Excited!

The pipsqueak is ready to burst with excitement about his upcoming birthday party. You would think we talk about it all the time, but we’ve actually said very little. He does catch on to the key phrases quickly though. Last night at dinner, he says, “Party. My party. Couple of weeks.”

“Yes, and that’s a good while,” we told him.

“A good while,” he repeated. Then: “One minute, one minute!” (Complete with little urgently pointing finger.)

“No, no. Not one minute. A couple of weeks.”

“A couple of weeks,” he repeated again, very solemnly. Then, “Excited! Excited! Birthday cake. Where is it?” And he squirms around in his high chair, looking around for the birthday cake. I wish I had had a video camera.

The squeaker spent yesterday assembling a book. Over the last week or so, he drew the pictures. Then yesterday, we stapled the pages together, and he narrated the story while I wrote it down as fast as I could (though it was nearly impossible to keep up with him. It did help that he kept getting stuck on particular phrases.). Perhaps I will share a few of the best drawings here later this week. But the book is definitely classic squeaker: it is all about various monsters, and how they are destroyed (and sometimes dismembered) by the book’s heroine.

The squeaker is still very meek when it’s time to get on the bus. Yesterday was a rough day for him. The little girl who usually sits next to him on the bus sat with someone else, and then he got in trouble at school for talking when he shouldn’t have. Both mama and papa were short and impatient with him, probably because we are stressed about other things going on in our lives. Yesterday at bedtime, when I hugged and kissed him good night I told him I knew he’d had a rough day. He seemed so very small and sad. I hope today is better.