Thank You, Thumper

We are vacationing in Orlando, complete with trips to Disney, both coasts, and a designated manatee refuge with 72 degree springs.

Initially, our only Disney plans were to spend one day at Animal Kingdom. We did not think Magic Kingdom (the traditional Disney destination) was necessary since Kieran has never seen anything Disney. The only introduction he had to Mickey Mouse and crew before Florida was the pack of stickers and temporary tattoos I got him at the store last week.

I guess that was enough.

Much to our surprise, Kieran has fallen in love with the Disney characters. Walt and his successors have done an excellent job of turning Orlando into Mickey's town. Even though we didn't do any of the parks until we'd been in town four days, we were inundated by mouse ears at every turn. I'll admit, it might have made even me a little mouse-crazy.

And so I talked Tom into a trip to Magic Kingdom.

Because we weren't planning on the expense of two extra Disney tickets, we had to get creative. In a very short amount of time. (There aren't a lot of legit options out there, by the way.)

Consequently, we pimped ourselves out as potential resort shareholders. It's not necessarily a route I would recommend to anyone with small children with no babysitter. Basically you eat a one star lunch, hear a two bit sales pitch, tour a five star resort, and have to refuse three or four offers before you are shown the door (and your much-reduced park tickets). It doesn't help that you are tag-teamed during the final push - their banter is reminiscent of the good cop/bad cop routine on cheesy TV shows. The strangest part in all of this is that the salesperson who was your best friend for the first 1.5 hours becomes almost hostile as soon as you give the final "no."

At any rate, we got our tickets and were shipped off to the Magic Kingdom. We arrived in time for the 3:00 parade, and we closed the park down after the last fireworks sparkled out over Cinderella's castle. Kieran rode "up! down! up! down!" on the Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride, fell asleep during the Haunted Mansion, and watched with wide eyes as the floats and characters passed in front of us during the Spectral Magic Light Parade.

The best part of the day was when Kieran finally got to meet Mickey and Minnie. He had talked about them for hours. As soon as I told him we were going to meet and perhaps hug Mickey, he had been repeating "hug Mickey? hug Mickey?!" incessantly. When we reached the front of the line, he ran up to Mickey and gave him a big hug. And then he kissed Mickey on the nose. It was incredibly sweet.

I must admit, it wasn't the only moment during our two days at Disney that I got a little misty.

I had another misty moment the following day at Animal Kingdom. Kieran loves animals, and I have been excited to see his reaction at something a little more flashy than the exhibits he is accustomed to. We are Friends of the Zoo at home, and Kieran never tires of visiting. He loved the exhibits at Animal Kingdom too, but we had to laugh when he fell asleep during the last few minutes of the Kilimanjaro Safari Ride (one of the most popular rides in the park). His favorite part of Animal Kingdom was the Finding Nemo musical. He was frightened at the beginning of the sharks' number, but once he realized they were harmless he kept (nervously) bebopping along to the music.

Before "Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade" started, we hurried over to meet a few characters. Kieran gave some loves to Donald Duck, and then he spied Thumper - the only Disney character he was actually familiar with outside of his new stickers and tattoos. My mom bought him a "Thumper Counts to 10" book last year, and it is a semi-regular read in our house. The pictures are beautiful, and he was set on kissing Thumper as soon as he made the connection.

Unfortunately, we were a few back in line when Thumper had to leave to join the parade. Kieran saw Thumper leaving and started crying as if his heart was broken. We tried to tell him that we would see Thumper in the parade, but Kieran wanted none of it - he started running after Thumper.

 

As he ran behind Thumper, he cried and sobbed "hug! hug!" I had no idea what to do. Thankfully, Thumper heard the distraught toddler losing ground behind him and took pity.

Thumper stopped to hug my baby. He hugged him long and hard, waiting for Kieran's tears to dry up.

Disney may be a billion dollar corporation, but it has instilled in its cast members the reason behind its success:

Us.

Happy Halloween!

In case I don't get a chance to update before Halloween, here are some early wishes for a good one to you and yours. Trick or treat safely!

