Word Puzzles and Fearless Toddlers

Aidan’s new daily interest is Wheel of Fortune…in high definition (or he wouldn’t watch, right?). He’s quite good at sounding out words and we’re working on polishing up his letter writing skills but I do question his claims that he solves every puzzle before I do. I will give him credit on sounding out some pretty lengthy words (the multi-syllabic seven or eight letter variety) but he’s going to have to become a more seasoned viewer before he solves Pat and Vanna’s game the way I do. He seems to solve everything else we throw at him so perhaps he and I can qualify for some kind of family edition together before the summer is over.

I'd like to solve the puzzle!

Big brother’s also got a new default number. The one he uses to indicate a large amount of whatever is sixty hundred and fifty. I translate that to mean 6,050 and I’m not sure where it came from but you can be sure if there are sixty hundred and fifty of anything that’s a lot.

I’ve got something all planned out for his next featured blog video to follow up on our super hero project. Kellen’s nap schedule being cut down to one a day makes it a little difficult to film though. Little brother is in the precarious transition stage where two naps doesn’t happen and one nap has him testy and falling asleep in his lunch. We’re trying to find the right balance that keeps him chipper during the day and resting peacefully (for everyone’s sake) during the night.

Kellen continues to impress with his animal noises. The parts of the body are a different story. He says eyes, ears, nose and mouth but he’s usually tugging or poking at the wrong part of my face when he says each one. Nothing beats sitting wide eyed without my glasses on as he says ears and sharply thrusts his finger into my pupils.

N'yuk, n'yuk, n'yuk.

The little man is very into books and standing on things. There are two kinds of books. The ones you read three or four times in one sitting and the ones that have him diving off your lap to grab a different one after three or four sentences. Speaking of diving…Rachel turned and found him standing on the end table on Sunday. She shouted at him to get down and he promptly swan dived onto the couch. He’s fearlessly finding things to climb and dismount in a variety of heart-stopping ways.

A glimpse at Kellen's future?

A string of warm weather has us thinking swimming pool. We picked up a new inflatable backyard model and I’ll have to empty my lungs into it for a half hour some night and turn the hose on it. Aidan also starts swimming lessons the week after the 4th so we’ve been practicing things in the tub like submerging our faces without freaking out. Yesterday I joined the practice session leaning over the edge and showing that it was nothing to fear until he made some of his own bubbles. That quickly ended our face dipping lesson.

Rachel’s got a few business trips in the next few weeks. It looks like several three to four day stretches of guys only time await us. I do hope Aidan takes the absence of his mother better than he took my guy outing on Sunday. I got a call after about two hours from a weepy four year old saying he missed me. I guess when you’ve been together all day every day for three months you get used to having each other around.