.

He only lets mommy change his diaper. Last time he got so mad at daddy and kept saying “mommy ching” (change). Usually I ask him if he has a poopy and tell him to get changed. Today for the first time he told me. I told him it was nap time and he said no, chu chu (Chinese for smelly, what we call dirty diaper), mommy ching.

More new words: warm, cold, bring, come, wait, doctor, window, oh (open), Timmy, mom, dad, gramma, Eli (a friend), Becky (daddy asked where you get that valentine’s day pencil and Frank said Becky - the librarian gave it to us), one (he also counted backwards today - three, two, one, go and then flopped over on the bed), do (Nani do is said often), story, book, durry (hurry), turtle, bezi (nose), rain, ring — more than we can keep track!

He loves this puzzle and plays with it at least once a day, sometimes twice. It is now a routine to take the puzzle apart and place it back into box before bedtime so we can do it again the next day. Some days we do this before nap time as well. Here is a video of Frank at work putting it together. It took a total of 12 minutes.

Frank continues to expand his vocabulary. For the past month his favorite word continues to be no but another new favorite is MINE. Everything is no, mine.

Words in order of when he first said them are:
ball
meat
sorry
yoyi for yogurt as oppose to the original eiya
up up
down
ouwie (when he gets hurt)
tall (started with the book Tall)
tip toe (he walks on tippy toes)
on (tells mom to turn on the light)
ooh ooh (when he spills stuff or does something wrong)
zoo (we look forward to visiting the Oakland Zoo next week)
key (when mom goes get the mail, Frank needs to bring his keys too)
eye
mine
two and both (when given a choice, he often answers two, both, while holding out both pointer fingers)
nose (especially when we do the birday puzzle and he points to the fish’s nose)
knee (again the birday puzzle - octopus has his knee on the edge of one puzzle piece)
three (mommy will read three stories if he is good boy)
move and go (started when mom said it often cuz Frank would stand in the front and block the passage way when mom tries to push Timmy and stroller)
bone
pee yaa for pizza and ju for juice (new favorite food - when his neck had a pulled muscle from tumbling, acetaminophen was not going to make it better, ibuprofen wasn’t gonna make it better but pizza and juice was going to make it better and it did cuz dad put Tylenol in the juice heehee)
play
wheel (requests for wheel on the bus song at first. now points to wheels on his trucks and vehicles and says it)
five (requesting the song five little ducks went out to play is five dididi - his duck sound is like sound of little birds)
people (first time saying it in car while waiting to pick up dad at bart station. Frank points outside and says people, many many)
broo for broke (lots of things get broken so an important word)
read (asking mommy to read)
mommy go nani go (first multi-word sentence. mom was going to pick up the pizza and frank (aka nani) wants to go with mom)
bar choo choo go go gone (second multi-word sentence. Bart train going going gone (like freight train) as we watched the Bart train leave the station)
stop (now saying go stop go stop as he drives his ride-on toy)
in
rainbow
story
puppy and doggie
tree
shoe
green

Frank now knows many words and sounds and we often have extensive conversations. Here is how one went
He said “owl meow meow”
Mom said “oh the owl and the pussy cat went out to sea in a beautiful pea green boat”
He said “de-li de-li” while holding his arm and hand like playing a guitar
Mom said “The owl looked up to the stars above and sang to a small guitar”
He said “gobble gobble”
Mom said “And they were married the next day by the turkey who lives on the hill”
Then he made sounds that translates to chicken and ended our storytelling conversation as there are no chickens in this poem.

Another time Frank did something bad and dad wasn’t trying to discipline by taking him up to his room and explaining to him that was not acceptable. On the way up the stairs Frank pointed to the yellow butterfly wind-chime and said mommy birday (that was mom’s birthday present). And dad cracked a smile and Frank got away with going up to his room.

No more naps. Perhaps a demonstration of his need to be in control, Frank now refuses to nap. At first he hides in his room reading Franklin the Turtle stories. Then mom took those away and since we all know he is not napping he stopped being quiet and sneaky. He would be jumping on his bed, making a huge mess in his room with books and toys. Now we stopped forcing him to nap but he needs to spend quiet time since Timmy is napping. That only works for 30 minutes. He has fallen asleep in the car and will nap if mom can move him to his room without completely waking him. So much for thinking maybe he doesn’t need a nap anymore. He is sleeping really well at night so we’ll see how long before he naps regularly again.

Perhaps a reason for the resistance to napping started when he chewed up his thumb so bad that he could no longer suck on it. We all told him to let his thumb rest so he stopped sucking his thumb and maybe without this to calm him midday he can’t stay still enough to fall asleep. Anyways, he started to suck again after so long and now there are small tooth marks there once again. A new tooth has emerged and he hasn’t fussed noticeably so maybe that is related. We just don’t know. The new tooth is his left bottom molar. Only 3 left to complete his baby teeth.

Frank is getting really good at putting together his birthday puzzle from Great Aunt Ellen. At first the puzzle was put away in order so he just had to follow in order and each piece fit into the next. Then he started to pull ones out of the middle and that threw off the ordering. Each time we finish it we look at all the pictures and talks about it. The big fish with teeth, the turtle, the octopus, the sea horse (mommy sea horse and baby sea horse, the baby one is often referred to as nani), the purple sea urchin, the starfish (there are three), the green yellow fish that bunny likes to kiss, the nemo clown fish that is hiding, playing peek-a-boo, etc. Now we spread all the pieces out and Frank would just work the whole puzzle. We usually start with the corner that has the sea horses. He needs occasional help from mom as she says turn that one around, line up the edges, that one doesn’t go there, look for the piece with … on it. Just today he is picking out all three pieces of the big starfish before returning to the puzzle to put them all in.

Frank is singing the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Sometimes he would just start while I’m driving or while he is playing. It is clearly the correct tune and he does almost the whole song. He does it with different sounds and sometimes he does it with baba sound so maybe he is singing Baa Baa Black Sheep.

The second song he does is Row Row Row Your Boat. He was only saying rowrowrow at first but 2 days later he did the merrily merrily part.

We were playing bull fighting with his red blanket so he says bull. But he signs bowl and the put his fingers on his head like the horn of a bull. He often says ridida (ridicules). He says me in reference to the “Don’t eat me” from the Three Billy Goats story.