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02/01/99, Monday - The Learning Curve. Doing Taxes
(age: 2 year, 2 month, 12 days)
Christopher is amazing to watch. He's at a stage where he's absorbing everything around him. He himself is accelerating
his learning curve with a technique I'm sure most of you are aware of. One of his favorite phrases is now "Topher
do it!". If you try to help him down steps, he'll push you away saying "Topher do it." He's
the same way with computer games. He wants to control the mouse himself. Also, he wants to zip up his clothes himself
as well.
Here's a funny computer story. Since Christopher has become quite adept at the mouse in recent weeks, we've been
letting him play on the computer by himself more. On Saturday he was playing his favorite game (Elmo's Preschool)
and I was helping Nicole in an adjacent room. After a while I could hear that he was clicking keys on the keyboard.
Since I knew that there was no keyboard activity in the Elmo game, I figured I'd better check it out. Come to find
out, he had exited Elmo, launched my Turbo Tax software and was proceeding to modify my tax return. That would
have been fine with me if he had known anything about taxes.
Christopher, being a boy, is more aggressive than Nicole. And his head is harder than titanium alloy. Yesterday
he was sitting on Tina's lap when all of a sudden he slammed his head into her face. He smashed her glasses, which
in turn cut her face. He got in a lot of trouble for that one. On Saturday I was playing with him when he did a
similar maneuver. He hit his head hard onto my eyebrow making a nice bump right along that eye socket bone. It
still hurts today. Christopher sustained no injury whatsoever in either incident. He did provide me with a very
nice apology without even asking. He really doesn't intend to do harm.
02/04/99, Thursday - "Mowing" the lawn, Potty
(age: 2 year, 2 month, 15 days)
The temperature yesterday was a beautiful 75 degrees. Christopher went outside with me when I went to see Nicole
in the tree. He grabbed the ride-on car that was parked by the front door and started pushing it around the yard.
He was running back and forth as fast as he could across the lawn. I turned to Tina and said "I should go
get the lawn mower for him". That's what it looked like he was trying to do.
Christopher is getting more interested in potty training. Tuesday night he yelled down the hall for Mommy saying
"I have to go potty! I have to go potty!" Mom went to see what was going on and he took her to
the bathroom, asked her to turn on the light. This time he actually let her take off his diaper and he sat on the
toilet for a little bit (he'd already used the diaper, though). It's a start.
02/10/99, Tuesday - Sleeping UNDER the bed
(age: 2 year, 2 month, 21 days)
We heard a sound in Christopher's room after he went to bed. We went in to check and found he had fallen out of
his bed and was sleeping underneath. The pictures is worth a thousand words.
02/12/99, Thursday - Diesel, more Potty
(age: 2 year, 2 month, 23 days)
On Wednesday I came home to find Christopher terribly upset. He was going all over the house looking for "Diesel".
To explain, he really likes a show called "Thomas the Tank Engine". It's about train engines that have
various adventures. Diesel is one of the characters. One of the bad ones, actually. He is somehow fascinated by
this engine. He has various train toys and one of them has black on it and he has, in the past, pretended that
it was Diesel. But that day it wouldn't do. We had already thought about getting him an actual Diesel toy so Tina
told him that the next day she'd take him to get one. Of course he immediately ran to the door and wanted to go.
To make a long story short, we got him settled down that night, Tina took him to the store the next day for Diesel
and one freight car (he needed that too) and now he is in heaven.
Christopher is a very smart kid. He's always figuring things out and when you look at him you can just see those
wheels turning. He is good at figuring out puzzles. The other day I watched him as he tried putting a video tape
into its box. It would only work a certain way and he kept trying until he got it right. Then he took it apart
and did it faster the next time. He figures other things out as well. For example, he knows Mom keeps peanut butter
crackers in his backpack (diaper bag). We've been finding the container of crackers other places lately like the
play kitchen in the toy room.
Christopher is getting more interested in the potty. I was giving him a bath the other day and he was so excited
about getting out to use the potty that I had to rush to get the soap rinsed off. He hasn't actually gone yet,
but he's sitting there and learning how it all works.
02/16/99, Tuesday - Christmas Greetings!?
