With Cat-Like Tread

The other day, A and I were playing a duet.  I was on recorder and he was on harmonica.  I was playing the overture of the Pirates of Penzance.  A was able to play the orchestra punches in the right place.  By a happy circumstance, the instruments were in tune with each other. 

Hair Cut?

We asked A, "Do you want your hair cut?"

"It will be forever," I added.  "Once it's done it will take a while for it to grow back."

He paused from the top of the ladder where he was pruning the cherry tree.  "Yeah."

"I can give him a trim," I said.

"Uh," said M.  "A, do you want to go to a barber's, or do you want J to cut your hair."

"Trimmers," he whispered.

So the question is, after A turns 3 in a few weeks, does anyone want a lock of his hair?  Or is that too Victorian?

Yelling

A has entered the yelling phase.  Yesterday he fell off of a step and smacked onto the floor.  When I rushed over to help him up he kind of lost it and shouted, "I'll do it MYSELF!"  

I think he thought I wanted to help him down the stairs (I wanted to make sure he hadn't broken a wrist.)  He rushed to the top of the stairs and went down them.  We'll have to work on being more gracious.  

Nautical Art

A says this painting is very good.  It reminds him of the Pirates of Penzance (mostly because it he wants it to be a picture of a pirate).   

A adds that the picture might be "The Vikings of Penzance."  

I think it looks a little like a fish.  But maybe it's a shark feeding frenzy. 

Memorial Weekend

We spent some time with Grandma and Grandpa.  A says it was fun.   Despite taking lots of pictures, only the three I took today came out -- the rest make A look like a strung-out clone of Richard Simmons.  

A wants people to know that "a fleets" is a kind of flower.  It's pink.  And blue.  (I have no idea what what he's talking about.)

I think he'd say more, but he seems to be a little unfocused right now.

Painting

A's been in an art class.  So far painting has been the most enthusiastic project -- at least he learned that red and blue make purple.  I think this is my favorite picture he's painted.

Be Very Very Careful...

Yes.  They let him play with scissors in art class.

New Bed

We got a used bed from some friends. 

We had to lower it through a second story window.

They have a new puppy.  

Rough Day

 Well... more like rough afternoon. 

 A woke up early -- which kind of moves his internal schedule forward about an hour.  We had a full morning walking to the post office to mail things.   Then it was time for A's last art class.  The instructor brought her two (very small but jumpy) dogs.  I'm not sure what she was thinking, because all the toddlers wanted to play with the dogs and not really explore their inner abilities with art supplies.   

By lunchtime A was pretty much ready to pass out -- and he pretty much did after two River Bend stories.  But then he only had about an 80 minute nap (usually he sleeps a full two hours).  He wanted to see M, who was at work, and I made the mistake of announcing that we'd go pick him up.

Talk about clock watching.  A didn't want to do anything else.  He's also been eating oddly -- I haven't yet found the latest Wonderful Food (it used to be bananas, or jelly sandwiches, or cheese...), so making sure he eats enough can be a real chore.   At a certain point, he's so unfocused on food that I have to feed him myself.  

So we went to pick up M and then it was off to Target for a new car seat.  Despite feeding him before we left, and then again in the car once we had M, Target kind of didn't work (note to self, don't shop during the dining hour).  After A broke a display, M left with him while I paid for the new seat.  

After dinner, I thought A had evened out and that we'd have a nice time in the back yard; but then he deliberately tested me, made three bad choices in a row, and so I carried him inside to a waiting bath.  High Drama.  

I think some of this has to do with the "I want to do it all by myself !" stage toddlers go through.  Man, teaching him to nicely say, "Thanks, but I can do it myself," instead of whining is going to take some doing.

On the up side, A still likes reading quite a bit, and really likes it when we read Jane Yolen's "Ballad of the Pirate Queens"  (although it's slowly dawning on him that pirates are bad guys, or at least not always nice guys)   and "The Golden Storybook of River Bend".

Arrr!

A is still really into the "Pirates of Penzance."   His favorite song so far is "With cat-like tread, upon our prey we steal / in silence dread, our cautious way we feel."  Although, "For I am a pirate king," seems to be a close second.   

The other part of this is that he wants to dress like a pirate and asks us about twice a day if he can go some place dressed as a pirate.    

Wicked Toddler

Scene:  The living room.  A has been playing the same note on the keyboard for about twenty seconds.

A:  (ding, ding, ding)  "J, is this repetitious?"  (ding, ding, ding) "Is this repetitious?" (ding, ding, ding)  "Am I pressing your buttons?"

Pictures

OK. Here's the pictures I promised.

The first one is from a week or two ago when A decided he wanted to sleep next to the front door. We don't know why, and we managed to get him to his room a few minutes later.

The rest are at a park. A likes to make a smile face that is very posed. I think I managed to get him to just relax in on one (or two) shots.

I like this one, but it's probably not quite the best shot of A.  

 M says this is the best one.

It's Worse Than That, It's Art, Jim

A sat on the Sphinx the other day in our back yard. When we asked him where he was going, he said he was riding the Sphinx to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A has discovered the kazoo. I'm not sure if I should be grateful or not that it may supplant the recorder.

Yes. I will post some pictures soon.

We've enrolled in an art class. Um. I think the parents are only allowed in to keep the kids from using scissors to eat the paint -- otherwise it's pretty much a classic Saber-tooth Curriculum class. Don't get me wrong, A's getting something out of it -- just the other week he learned that red and blue paint mixed together makes purple... but I get pretty tired of hearing, "Let the child be free to explore."

But as M pointed out, at least the art mess doesn't happen in our house.

By a coincidence, a mother from A's play group loaned me a book that is the complete antithesis of the Saber-tooth Art Class: "Drawing with Children," by Mona Brookes. I'd mention it to the Saber-tooth Art instructor, but I'm afraid A will be "invited to withdraw from the class." (Yes, there's already been parental dissent, and I'm sure there's going to be angry editorials to the local paper.)