The other day, as I was parking in the lot at Trader Joe’s, Jonah said Moose! Moose!
I looked around, no Moose.
Just cars, trees, houses behind the lot.
We went to the park, we went shopping. A nice TJ’s employee helped us to the car with our groceries.
Moose! Moose! Moose! says Jonah.
I ask the guy, do you see a moose? No, he says. No moose.
But Jonah is insistent. So I decide we should investigate. It’s a lot like that game where you say “Hot” “Warm” or “Cold” to help someone locate an item. Or when a metal detector’s beep speeds up. By following the volume/frequency/tone of Jonah’s Mooses, I narrow the possible location down to one light blue 1920’s duplex. We explore the front garden, but Jonah seems unsatisfied.
What the heck? I go up to the front door of the lower apartment. Maybe Jonah’s been here before with the nanny? Maybe the tenant is a friend of hers and has a stuffed Moose of some kind?
The door has beveled windows in it. In one of the windows is a modern-art line drawing of a bird and a chair. Inside the apartment looks clean, neat, artistic. They could have a moose.
Jonah’s thrilled. Button! Press! he says. We ring the bell. Sadly, no one is home. We sit on the stoop. I consider waiting for the residents to return from… Canada?
Today I ask the nanny if she has any friends who live behind Trader Joe’s and perhaps own a moose.
Nope.
Mystery Moose.
* * *
Catching up on other topics:
Sleep: We re-trained. His 12 hour nights are back. Hah-lay-lu-jah.
Language: Could he be any more adorable? I don’t think so. The words and words. Now, we talk about his favorite books. Grampa! Grammmpah! Grampa! he says, and then he says Round and Round — and I realize he’s talking about the book Something From Nothing in which the main character, a little boy, goes back to his grandfather over and over to repair his baby blanket. Grandfather, being a tailor, turns the item “round and round” and transforms it each time into something smaller. So I say to Jonah “Blanket?” and he smiles. And I say “Vest?” and he says, “Tie!”
He now can name all the body parts for Head Shoulders Knees and Toes. He also knows Eyelashes. He likes to point to mine while he’s nursing.
We sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider together. I pause during the song at key points and he fills in Spider! Rain! Sun! Spider! He likes the BINGO song a lot too. Particularly the verse when it’s four claps and then an O! —-O! —-O!
His identification of colors is getting more accurate (though we have moments when we wonder if he might be colorblind).
He’s starting to count. His favorite number is still 2.
He loves to draw. Crayons are good, but pens are sheer heaven. He loves having his name written out for him. He will call out some of the letters, especially the O. (See BINGO, above.)
Speaking of nursing: Today was a wean-y day. He only nursed one round this morning before breakfast, barely checked in at the boop in the afternoon, and lightly nursed in the late afternoon, early evening. It’s just one day so far. I’m not expecting things to go one direction or the other at this point, but I am a little freaked again that this might be It, or the beginning of It.
Physical milestones: He’s requesting walking practice. Unfortunately, I can’t remember at the moment how he makes it known that he wants to, but I can report that it’s happening daily that I’m hunched over, holding his upraised hands, toddling around the house with him.
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