I like all this laughing we get to do. There are so many little moments that make me smile on any given day, so in addition to documenting the big moments and milestones, I always want to be sure to document the daily smiles and challenges.
"I always feel like somebody's watching me..."
On Saturday, Shepard and I were practicing our tooth-brushing. I am pretty good at it, with very few cavities on my overall record (just one, I think at age 30). ;)
Shepard has recently graduated to a minature toothbrush with the cookie monster on it. I put a dollop of his kids' toothpaste on it, loaded up my own brush and we both commenced tooth brushing. He was studying me intently to see how I was doing it, so I decided to squat all the way down so he could see me. I showed him how to brush the insides, the back, etc. I was so impressed with his attention. Then, I saw the light in his eyes as he began to squat slowly. As if to say, "Oh, that's what I'm missing. Mommy is squatting, so I will too!" I nearly spit out my mentadent laughing. He doesn't miss a thing!
Feed Us!
I get the terrible task of dropping Shepard off each morning. It's only bearable because I know he has fun with his friends all day...and I get an awesome hug and reception when I show back up each afternoon. When I pick him up, he immediately points and does his "DAAA!" sound, showing me something in the room. All of that to say, I really enjoy when I get to drop him off or pick him up at an odd time. We usually cruise in just before snack time in the morning. Today, I got to see the kiddos in action. They were all seated around their mini tables as Shepard and I removed his jacket. As the teacher pulled out the bag of cereal, all the kids began slapping the table and making all kinds of noises. If I had to interpret, I'd go with "Feed Me! Feed Me! Feed Me!" It was so cute to see them all burst out at once.
Night Night
Shepard is pretty good at going to bed. He pretty much hasn't been given any other option between the hours of 6:15 - 7:15 pm every night since he was six weeks old. He has developed a fine taste for some book-reading before bed, which we gladly indulge. He really likes the peekaboo books that have flaps to reveal stuff beneath. Some days, he'd just DONE. Last night after dinner, he ran to his room. I thought we might play in there for a bit before bed time. However, Shepard went right to his crib and looked for the blankie. (Not a blanket, mind you...THE blankie) He looked at me like, "Ma--where my blankie at?" I told him to go look in the den and see if Daddy would help him as I knew it was in there. He came running out of the room and into the den. Daddy, who had overheard our conversation, asked him, "Shepard, where's your blanket?" To which Shepard shrugged and threw up his hands like "I don't know." Very cute. As soon as we got our "jam jams" on, he started saying "Night night." I guess he was ready to hit the hay.
We get new words every day. Saturday's word was "chickpeas!" as I was buying some at Target. I generally can't get him to greet folks with a Hi or Hello, but chickpeas we've got down. We are starting to get some sentences, though only intelligible by him. He will start them and end them with words we can understand..."Daddy schmee gah la go?" Things like that. And over the weekend, he seemed to be experimenting with some Forrest-Gump-sounding words like Mah-maaay instead of Mommy. Who knows?
