On the way to swimming on Friday night, Jace asked us where the squirrels were.
Not being a squirrel expert, I decided the a safe enough answer would simply be “in their homes”.
“Where do squirrel’s live Mommy?”
Well, now you got me kiddo. I really don’t know where squirrels live but something in the back of my mind suggested that they live in some kind of nest so I threw that answer out.
“Like birds, Mommy?”.
“Yes, like birds but squirrel nests have a roof”. (Should you be faced with this question in the future, you might like to know that my memory was actually correct! Squirrels live in nests called dreys.)
“Do they have kitchens, Mommy?”
At this point I am trying very hard not to laugh as he was so serious when asking the question! Ah, the imagination of youngsters…
While at Heather’s parents’ house over Thanksgiving, Jace worked his way through the random assortment of kids’ books that have been gathered to entertain grandchildren at the Sim family manor. Included among those books was one in which Mickey Mouse and Goofy vacation in Switzerland.
Fast forward a month… We’re in Colorado for Christmas. We head up to Loveland for a day of skiing, assuming that Jace would probably stay in the lodge, or maybe at best stomp around in the snow a little. But suddenly he makes the connection:
“We going skiiiing?? … We’re goingto ride the chair lift? Goofy rides the chair lift! And then he gets chocolate!”
With free lift tickets for 2-year olds, we had to oblige. If we could first convince him to strap into skis and prove that he could walk around, which Grandma successfully got him to do. So Jace got his first day on skis, taking several rides up the (short) chair lift and skiing back down, held between our legs for the descent.
We got to spend a week out in Colorado with family. It’s great to be able to see how people are doing, and Jace got to connect with his cousins. More on this over the next couple days…
On Thursday afternoons, Heather picks Jace up from daycare, and I typically arrive home from work a little while later. On this particular Thursday, when I pulled into the driveway, they hadn’t yet appeared, so I decided to go for a walk and intercept them on their way home.
Ahead and to the right, the squeal of kids at the playground.
Ahead and to the left, the rumble of diesel engines at the construction site.
So… which direction should I go? Towards the construction site, obviously. And sure enough, there’s Jace up on Heather’s shoulders, with what is now his usual stream of conversation, “ooh the blue cherry picker mommy. Where the crane? Where’d the yellow crane go? Can’t see the nail gun. Can’t see the nail gun Mommeeee!”
That’s pretty much what he’s into these days. Instead of taking him to daycare, we should just get him a job operating a forklift.
No, Jace hasn’t learned to add yet but he is definitely connecting things together. Friday night I was singing him a lullaby to try to get him to calm down and go to sleep after an overstimulating birthday party for his daycare friend. The lullaby is based on the one about the mockingbird but since I can’t remember the lyrics I have made up my own version involving brick houses, porcupines, and teddy bears. After I was done singing Jace asked me what a porcupine was. I explained it was an animal that had prickly spines. His response “blueberry [his term for my black raspberry canes] is prickly”. I was very impressed that he could connect two very unrelated items.
He is using more and more words everyday and we are barraged by a constant stream of “what’s that?” At least we aren’t in the “why” phase yet since at this point a simple “its a ….” satisfies his curiosity although we try to say what it does as well. However, this does not mean that everything he says is intelligible by any stretch of the imagination. The other night he was asking for a book to read in his crib. No matter how many times he said the name I couldn’t figure out which book he was referring to. So I asked him what was in the book. “Baa Moo Cockadoo” was his reply which, for those of you have have it, clearly means “Barnyard Dance” [with a baa and a moo and a cockadoodledoo].
Jace is also starting to recognize different colors. A couple of weeks ago, everything was “yellow” but yesterday morning he told us that he had a yellow straw, daddy’s was blue and mine was pink. Pink may seem abstract for 2 year old but he loved my pink toenails after I got a manicure and still asks for me give him pink toes after my manicure is long gone.
On a random note, for those of you looking for new pictures of Jace, I am afraid you will have to wait a while. My computer seems to be having technical issues and my IT support is busy working on the upstairs apartment trying to get it ready for a new tenant. Perhaps in August?
Unless you count ketchup and mustard, this is the only vegetable I can get Jace to eat. This is a great discovery, although I don’t think Heather’s going to let us have it at every meal, and definitely isn’t going to allow the ferment-a-cabbage-in-a-closet experiment I’m planning. Though it should keep the scurvy away.
I was sitting on the floor reading Jace a book the other day when a sneeze or two overtook me. Once I was finished, Jace said “Bless you”, as clear as can be. Who taught him that? I don’t think it was me (or Steve)