(Thank you, hubby o' mine, for carving our pumpkin like my monster shirts! Aren't you clever?!)

Rah Rah Roh

When I posted last week's Toddlerese word, I had already started thinking about making the following video. Unfortunately, I'm not a techno geek; but I live with one! Many thanks to my dear hubby for spending a few hours splicing some video clips together. I'm sure the fact that Kieran and I were hanging over his shoulder the whole time made it that much easier.

For your viewing pleasure, this video will reveal the true meaning of last week's Toddlerese word.

This video is dedicated to my lady Kelly, who always belted out "Old Time Rock & Roll" almost as good as Seger himself on karaoke night.

And Tia Tammy? You rock. ;)

Bitter Haikus 2

Fuzzi Bunz Catastrophe

Smelly blow-outs on

unseasonably warm days;

Life is bittersweet.

No es bueno.
Spring forward, fall back;
I can never keep them straight.
Travel . . . time change . . . damn.

Toddlerese 3

It's Tuesday, which means it's time for another one of Kieran's special toddlerese words.

If you're still wondering about last week's word, wonder no more. Kieran was saying "potty chair." He doubles the first consonant sound of most words, so potty became "pah-pah". Chair has always been some version of "cow", we're really not sure why. So there you have it: "po-po coooo" = potty chair.

Here's number 3:

Guesses?

Toddlerese 2

I'm sure you've been wondering all week what the translation of Kieran's toddlerese word is.

Ready for it?

It was avocado.

Signing wouldn't really help us with that word, as it gets finger-spelled in ASL. While Kieran does know his alphabet (spoken), he's not quite there with signs.

I decided to try toddlerese part 2 - take a stab at this one:

I'll put up a hint later - all I'll say for now is that if you are a signing family, please don't give this one away ;)

Ok, I've been asked for a hint. It is two words - first word, two syllables. He's actually signing the first word in the video.

Bitter Haikus

Dog! What good are you?!
You did not eat the cat puke,

so I stepped in it.

Don't glare at me, cat.

Your stomach would be full if

you hadn't puked there.

Grrr.

Tom has one to add:

Constantly licking;
Always laying in walkway;
Go home big black dog!

Water Sprites

I hosted a particularly messy co-op class today: "Design Your Own Wrapping Paper." I bought butcher paper and some powdered Tempera paint, then everyone used hands, feet, cookie cutters, cars, balls, and various natural objects to paint the paper on our driveway. The plan is to use the paper to wrap presents.

After the painting festivities, Kieran and his friend London (whose mama blogs here) decided that they needed a bath. Who were we to argue?! They had a blast, and we are definitely inviting Jessica and crew back again soon.

 

 

Toddlerese

We’ve been signing with Kieran since he was just a few months old. I’d guess he can sign almost 150 words and recognizes many more than that. Quick tip for anyone who signs with their baby – don’t stop signing just because they start speaking. You may think your toddler is going to be a verbal genius because she can say “mama,” “papa,” “nana”*, and “uh-uh-uh-uh!”**, but you will likely have to wait months or even years before you are graced with things like consonant blends or prepositions.

Signing has been a learning experience for all three of us. Neither Tom nor I knew much about sign language before Kieran, but after reading a little about it we knew we wanted to try it out with him. I really can’t say enough about the benefits of signing. Kieran started signing well before he could say a recognizable word (aside from "mama"). His first sign was “more” when he was about 8 or 9 months old, and as soon as he realized that putting his fingertips together brought about a specific response from us, he said “more” about everything.

By 10 months Kieran had a handful of signs: “more,” “mama,” “papa,” “fish,” “motorcycle,” “hat,” “dog,” “light,” “book,” “hot” . . . We learned signs for anything he took an interest in. He loved pulling the string to turn the kitchen ceiling fan light on and off; we learned the sign for light, and within days he was signing “light” when he wanted to pull the string. At 11 months, he signed his first sentence: “more food.” We patted ourselves on the back for nurturing the next great linguist.