(age: 2 year, 2 month, 27 days)
Even though Christmas has long been over, Christopher is still enjoying it. Occasionally he'll see an empty box
and ask where the Little Christmas is. We have to remind him that we put it away in the attic. Also, he will still,
on occasion, say "Good bye, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year" to people as they go. I think this last
Christmas had a big impact on him.
02/17/99, Wednesday - Hot Sauce, Breaking Heart
(age: 2 year, 2 month, 28 days)
One of our favorite restaurants is called Mother Mesquites. It's a Tex-Mex place that makes great Tortillas and
Fajitas. The kids mostly just eat the Tortillas there, but Christopher really likes the corn chips as well. Besides
that, he eats them with hot sauce. Nicole won't touch that.
Last night I was trying to get Christopher ready for bed, but he was squirming too much while changing his diaper.
I gave him several warnings that he should hold still, but he continued so I gave him a slight swat on the leg.
It wasn't hard and didn't even flush, much less turn red. But it was enough that Christopher started pouting. After
a minute or so, he looked up at me with moist puppy dog eyes and said "You broke my heart." How
did I respond to such a sad remark? I told him that he breaks Daddy's heart every time he disobeys. We had a good
hug after this episode.
Yesterday morning Christopher got up early as usual. I found him out in the hall after my shower. He was not
happy to see me. He prefers Mommy when he's tired and/or hungry. So I left him alone and continued getting ready
for work. He ended up laying down in the hallway with a couple train cars. He looked tired, but he didn't want
to go back to his room. He laid there for about a half an hour dozing with his train.
Tina had to pick Christopher up from school yesterday. The nurse said that she thought Christopher had "Fifths"
disease. Which, I guess, is a contagious type of rash. He seems fine to me. We'll see what the doctor says.
02/23/99, Tuesday - Great phrases
(age: 2 year, 3 month, 3 days)
Christopher has always been an early-to-rise kind of guy. Tina has been working to get him to sleep a little
later in the morning by telling him he can't come out until 7am. Yesterday, after I had left for work, Christopher
wandered sleepily into the kitchen and said "Is it 7 yet?" You have to imagine a little two year
old saying it. I'm amazed he remembered what Mommy told him. After that he plopped down on the couch and said "Where's
Daddy?"
02/25/99, Tuesday - Confessions
(age: 2 year, 3 month, 5 days)
Christopher was really cute and talkative last night. So I wanted to write and tell you what he said. I was giving
him a bath when he pulled out this foam tub cling shaped like a dolphin. He noticed that one of the fins had been
torn off and said to me "Look Daddy, broken". I gave a generic reply and then he looked up at
me, very seriously, and said "I'm sorry Daddy. I didn't mean to hurt it.". It was so sweet. I
comforted him and told him it wasn't his fault.
Later in the evening Nicole came home from Pioneer Club at church. Christopher was already in bed. I related
the story to her while she was changing for bed. When I was through she said "He didn't do it."
I told her that I didn't blame him or get upset. Then I noticed tears welling up in her eyes and she said "I'm
sorry Daddy. I did it." I wasn't in the least upset about it, but it was a big deal to the kids. I'm glad
they felt they could confess to me. How blessed am I?
03/01/99, Tuesday - Great Quotes, Sounds Heard
(age: 2 year, 3 month, 9 days)
Sometimes the interaction between Christopher and Nicole is priceless. Yesterday at the kitchen table we somehow
got into a conversation about hair color. Nicole told Christopher that his hair was blonde. He very swiftly replied
"No! Not blonde. Yellow!"
Christopher still suffers from Lactose intolerance, but he is now old enough to take the chewable pills. It's
really helped out a lot. He loves cheese and ice cream. When he takes the pills, he has no trouble with them.
Christopher does have a problem with is mouth though. He must imagine that it's bigger than it is. He isn't
happy at the dinner table unless it's stuffed like a chipmunk with food. "Doesn't he choke?" I hear you
ask. Well, yes he does but he likes to stuff anyway. Oh well, another challenge for us parents. Teaching him to
take small bites.
Sound has really become important to Christopher over the last couple of weeks. Every remote sound elicits a
"What that noise?" response from him. He is also very aware of sirens and thunder now. It's really
cute when he comes running down the hall after hearing a loud sound saying "I scared, I scared"
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