Mach 4.5

OK, so obviously I'm not able to blog daily right now. That's no reason not to continue the NaBloPoMo theme of Growing (Up), or to blog as often as possible. So, without further ado, two things that the Beaner can do now that he's almost four and a half:

  • Read. Yeah, really. He reads comic books, picture books, signs, product packaging, thank-you notes, game instructions—anything with words. He still has trouble with some bigger words that don't come up in casual conversation much (for example, "component," which kept flashing on the screen of a TV we were looking at in a store), but I imagine he'll have another thousand words in his vocabulary by the end of the month at this rate.
  • Wipe his own butt. This one blows me away more than the reading. Total toilet independence, woo!

I'm sure that the above list should include 12 or more items, not just two, but I haven't been very good at taking notes whenever I have a "wow, I can't believe he just did that" moment. I think partly it's that I'm not so amazed anymore; I just expect him to be able to do things. For example, we had to remind ourselves that he was four when he had trouble coordinating both the steering and the gas pedal of his junior bumper car at a birthday party at the Funplex on Saturday. It's a bit like the experience we had with tee ball last year: It didn't occur to us that kids needed to be told (a) that they should run after hitting the ball, and (b) which direction to run in. Neither of us could remember a time when we didn't know that you ran to first base, and first base was roughly northeast of home plate.

I guess what I'm saying is that it's more surprising when he *can't* do things than when he can.

One other thing he learned to do this weekend, now that I think of it: he can now use "fuuuuck" in the proper context. Unfortunately, that's *not* something I wanted him to learn. (I've no doubt he learned it from me, based on the way he said it; it was totally the way I'd say it.) I explained that it's not appropriate for children to use that word, and it's not even a good idea for Mommy to use it; in fact, I'm working on getting it out of my everyday speech. I told him he'd absolutely get into trouble if he said it at school, and I suggested that if he really felt like that was the right word to use, that he should say "fart" instead.

Al did not agree (when I told him about it afterwards) and suggested "fudge," since "fart," being a body-function/bathroom term, could also get him in trouble, but we agreed that he'd only make the suggestion if the issue came up again.

Posted by Lori in parenthood at 4:02 PM on April 6, 2009