potty time

Yesterday afternoon Gavin requested potty time, as he does every few days. I took off his pants and diaper and we went through the usual ritual of stand-sit-stand-climb on potty-sit-stand. But then, just as I was about to take him upstairs and re-diaper him, he sat down and had a pee-ing look on his face. Sure enough when she stood up, there was pee in the potty! When I excitedly pointed into the potty and Gavin looked, he got SO excited and happy. He was giddy, laughing and pointing at the pee. He was so much more excited by the fact that he'd peed in the potty than I had expected him to be. Jason walked in the door shortly after Gavin peed and Gavin ran over to him and jumped up and down laughing and pointing at the bathroom.

telling stories

Gavin is turning into quite a little storyteller. All day long he tells me stories. He sees the blender. "Mommy," he says, pointing and the blender. "Brrrrrrrrmmmmm" Meaning that the blender goes "brrrrrrmmmm" and we made a smoothy for breakfast a couple days ago. He sees the toaster. "Bop! Bop! Bop!" he says, meaning of course that the toast goes pop... he also says this when he sees bread, which is of course nothing but unmade toast.

He sees the lamp in the family room and signs daddy, then points to the lamp and says "Daddy!" Which means that Jason fixed the lamp a few weeks ago by putting in a new lightbulb. He looks out into the backyard and curls his arms up like a backhoe scoop (you'd have to see it, that description doesn't do it justice) and says "Deet! Deet! Deet!" Which means that we've been spending time in the backyard digging in one corner preparing to plant bulbs.

He sees a frog - in a picture, his stuffed frog, whatever - and then he tips his head way over to one side, bringing his shoulder up to meet his ear. This means that frogs sleep. Which is what I told him when, while digging in the backyard, I unnested a toad who had bedded down for the winter. I picked up the toad and moved him to a corner where I'd already finished digging, dug him a new hole, and stuck him into it. Then I told Gavin that the frog was sleeping so we needed to leave him alone. Now, to Gavin, all frogs sleep.

He sees a garbage can and he goes into this elaborate story - he bends down with his arms out, touches the floor, stands back up with arms out and overhead like a ballerina, tips his head back and throws his arms back over his head, then brings them back down again. This tale relates how the garbage truck came one day and picked up the garbage can, emptied it out, and put it back down again. This was one powerful event in his life. The first week after it happened, I swear we heard about it no fewer than 47 times a day.

Today I taped together some board books that have been ripped apart by exuberant reading. He watched me. And afterward, when we were reading the books, he would come to page with tape on it, sign mommy, point to the tape and say "Mommy!" I have no doubt that from now on, he'll tell us this story everytime we read those books. Or everytime he sees a roll of tape.

All this being said, I had no idea that in addition to telling stories, Gavin was also writing them. Albeit under a pen name and with a different picture. But still. This is him, without a doubt.

duck pee, solved

Now I know where the duck having to pee came from. You see, he nurses! And as everyone knows, nursing begets peeing. Day before yesterday Gavin and I were settling down to nurse before his nap. He had Pee Duck (for that is what he has been dubbed, or P. Duck in polite company) in his hands and climbed onto my lap. I was ready for him to latch on and he was laying in my lap with Pee Duck, but instead of him latching on, he made this querolous noise he makes when he wants to nurse and the nursing sign. I wondered what that was all about, since there I was all ready to nurse him. But instead of him latching on, he held Pee Duck up to my nipple for a few seconds before moving him and latching on for himself. He did the same thing when he switched to the other side, and he did it all over again yesterday at naptime too. Methinks the boy is growing an attachment to Pee Duck. Hurrah, a lovey!

not a good week to be Gavin

So far the week has not been kind to Gavin. Sunday and Monday he had a cold and a fever; Sunday afternoon he stepped funny and twisted his ankle; Monday afternoon he was running through the kitchen, tripped, and fell into the corner of the railing at the base of our stairs. It bled horribly for a few minutes and was the first time I wondered if we needed to take him to the ER.

His cold is better now, apart from a little bit of a runny nose. The foot was fine within an hour or two. It was pitiful though, as he couldn't put much weight on it, but of course didn't understand what was happening so he kept trying. Each time he'd try to walk, he would fall down. Finally he figured it out and started crawling everywhere.

The fall was another matter entirely. Like I said, I wondered for a little while whether I needed to take him to the ER. I called the pediatrician, but the office was closed. By that time the bleeding had stopped, except for when he would reach up and touch it, and it was obvious the skin was not hanging loose or anything, so I decided it wasn't necessary to take him in.

It was one of those "what if" moments thatq just haunt you forever - what if he'd been a step or two closer to the railing? He'd have smashed down onto the corner with his eye, instead of right above his eyebrow. Shudder shudder shudder. Thankfully it's fine and no lasting injury appears to have been done. Unless it doesn't heal properly, in which case he'll have a pretty Y shaped scar. A real conversation starter, I'm sure.

not a good week to be a phone

It was not a good week to be a phone in our house. Monday I lost my cell phone. I called and later visited all the stores I was in and none of them had it. It appears to have simply vanished, which really stinks as it was brand new. I only had it for a couple of months.

Then on Thursday, Gavin threw our cordless home phone into a sink full of water. He didn't know the sink had water in it, and even if he did, he wouldn't have known he should not do that. But still. Two phones in one week. That has to be a record of some kind.