from Carolyn
Pete has recently started wanting his blanket with him when we get him out of his crib. And he's also gotten very invested in holding a single wet wipe. ("A one!" he calls it. "A one!" "A one!") So he often heads down in the morning or after his nap with a wipe in one hand and his blanket in the other (often draped around his shoulders so it won't trip him up). That leaves him with no hands free to negotiate the world. Yesterday he just sat looking at his cereal. I had to feed him a couple of bites. Finally he decided to put down the wipe to feed himself, but it took a while. The blanket makes some sense to me, but why does he want to hold the damp clammy wipe?
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Giving Thanks
from Carolyn
I was putting a diaper on Pete after his bath tonight, and he burst into a little exposition on the subject of gratitude: "Home, yay! School yay! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Oh, Sweety P! You're so welcome!
I tried to stump him last night by asking him where his tail was (while he was trying to hold Giddy's tail). He put both hands right on his backside, very matter-of-factly.
I was putting a diaper on Pete after his bath tonight, and he burst into a little exposition on the subject of gratitude: "Home, yay! School yay! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Oh, Sweety P! You're so welcome!
I tried to stump him last night by asking him where his tail was (while he was trying to hold Giddy's tail). He put both hands right on his backside, very matter-of-factly.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Character
Carolyn is gone from yesterday to Sunday running a convention in Chicago. I've never been with Pete for so long on my own. Though I'm fighting through a minor illness, we had a good day yesterday, going through all the routines cheerfully. Then, reading the very last bedtime book, as I began to exult in having conquered the first day, Pete turned to me with an odd expression on his face. I think it was somewhere in the middle of the second wave of vomit that I realized that the theme of Friday and Saturday had fully shifted from "father-son bonding" to "limit-testing building of character."
(We saw the doctor. Having regained his appetite, Pete should be fine soon.)
(We saw the doctor. Having regained his appetite, Pete should be fine soon.)
Sunday, October 22, 2006
The Hawkeye of peace, and a floor show
Pete has been ridiculously happy this weekend, so much so that it's been hard to keep up with. This morning, we sat down in church, and he spent a minute checking out the silhouette of the dove of peace on the bulletin. Being the product of daycare in Iowa, he thought about it for a second, then pointed to it and yelled, "Hawkeye! Hawkeye!" On the way home from Iowa City, he said "Iowa Hawkeye." Note that he knows very few two-word phrases at the point--they don't go far beyond "big ball" and "big puppy"---so that's a remarkable development.
In the evening, in Iowa City (at Z'Marik's), Pete attracted the attention of a table of three female UI students. So he started waving. And screeching. And then spinning in circles, grinning, until he fell down from dizziness. Then dancing, in full groove. Then alternating among those activities and absolutely refusing to be removed from his little self-decreed stage in front of their table. This contined for a good while until the students finally left. As I said, a happiness so extreme it's tough to manage.
In the evening, in Iowa City (at Z'Marik's), Pete attracted the attention of a table of three female UI students. So he started waving. And screeching. And then spinning in circles, grinning, until he fell down from dizziness. Then dancing, in full groove. Then alternating among those activities and absolutely refusing to be removed from his little self-decreed stage in front of their table. This contined for a good while until the students finally left. As I said, a happiness so extreme it's tough to manage.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Take that, Eve!
Last night, Pete ate a whole apple. As in peel to core--the WHOLE apple. Less than a year ago, a tiny corner of an apple-flavored baby puff made him throw up because he couldn't handle such a big bite.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Friday, October 13, 2006
Studio 916: The Art of Peter Simpson
From Pete:
I'd like my blog readers to know that instead of posting occasionally about my art here, I now put that material up at Studio 916: The Art of Peter Simpson.
I'd like my blog readers to know that instead of posting occasionally about my art here, I now put that material up at Studio 916: The Art of Peter Simpson.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Language acquisition runs hot and cold
From Carolyn:
Pete has been saying "hot," and making attempts at blowing on his food when we put it in front of him. We thought he was clearly a genius. Until this morning when he took a bite of his cereal and (cold) milk and insisted it was "hot."
He has been coming to grips with the concept "two." Often he says "two" when he sees two of any one thing: two cats, two birds, two cups. And although he occasionally says "two" when staring into a bowl full of dozens of pieces of Kashi, he has seemed to reserve the term for things that are actually in pairs.
