orichalcum

Because meepodeekin and others have been requesting a dog-and-baby posting, and I have some great stories.

Warning - these can come across as kind of braggy, for which I apologize. It's mostly just that all the stories about Mac throwing tantrums or Eowyn eating too much duck fat and being sick are rather less interesting and fun to narrate.


Whoa moments:

1. Over Christmas, I sat down with Mac at his grandparents' piano and showed him how to hit the keys. He started happily banging away and then eventually started pressing one note at a time. Then he would pause, and sing that note, on pitch. Then he'd hit another note and sing it. He seems to really like the C# one octave above middle C. It's because of things like this that I've signed up for a baby music class at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, starting in two weeks. Also, this week, one of his awesome new Boynton CDs was playing and I was trying to play along with the melody on Mac's new xylophone with him. Whenever I got a note wrong, he would look at me and shake his head, saying, "Nooooo." Yes, Mac, I know I have a lousy natural ear. Still, it's a bit embarassing when your 16-month-old son corrects you. I told my dad this, and of course his response was "You could have been very good at piano if you had only practiced more." No, Dad, trust me. I could have been better, yes. But I'm quite willing to be honest about my own talents, and I'll never be more than a competent musician, partially because I have a bad ear and I find polyphony very difficult and multiple rhythms nigh-impossible.

2. About a month ago (week after Tgiving), A. carefully duct-taped (technically packing-taped) the windows in Mac's bedroom to make them more difficult for him to open. They only open a little ways and he hasn't quite managed the lever yet, but, well, we're on the 36th floor. Mac has periodically since tried to pull the tape off the window, so it was in a bit of a ragged state.

Yesterday, Mac was helping me unload groceries. I had left the pantry door open, and noticed that after handing me the Crispix, he had reached up and grabbed the roll of tape. I didn't think much of it, as it seemed like there was little harm he could do himself, so I kept unpacking groceries. About 30 seconds later, I noticed Mac had disappeared. I tracked him into his bedroom, where he was standing by the window, carefully unrolling the tape and pressing it into position against the window on the sections where he had pulled it off. Lacking scissors, he looked a bit confused as to what to do when he got to the end of the window.

I went and got the scissors and helped him retape the rest of the window. Of course, he then immediately started pulling the new pieces off and trying to tape them up elsewhere. But still, Reasoning! I have tape; I remember what Daddy did with tape; I will go do that with this tape.

In the Cute But Unhelpful Camp:

3. So, Mac is really, really into modeling our actions. This has been problematic lately in the kitchen, because he really wants to help cook, especially around the stove and oven. Whenever the buzzer goes off, he heads straight for the oven to try and open it. I've taken to putting him in the playzone while I make dinner for safety reasons, which makes him very cranky. On Wednesday, I had a small pizza baking in the oven for lunch. He walked into the kitchen, saw that the oven was on, and stopped for a second. He went back towards the pantry, picked up the two oven mitts, carefully put them on, and then advanced again proudly towards the oven. I felt so bad having to take him away; he clearly thinks that he'll be able to do it if he just imitates Mom a little more closely. I keep wanting to say, "I'm sorry! You're not even 1 and a half! Some things you just can't do yet!"

We also had a lot of fun at the Children's Museum on Wednesday, where his favorite activities were taking the child-sized mop and mopping the floor, anything involving balls in tubes, and the child-sized chessboard. He very methodically started picking up pieces and putting them down on different squares, although he appears to think that pawns move like knights and that the king can go anywhere. For the record, the Chicago Children's Museum rocks.

Not a lot of dog stories at the moment; I'm kinda worried because she's really been acting aggressive and nervous around other dogs lately, so I'm about to take her to the dog run to try and get some calm exposure. Also, Mac has decided that sneaking up behind her and pulling her tail is a fun game, which is not helping anything.