Saturday, September 20, 2008

I have to say that I was inspired by reading the "These is My Words" series to be more consistent with my everyday, ordinary journal writing. So I am going to try to post even my little non-exciting entries just for the sake of journal writing. If I am successful at doing this regularly, I apologize in advance to anyone who is bored by them. Maybe I'll try to make them look boring too so my gracious "readers" aren't sucked in by them.

Well, I am just getting over my second stomach flu in a month. It really did seem different, with this one being less severe (thank goodness!), but still it slowed me down. I just made sure Christian was fed and that I was awake to keep an eye on him, and otherwise I let things slide. Actually, I still did the dishes, so extra credit for me. I am SO OVER being sick. Oh well. I did finish reading "Breaking Dawn" in 2 days, so I'm all caught up and ready for book club next week.

Today we tried to put Christian down for a nap at a decent time (he's in that stage where he is going later and later but can't really make it until bedtime), but it didn't work at all. He stayed in his bed, but for two hours he talked to himself and sang at the top of his lungs. He just talks almost constantly!! And every word of it sounds adorable. My family just dies every time they hear his voice on the phone. I don't know what it is. The pitch, the animation, the way he can't really say his Rs (My sister, Lauren said once, "Christian, please don't ever learn how to say your Rs right." If you're reading this, Jenny the L., she was kidding.), the funny way he adds a country twang to some things for no apparent reason, or just that he just talks so surprisingly well for a little guy. Whatever it is, it is so cute. I am going to miss that so much. I just wish every day that I had a video camera capturing his every sentence. Where can I sign up for a reality show?

He is really cracking me up lately. Actually, it's kind of freaky. I got him a new Veggie Tales movie for Family Movie Night last week (which occurred while I was at Jenny the L.'s beautiful, amazing, and extremely well-attended baby shower hosted by the fabulous Nicole). It's a take off of "Huckleberry Finn" and stars "Huckleberry Larry and Tomato Sawyer." You should hear him say that. In fact, I really need to get that on video.

Well, on Wednesday, when I started throwing up again, I spent the day on the couch while Christian watched videos. Incidentally, as I lay there, I was astounded at how he does NOT STOP MOVING. I actually was in danger most of the time as he jumped from the couch to the ottoman and back repeatedly, or ran back and forth along the couch at top speed, narrowly missing my head. My mom calls him the "Perpetual Motion Machine." It's hilarious, and just so typical Christian , but it's just too much for a nauseated person to take.

Anyway, he watched this Big River video, and I could not believe it. As he watched it, probably for the fourth time or something, he was able to deliver huge portions of dialogue right along with the characters, and I mean down to every little noise. Without missing a beat. I mean, I have known for a long time that he does that - he is a memorizing machine. But it was just freaky to watch him. The kid is unreal. I wouldn't be surprised if he became some sort of a linguist someday. He has an ear for language that is just beyond my comprehension.

I also don't think I have recorded yet his newest amazing accomplishment. (I am secretly hoping that no one is reading this. This kind of brag stuff is the kind I hate to put in my blogs, but I really do want it down so Christian can read it in the future. Please forgive me.) The first time I got sick almost 4 weeks ago, Eric and I were dying, and I mean, for that first day, that poor little boy pretty much was unsupervised. We both spent the day on the couch downstairs so we could hear him just in case, but we were drugged by the Benedryl that was keeping us from incessant vomiting, so we were semi-conscious most of the day. Christian didn't get anything to eat except cereal and sliced apples. Slicing apples was a Herculean feat for me that day. It was truly a new low for the mother that is obsessed with giving him a meal or a snack every 2 to 3 hours. For that and other reasons resulting from my obsession with nutrition research, Eric calls me the "Food Fuhrer." Actually, he only called me that once, but I thought it was pretty funny. But that's another story.

So, back to the amazing accomplishment. Christian spent all that day (and the next couple of days when he came down with the dreaded virus) watching videos. I'm also really uptight about Christian watching too many videos, but illness is just the exception. There's no way around it. Christian was actually so sick that he didn't even want to watch anything for the first day he was sick. He just wanted to lay silently on the floor in the 15 minutes or so in between every time he threw-up for 24 hours. Poor baby. It was just the most pathetic thing I've ever seen.