Last night he blew us away by saying "two towels!" when I showed up with, in fact, two towels to wrap him up after his bath. This was the first time he had linked "two" with a plural noun. However, he then proceeded to say "two towels" when he saw the two cats together, two bugs on the wall, and two feet in one of his books. It's so hard to understand what he thinks some of his words or phrases mean.
He also said "two" and pressed the number "2" on a toy keyboard last night. I was ready to call the local news to proclaim the discovery of prodigy RIGHT IN OUR MIDST, and then he said "two" and pressed lots of other keys. Woah, Mama. Take it easy over there.
Pete has been saying "hot," and making attempts at blowing on his food when we put it in front of him. We thought he was clearly a genius. Until this morning when he took a bite of his cereal and (cold) milk and insisted it was "hot."
He has been coming to grips with the concept "two." Often he says "two" when he sees two of any one thing: two cats, two birds, two cups. And although he occasionally says "two" when staring into a bowl full of dozens of pieces of Kashi, he has seemed to reserve the term for things that are actually in pairs.
Last night he blew us away by saying "two towels!" when I showed up with, in fact, two towels to wrap him up after his bath. This was the first time he had linked "two" with a plural noun. However, he then proceeded to say "two towels" when he saw the two cats together, two bugs on the wall, and two feet in one of his books. It's so hard to understand what he thinks some of his words or phrases mean.
He also said "two" and pressed the number "2" on a toy keyboard last night. I was ready to call the local news to proclaim the discovery of prodigy RIGHT IN OUR MIDST, and then he said "two" and pressed lots of other keys. Woah, Mama. Take it easy over there.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Dancing fool
We went to a fantastic dinner put on by Grinnell's International Students Organization--great food, lovely atmosphere. Pete was especially fond of tortilla soup and sweet potato pie, but he sampled a bunch of things. And THEN! There was world music playing, mostly dance-oriented stuff with a heavy beat, and Pete started dancing with his little friends Emma and Bea and Shivani, occasionally joined by Timo. The girls and Pete were all dancing like crazy, in Pete's case well beyond anything we'd seen before--jumping and waving and squealing and grooving. For a long time!--at least half an hour. All this was punctuated by occasional sprints around the gym where the event was happening. (We are grateful for the tolerance and sidestepping of everyone in the kids' path.) Pete's giddiness persisted until bedtime. He should sleep well tonight.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
A limited adventure; pet sounds
From Carolyn:
Taking Pete out to CERA today didn't go as I'd hoped. He was scared of the forest and refused to walk on the mown path, wanting to be carried instead. He's heavy enough that there's no way I would be able to take a real walk carrying him, so we sat in the path for a while, and then went back to the car, where he played with the buttons and levers in the front seat for about an hour. I enjoyed standing outside the car, feeling the breeze, basking in the sun, trying to blot out the noise from I-80.
Pete started imitating the cats today. He's been saying "Ca[t]" for quite a while, but as with most other animals, he has chosen only one way to refer to them. (He only uses sign language to refer to birds, only uses a moooing sound to refer to cows.) But one of the cats meowed today, and Pete imitated it quite well. His cat noises are very accurate (no stereotyped "Meow"), and we've been getting a kick out of asking him to remind us what cats say. I only wish the cats were more vocal so we'd get more impressions.
Taking Pete out to CERA today didn't go as I'd hoped. He was scared of the forest and refused to walk on the mown path, wanting to be carried instead. He's heavy enough that there's no way I would be able to take a real walk carrying him, so we sat in the path for a while, and then went back to the car, where he played with the buttons and levers in the front seat for about an hour. I enjoyed standing outside the car, feeling the breeze, basking in the sun, trying to blot out the noise from I-80.
Pete started imitating the cats today. He's been saying "Ca[t]" for quite a while, but as with most other animals, he has chosen only one way to refer to them. (He only uses sign language to refer to birds, only uses a moooing sound to refer to cows.) But one of the cats meowed today, and Pete imitated it quite well. His cat noises are very accurate (no stereotyped "Meow"), and we've been getting a kick out of asking him to remind us what cats say. I only wish the cats were more vocal so we'd get more impressions.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Storytelling; eating like a big boy
I haven't provided any Pete updates in a while. Here are a few tidbits:
* Pete has started telling stories. He doesn't have the vocabulary to do this in English, so he does it in Pete, with all the cadences of sentences. We can usually tell what story he's telling because he punctuates each one with sound effects or reenactments of recent events. The first one we noticed involved talking about the time, a few minutes previously, when he had fallen off the chair. He started the story, then pointed to the chair, then made a little falling motion, then gave his analysis. He also likes to tell The Time I Saw a Volleyball Game and The Time We Went to the Scary Car Wash But It Was OK in the End.
