Interview

I just found a cute idea to interview your kid at different ages, and to my delight Elliott actually had a few answers for me. I present to you, an interview with a two and a half year old

What is your name? Elliott Timothy (pronounced Eyyitt Timafee)
How old are you? Two and a half
What is your favorite color? Blue
Who is your best friend? Aunt Charlee
What is your favorite animal? A zebra! And a lion, too.
What do you want to be when you are all grown up? Two and a half.
What is your favorite movie? Lion king (we just watched it for the first time a few days ago)
What is your favorite book? Where's Dave? (surprising)
What make's you happy? David makes me happy
What makes you sad? I don't know, Mommy.
What is your favorite thing to eat? A sandwich. (also surprising, but I think he said this because I had a sandwich yesterday for lunch)
What is your favorite song to sing? Baa baa black sheep.
What is your favorite game to play? Mikalaylee (ukelele, which he ran to go get and play as he said this)
Can you write your name for me? (while saying Timafee, Timafee, Timafee... He drew basically this:)
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Recent conversations

David and elliott are walking down the street in town to go get breakfast. David notices that Elliott is walking strangely due to the fact that he has put his own flip flops on and they are on the wrong feet.

D: Your shoes are on backwards, buddy.
E: No, I doubt it.
D: no, but they are. That's why you are walking funny. They are on the wrong feet.
E: Mmmm, I doubt it.
D: No, I'm telling you that they are on backwards.
E: (Thinking) Maybe a little.
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Elliott is eating oatmeal and I sit at the table with him to have some tea.
E: You eat with me mommy?
N: I sure am, buddy.
E: You eat lunch with me?
N: Yes sir.
E: Lunch with Mommy and lunch with God!

He seems to be adjusting to our new life in Oklahoma pretty well, although I can tell he is thrown off by all this. He has been quick to have meltdowns out of frustration and several times has sent himself to bed for being tired, even though he just woke up. I think he will start a morning preschool program this week so that he can socialize and settle back into a routine. I just have to take care of a few details and try to weasel ourselves into more than one day a week, which is all the program that I like can offer us right now. I visited several on Friday and felt a little snobby going into a few of them. I guess his last school set the bar very high, because I found myself thinking "TV time? I can do that at home", and sizing up the teachers I met. To my own defense though, at one school the teacher ignored a child completely while talking to me, and stood by as a couple of little boys started wrestling and then biting each other, and then started yelling at the biter in front of me. Not being firm, but yelling. Yikes. Anyway, the school we settled on is very nice, and emphasizes letting the children be independent, which i like. I even met his potential teacher, who seemed very nice and good at her job. I'll keep you posted on how all that goes.

E's first recognizable drawing

On the left is a drawing of a kitty cat, with eyes, a mouth, tons of whiskers, and hair (?). On the right is his abstract drawing of a trumpet. The cat especially makes me believe my child is a genius. I may also be biased.

Serious about his stickers

As I mentioned, I have been working hard to keep Elliott from the tv lately, and it seems like art projects work out the best. After combing through the internet to get other moms' ideas of activities for two-year-olds, I made a list and set out for Michael's (craft store). I found several little things to add to my bag of tricks, and this afternoon while I was putting away the groceries, I put a few of them to the test.

After a disastrous attempt at stamps (he ended up falling off his chair somehow- I have no idea), and markers, and crayons, we finally landed on these foam stickers I found. I gave him a piece of construction paper and a pile of stickers and showed him how it worked. He has been quietly for about 10 minutes now, and we have gotten more stickers twice. I went to sit at the table with him and watch him create.

E: "I'm working."

N: "Yes, I see. You are working very hard."

E: "No, go 'way. I'm working."

I see how it is. But I walked away and am leaving him be. I'm learning it's best not to mess with a quiet, busy two-year-old.

Time out

Elliott just came up to me and pointed to a toy school bus in the corner.

"He's in time out. He pushed my motorbike. He's in time out."

I asked him if he was going to go tell him why he was in time out.

"He have no eyes. He have no face. He's not a big boy!" Well, obviously. My mistake. And after a minute, he got the bus out of the corner to ride again.

He just returned the bus to time out though, because "He not listening again. He's sad."

And we're back.

I can't believe how fast this summer has gone by. We will be moving to Oklahoma in 3 or 4 weeks, David is about to become Dr. Ingram, and Elliott is getting bigger and smarter every day. We started out this summer going outside, having playdates, going to summer festivals, etc. Then one day it was oppressively hot and I decided to let Elliott watch several pbs tv shows. It took 5 minutes for him to become a full blown TV addict (I wanna watch Cars! I wanna watch Eh-mo! I wanna watch Go GO GABBA!) and then we had to reel it back a bit. So as we crept closer and closer to moving day, I made a "bucket list" of things to do in Ann Arbor (which David apparently finds cheesy, but I guess I'm pretty cheesy sometimes so whatever) and we have steadily crossed things off. We took him canoeing, to the petting zoo, to the water park, and to several outdoor summer concerts. I bought water paints, washable markers, and made playdough in an effort to give him things to do instead of watching tv. It's a slow process, but he's currently making up a song called "Where's the little girl?" because he can't find the girl from his playmobil farm set. I count that as progress.

Elliott constantly amazes me with his imagination, and each day I find myself adding something to my mental bank of things-he-has-figured-out-early. When you ask him why something is happening (like why he is in time out, for example), about half of the time he can tell you why ("Acause. I spit out my food in a floor." or "Acause. I threw Daddy's toy.")

Are you sad? "No. I grey."

He wants to see just how much you will let him get away with. He likes to go to the "big pool" which is the city pool, but he does NOT want to get in lately. He'd rather stay on the s

ide with a toy and make you play fetch, or find a random stranger to go hug- which can be pretty awkward. New people moved in next door and he greets them by saying "Hi Neighbor!" When he hugs me, he says "Oh Sweetheart, I love you too." If you ask him a question, he either answers with, "Yeah, I think so" or "No, I don't really think so." Earlier, I spelled a phrase I shouldn't have said, and Elliott said "Don't say that mommy" (I don't think he can spell...). I was looking through my archives a few days ago and Elliott is just as I imagined he would be- a insatiably curious chatterbox.

My two year old

Elliott has had several developments in the last month or so. The first of these is a little "girlfriend", another talkative, bossy two year old cutie pie named Willa. They play together almost exclusively, hold hands, help each other put their shoes on, eat snack together, and hug and kiss goodbye. It's a trip for sure, but it's funny to see him trying to imitate David and me.

The second development is a bustling vocabulary. He talks and sings nonstop, and has added lots of fun phrases, such as:

"Why? Why? Why?" (ad nauseum)

"Whatt?" (which I write with two "T"s, to emphasize how short and crisp he says it)

"Your choices, mommy." (which means, pick one- these are your choices, mommy)

Also, he refers to himself as buddy when he is trying to talk himself through something. The other day he was trying to put on his pants, and managed to get two feet in one leg. He said, "Wrong hole, buddy," and then corrected himself.

"Stop Mommy"

"No Talking! SHHH."

"Goodbye. I go a hospital!"

As soon as my camera and computer cooperate, I'll post some videos. Sorry!