But once Christian could stand to watch videos, all he wanted to watch were the new videos my mom sent to us called "Meet the Sight Words" by Preschool Prep. They teach 45 of the "sight words" that kids just have to memorize because they come up so often in reading and typically don't follow "normal" rules for sounding words out (do we have normal rules in English??). Well, by the end of this 3 day period, Christian had pretty much memorized all of these sight words. I was just blown away and ecstatic. It was just so amazing to see him start to recognize words everywhere we go. And I do mean everywhere we go. We can't go anywhere without him pointing out every to, for, from, my, look, play, he, she, her , his, it, some, etc. He is so clued-in to reading now. Like he finally gets that all of those letters represent words. Oh, the wonderful world of reading! I hope he grows up to love it as much as I do. On second thought, that's as much of a curse as it is a blessing. I hope he grows up to love reading almost as much as I do.

Happiness is Christian

Okay, so this is a video of the song I did for Christian's 2nd birthday party, which was a Luau (I got the cool hula dress on eBay). As mentioned previously, I used the tune to "Happiness" from the musical, "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" and rewrote the lyrics.

Ironically, I have never owned this song and kind of learned it on the fly from a random internet source, so I'm not even sure if I'm getting it right. I seriously need to nail it down if I'm going to be doing this every year, but for now, have mercy if I mess it up.

At one point off camera, Christian pulled a huge grin with squinty eyes when we sang about his "twinkly smile." So that's why everyone started laughing.

By the way, don't tell Eric that I posted this. He hates how I drag him into this every year. But I tell him that he needs to represent, and he's a remarkably good sport about it all.

Note: I do not consider myself a serious song writer. This is purely for purposes of love and memories. But Christian liked it and had me sing this to him before bed for months afterward. That's reward enough for me!

The Most Sensational, Inspirational, Celebrational, Muppetational...Part II

This is the second half of Christian's Muppet-themed performance. The first song, for those of you old enough to remember The Muppet Show and yet young enough to be on a "blog," is the theme song to the Muppet Show. Notice at the end when it looks like he's tooting a horn. Remember how Gonzo always did that at the very end of the song?

One night for Christian's favorite weekly tradition of "Family Movie Night," (he and Eric spread the sleeping bags and pillows out on the family room floor and eat popcorn or ice cream as they watch a video - I'm usually doing laundry or something equally enjoyable), Eric brought home a video with three episodes from The Muppet Show with Elton John, Gene Kelly, and Julie Andrews as "special guest stars." For days after we all were assigned to be one of the special guest stars. Usually, Christian was Julie Andrews, I was Gene Kelly, and Eric was Sir Elton John. Go figure. On other days, Christian was Kermit, I was Fozzy the Bear, and Eric was Scooter. One day Christian lamented with a sigh when Eric went to work, "I miss my friend Scooter."

I'm swear I'm pretty strict about TV viewing, and I'm continually embarrassed that he makes it look like he's seen it 30 times and never does anything else. Invariably he's on a kick of one video or another and walking around reciting dialogue from it. Once during a Veggie Tales "Dr. Jiggle and Mr. Sly" kick he would go around saying vehemently, "No more namsy-pamsy pleasantries! When Sly walks in, we nab 'im, pure and simple!" Pleasantries? This kid really should not be allowed to watch TV at all.

Oh, and by the way, if you hear Christian say anything really violent, he learned it from our New Testament videos from The Living Scriptures. They have taught me that there are a lot of mean, violent people in the Bible. I thought I would love those videos, and I think I still will appreciate it when Christian is older, but they're not exactly TV-7. Still, it is nice when he really learns the scripture stories, and the other day when Eric was attempting to snooze on the couch in our den, Christian said, "Arise, and walk!" over and over until Eric finally got up. That was a good one.

Anyway, the translation of the second clip is, "And now, PIGS IN SPAAAACE!"

The Wainbow Connection

This is kind of a random video from last April or something, when Christian was going through a Muppets phase. Eric and I loved The Muppet Movie growing up, and The Muppet Show, but now I realize how disrespectful the Muppets are to each other, so I disapprove. Of course, I only realized that after Christian had seen it, and it only takes him about 3 viewings to memorize big chunks of dialogue or songs. That was the case here.

He was running around after his bath one evening, and I walked upstairs to find him sitting on the bed in his birthday suit, with a ukulele, singing the "Rainbow Connection." And miraculously, I got him to do a repeat performance for the camera. It cracked me up.