Bouncing Babies and More

The other day, Jonathan was in his bouncy seat and Thomas was talking to him and playing with him. He said, "Mommy, babies like it when we do this." and started bouncing Jonathan really hard in the seat, so hard his head was bouncing around. I told him that was too fast for a little baby and that he needed to only bounce his brother very gently. He said, "Oh, like this?" and did little small bounces. I said that was very good. He then said, "Babies like when we bounce them like this" (and bounced gently) "but babies don't like it like this" (and bounced really hard again). I said, "Thomas!" He said, "OK Mommy. Babies like it like this [gentle bounce] but NOT like this [rough bounce]." He did the whole cycle three times before he was convinced that I knew how gently he should bounce his brother. Jonathan sure is going to have to be tough with such a loving big brother like Thomas. :-)

Thomas has started referring to us as "Mom" and "Dad" when telling stories about us and it makes me a little sad. He'll say, "My Dad always jokes on me." or "My Mom doesn't like to hear that word." He still calls us Mommy and Daddy but it seems like those days are numbered. Boy do they grow up quickly.

We have a little teacher on our hands. He likes to quiz us all the time. "What words start with the letter P?" "What animal has the longest neck?" "Who at this table has a goatee?" And he's always quick with his praise for how smart we are. It's fun for him to turn the tables on us and we're happy to play along.

Bad Words, Fogginess, and Art

There are several words that we don't say in our house including butt, stupid, and hate. Thomas views it as his job to let us know when anyone says a bad word, probably because it allows him to say it while telling us that a certain character on TV said butt. The other morning, Thomas was stalling and we were going to be late to school because of it. I was frustrated with him and told him to hurry up because I hated being late. He got very quiet and hurried to get ready. Once we were in the car, he said, "Mommy are you still grumpy?" I said that I wasn't. He then said, "Mommy, you said 'hate.'"

It's been really cold here lately. Well, cold for Texas, and as a result, our windows were fogging up in the van as we were driving the other day. Thomas yelled out that his windows were getting foggy. I said that was ok and turned on the defroster. Thomas watched for a minute and then said, "Oh wow Mommy! This IS a really special van!!"

Thomas has started taking an art class with his friend Natalie. It's the kind of class where the mommies don't stay and that was a little difficult for Thomas in the beginning but he's adjusting. When I picked him up the second day, his teacher, Ms. Hannah, told me that they were working on drawing Van Gogh's Sunflowers by following along as she drew it. Thomas was working really hard on it and when she walked by to check on him, he looked up at her and said, "I'm really good at this!" Last week, he waited too late to go potty and had a little accident during class. He got very upset about the whole thing and Ms. Hannah called me to come pick him up early. She was very sweet in how she dealt with the whole situation and I think he developed a little crush on her. On the way home he said, "Mommy, I think Ms. Hannah may be cuter than you." I said, "What!?!" He started laughing and said, "No, I was just kidding Mommy but she is cuter than Daddy!"