O Tannenbaum

We decided it was time to put up the Christmas tree. Ishish was very excited and helped us as much as he could. Since then he has spent time driving his race cars along the branches, trying to blow out the lights like he does candles, and going from one light to the next saying "orange one, blue one, ...". He turns on the lights whenever he's home (hooray for LED lights!).

He also likes to look at Christmas lights. When we drive he regularly says "more Christmas lights" and when we pull into the garage "bye Christmas lights".

Trains and Slippers

This Thanksgiving Ishish received a train set as an early Christmas present. He "helped" Dada set it up by driving the train where Dada was trying to work. We couldn't find the best spot to put the tracks but eventually settled on the dining room table. He loves to play with it and has thrown a couple tantrums when it's time to stop playing!

I also bought him a pair of slippers. I was afraid he wouldn't like them, but he's so excited about them! He keeps telling me that they're penguin slippers and reminds me to put my slippers on too.

Singing

We know Ishish is up for the morning or from his nap when we hear loud singing from his room. This is some footage I got after one particular nap. Yes, they are videos of his door. Hopefully the volume will work!

Old MacDonald:

Baby Bumblebee:

Alphabet:

Happy Birthday:

I wish I'd had my camera this morning. I could have added his renditions of The Wheels on the Bus and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Mama's Boy

Ishish is quite the Mama's boy. His most common phrase in this regard is "Mama turn".

He says that when he wants me to do things for him (even though he used to do them himself):
- putting him in his booster seat
- brushing his teeth
Or when he wants me to do them instead of Dada:
- setting him onto the changing table
- cleaning him during his bath
- holding his hand in the parking lot

Other phrases also for things he wants me to do instead of Dada are:
"Mama peel" (banana)
"Mama push" (shopping cart)
"Mama read book" (before naptime and bedtime)

Whenever it's time to go to the front room in our house to pick out a book he says "up", and I carry him in there. I have no idea why he wants this, but it's been that way pretty much forever.

A couple weeks ago he decided we should hug before naptime and bedtime. Now after we finish reading he says "nap hug", kneels in my lap, and hugs me for a long time. I'll squeeze him tight and say "big hug". Then he asks for "more big hug". I usually have to initiate the end of hug time.

When it's time to drop him off at preschool he stays by my side until I leave, even though his teachers have told me he's never upset when I go.

At gym class he insists on holding my hand during the warm up. When the teacher had the kids do an activity without parents he decided to sit in my lap instead of participating.

I guess it's good he wants me so much?

Halloween

Friday night we celebrated Halloween at our church. Thanks to the warm weather he got to wear his baseball outfit. Ishish was really scared of everything at first. The first person we went to for candy wanted to put it in his bucket, but Ishish stayed out of reach. So I took a piece of candy from the guy and showed Ishish how to drop it in his bucket. After a little while Ishish decided that was fun. He would grab the candy from the person real quick and drop it in his bucket. Eventually he got brave enough to let the people drop it in themselves. He played a game and got to pick out a kazoo as a prize (actually he grabbed four but I convinced him to put the other three back). On the way home he kept saying "church fun".

Saturday night we went trick 'r treating. It was much colder so he wore his penguin costume. After visiting the houses of the six neighbors we know I asked him if he wanted to go to more houses or go home. He thought about it and then said "more houses". So we hit about four more and called it a night.

I wasn't sure if he'd like the candy he got so I bought little packets of raisins and teddy grahams and snuck them into his bucket. In the end those and candy corn were all he cared to eat even though he tried some of the other candy.