Wednesday, January 14, 2009

More tales from toddlerhood aka mommy is nuts...

Owen has been sleeping on the floor for a week now. Yes, that one night of us sleeping on the floor turned into a new habit. I'm fine with it. He's happy. He mostly sleeps through the night better than he had been. Maybe it's because he's getting over his cold or maybe it's the change of perspective. Who knows. He's sleeping. Once he GOES to sleep that is. Some nights he will NOT fall asleep without one of us in there. More often than not it has to be me. I love to be loved. Really, I do. But I'd prefer he show it in a less needy and whiney way. Less throw-himself-on-the-floor-screaming and more kiss-hug-kiss-I-love-you-mommy. You know what I mean?

His language skills are also developing at quite a pace right now. It's fascinating. He's learning new words and stringing them together to make all kinds of wonderful sentences. Why just yesterday he yelled "OH NO! OH NO!", from the dining room where he was playing with things he shouldn't have been while I was ignoring his playing with this he shouldn't have been. I thought maybe if I stopped telling him to stop it he would just get bored and find something else to scratch the table with. I went in to find out what the "OH NO" was about. He told me "dat fell on the floor!" Dat turned out to be a basket, which was okay to play with, so I told him to get down and pick it up. To which he replied "NO! You pick it up!" Now I'd like to tell you that it didn't sound the way it appears to have sounded. That he just forgot to say please. But it really did sound exactly like it appears that it did. So I left the room. When I was teaching I told my students I didn't argue with 8 year olds and that when I said no, I rarely changed my mind. And I rarely did. I was good at not arguing with them. I'm working hard at not arguing with my 2 year old too. He just doesn't understand when I tell him I don't change my mind! As I've mentioned before, I got 8 year olds. I don't get 2 year olds.

Amongst his language development he's also developed this sound he makes when he thinks something is absurb or when he's disgusted. It's one of those throaty sounds that I can't describe with a word. Think teenage girl being told she can't drive all her friends around in the car after midnight. Are you hearing it?? Well, Owen's been making that sound when we tell him no, or he can't do something or have something or when he's basically not getting his way. I've mentioned before that noises bother me, right? Well, this one is bothering me. I'm trying to ignore it with the hopes that it will go away. But it still gets on my nerves. I've been wondering where he'd pick up such a sound too. He doesn't watch anything bad on TV. Annoying, but not bad. Until the other day when Morgan said something that I thought was ridiculous and I made the same sound! And then I knew. It was from me!! Like the damn it he had been saying a month ago. So if you ever wonder what your annoying or bad habits are just hang around a toddler for a couple of years and the bad habits will present themselves in your child! The damn it did go away by the way. It's now "OH NO!" And he says it ALL THE TIME!

Lastly, Owen loves the phone. LOVES IT! And has for awhile. He has quite a few of his own phones too. They make all manner of noises. Ringing, talking, farm animal sounds. Mimi even has old cell phones at her house for him to play with. Naunee lets him play with her real phone. (Which he called 911 on one day!) Despite having all these phones at his disposal he still wants to play with the real deal. And he's even getting good at talking on it when there are people on the other end. But what has been really amusing is the conversations he has when there is no one there! And his favorite person to call is Maggie. He LOVES to talk to Maggie on the phone. Mostly when she's not really on the phone. But when she is he will say some stuff too. But today he called her several times. One time was a pretty long conversation. He told her about why puppy's bed was in the hall way. How I had been vacuuming. How he pooped in his diaper and now mommy had to change it. And a bunch of other stuff I didn't quite get but he knew exactly what he was saying. Later in the evening he called her from downstairs to tell her a few more things. I wasn't down there but Morgan told me he was calling Maggie again.

I really do love all the things he's doing right now. Well, most all of them. I can live without a few. And I'd like him to start doing a few other things too. Like using the toilet. When I suggest he do this he says, "No, O fine." But he wants to wear underpants. Maybe next week I'll get up the energy to put some on him and see what happens. Maybe Lisa's daughter can come over for the week and train him.

And now I must go to bed so I can be ready for what tomorrow brings. We are having the neighbor boy over for a few hours. Could be interesting. But I'm hoping it's not!

6 comments:

Sarah Coggins said...

For the record, I'm officially taking notes! I better knock off my bad habits while I still have a chance. ;)

Good luck today! Hope everything goes well. Although, I'm betting no matter what, you will have an interesting story to share.

Lorrie said...

How cute! my dd is 8, and I can still remember some of those things you described.

Noelia said...

I can imagine O saying "Oh No!" in that cute little voice of his. Kids are awesome. I still find it cute when Joshua learns a new word or uses some humour. Hopefully you are getting some more sleep now that O is sleeping through the night.

emily said...

WHen my sister was aroune Owen's age I remember her liking the phone too...so much that one a.m. she called NY (we live in MA)...it showed up on the phone bill!

Lily said...

w, I also had a flashback to my kids younger days. Thanks for the walk down memory lane

jillconyers said...

I love your toddler stories :)