My new addiction

I have to admit that I have been spending an inordinate amount of time reading about and watching video of Tai Shan.
And with a face like that, who could resist?
This latest fixation erupted yesterday, with all the news reports about the baby giant panda's media debut. I know at least one of the reporters that covered the media day and I am insanely jealous that I couldn't have such a plum assignment.
For now I'll just have to live with the pandacam.

Giving thanks

I am thankful for funny moments like this that make parenting a joy.
I am thankful for warm weather, which made it seem worth it to spend Thanksgiving at home.
I am therefore thankful we didn't have to travel this holiday.
And I am thankful that Thanksgiving is but once a year, for a week's worth of turkey leftovers is more than enough.

The cheapest ride at the fair

Last weekend, we decided to make a trip to our county fair.
It was my son's first county fair, as well as mine (Yes, I'm a city girl through and through).
He seemed to enjoy all the livestock and a couple of the rides.
But the highlight of the day for him was clearly the impressive collection of tractors, mini-excavators and small frontloaders that were on display by a local tractor salesman.
My Darling Son eagerly climbed onto nearly everyone of the 3 dozen machines. It didn't seem to matter that they didn't move and none of the buttons or levers worked. He was in heaven, simply being able to sit down and touch a real machine.

Reading is fundamental

Reading is especially fundamental if you're a 3-year-old boy who wants something.

We have a nightly ritual at our house. If the boy is good, he gets a short video of his liking.

Tonight, my Darling Son couldn't decide what he wanted to watch. So he started glancing at our collection of tapes.

He started with the black tapes, which were out of the box (because when you have a busy household, little details such as putting VCR tapes back in their appropriate box just slide.)

The second tape he found had a very simple black and white label. No pictures. No color. Just white print against a black background. Very little to hint at what it could be. But I was about to put it away, since it's a movie that's a little raunchy compared to Winnie the Pooh.

But he pointed to the largest word in print and deciphered it.

"Mommy, this is Shrek."

He was right, but I asked him if he was sure, but he pointed to the word again.
And he read it again.

Now, he knows most of the letters phonetically (since that's what his Montessori school emphasizes), but we hadn't really advanced to putting letters together to make words. So I'm not aware that he can read words.

Maybe he recognized it because the S in the world has little horns like Shrek does?

I don't know. However he did it, I was too shocked to refuse his request.

And so he got to see the ogre and I got my first glimpse into my son's latest mental milestone.

A little Italian

When I was pregnant, I used to joke that I was carrying an Italian, or at least someone who had been Italian in a previous life.

There was one when I was barely showing, and all I could think of was a big bowl of spaghetti and meatballs.

Now my little boy loves pasta, especially when he's got a good appetite.

But here is the kicker. Yesterday, feeling tired, he told me: "Mommy, I want to go to bed-e'" with just the tiniest kind of Italian lilt to the end of that word.

My husband and I are probably at fault for this quirk. The little guy has not been pronouncing the final consonant of his words consistently (his name is usually Nah), enough to convince my in-laws that we need to take him to a speech therapist.

The jury is still out on whether he needs speech therapy, but My Darling RedHead and I have been overemphasizing that last consonant in an effort to get him started.
He went through a couple of days of saying "book-ah" and now he's saying "bed-e'".

I know, I know, it's not such a thrilling blog entry but we've been having a lazy week. :)