* Pete now refuses to be strapped into a high chair or booster seat, and he doesn't like using baby plates and utencils. Most of the time, he's eating more or less like we do: he has Cheerios and milk in a glass bowl in the morning, drinks out of an uncovered cup, and so on. It is hard to believe that a year ago, he couldn't hold down the tiniest bit of a banana puff for babies. Now he sometimes eats more of the same food than I do at a meal.
* Pete's favorite activities suddenly include sitting in the driver's seat of the car with the keys--he knows how to put the correct key in the ignition, which is alarming--and going potty. We weren't thinking of potty training him yet, but a couple of weeks ago, he started insisting ("insisting" is now a hard verb to avoid) on sitting on the big toilet without a diaper, so we got him a training seat. Now he LOVES sitting on that and hates getting into a diaper. Usually, nothing, ah, emerges, but he has once peed right into the training seat. Good lad! Two or three times, he has peed near the training seat, which, it turns out, is less fun for us than his producing no pee at all.
* Pete has started telling stories. He doesn't have the vocabulary to do this in English, so he does it in Pete, with all the cadences of sentences. We can usually tell what story he's telling because he punctuates each one with sound effects or reenactments of recent events. The first one we noticed involved talking about the time, a few minutes previously, when he had fallen off the chair. He started the story, then pointed to the chair, then made a little falling motion, then gave his analysis. He also likes to tell The Time I Saw a Volleyball Game and The Time We Went to the Scary Car Wash But It Was OK in the End.
* Pete now refuses to be strapped into a high chair or booster seat, and he doesn't like using baby plates and utencils. Most of the time, he's eating more or less like we do: he has Cheerios and milk in a glass bowl in the morning, drinks out of an uncovered cup, and so on. It is hard to believe that a year ago, he couldn't hold down the tiniest bit of a banana puff for babies. Now he sometimes eats more of the same food than I do at a meal.
* Pete's favorite activities suddenly include sitting in the driver's seat of the car with the keys--he knows how to put the correct key in the ignition, which is alarming--and going potty. We weren't thinking of potty training him yet, but a couple of weeks ago, he started insisting ("insisting" is now a hard verb to avoid) on sitting on the big toilet without a diaper, so we got him a training seat. Now he LOVES sitting on that and hates getting into a diaper. Usually, nothing, ah, emerges, but he has once peed right into the training seat. Good lad! Two or three times, he has peed near the training seat, which, it turns out, is less fun for us than his producing no pee at all.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Martial Arts for Babies
From Carolyn
We all got sick yesterday. Pete's problem seemed to be duplicating what he had last month, so this morning we took Pete to the emergency room, which, as far as we can tell, is what we're supposed to do when Pete's doctor's office is closed. Erik drove to Newton to get prescriptions filled. But now Pete seems much better, so we're considering holding off drugs until tomorrow, and maybe even waiting until Tuesday, when we can call his real doctor and ask for advice.
While Erik's nose was roughing it out against the grindstone this afternoon, Pete and I went to the Aikido demonstration. I wasn't sure if Pete would sit still for it, but he was great. (He called out "Boom!" once when someone hit the mat and made his train whistle sound/sign when a train passed, but other than that he watched quietly.) There was good turnout (I thought). I wish we could have stayed to see some of the practice that followed, but Pete wanted to go out in the hallway and yell "BALL" about 50 times while looking at the trophy cabinets.
We all got sick yesterday. Pete's problem seemed to be duplicating what he had last month, so this morning we took Pete to the emergency room, which, as far as we can tell, is what we're supposed to do when Pete's doctor's office is closed. Erik drove to Newton to get prescriptions filled. But now Pete seems much better, so we're considering holding off drugs until tomorrow, and maybe even waiting until Tuesday, when we can call his real doctor and ask for advice.
