Limerick from Daddy & Ralphie the Mailman

We're headed to Ireland at the end of February, and our family just started an email chain of limericks. Here's one from Alex.

Analiza is out of town for the night

Of Bryson’s well being she has fright

But he’ll make it through

May be black and blue

But hopefully will be allright!

And unrelated, but a photo from Aunt Corey from Ralphie the mailman.

Stairmaster Bear

Uploading early since I won't be seeing the Bear until tomorrow. I am at a conference in Stamford so Daddy is handling all pick-up and Bear logistics stuff for some solid Daddy-Bear bonding time.

The Bear kicks off the morning with a new trick. He comes up with a hiding spot for his cars and planes and Bear treasures. Where is this secret spot? How about the diaper changing pad.

Ultra hygienic.

What to do before our morning oatmeal routine? Bring up all of our cars to the table and line them up.

 

 

 
All ready to go with our snowsuit, hat, and sock gloves.

 
But just one more minute of playing with our cars before we go. Bryson then takes another five minutes waving goodbye and telling them he'll be back.

Smooth walk to daycare and lots of spotting of cars, trucks, vans, bikes, police cars, and cement mixers.

Mr. Bear all rosey cheeked and ready to climb the stairs.

 
Big boy makes it all the way up!

 

Snowsuit Does The Trick & Rocking to Jimmy Hendrix

Silky smooth morning walk to school today. The Bear sports his REI snowsuit and Mommy adds her signature sock-gloves. The Bear not only walks the whole way, but he even holds Mommy's hand for half of it. Record breaking stuff.

The Bear spots police cars, a van (yes van) carrier, double decker buses, and UPS/USPS trucks which he calls mail trucks.

 

 
After work, the Bear surprises me with yet another smooth walk home.

When we get home, the Bear pulls out his book from Aunt Corey on Getting Ready for School. He also peers out the window to count the helicopters and airplanes passing by our window.

 
The Bear has an airplane on his sweater. Though I think his sweater might be too small. If the Bear even raises his arms slightly, his little (or not so little) tummy shows

 
Lining up the milk wagon goods.

 
Mr. Bear says, "Mono, milk!"
I have no idea what he means until I see this.

 
Dinner time - PB&J sandwiches.

 

Mr. Bear grooves to Jimmy Hendrix.

He then starts counting in Spanish.

 

Socks for Mittens and No Stroller

Ms. Beth from Bryson daycare heard both me and another parent lament the hateful ritual of getting our kiddos to wear gloves. She suggested socks for mittens.

Wise advice. Check out these pics of our morning ritual. Mommy uses her jacket/hat routine in the high chair. Then proceeds to put her North Face socks on the Bear. The Bear is confused but tries to play with his cars anyway.

 
Another big leap today - no stroller. The Bear again is confused and insists for a minute that I pick him up. A minute later, he is walking on his own. Impressing the ladies with his stylish sock-gloves. Big boy in a little coat. Coat might be getting a little tight. We should probably switch to the snowsuit.

Some pausing here and there to stare at the police car and make woo woo noises. In general though smooth sailing to daycare.

Later when I pick B up from daycare, his teacher says that Bryson counted to 10 in Spanish for the class. Another parent tells me, "Bryson is so smart. At morning circle, he knew all his letters." Mommy is proud of the Bear.

Here he is at the library. He is pointing at the coche morado (new word we are teaching him).

 
He points out a bunch of things in the book and surprises me with how much he knows. He points to the swan and kayak and correctly identifies.

We are now including bigger kid books in our list. Here we are reading Jackie Robinson.

 
Without prompting, the Bear gives number 42 a smooch.

 
Afterwards, the Bear waves goodbye to his magazines and says goodbye to the chairs and books.

 
Wearing regular gloves this time.

 
Bedtime - the Bear can now move the doors by himself. So even after we put him to sleep, his new thing is to slide the doors open to peep out. I catch him opening the doors. The Bear gives a big grin at getting caught and lies down to pretend he's sleeping.

 

Bryson Knows Right and Left

Daddy discovers during pre-bath potty time that the Bear knows right and left. Daddy quizzes him on right hand, left hand, right leg, left leg. The Bear nails it. We haven't confirmed that he is a leftie, but he does tend to favor his left slightly more.

While Daddy makes these discoveries, Mommy is still struggling with the morning routine. She should probably pull out the book Aunt Corey wrote about morning habits.

This morning starts off smooth. Mommy uses her best practice (or so she thinks) tactic to pile on hat, shoes, two jackets on the Bear while he is in the high chair. The Bear wants to walk. Mommy obliges. All seems smooth.

Except that Mommy decides not to push the Bear to wear his gloves. Which turns out being a battle that Mommy should have waged because five minutes later the Bear is whining, "Hands hurt." Mommy feels terrible and tries to put on his gloves but the Bear swats her away, "No, no!" Mommy then decides that the Bear needs to go into his stroller so that she can get him out of the cold faster and so that she can get his gloves on more easily. The Bear is in tears.

Fast forward nine hours. When I pick the Bear up, he is all smiles. He explains to me that he has a walrus on his shirt (a score from last weekend's swap).

He then shows off his Mandarin with some impressive intonation.

The Bear requests oatmeal for dinner (much to Mommy's relief). He surprises her by wanting not just one bowl but two!

Bear up to his usual tricks.

 

Beam Me Up Scotty: New Museum, Phish

Thanks to Alex I sleep in until 8am and wake up to find Daddy and the Bear at the table eating pancakes. Daddy asks the Bear, "See I told you Mommy was sleeping." The Bear then acts this out for us.

The Bear later (with no prompting) says, "Heart, heart!" and does the pumping motion too.

Then "Down, down" and the Bear uses his chinny chin chin to balance all his cars.

The Bear then starts pointing to different things around the house saying, "Bubba's, Mommy's Daddy's." He grabs Daddy's hat and says, "Daddy," then giggles and puts it on.

Mommy gives her boys a quick smooch as he heads to Little Swappies to swap a few of Bryson's things. Among some clothes, she also picks up a Halloween costume - a Dr. Spock outfit. Beam me up!

 
Later I meet Alex and the Bear at the New Museum in the Lower East Side. The Bear points to his bread and says, "Tortuga." If you look closely, you can see the shell. Nice imagination B!

The museum just launched an exhibit on being inside a spaceship. I have high expectations, but when we get to the exhibit, we see...

Even the Bear is confused.

Daddy explains later that if we had read the placards, we probably would have connected the pieces.

This exhibit also goes over Mommy's head, though the Bear puts his full attention on it. (By the way, the babysitter told us yesterday that she has never seen a two year old have such a great attention span. She used to be a pre-school teacher, so this isn't just a proud Mommy talking.)

This exhibit has a convertible on one side and a meteorite on the other (probably should have taken a pic of that).

This motorcycle powers the wheel of this exhibit. Though the Bear isn't really digging this exhibit.

=

 

"Truck, truck!" The Bear loves this old ford truck.

Complete with a one ton weight on the back.

 We head over to an art gallery showcasing photos from Alex's favorite band, Phish.