1. Of Dragons
Jeremy played the soundtrack of
How to Train Your Dragon the other day, and Josiah asked about the origins of the music. So Jeremy told him a bit of the story, which fascinated Josiah. He also (perhaps unadvisedly) showed Josiah a trailer of the movie. Since then Josiah has had dragons on the brain. I think the trailer scared him a little bit, but he keeps asking to see the "dragon movie" again.
He regularly asks for the "dragon music" and, when it's playing, wants to know exactly what's happening at a given musical moment in the story: "What's happen, Mama?" he asks. "This the bad dragon?" or "The good dragon got hurt, Mama?" The other day he told me, "I want to see a dragon someday, Mama." When I reminded him that dragons aren't real, he just repeated the "see dragons someday" phrase in an assured voice.
Josiah's dragon obsession means he sees dragons in everything these days, too. I squirted some foaming soap into his hands after he went potty one day, and he said, "Look, Mama! It's like a dragon!"
2. Of Pie-rats and Other Word Mix-Ups and Stories
Richard Scarry wrote a story about Uncle Willy (a cat) and some pirate Pie Rats who stole his cherry pie but got their comeuppance at the hands of good ol' Sergeant Murphy. Josiah loves Richard Scarry books and enjoyed this tale, his first exposure to the concept of pirates. Since then, he always says "pirates" as "pie rats."
In another Richard Scarry book, we looked at pictures of an airport with planes and airline personnel. He asked about the uniformed cats and I told him they were the pilots. He's now got it in his head that "pie rats" fly planes, too, since he confused "pilots" with "pirates."
And another story about a story--we read the book
Little Toot (about a tugboat) the other day. Josiah requested it again later: "Mama, you read
Little Poop!" Because we refer to farts as "toots" around here, I guess Josiah just got confused as to which bodily output the little tugboat was named after.
I'm glad Josiah's mind is full of books. Not only will his love of books serve him well in the long run, but it also adds amusement to my day. Lately he's taken to yelling out several times a day, "AH-CHOOO! You fall down flat, Mama!" (Anyone want to name that book? Winner gets . . . hmm . . . more pictures of Josiah posted on the blog!)
In another funny (but otherwise unrelated) word confusion, Josiah calls "picnics" "pancakes." "We go on a pancake to the park, Mama?" he'll ask.
3. Of Nursing
This one just makes me laugh . . . poor Abby
Lately I've been tandem nursing again. It's a compromise to deal with the desperation of the poor, deprived sister who doesn't think to ask to nurse first--and thus is left to watch the other smugly suck down gallons of milk while she objects loudly to such preferential treatment on my part.
Who wouldn't want to nurse these two at the same time?!
So I haul the unlucky sister up on the couch and try to get her situated so she and I are reasonably comfortable (usually she sits up). She lunges to latch on, but both nursing at once doesn't mean peace for anyone. I turn into referee as I try to keep the girls from poking each other's eyes, digging their toes into each other, doing acrobatic contortions and flips, scratching me, pulling each other's hair, grabbing toys from each other, etc. Nursing is definitely a busy, social activity with two toddlers!
Unhappy Abby (here she wanted the camera, not nursing, though)
Thumb-sucking Lydia
Last week when I was wrangling the girls during a tandem-nurse, Josiah sensed my frustration and asked, "You not happy, Mama?" I told him I was fine, just trying to nurse the girls. He said, "I want to nurse too, Mama." Oh yes, I'd love to add a third, even bigger toddler into the chaos--bring it on, Bud!
As a rule, Lydia likes eating real food better than Abby does . . . but that doesn't stop her from clamoring to nurse every time Abby wants to!
Abby loves this doll from Great-grandma!
Abby loves to put the animals into this Noah's Ark
This is Lydia, but they all love to sing and dance!
