"A car!"

I think the funniest thing about raising a kid is that you're busy, but not always in a running-around-going-here-and-there-things-to-do kind of way... Instead you're always watching him to make sure he stays out of trouble, trying to remember to teach him words while you are loading the dishwasher ("A boh!" "No, that's a cup." "A kuh!" "Good job!"), and pushing certain chores and activities aside because let's face it--folding laundry while your kid jumps on it and throws it around just isn't very fun. (Well, not for you anyways.)

It also means I forget how long it's been since I posted on here. Not that terribly many people read it, I don't think, but it's still writing practice and typing is much easier than hand writing so I get at least a little journaling in...

I've been hearing a lot about cars over the last couple of days. Every time we go outside he points and says, "A car!" If we're in a parking lot he'll point everywhere and say it over and over again, "A car! A car! A car!" Sometimes he'll stand at our window, and if he sees one go down the street he'll announce it, "A car!" Because of this, I went through his toys and found all his little matchbox cars, and so far he's done a pretty good job of keeping track of them. They usually stay in a pack, mostly, and he'll pick one up, set it on the arm of the couch, and say "Wee!" as he drives them down and parks them next to each other on the cushion.

"A ball!" is the other phrase I hear. He's got quite a few balls in various makes and types, and he'll bring them to me, just like the cars, and announce, "A ball!" Sometimes if I'm not paying attention, he'll repeat himself over and over again until it reaches my radar, and then I'll respond and he'll move on. "A bowl!" is the newest, less used and often confused with a cup (as stated at the beginning of the post).

It's kind of nice to hear him saying words besides animal noises. Cat, puppy, sheep, horse, goat, bear, duck, chicks, tiger, lion, dinosaur, cow-- he knows them all! While visiting my parents at the end of April, I was trying to get him to go ask his Grandpa for help with something, and I said, "Say Grandpa, Grandpa!" and he responded "Appa appa!" We had such a laugh over it, because it sounds like he's calling Grandpa "Appa" like the bison from Avatar: TLA! We joke that maybe we should come up with a corresponding name for Gramma, and then they can match. Momo, maybe? :)

I feel like I have to be careful, sometimes. If I try to get him to say a word and he doesn't get it, I'll repeat it so he can hear it again. Half the time his face says "Ugh..." and he won't respond to me after that. I have to remember to congratulate him no matter how close (or not) he got, and it seems to make him try harder to say words.

The funniest part of all this is that he will still come up to me and babble nonsense, and we'll have conversations like this. Sometimes I'll babble back, and sometimes I'll just try to keep him going with phrases like "Oh really? And then what happened?". Other times he'll just repeat the same sound over and over again. Case in point: As I type this he's standing behind me on my chair and growling "BA BA! BA BA!" over and over again. (Oh, sorry, now it's changed to "DA DA! AH DA!")

I feel like there's so much to remember, so many things he can do now. It's simultaneously amazing, and annoying (case in point: I'm clearly taking too long writing this, and now he's throwing things and yelling). Our apartment is much too small for his busy body, and rainy days don't help. Good thing he's so darn cute, with his disheveled hair, a bruise on his forehead, and his gap-toothed cheeseball grin...