Everyday Fun

While Blake still loves the vacuum cleaner (and even tolerates it when it is on), his new love is Mama's hair dryer! He "runs" (in his happy toddler way, with one arm swinging to the side, the other arm's elbow raised high) into our bathroom to retrieve it from the cabinet and carry it around our bedroom, while making sound effects, of course. It is a special treat when he gets to watch Mama blow dry her hair (but that doesn't happen very often these days).

While I take my shower Blake is generally very happy to amuse himself, playing with various toys and non-toys in the bathroom area. Here he is playing in the big bathtub (and no, I don't stick him in there while I shower).

To my surprise, Blake LOVES grapefruit! Here he is having a grapefruit snack with Mommy.

The other day I tried to find a creative way to entertain Blake with something new, so I poured some dry rice into a big Tupperware container, and then put newspaper down on the floor to catch any grains that might spill out. I gave Blake a little sand hoe and some cups and thought he might enjoy the texture of the rice, pouring it from one container to another, etc. Well, he enjoyed it alright! He quickly swished his hand back and forth in the rice so that much of it got out of the container and onto the newspaper and floor. And then I turned my back for just a moment and he had dumped our all the rice! He continued to swish it around with his hands, then his legs, and shake it off the newspaper. And then he started eating it in handfuls. It could be worse, I suppose - at least it isn't sand, and we have hard wood floors. Blake was more than happy to get out the broom and "help" mommy clean it up! 

Recently he has been repeating a few words like a broken record:

• Dada (whenever we are anywhere without Dada, which can tend to be pretty often)
• Done (particularly if he is done eating...and he says it over and over and over until we get the picture)
• Down ("please let me down from the high chair because I am DONE"). 

It might have been cute at first, but now we have a serious "DONE" problem! (Some toddlers say "no," our toddler says "done.") We are trying to figure out how to reverse this habit but still allow him to communicate in moderation!

Blake still kisses Mama's belly (growing bigger every day) when we ask him where the baby is. Sometimes he "asks" to kiss the belly without prompting, saying "beebee" and pulling up my shirt. So cute!

And today I took Blake to an open gym play time. I was so blessed and surprised to see Blake interact with the other kids with kindness, particularly when they had toys he wanted! He never grabbed, but just walked up to the child with the toy and put his hands together to say "please." I typically told him he couldn't use the toy until the other child was "done" and he never complained or whined. He often stalked the child until the toy became free (looking back to me every once in a while and saying "please,") but I was very encouraged by this (untrained) demonstration of grace! At times another child would take Blake's toy from him, and Blake never got angry but just backed away. And other times I asked him to give another child the toy he was playing with, and he did so quickly and again without anger or complaining. I am sure there will be many more lessons of this type in the future, but for now I am grateful that Blake seems to be relatively non-confrontational! Apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I suppose! (kidding)