1: I’ve been listening to Steve Martin’s Banjo CD for a while in the car, which of course means that Liam has been listening, too. Yesterday Gillian informed Liam that he was listening to a Banjo. Today we were sitting in the car getting ready to leave for the grocery store when I hear Liam from the backseat: “Banjo on, please Mama.”
2: Liam’s displaying some OCD tendencies these days. No door is left open, he puts any clothes that are out in our bedroom into our clothes hamper (even if they’re not dirty), the latch on the door to the basement MUST be latched at all times (and explanations about the fact that his father is downstairs and latching the door would lock him out seem to have absolutely no effect). The most detailed OCD-esque routine (by far) comes when he wakes up from a nap or in the morning. It goes something like this: Matt or I go into his room. Liam immedately gives us his pacifier and woobie (narrating while doing so). The second we have those he screams his version of “sound machine” until we turn it off. Next is “light on” which is immediately followed by “basket back up” (since he still can’t keep his little hands off his clothes hamper we continue to keep it in his crib while he’s awake). Recently he’s also added “Baby Liam” (at which point he points out the three pictures of him as a baby that are around his crib) and “Aunt Sarah” as he points emphatically towards the Luckovich hanging over his bed. I won’t be at all surprised if getting him out of the crib soon takes more time than putting him in there.
3:Â Instead of just saying “Bye Bye” when anyone moves out of Liam’s sight (which he’s been doing for a while and continues to do) he’s started saying “Hello” except that it comes out more like “Huh-lowww” which is insanely cute.
4: Liam’s starting to get into sequencing. Today on our way back from the grocery store when we turned onto our street I hear from the backseat: “Almost home, open garage, turn banjo off.”
5: It used to be the case that when I was on the phone Liam would go play quietly until I was off. Now he either screams “Bye, bye Gee” or “Bye, bye Da” and “Phone back up” until I’m off. I could do without this particular development.
6: Liam has a fascination with trash and trash cans these days. The only problem with this until recently was making sure that he was asking one of us to throw something away (so that we could determine that it was, in fact, trash and not underwear or dollar bills). Now he has a fascination with trash when we’re out and about. I’m all for cleaning up our neighborhoods and parks but I’d prefer it if my toddler weren’t trying to single-handedly achieve this goal by sticking his hands directly on other people’s garbage (and inevitably into his mouth). I just can’t figure out quite how to encourage cleaning up without Liam touching chewed gum and used kleenexes. Also — he spent about 30 minutes of the last playgroup we attempted to attend running back and forth to the trash can instead of playing with (or near) the other kids and threw an absolute fit when I removed him from the general vicinity of the trash can. With this particular interest you’d think that my house would be clean, wouldn’t you…?
7: Today we were in the grocery store when a song off the Indigo Girls’ latest album came on over the sound system. I have trained Liam so well that when I said “Liam, do you know who’s singing this song?” he thought for a minute and said “Emmmly and Aaaamy.” Fantastic.