Thursday, January 26, 2012

A Day with Jonas & Cars

Jonas is home sick today with a fever and cough. I'm enjoying some one-on-one time with him. The first thing he wanted to do today was read his Lightning McQueen book. It has 5 stories in one book. That's 130 pages of Cars lore. It's been a favorite of both Gill and Jonas' since we bought it 6 months ago at the daycare book sale.

After the book, I suggested breakfast and Sesame Street. Jonas opted for cinnamon toast and Cars 2. He totally turned his nose up at Sesame Street. I am shocked and a little sad.

Even though Jonas has seen Cars 2 about 10 times already, I'm finally taking the time to watch some of it with him. It's a clever film but fast paced. And now I can finally understand what new word Jonas has been using: Finn McMissile is the secret agent car, narrated by Michael Cain.

Yesterday, after picking up the boys from daycare, we stopped by the library. Before we went in, I reviewed the rules with Jonas: no running away, no climbing the shelves, and use a quiet voice. Jonas has been a predictable "runner" at every outing, so I am often loathe to take the two boys anywhere on my own. Yesterday's trip to the library went better than in the past, though Jonas marred his near perfect behavior by running away from me right before getting back into the car. The highlight of the trip was when Jonas recognized a book on the shelf....some book about a boy who can't help but cover himself in paint. Each of the boys had a fabric bag for books, so we put the paint book in Jonas' bag. Gill promptly copied him by pulling a random book off the shelf and putting it in his own bag. He is a constant copy cat. A few minutes later, when I attempted to add some books to Gill's bag, he pitched a fit, falling to the floor where he lay on his back and cried pathetically. At that point, I made a rather speedy transition to the checkout desk. We read at least 4 of the 15 books we brought home before bedtime, including A Frog on a Log in the Bog and The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle. (The Eric Carle books always seem to be a favorite).

A random funny thing that Jonas does now is refer to Gill as "that one." And he waits until the absolute last minute to go to the potty, dancing around, holding his crotch, announcing his need to tee-tee. It's pretty funny to watch his little body dance in front of the toilet as he works to get his pants and underwear out of the way.

He has finally and firmly reached the age of independent play. One of his favorite things are his fabric expandable tunnels. He connects them to "houses" he constructs by turning over the chairs he and Gill got for Christmas. Sometimes, blankets are draped to create more "house." His other favorite playthings are laundry baskets. He uses them to become a turtle or hermit crab, lugging them up and down the stairs. He also uses the vacuum cleaning tools (especially the extension hose) as his sword. They often end up in Ed's car where they languish for weeks until the house become deplorably dirty from the lack of appropriate vacuum cleaning tools.

I guess we should stop spending money on expensive toys. I particularly hate the plethora of hot wheels and track that stays scattered throughout the house and playroom. Some days, it feels like I spend at least an hour moving things back into the proper place (including Ed's stuff). I often wonder what things might look like if I just stopped doing that. Hm.....

But I wouldn't change a thing, and know that I'll one day miss those scattered toys littering the floor.

No comments: