Decker’s Mini-Explosions
Hi everyone! Frith here - Decker’s mommy! Decker’s letting me commandeer his blog entry for this go-round, because he’s just that kind of kid. Anyway, I realize in looking at the title of this post that it may sound as if the topic is going to be in regards to Decker’s pants - as funny as that would be, it is actually not the subject (this time!).
Actually, ‘mini-explosions’ is what Sean and I have come to call the little achievements that Decker makes every day towards becoming not just a verbal person, but a person in general! (As in, wow, he really is a little guy with real preferences, opinions, desires, sense of humor, etc). Anyway - it’s fun to celebrate these ‘mini-explosions’ with Decker, and he had a couple today that blew me away and I had to share with whoever reads this, because I am an exceedingly proud mommy and am feeling fit to burst! So….read ahead - you’ve been warned!
First of all, I have to say I am very glad that my mom and Sean were here to witness these events, so they can attest that I am not exxagerating when I describe Decker’s doings!
Mini-Explosion #1: Decker and my mom and I were hanging out in Decker’s room this evening, and Decker was having fun pulling out all his books (as he loves to do) and flipping through them and showing them to Pammy. At one point he pulled out one of his older and favorite books, “Pajama Time!”. It’s a Boynton book that has a poem about animals putting on their pj’s, and the final page goes “Hop into bed. Turn out the lights. You can have a party in your dreams tonight. It’s pajama time! (hush hush). It’s pajama time! (hush hush). it’s pajama time! (shhhhhh….good night! sleep tight!). So Decker opens up this book and proceeds to ‘read’ to Pammy (turning the pages and making sounds like he is reading the book to her), and then he gets to the last page and busts out with putting his finger to his mouth and going “ssssss”, and then putting his hands together under his head and then laying down like he’s going to sleep!!!!Mom and I were floored! We told Decker “Good job! Good job!”, but we didn’t want to scare him so we kept semi-composed but we kept looking at each other like OHMYGOSH THAT WAS HUGE. Decker then read the whole book to us again, and did the same thing at the end again! So I know we didn’t imagine it!
Mini-Explosion #2: Sean came upstairs to join us, and Decker was playing around with his quilt that Trudi (GQ) made him for his birthday. It’s really cool - it’s an activity quilt (buttons to button, zippers to zip, etc) and the border features little balloons of material, and every other one contains a little button that will make a sound or play a song if you press it. Decker loves pushing the puffy buttons, and his faves include the one that plays “Take me out to the ball game” and the one that says “I love you! I love you!”. So the grown-ups are chatting, and Decker is playing, and he hits “Take me out to the ball game” and starts his little stomp stomp dance, and then grabs his stuffed cat and has it dance too! Then (here’s where Sean and I both went “Yessss!” - pump fists in air) he hit the “I love you!” button, and grabbed his middle and swayed back and forth, which is the motion he does for “Wheels on the Bus” (the verse where it says
”The mommies on the bus say I love you/I love you/I love you”. He has never done that motion outside of the context of singing the “Wheels on the Bus” song, and never without prompting from us! It was SO awesome to see him make those connections - and each little connection will lead to another little connection…it was a very rewarding and exciting day.
Yay for baby sign language, for books and reading, for dancing toddlers, and yay for all the little things that feel so big! Decker will be back for the next post - but thanks for reading the bragging rants of a euphoric mother!