Peace in the valley

The entry on Jamie thinking that Connor lived at the neighbors has gotten a lot of good feedback, so I thought I'd update the status of relations between the two of them lately. In fact, things have improved considerably. Jamie has come to find a number of fun games to play with Connor, most of which involve the two of them rolling around on the floor giggling and being silly. Many, inevitably, involve balls as well. I think the shift that has occurred for Jamie is being able to think of Connor as a potential partner in creating havoc and chaos, rather than as a rival for our affection. Connor is learning to bring Jamie towards him, too. Connor likes to be tickled and invented a sign to ask for this (he opens and closes his hands from a fist). He will now go to a particular spot on the floor where he likes to be tickled and give Jamie the sign.

A couple of other general notes about the boys:

Jamie's latest favorite construction is "I noticed something." You ask what and he will tell you, for instance, "I noticed that you forgot to bring my milk downstairs." He has also taken to turning our phrases back against us. Last night while I implored him to eat, he got annoyed and said "I'm disappointed in you Daddy."

As some of you know, Jamie's class sang the "Twelve Days of Christmas" for his pre-school pageant. Jamie excelled doing "Six geese a-laying," never once missing his cue. He knows the rest of the song too, and if you say a number from 1-12, in any context, he will supply the appropriate gifts for that day. The lyrics can be a little strange though. Day 7, for instance, is "Seven swamps of swimming."

Connor, meanwhile, has been saying "Thanks" (hard to transcribe, but unmistakable), "Eat" ("eeeeee!"), woobie (wuuuh, wuuuh, wuuuh), "Car" (rummmm, rummmm, i.e. "Vrooom vrooom"), and "Jamie" (Jay!, sometimes Jay-Jay"). He also likes to do high fives and to point at you and say "Yoooouuu", a la Robert De Niro in "Analyze This."