recording the little things

i am only recording the following for my own memory's sake. sometimes i feel strange about the fact that other people read this stuff, and could perceive it as me putting it out there to brag on my child. it is really more of a virtual Baby Book, where i can look back and marvel at the little things that no one else might care to know.
i am just amazed by this little guy, more and more each day-- he is full of surprises-- so inquisitive and perceptive -- comprehending everything, and trying to verbalize whatever he possibly can.
i know my second will probably be severely short changed when it comes to all of these firsts... being recorded and whatnot. he (or she) will have to go to therapy for feeling like the second child who never got blogged about... and i'll spend years trying to convince him that i love him just as much-- i just didn't have time to write it all down.
but for now, while i have the time, i am enjoying more than ever the current gift of Christian Alexander-- and the smiles he brings to our faces all day long.

he brings me clothes and shoes and tells me whose they are. he even did this on vacation with Gramsy and Poppy's stuff.

earlier today, he was playing his little nursery rhyme piano book and started chanting, "Pack...Pack...Pack". I thought he was saying 'apple' (apple = 'pahk', not sure why but that's how he says it). then i realized he was saying (Gramma) "Peg". we went there the other day to visit and he got to play her piano... so now she is Gramma Pack.

this morning he pointed to a frog in a book and said "wawa"... only the frog was not in any water. then i remembered that he has another book where there is a frog who sits in the water. i guess he's made the association that frogs live in the water.

Gramsy must have told him that the scrub brush in the elmo bath book was a brush, cuz when i opened it to read it today, i asked him what was in the tub (thinking maybe he'd say 'bubbles'). he said "Brush!" which i've never heard him say before.... it took me by surprise.
when i told him there were bubbles in the tub, he paused for a millisecond, and said, "Poopa" (Cooper) ... who blew bubbles in the pool 3 weeks ago. he's been talking about cooper a lot since then, but has never mentioned the bubble blowing.
yesterday i was reading to him and he pointed to a picture of a boy with a halloween mask on (just a little black eye mask), and he said "Gogga". it took me a minute, but he kept repeating it over and over, until i realized he was saying "Goggles". then he said, "Poopa". Again, hasn't mentioned the fact that Cooper was wearing goggles that day he blew bubbles in the pool, in 3 weeks.

he is playing with a Vermont Maid syrup bottle this morning that i washed out so he could flip the lid open and shut. he's been pretending to pour it on everything and hasn't put it down yet. he was examining it at one point and pointed to the cameo of the Vermont Maid herself, and said "Ball". it took me a few seconds to realize her picture was inside of a circle/oval.

he's taken to telling little stories when he remembers something. out of the blue a couple of weeks ago he started talking about Kristina. it was about a month after she'd visited. right before she left, she got a soccer ball out of her car and kicked it around the driveway for a few minutes. and here we are a month afterward, when he looks at me suddenly and says, "Nina." our conversation went like this...
"What about Nina?"
"Ball... Ball!"
"Nina had a ball?"
"Kick....Kick."
"Nina kicked the ball?"
"Bounce."
"Nina bounced the ball?"
"Nina!"

and now he brings it up all of the time. same with "Poopa.... Wawa.... Nunno (funnel)... Pop!" describing how Cooper had a funnel that he made the pool water 'pop' through.
or he'll say "Poopa... Kuck-ah (Tucker)... Vroom...!"
"Cooper and Tucker have motorcycles?"
"Vroom...Vroom!"
"What did Cooper do on his motorcycle?"
"Up...Up...... boom!" (describing how he went over a jump while riding his dirtbike)

I love this age... i think it's my favorite so far. watching his face light up at the littlest things, and seeing him discover, problem-solve, and begin to engage in imaginary play (feeding his new "Peggy Bear" (from Peggy at the Lake) a cracker).

These last few days of summer are always nostalgic... and now they are new at the same time. ... i'm not going back to school. i'm schooling my own little one in the things of everyday life. it's simple and it's soooo good.