Happy Halloween!

Here is little man decked out as a pumpkin for Halloween. You might note a bit of glitter on his face, that's because he worked on craft projects using lots of glitter, at school that day.



Later that night, he had fun handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters, even though only 3 showed up. He sat on the couch, hands on his face, looking out the window and patiently waiting for people to show up so he could hand out candy.

Johnny's son, who turns 2 in January, showed up with his entourage of family members, dressed in an adorable devil's outfit-- he looked just like a mini Johnny! Hard to believe that I used to babysit his dad years ago!

Babies in tummies

While taking a shower, Todd examined his bellybutton and wanted to know what it was and where it came from. I explained to him how he grew inside Mommy's tummy and how a cord was attached to his belly so that when Mommy ate food, it would go through the cord and into baby Toddy, so he could grow. This sparked a discussion of where other members of the family came from: Mommy grew in Oma's tummy, Oma grew in Ama's tummy, and Daddy grew in Grandma's tummy.

Todd's next logical leap? Who grows in Toddy's tummy? I explained that babies don't grow in boys' tummies, only girls'.

But Todd begged to differ: "Boys grow in boys' tummies!"

Later on, while in SB, he asserted that while he was in Mommy's tummy, he had his stuffed turtle with him in there ;-)

Keen noses

Today Todd went with Mommy, Opa and Oma to visit Ama's grave and bring her some flowers. While in the car on one of California's busier freeways, Todd wrinkled his nose when he smelled car exhaust through the open windows.

"I think something smells bad!" he exclaimed. Then he sniffed some more to try to figure out what that smell was. His conclusion? "I think somebody is smoking!"

This, of course, made Mommy and Oma giggle, and Mommy said "He has a sharp nose!"

That, of course, triggered a chain reaction of Toddy questions: "How about Mommy?" yes, Mommy has a sharp nose. Opa? Yes. Oma? No, just a regular nose. Ama? Hmmm... that made Mommy pause and wonder.

While waiting, Todd supplied his own answer: "Ama has... an *old* nose!"

True enough! ;-)

(and for the record, Ama did have a very sharp nose)

Writing

Todd has slowly but surely begun to learn writing letters. He can already read the alphabet, both uppercase and lowercase, and now it's time to train his fingers to begin forming letters. The past several weeks have entailed such practice-- one letter at a time, mostly through homework from preschool.

And since Todd has learned a while ago how to spell his own name (he loves proclaiming "T-O-D-D!") he's been practicing writing those 4 letters, both upper and lowercase. Here's a recent sampling of his work, after much practice:

Runny noses

Todd was battling the flu last week, and this week it was Mommy's turn. So, I stayed in Santa Barbara. While talking to Todd on the phone yesterday, he piped up, while telling me that he was still sick: "My nose is runny!"

I replied: "Yeah, Mommy's nose is runny too"

Ever the helpful boy, Todd offered: "I can take your boogers out!"

I guess he was hoping to pay me back for all the times I patiently fished boogers out of his nose with tweezers and tissue, so he could breathe easily at night :-)

Clever Todd-isms

Getting Todd ready so we could head to Santa Barbara this morning: I had to wash his face so I dragged him into the bathroom, washcloth in hand. After I was done wiping his face, I searched in vain in the bathroom drawers for the lotion for his dry face. Todd tried to point out that there wasn't any there, but I persisted in looking. Finally I gave up and went to the kitchen, where I knew there was lotion for sure. Todd rubbed it in my face: "See? I told you it was in the kitchen!"

I tried to defend myself by telling him I needed to wash his face first. To which Todd patiently pointed out: "You can use the kitchen sink!!"

Later that night, when we were reading bedtime stories, Todd took it upon himself to read some of the Clifford (the big red dog) stories to Happy, Daddy's stuffed dog. When Daddy made Happy wave and say "Hi" to the dogs in the story, Todd replied: "They can't talk! That's just a picture!"

And at the end of the day? As he was getting ready to sleep? He denied Daddy's "old man"-ness, saying to me: "Daddy is young! YOU are old!" ... much to Daddy's great joy, of course ;-)

When kids wise up

Parents are known for going to any length necessary in order to get their stubborn kids to comply, even with everyday tasks. And when you have a kid like Todd, you have to get pretty creative.

One of my more trying endeavors is to get Todd's teeth brushed before bed. It's usually pretty hard to pry him away from Opa and drag him into the bathroom. Recently, I found I had some success by using Geronimo the stuffed turtle. Todd seemed much more willing to listen to Geronimo's command of "brush your teeth!" and even had fun pretending to brush the turtle's teeth before I brushed Todd's. All was well for the next few days.

Alas, like most tricks, Todd quickly got wise to this one, as evidenced last night. While I tried to cajole him, I made the turtle say: "Come on, you can brush my teeth!"

Todd's reply? "You do it by yourself! Mommy can teach you!"

Budding photographer

Daddy just recently got a new phone-- the Motorola RIZR, a gorgeous, slim slider phone with a 2MP camera. When Todd discovered the phone's camera capabilities, he had great fun taking pictures of various things and then looking at them onscreen. Here is a sampling of his work:

This is his chin and mouth, when he accidentally had the phone facing the wrong way.



A rather candid shot of Daddy caught in mid-sentence:



And Todd's favorite photographic subject, Geronimo the turtle! He had fun propping Geronimo up and making him pose for pictures.



This one cracks me up the most because Todd's finger got in the way, and the way the turtle is positioned, makes it look like Todd is pushing the poor creature over with this gigantic finger!



(note Todd's little sock-clad footsie in the corner :-D )

Spontaneous expressions of love

It's a very rare occasion that Todd initiates an "I love you" all on his own. Usually he responds "I love you, too!" when someone says it first-- and even then, only half the time.

Yesterday we were going through the list of immediate family members-- Mommy, Daddy, all his grandparents, etc... asking "Do you love so-and-so?" and getting "Yes!" in response each time.

By the time we finished the list, he then piped up, without any prompting whatsoever:

"And... I love Great-Uncle!"