Indiana Idylls

This required only minimum coaching, like to remind him not to "E" the L, and to suggest he write another A closer to the rest of the letters (he started on the opposite side of the page). What fun! We are also firmly in the "Why?" stage. Good times!

Alex and I were building some things with blocks before lunch and I grabbed one of those turban-looking pieces from the HABA set to top my tower with. Alex grabbed it off the top and said, "No mama -- that's PEOple." Those are the pieces that he and Uncle Joey were pretending were people going up the steps and over bridges during his visit at the end of June. This is his legacy.

Alex and I were eating lunch together at the dining room table when he started being silly. At one point I thought I heard "necessita..." but I couldn't make out what he was saying. Then, clear as day, he says "Necessita ventanas," which is a line from one of the Spanish/English stories in our High Five magazines. Each paragraph has one line in Spanish. I was pretty skeptical about the impact that sort of thing would have. Shocked, I said "Necessita ventanas?! Do you even know what that means?" "It needs windows," came the proper reply. I guess it works!

Alex and I went to Indy on Tuesday, and we stopped at Paradise Bakery for a treat and a potty break on our way home. It's in one of these new lifestyle centers, and I got turned around looking for a parking place and stymied by a spot where I couldn't turn left like I wanted. When I did get to the right lot and pulled in to a parking space, Alex said, "Yeah! You found a spot! I'm so proud of you." That's the kind of backseat driving I like!

Alex continues to delight with his ever-improving communication skills. Here are two priceless snippets from dinnertime conversations with his father. Paul: How do you want your meatballs? Do you want bread with them or not? Alex: No. [scampers to the living room] Alex: [running back to the kitchen] Or not! [scampering back to the living room] Later.... Paul: What do you want to be when you grow up? Alex: A big digger, scooping dirt.

  A week or so ago, I got the crazy idea to try forcing forsythia blossoms indoors. Since Alex had been asking to go outside all that week, I told him that we'd go out and do this little project when he woke up from his nap. I didn't read anything about it, just figured I'd lop off some of those overgrown branches and stick the sticks in water indoors and wait for the flowers to -- maybe -- appear. (Those who know me know of my black thumb. Belatedly, I did some reading and was led to believe that this flower thing could take weeks instead of the two days I expected. Yikes!) I told Alex that we were going to try to "make flowers", and warned him that it might not work at all. Little did I know how excited he'd be about this endeavor! He must be getting spring fever, too. When Paul came home that day, the first thing Alex did was take his hand and show him into the dining room where we were "making flowers". Every day Alex has gone to check on th...

Yesterday, I was cleaning up in the bathroom and Alex noticed a ladybug in the toilet. "Get him out, mama." I hadn't noticed the ladybug when I emptied the potty. With visions of tantrums and dirty-toilet insect rescues dancing in my head, I fumbled a few words out about how we were not getting the (probably dead) ladybug out of the potty and then blurted out that the ladybug was just swimming and was happy there in the toilet. This seemed to be a great relief to him, because then Alex went over to wave hello to the ladybug (more visions, like please don't try to kiss the ladybug!), and turned back three or four times on his way out of the bathroom to point to the toilet and talk about the ladybug swimming. By then, I was concerned that flushing said toilet was going to cause a scene, but I just calmly pressed the lever and we went about our day. This made quite an impression on the lad because he's mentioned it several times since in the vicinity of toilets, as...