While Erik's nose was roughing it out against the grindstone this afternoon, Pete and I went to the Aikido demonstration. I wasn't sure if Pete would sit still for it, but he was great. (He called out "Boom!" once when someone hit the mat and made his train whistle sound/sign when a train passed, but other than that he watched quietly.) There was good turnout (I thought). I wish we could have stayed to see some of the practice that followed, but Pete wanted to go out in the hallway and yell "BALL" about 50 times while looking at the trophy cabinets.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Bedside manner
From Carolyn:
When I put Pete to bed every night, we have a series of little rituals: big hugs, forehead kisses, handshakes, high-fives, sticking out our lower lips at each other. When we go through this ritual, he is standing up in his crib, often holding on to the horizontal bar of the side of the crib. I've been kissing the backs of both his hands as they grip the bar, but recently he has started raising up his hands to me, one by one, to be kissed, like a lady offering her hand to be kissed. I got him to to offer his hand to Erik this morning so he could see how cute and silly it is.
When I put Pete to bed every night, we have a series of little rituals: big hugs, forehead kisses, handshakes, high-fives, sticking out our lower lips at each other. When we go through this ritual, he is standing up in his crib, often holding on to the horizontal bar of the side of the crib. I've been kissing the backs of both his hands as they grip the bar, but recently he has started raising up his hands to me, one by one, to be kissed, like a lady offering her hand to be kissed. I got him to to offer his hand to Erik this morning so he could see how cute and silly it is.
Monday, August 21, 2006
Who is the drooler and who the droolee?
From Carolyn:
Pete and I spent yesterday afternoon in City Park in Iowa City, playing in and around a small amusement park there. Pete particularly liked the train ride. We went on it twice, and both times he sat perfectly contentedly through the whole ride. There were lots of kids and dogs to interact with.
We approach dogs cautiously, asking the owners if we can come and pet their animals. (More accurately, I approach dogs carefully, while holding back Pete, who would lunge headlong at them, if left to his own devices.) One dog was being walked by a young teenager. He was enthusiastic about kids petting his dog and had her lie down so Pete and another little child could approach. The dog licked Pete all over, which Pete loved. But when Pete leaned over to hug the dog, he drooled a little on the dog's back. The young owner got quite upset--very offended that Pete had drooled on the dog. "She doesn't mind, but I don't think it's right!" Whoops! I apologized a couple of times and we made a quick exit
Pete and I spent yesterday afternoon in City Park in Iowa City, playing in and around a small amusement park there. Pete particularly liked the train ride. We went on it twice, and both times he sat perfectly contentedly through the whole ride. There were lots of kids and dogs to interact with.
We approach dogs cautiously, asking the owners if we can come and pet their animals. (More accurately, I approach dogs carefully, while holding back Pete, who would lunge headlong at them, if left to his own devices.) One dog was being walked by a young teenager. He was enthusiastic about kids petting his dog and had her lie down so Pete and another little child could approach. The dog licked Pete all over, which Pete loved. But when Pete leaned over to hug the dog, he drooled a little on the dog's back. The young owner got quite upset--very offended that Pete had drooled on the dog. "She doesn't mind, but I don't think it's right!" Whoops! I apologized a couple of times and we made a quick exit
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Like a big boy
Pete has suddenly become much more independent in a lot of ways. He will now grab a book, wriggle himself onto a chair or couch, sit up, and "read" it, turning pages and commenting on the pictures. He has also sworn off riding in his stroller on our walks near our house; he wants to push rather than ride, and he almost always pushes to the street (he likes going over the curb and back), so today, we just left the stroller at home, and things went pretty well. When I think how recent his first step was, I can't believe how quickly his relationship to the world has changed.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Listening to Stevie Wonder, if you know what I mean
I mentioned that Pete had started to like the Stevie Wonder song "Supersitition." For a while, we could convince him to go along with a diaper change by conflating the changing table experience with listening to Superstition, which was cued up on the stereo in the nursery. Noting the need for a new diaper, we would say, "Hey, Pete! Do you want to go listen to Stevie Wonder?"
Perhaps you see where this is going. "Listening to Stevie Wonder" is now an established euphemism for the process that leads babies to diaper changes, as in, "I just have to listen to Stevie Wonder, and then I'll be ready to go."
Sadly, due to the diaper rash caused by a stomach bug, listening to Stevie Wonder is now horribly painful for Pete. It's hard to watch, like the kidney stone episode of Deadwood.