We are entirely convinced that signing has staved off more tantrums than we can count. We learned signs for things Kieran liked, as he liked them. “Cracker” was an early (and frequent) sign. “Mama’s milk,” “water,” “food,” “book, “music”; all these words represented parts of our daily rhythm, and Kieran could ask for whatever he wanted. As his world expanded, so did our signing repertoire.

Interested in signing but not sure where to start? Think about the major activities in your baby’s day: nursing, eating, singing, family, toys. We started with “mama,” “papa,” “mama’s milk,” “more,” and “book.” Once you learn a few, the rest will come much easier. Just keep expanding as your baby’s (or toddler’s) interests branch out. We learned many of our signs because of books that Kieran liked (animals in particular). As Kieran got older, we added action words (“swing,” “slide,” “walk,” “play”) and less ordinary words that we might not talk about every day (“store,” “fire”). And we didn't get any fancy programs to learn sign language, we just learned from the ASL site.

Now that he is working on his spoken language we rely on signing just as much, if not more. He really tries to say things, but he’s right in the middle of Toddlerese – that language unique to the three and under crowd that simultaneously warms your heart, makes you giggle, and frustrates the heck out of you. Because he’s learning things faster than he can make his vocal cords work, we are still introducing new signs. For example, he learned signs for the basic colors around 18 months (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, white), but he’s just now saying the same words with his mouth in a recognizable way. Without sign language, it would have taken much more pointing and frustration for us to figure out he understood colors.

I find myself continuously asking Kieran to sign something when I’m having problems understanding his words. Most of the time that clears everything up, but there are still many things we don’t have signs for. I thought it would be amusing to have you all "guess that Kieran word." If there’s any interest, I might make it a regular feature – Toddlerese Tuesdays or something fun like that.

So without further ado, here is the first installment:

Care to venture a guess? Here's a hint: it's one word, four syllables.

*That’s banana, but we all know the “ba” is optional.

**That’s dog. Ok, it’s the sound of a dog barking through the eyes and vocal cords of a 15 month old, but dang it we thought it was brilliant.

Snozzberries

Kieran never ceases to amaze me. We really don't actively "teach" him much of anything , but he seems to pick it all up (we have actively taught him signs, but now that he's talking we don't focus on new signs like we should).

Tonight he showed me that he could count to 10 all by himself. He can also get most of the way through the alphabet. I'm guessing that he learned to count by playing hide and seek (we count very loudly so he can hear us), and I'm sure he learned the alphabet because we sing it while brushing his teeth.

Of course immediately after he counted to ten, he leaned over and licked the flocked wallpaper in our dining room.

Who ever heard of a snozzberry?

Smile!

Today's post is merely to share a few things that have made me smile today.

My sister's boyfriend, Darin, stayed with us last night. He and Tammy are almost as crazy about Kieran as Tom and I are, and we were very excited that he was coming over to visit. We celebrated by taking Kieran to his first miniature golf game, where we got this picture:

Today before Darin left for home (loaded down with leftover pork loin, mashed potatoes, cherry tomatoes from the vine, frozen homemade pancakes, frozen homemade chicken/green chile burritos, and some special things to tuck into Tia Tammy's care package), he and Kieran went out back to play. I got this shot of them blowing bubbles together:

 

Also, Darin can no longer say that Kieran learned his cheesy smile face from me, as evidenced by this picture:

And finally: Nikki shared a poem today that really made me smile, so I'm passing it along:

God Says Yes to Me

Kaylin Haught

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes

I hope you've had your own smiles today, too.

~d

A Jedi You Will Be

I saw this picture yesterday and really love it. Tom and I were discussing the best way to caption it, but I am not enamored with any of our suggestions.

Tom: "It should say 'President Obama-Wan Kenobi.'"

Dionna: "No, it should say 'Isn't he dreamy?!'"

Tom: (rolls eyes)

Dionna: "Ok, ok. What about 'Return of the . . .' What's a good word for someone who super kicks butt?"

Tom: "Obama?"

Obviously, we're coming up short. So I'm leaving it up to all of you smart people. Give me your best caption for this picture: