So I left the house at 10:36 this morning. We went to Payless, Kmart, the bank (had to go in to cash in rolled change), TJ Maxx, and Food Lion. Okay so I also went through the McDonald’s drive-thru too, as my little darling has entered the chicken nugget phase. I pulled back in my driveway at 12:47. In and out of a rear facing carseat 5 times in two hours with winter clothes on (I know I could turn him around, but I really still think it is the safest way for him). So, errands for the week…check, check. I’m so bad about that. I let little errands build up because let’s face it, running errands with kids is usually stressful and tedious at best. But a lot of the errands are somewhat times sensitive. Like the fact that we ran out of milk at lunchtime yesterday. And we had nothing else for Caleb to drink but water. Literally. A pair of shoes that I needed to return was fast approaching the end of their 30 day return window. So I ran around like a crazy person this morning getting all of these things done. I was on the phone with a friend of mine who has 3 boys, ages 5, 3, and 21 months. She asked if Caleb was in the cart (in Kmart). No he was running around. Touching everything. She said I was braver than she was. She said even if she only has one with her, he goes in the cart. Caleb still goes in the cart at the grocery store, but for other shopping trips, I am trying to let him ‘have his freedom’ so that he learns to stay close and help out. Overall he does pretty good. But it is poke-your-eyes-out-with-pencils kind of tedious. “Come on Caleb. Yes I see it. Come on. Let’s go look at this. Okay. Come on. Want to carry this? Yes I see it sweetheart. We need to go. Come on bud.” But I’m sure you know how that goes. We even left a Thomas the Train flashlight this morning!! Yup, I patted myself on the back for that parenting moment. I treaded eeeever so carefully, as Kmart is like a no-man’s-land these days. No one ever goes there anymore. But they had a game that was on our Christmas list (and I couldn’t find it anywhere else), and they also have the My First Craftsman tools, which we’ll be stocking up on. As we walked through the store carrying the sixteen freakin dollar Thomas flashlight, he incessantly repeated, “I can take Thomas home Mommy. We pay for Thomas now? I can take Thomas up dare (pointing toward the registers).” This kid’s not dumb, seriously. So we set Thomas down a number of times and bid him farewell, only to go back and retrieve him. Finally I set him down, we both waved goodbye, and I distracted him with carrying a big box. Then he saw a Little Einsteins book. What Thomas? Shwhew, wipes forehead with back of hand. I can’t believe I wormed my way out of that one sans meltdown!

He really is a good kid though. He is actually fairly easy to shop with. I consider myself lucky. 5 stops in two hours without a peep. I started this thing at his bedtime where I say “Snug as a bug in aaaaa…*and I stop to think for a few seconds and then make something up* a burrito!!” He starts giggling and say “A RUUUG!” “OOh a rug,” I exclaim. “That’s right, a rug. Silly old Mommy. I get confused.” Now he looks forward to it every night. One night I was falling a few seconds behind schedule in saying it and he said, “You can say snug bug Mommy.” I have successfully taught him to say “May I have…” this week. He already says please and thank you at the end of the sentence. Scott had to do some plumbing work under the house this past weekend. The bathtub drain was stopped up. We tried to use a pipe snake to no avail, and we pretty much ruined it trying over and over. So he crawled under the house, and Caleb and I sat in the bathroom waiting. I poured near boiling water down the drain to identify where the clog was. Scott yelled back up to me that it worked like a charm. You should have seen the look on Caleb’s face. Priceless. His eyes got huge, and he said, “Daddy go down de draim Mommy!” And yes I do mean draim. With an M. So Scott started hollering back at him. Caleb yelled back, “I can rescue you Daddy! We find you!” He looked at me and said, “Daddy go down de draim. He gotta be somewhere!” It has obviously stuck with him, as I was putting him down for a nap yesterday after lunch, and he patted me gently on my cheek and said, “Don’t worry Mommy. We can find Daddy down de draim.” I told him Daddy was at work and he was satisfied with that answer.

So much fun. Honestly. I had no idea. Some days I wish I could keep him this age forever. It is just such a wide eyed discovery period where they can begin to talk back finally. You get to hear what is going on inside that little head. I had to wait two solid years. He literally stopped talking around his first birthday and soaked up words until his second birthday without a peep. Then he decided it was time. He did animal sounds one week, single words the next week, 2-3 word sentences the following, and 6+ word sentences within another two weeks. And his speech is extremely clear. Has been since he started talking. He was just waiting until he knew he could say everything perfectly. No use wasting your breath if no one understands you I suppose. And don’t even act like you might not understand or be listening. Because he will get about an inch from your face and take your face with his hands and make you stare right at him. He is truly a mess. And I am so lucky to have him.

Comments

One Response to “superwoman”

    Amber
    November 1st, 2007 9:05 am

    I hope you can rescue Scott soon!!! :)

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