early morning portrait of an almost 3 year old*

Kitchen renovations are stressful, but they sure do produce a fantastic amount of boxes and packing material.

A curly haired boy takes a moment to enjoy some stickers in his box fort.

*Please forgive crappy cell phone photo.  The camera batteries are currently being used in the electric screwdriver.

Dental appointment report from the trenches

Our house will never be clean again.  At least, that how it feels in the midst of this kitchen renovation.

Curly did very well at the dentist today.  The hygienist was chipper and friendly and let him play with her “friends,” “Mr. Slurpee” and “The Water Gun”.  Surprisingly, he really liked “Mr Slurpee” the sucker tool and happily closed his mouth on it. I’ve always found it a little unsettling myself. He wasn’t a fan of laying back in the chair, so she kept him mostly upright.  The dentist wasn’t as great.  Very brusque, not warm, kept calling Curly by the wrong name.  And insisted that he lay all the way back, which resulted in some tears.  The counting of teeth and fluoride application were over quickly though, and we’ve got a clean bill of health and the news that braces will be in his future for sure (no surprise there).  Curly was thrilled to get a goodie bag, until he looked in it and saw there was only 1 sticker and assorted dental care items.  And honestly, why do dentists give out lollipops?  Especially when the kid has just had a fluoride treatment and can’t eat or drink for 30 minutes!

Work it all the time

A lot of random stuff has been going on lately…nothing worthy of its own post, but bullets should do the trick…

• We are getting ready for Curly’s 3rd birthday party (pirate-themed, arr!). It’s the Saturday after his actual birthday. We’re going to have a 3 year old in about 2 weeks, whoa.
• He’s plateaued with potty-training. We were off to such an auspicious start many months ago, but still have some hurdles to overcome, such as him actually asking on a regular basis and holding it during naps. If he’s not 100% potty-trained by September, he’ll be “held back” from the pre-school room, although we’re pretty sure he won’t be alone in that regard. He’s probably 60% trained at this point, but holding steady.
• We are getting our kitchen completely renovated. It started this morning, when the contractor and 3 other guys knocked on the door at 8am and the chaos began. We’ll share ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos. Curly is thrilled that there are “construction workers” not only at his school building the kids a new playground, but in our house as well, building us a new kitchen.
• Passover seders are no fun for almost-three-year-olds, but easter egg hunts are pretty awesome in his opinion.
• The boy’s first dentist appointment is this Wednesday. I hope it’s not awful.
• Speaking of awful, we got the dreaded notice of pink eye going around our daycare last week, and  this weekend Curly was showing signs of it. He HATES the eye drops. Actually, hate is probably not a strong enough word. To administer the drops, we have to lay him down, one person holds his arms up alongside his head to keep his head facing forward, the other person has to basically sit on him, and we have to pry his eyes open to put the drops in, all while he’s screaming. Fun, no? We’ve tried reasoning and bribery, sadly to no avail.

  Here’s a picture from Sunday during a much happier moment:
  

Train of thought

A quick thank you for all of the thoughtful comments on the last post. You guys are great 🙂

So last night, as I was waiting for the pasta water to boil before dinner, I listened in on the “conversation” between Nutella and Curly, who were playing on the couch. I decided, what the heck, let me write this down. It all happened in about 3 minutes, and it’s mostly “play” talk by Curly…(Also, this is our understanding of his speech. He doesn’t say the letter S…it comes out as a D or T, etc.)

Scene: Nutella is laying down on the couch and Curly climbs up near her feet.

Hellooo?
I go on your leg.
Lay [Curly] belly.
weeeee weeeee weeee (fake sleep noises)
oh…sit on…
I go get my movie.
I wanna movie on. (No, not right now)
Why?
I have a pillow.
You need pillow here.
On the way…on get hurt…(lays down, starts sucking thumb- Nutella tells him not to)
Thumb is for sleeping?
Weee! Weee!
Hellooo?
I got my pillow!
I got my pillow…my back!
My sock! Here! My sock! (what’s wrong with your sock?)
Sock! Sock! Sock! (oh, are you stuck?)
Yeah.
I go be stuck again.
I want two pillow.
My pillow! My pillow…
Weeee…..weeee…..weee….
Hellooo?
Do find me! Go find me!
(singing nonsense)
There….on your feet!
Boop!
Weeee…..weeee…..
Move back!
Move back all the way over here, ok?
Stay on the couch.
I stay on the couch.
My pillow. Get off! Get off!
I put it on….on this.
There….not….on Elmo.
No…that Elmo balloon mama.
Look, Ima, look!
That! I doing. (what are you doing?)
I don’t know.
I not playing.
Oh! Stuck! Stuck!
I’m going your body.
Nom nom nom! (pretending to bite her)
I going take your pillow.

And then I had to put the pasta in the water. Whew. The mind of a toddler.