Tidbits from Texas

A little of almost anything with absolutely no correlations...

WITHOUT LOOKING IT UP, what is a "dell", as in "Farmer in the dell" or whey, as in "eating her curds and whey" (I figured "curds and whey" out watching cable and was excited this lifetime mystery was solved, but I realized tonight that I don't know what a dell is, although I could guess.)

I was amazed to see that Ivan remembers things. We went for our second walk down the block and back (it's a very long block) and when we got to a certain spot between two houses, he pulled away from me, stopped, pointed and kept saying "da" over and over. I then realized this was where a dog barked at us last time, only it wasn't there again. I was explaining to him that the dog was maybe inside, but Ivan kept insisting and tried to run up the lawn to the fence. Our commotion finally brought the dog to where we were (some watchdog!!!) and Ivan was pleased to greet it and continue on our way.

Ivan loves to have conversations on his phone or whatever he uses as a phone, another toy or even the dog's chew bone. What is hilarious is that he will be jabbering away then start laughing and talking and laughing. I'd like to know what he and his "friend" on the phone find so funny!

I find it interesting that my accounts of Ivan's first potty pee garnered the MOST COMMENTS EVER! Is this because we've all gone through this (well hopefully all of us have!) or that we all have potty issues. Our awesome sequel to this is that he peed while standing on a stool into the big potty. He also peed on the carpet after getting up from his potty seat with no contributions in it, so don't think he's totally perfect or anything! We also found a returned portion of food on the carpet that night and the scary thing is, we don't know who it came from, the dog, cat or Ivan. None were acting weird, but usually the dog's returns do not stay there long for reasons we will not elaborate on, so that leaves the cat and Ivan and I don't think the cat's ever left us something. But could it really be Ivan, running around so happily? Lucky for daddy, he was busy on the phone when he found it, so I got to clean it up. Wait a minute, he was laughing on the phone... Was he talking to the same "friend" Ivan talks to on the play phone??? I might think so, except that I answered the phone first and there was a real person on it, but was that person still on the phone when Brian found the incident???

Ivan's new games include: pulling books off the shelves, hitting the dog in the head with various objects, pulling mommy's glasses off, chewing on his hair brush, being chased by anyone or anything, hide-and-seek, spinning in the office chair, and pulling the train set apart. He also got a tricycle when we had supper at friends. (It's amazing, Ivan can hardly go out without getting a gift, he's gotten gifts at the grocery store from an old friend who wanted to give him something and now to a new friend's home when we go to eat!)

We've been having to get creative at times to make sure Ivan eats his vegetables. We've put green beans in his oatmeal, mashed them and hid them in potatoes, added salt, given him canned ones, fresh ones, frozen ones, dipped them in ketchup... and all along what we needed was an older "sibling". Little aunt Shayshay was over, eating green beans and Ivan wanted in her lap. She obliged and he started helping himself to her plain, cooked green beans! She'd eat some and say "mmm", then he'd grab some and say "mmmm" and smile at her. He loves his auntie and we love her. Maybe we should have her over for dinner every night, you never know what we could get him eating then! Of course, we'd have to get the teenager eating it first. Maybe he thought if the teenager ate it, it couldn't be all bad!




Ivan has reconfigured the English language and simplified it. Most of what he says revolves around a single vowel sound "ah", (mamma, dadda, nanna=banana and grandma, ma??, da=dog, ba=saba...). The command for Saba to give us her ball is "donne" (pronounced like dome with "n" sound replacing the "m"). Ivan loves to throw the ball or steal it from the dog and chew it himself, so I was trying to teach him to say "donne". He would listen carefully, then very deliberately say "day" and burst out with a beaming smile of accomplishment like he'd pegged the word right on. I don't know if his hearing is off, or if he thinks we should all adjust to his new findings. Every other need is related with the "I need" grunt. I need a drink "uhn", I need this opened "uhn", I want to destroy that "uhn", I don't like you telling me NO, "UHN" and the full body throw of exasperation on the carpet. Yikes! Where did this all come from? and where is Shayshay when you need her? I try to look at it this way... His strong will means he will not be weak and can stand up for himself and what he believes in, (even if it's having the plant tore up to shreds). He'll learn all these fabulous words eventually, just like everything else, rolling, crawling, walking... just be patient and enjoy the guessing game.