Recent conversation in a parked car

[Mama is in the driver's seat, Devin is buckled in his carseat in the back.]

Devin: Go...mama.

Mama: No, Devin. Daddy's in the store. We have to wait for Daddy.

Devin: Wait...Dada...

Mama: Yep, that's right. Wait for Daddy.

Devin: Wait Dada.

Mama: Yep. Just a few more minutes and Daddy will be back.

[ 10 seconds later ]

Devin: Bye bye Dada! Go mama.

My Guitar Hero

Devin unplugged

20 Months

We've taken Devin hiking a couple times now, and he really enjoys it. We borrowed a great hiking child carrier from Davis's co-worker, Janet, since her son Justin has outgrown the seat. Devin really likes it, and when we pull it out he starts screaming, "back pack! backpack!"



Updates this month? He's got new words:

1. Happy birthday (sounds like "happy day")
2. No more (sounds pretty clear)
3. Xie xie ("thank you," in Chinese) - he still also expresses it by nodding his head toward you
4. Basketball (or, "Backetball")
5. Blanket (is "Bangkit")
6. Circle
7. Square
8. Truck (sometimes it sounds like "buck," sometimes much worse.)
9. Elephant ("ehfant")
10. Out
11. Down/up
12. Da tou (Chinese for "big head")
13. Orange
14. Cheek
15. Chin
16. Backpack
17. Big Blue Bus - he LOVES buses

When he finishes eating, sometimes he will bring his empty dish to the sink and try to put it up on the counter. We have his daycare provider to thank for that. He's getting better at shape sorting, and he HATES having his haircut. He loves digging holes in sand and dirt, and he loves poking at water streams with little sticks.

Poo poo

A couple weeks ago, we bought Devin a toddler toilet -- not one of those fancy training toilets that have flashing lights, blaring music when you pretend flush (cause none of those come with REAL flushing - the only automation is mama or dada emptying out the can). About the fanciest thing on this toilet was a splash guard on the front of the seat. I am merely supposing that it keeps pee from coming out through the front. Who knows. The thing is as foreign to me as it is to Devin. After we took it out of the box, we told Devin this thing was for poo poo and pee pee, and he proceeded to run around the toilet screaming, "PEEEEEE PEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"


Then, he started to throw toys into the hole and stick his hands into it. Davis and my response? Our brains went =fast forward= to the future when we envisioned Devin actually using the toilet AND still throwing stuffed animals, his shoes, his jacket, and my cell phone into the tot-sized commode. That image alone was enough to stop us in our excitement, and it sent us packing the toilet AND instruction manual back into the box as fast as possible, where it has since been sitting for two weeks in the corner of our apartment. Whew. Nice try, we'll pass on this round.

Last night, Davis and I were eating dinner and Devin was running around the living room. He walked up to me, looked up and said, "poo poo." Just like that. Simple, calm, matter-of-fact. "Poo poo." I asked him if he had poo poo'ed, and then I checked his diaper. It was clean, so I went back to my dinner (yeah, hard to imagine, but I am no longer phased by the presence of poop in the course of my eating). Davis and I thought nothing of it - the kid often says things we can't understand anyway. Then Devin walked into the bathroom and started walking around in circles there. Davis went to the bathroom and kneeled down next to him and said, "Do you need to poo poo? Go ahead, just go poo poo."

AND HE DID! He pooped...with warning...and on demand!

We were so ecstatic that we ran around looking for the training toilet, ripped it back out of the box, put it on the bathroom floor next to him and said, "Look! This is where you poo poo! Okay? Okay?" After Devin finished concentrating on his business and after we changed his diaper, Davis and I looked at each other for a moment...and packed the toilet back into the box.

We wonder when WE will be ready for toilet training!