Brotherly love

Boden isn't terribly interested in August, yet, which is fine.  He does occasionally want to hold him...for about 5 sec :) and likes to dance in front of August talking "baby talk".  I thought he'd be a little more of a helper but requests to help out are mostly met with no thank yous"...at least he's polite about it.

Get out and boat!

Boden had a few more questions about this election than he did four years ago :)  On the way to pre-school, Todd was explaining why I needed to get out the door early and go vote.  In follow-up to the conversation, they passed a voting site and Todd mentioned that the people were there to vote (just like mom). 

Boden thought for a second and asked "Where's the water?".
Todd asked "Where's the water?? What do you mean? Water for what?". 
Boden said, "You need water to boat."
Todd laughed and laughed.  "Yes, you're right.  You do need water to boat.  But I said vote."

Then he began asking questions about why we're voting and what are the leaders leading us to...a string of complicated questions that can't easily be explained in the 10 min drive to pre-school!

Can You Keep A Secret?

If you're 3 1/2 years old, I'm going to say "no".  Boden was entrusted with helping his dad pick up my birthday gift a few weeks ago.  He was very clear that he wasn't going to let on what it was because it was a surprise, which I thought he understood:  "Mom, I can't tell you what your surprise is."  Clear, right? 

Well, maybe he meant he couldn't tell me what it was if I asked because after picking out my gift and taking it to his dad's office for safekeeping, he came home and was talking to about their day.  He said something  to his dad like "We can't tell mommy about her bike, right?"...while I was 3 feet away.  I tried to let this go claiming I heard "surprise" not "bike" (but was jazzed I was probably getting a bike!).  Later on, we were all sitting down talking and, out of the blue, Boden said "Gosh, it sure was busy at the bike store!".  Todd's face was priceless as he then tried to explain why they were at the bike store and making up something about me getting bike "accessories" for my birthday (unlikely).  To Boden's credit, his dad never told him he couldn't talk about where they had been that day.

Anyway, after two days of Boden dropping the obvious and Todd reminding him that we don't talk about Mommy's surprise, it was finally my birthday.  Boden and Todd retrieved it from the office while I waited at home with my biking shorts, helmet, and shoes on, ready for a ride.

Now I know my abcs

Now I know my ABCs, but I won't sing the whole song for you :)  Especially when you have a video camera on me.  Stinker.

myPhone

Thanks to an incredibly sweet deal brokered by his uncle, Boden is the proud owner of an iPod Touch.  He calls it a phone and I encourage that so he doesn't play with my phone.  And, since it's an Apple product, it would technically be an iPhone, right (if it were a phone, which it's not.  Are you still with me?)?



Embracing winter!

Long set-up to the story but it's important. 

Todd came home tonight from work and Boden yelled out (everything is yelled out, these days), "Daddy I coloring.  I coloring on my phone."  (He's got an art app that lets him "draw" and express himself artistically...yep, there's an app for that).  Todd asked with the mock excitement of an experienced parent, "You're coloring with your iPhone?!".  "No, Daddy, I coloring with MY phone".  Listen up, daddy-o.  It's not iPhone, it's myPhone.

@!*#!

i.e. my first swear word.  Yea, not good.

It went something like this:  I was escorting Sloan to her kennel because she was behaving like a begging mongrel while Boden was eating.  As I was shutting the door to the dog's room, Boden yelled, "Dammit, Sloan.  In your kennel!"  The good news is, he used the term appropriately, I guess :( 

He hasn't repeated it, since, and I didn't make a big deal of it (or any deal for that matter), so hopefully it's not a permanent part of his vernacular just yet.  And I told Todd to clean up his mouth from now on because I don't want a toddler that swears like a sailor...or his dad.

Go away, mommy.

This is what I hear most often from Boden, it seems...well, it's a close second to "No", that's still his favorite answer.  I hear this phrase when I'm telling him "No...

• "...you can't put your hand on the stove while we're cooking noodles.  You'll burn yourself and it will hurt very bad."
• "...you can't jump off the top step to the landing.  You'll get a big owie."
• "...you can't ride on the dogs.  They don't like it."
• "...you can't go outside without shoes and socks on when it's 3 degrees out.  You'll lose your feet."

Basically, every time I try to be a parent.  Sigh.  On the flip side, he's also started saying "I lub you, mommy." so that kind of makes up for things a little bit.

The Armadillo Inquisition

You might get it from the line of questioning in the video, but just to be clear for anyone who has a hard time following the train of thought of a two year old, Boden and I had a great visit to our first Toddler Time class at the Zoo.  The subject was textures by way of Armadillos and Chinchillas.  The experience was a bit like herding cats (the situation:  multiple 2 and 3 year olds doing mostly what they wanted--imagine that-- while the teacher taught and the adults tried to get their child to pay attention...after all, we paid $ for this!).  It was really fun to see Boden in this kind of environment--when it came time to touch the animals (Chinny and Tank), Boden was first in line to say "My touch" while other kids were not interested in touching.  He's all about experiencing things--a do-er...definitely not much of a listener, but I like that he's not afraid to jump in and try things out.

More shmallows and other toddlerisms

I don't remember learning to talk, but I'm sure if I did, I'd remember my own silly toddlerisms.  Two of Boden's had me laughing out loud when I figured out what he was thinking...and realized, that based on his background, what he was saying really does make sense...it's just a little off, and really cute:

1.  "More shmallows":  I realized today during our conversation about marshmallows (him asking for more, me saying no), that a marshmallow is actually a "shmallow" to Boden and that if he wants more than one, he'll say "More shmallows" (i.e. marshmallows).

Him: "Me want shmallow."
Me: "Marshmallow?"
Him (vigorously shaking his head agreement):  "Yes, more shmallows!"
Me: "You can have one."
Him:  "More shmallows."
Me:  "More than one marshmallow?"
Him: "Yes, one more shmallow."

This conversation reminds me a bit of Abbott and Costello's Who's on First? bit.
2.  "Peoples are coming!":  The background is that our next door neighbors happen to have the last name of "Peoples", and you can imagine that there is the occasional reference to them:  "That's Peoples' yard, honey, stay in our yard", "No, that's Peoples' mailbox, we don't open it...it's not ours.", "Wave to Mrs. Peoples"...etc.

It's not hard to see how this really general last name of "Peoples" has become part of Boden's vernacular and is interchangeable with "people".  Recently, we stayed at a hotel and Boden was checking things out while we waited for Todd to come in with our bags.  I was waiting in the lounge and Boden came running back to me from the hotel hallway yelling "Peoples are coming, peoples are coming!".  I smiled as the other hotel guests walked by; I knew what he meant and I wasn't expecting to see my neighbor.  I think he used "peoples" before this, but this was the first time it struck me that this little error was because of our neighbors and the conversations we have about them.

Boden and Todd were also out shopping yesterday and when they got to the store, Boden greeted everyone with a "Hi, Peoples!".   It's so cute that I don't think either of us are trying really hard to set him straight, just yet.