Perhaps you see where this is going. "Listening to Stevie Wonder" is now an established euphemism for the process that leads babies to diaper changes, as in, "I just have to listen to Stevie Wonder, and then I'll be ready to go."
Sadly, due to the diaper rash caused by a stomach bug, listening to Stevie Wonder is now horribly painful for Pete. It's hard to watch, like the kidney stone episode of Deadwood.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
With emphasis
Notes from two alums, Erin and Elena, suggested that they always think of Pete's name with an exclamation point at the end: Pete! This made me realize that we do indeed, almost always, address Pete as Pete! As in,
Hello, Pete!
Good job, Pete!
Pete! Do you see the tractor?
PETE! WE DO NOT HIT THE CATS!
That's right, Pete! Gentle! Gentle with the cats!
And so forth until
Good night, Pete!
Hello, Pete!
Good job, Pete!
Pete! Do you see the tractor?
PETE! WE DO NOT HIT THE CATS!
That's right, Pete! Gentle! Gentle with the cats!
And so forth until
Good night, Pete!
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Incompetence
Dialogue from today:
Erik: Pete, can you say "octopus"?
Pete: op-ti!
Erik: Yes, octopus!
Carolyn: Pete, you say "octopus" like a pro.
Erik [aside to Carolyn]: Not really. More like a summer leaguer. He actually says it worse than almost anyone I know.
Carolyn [aside to Erik]: To be fair, we haven't heard a lot of the people we know say "octopus." Some of them might have a problem with it.
Erik [aside to Carolyn]: They'd have to say it really badly.
Erik: Pete, can you say "octopus"?
Pete: op-ti!
Erik: Yes, octopus!
Carolyn: Pete, you say "octopus" like a pro.
Erik [aside to Carolyn]: Not really. More like a summer leaguer. He actually says it worse than almost anyone I know.
Carolyn [aside to Erik]: To be fair, we haven't heard a lot of the people we know say "octopus." Some of them might have a problem with it.
Erik [aside to Carolyn]: They'd have to say it really badly.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Shaking with excitement
From Carolyn:
Saturday morning, I bought Pete a very cute book about a young cat who has to go to the doctor because he has hurt his tail. He's apprehensive about the doctor, but everything goes well, and at the end of the appointment, the doctor says to him, "Shake," and he responds "Shake." The illustration shows them shaking hands. Pete seemed to be following the story more than he does with most books, and tonight, when I read that page, Pete stuck his right hand out in the air and shook it up and down. People have shook his hands before, but he's never really seemed to get it. And now suddenly, he gets it. He got up from my lap, turned towards me, and held out his right hand to shake hands several times.
So we ran up and showed Papa, and came back down and read the page several more times, and then throughout the evening he or one of us would hold out our hands and instigate shaking. Finally, as I was putting him in his crib, he and I were switching between shaking hands and giving kisses and giving hugs. Then he looked down at his hands, paused for a moment, and then gently shook his own hand.
Oh, my God, he is so adorable.
Saturday morning, I bought Pete a very cute book about a young cat who has to go to the doctor because he has hurt his tail. He's apprehensive about the doctor, but everything goes well, and at the end of the appointment, the doctor says to him, "Shake," and he responds "Shake." The illustration shows them shaking hands. Pete seemed to be following the story more than he does with most books, and tonight, when I read that page, Pete stuck his right hand out in the air and shook it up and down. People have shook his hands before, but he's never really seemed to get it. And now suddenly, he gets it. He got up from my lap, turned towards me, and held out his right hand to shake hands several times.
So we ran up and showed Papa, and came back down and read the page several more times, and then throughout the evening he or one of us would hold out our hands and instigate shaking. Finally, as I was putting him in his crib, he and I were switching between shaking hands and giving kisses and giving hugs. Then he looked down at his hands, paused for a moment, and then gently shook his own hand.
Oh, my God, he is so adorable.
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Jumbo things, such as dogs and trons
We've been busy. We had a busy but lovely trip to Milwaukee to see my brother's family and have our annual reunion with some of my college friends. We saw a bit of Summerfest and a thriller of a Reds-Brewers game on July 3rd, during which Pete pounded down most of a stadium dog and made the Jumbotron during the seventh-inning stretch. It's a busy work time for Carolyn and me, in different ways, but the weather is helping us have a little fun with summer as it all goes along.
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