More why questions

Having chosen a Richard Scarry book to read: “Why I chose that book?”
Having dumped mud on the stairs: “Why I did that?”
Why cats and dogs have tails?
Why God made us?
Why lava is hot?
Why Connor has no teeth?
Why those trees are there?
Why aminals are naked?
Why you have never seen a bus pulling a car?
Why tractors are noisy?
Why you said “ewww”?
Why we can’t reach the sky?
Why we can’t stand on the sky?
(Several days later): "Why the sky can't hold us up?"

Maybe no pets right now

While we have been in Yavont, Nana's cat Annabelle stayed with us for a few weeks. The boys were, predictably, tickled by this and Annabelle showed considerable patience in having her fur tugged at, and having Connor crawl aggressively towards her (see previous post). Jamie really wouldn't leave the poor cat alone, despite all our efforts to teach him to give her some space. He especially liked to play "Where's Annabelle" at times when it was obvious she was doing her best to hide wherever she could.

Jamie did seem to have some self-awareness about the relationship, however. We went hiking one day with Suzanne, who cleverly taught Jamie to look for the appropriate paint blazes on the trees which marked the path. He took this very seriously and kept us from straying. He and Suzanne agreed that we shouldn't get lost and talked about who would miss us if we did. Nana and Pops, and Nonni and Diddy, and David, Suzanne's boyfriend, it was determined, would all miss us. "What about Annabelle?" Suzanne asked. Jamie replied, "No, Annabelle doesn't like us."

A little literalism

Jamie got some new books at the library today, one of which is about different kinds of boats. He asked questions, as always, about them. As always he wasn't totally satisfied with all my answers. He asked for instance what the ferryboat does. I said it carries cars and people across the water. He added, "and fairies."

Then we got to the warship. He looked confused, and asked, "Does it carry...wa..wa..wars?" Not to wax political here too much, but gotta love that he has no idea what a warship is.

1 year and 0 teeth!

Yes, Connor turned one recently amidst modest fanfare, but has yet to cut a tooth. He has been developing noticeably in the past couple of weeks, becoming more and more energetic and active. He now moves around in about as close to a running crawl as one could get. It's a bit scary to see from floor level. He lets out a joyful, slightly anarchic "Aaahh!" and sets off towards you at double time crawl. He also recently impressed our friends Mike and Margit and Suzanne by crawling up and down the rather steep hill in front of the Yavont house.

For his birthday he had a train cake, devised by Nonni, and expertly executed by Jamie, Sarah and Nonni. Interested to see what our enthusiastic eater might do with a chocolate cake we plopped the whole thing in front of him. He was actually a little taken aback and held his hands up in the air and regarded the cake cautiously. Then, slowly, he reached down and primly removed one blue M&M from the cake. Probably thought it was a blueberry.

I only ask the impossible

Jamie's Nonni and Diddy are visiting and got to witness a classic Jamie-ism last night. As some of you may be aware, young James can be rather particular. In this case, we were giving him his bath before bed. Jamie is very sensitive to the water temperature and I have to say I was feeling pleased with myself for having gotten it perfect. Just a little to the warm side of tepid, impossible to complain about, I thought. Wrong. Jamie got in, I poured some water over him to rinse him and he immediately went to the mattresses, as we say when he goes from calm to tantrum in a heartbeat. I calmed him down and discerned that he was telling me he wanted the bath "cold AND hot."

The scary thing is I knew what he meant. I had to run some cold water and mix it with the warm in the cup that we use to rinse him. So there you have it. A bath can in fact be two temperatures at once.

Bye-bye!

Okay, "Bye-bye" is the new "Yay!" for Connor these days. He says it in this high-pitched, kind of dreamy way, almost a baby version of a falsetto, extending the last vowel sound, so it's sort of "Bye-byyyyye."

He has some sense of context for it. He likes to say "bye-bye" as anyone, including himself, goes out the door. Especially memorable for Sarah was his invoking it when they went to a beach by a lake recently with her friend Katy. Sarah would sit Connor on the edge of the water, and he would say "Bye-bye" and crawl purposefully off into the water, at which point she would grab him and repeat the funny, but a little scary, process.

He also uses it when someone comes in the door, however, and is especially pleased to say it when we go in to get him after a nap. It seems that for Connor, "Bye-bye" is like "Aloha," and can mean hello and goodbye.

Why?

We have discovered that reports of the "why" phase were really not exaggerated. The word probably passes Jamie's lips 30 times a day at the least. I would like here to record some of the many ways in which he has queried us with regard to the nature of life, the universe and everything:

Why we are next to this lake?
Why bricks are not food?
Why I was born a boy?
Why Annabelle (Sarah's parents' cat) was not born a dog?
Why did it rain? (X25)
Why mud is dirty?
Why the sun is going to bed?
Why the wheels are under the car?
Why you don't know? (X25)
Why this is Wednesday?
Why this is Earth?
Why there was a Big Bang?