Kids... they're not voters

G and I are very sad. When G got home from work doing election coverage at 4am this morning, I woke up from a lovely dream--literally--in which the results were very very different.

Otter however is not sad. Otter sat up in bed at 5:30 am and began telling me some sort of story. I didn't catch all the details, though I suspect it involved eyes and teeth (my clues being his tendency to stick his fingers in my mouth and say "teet" and his poking himself deliberately in the eye and saying "eye").

It did not involve provisional this or concessional that.

Then he slapped me in the head (I think to try to get me up, showing fairly good aim and eyesight given that our light-blocking shades--and it being 5:30AM!--made it quite dark). When I said "OWWW" he repeated after me in a very high sad questioning tone "Owww???" and tapped his index fingers together in the HURT sign.

So we (Otter and I) moved into the living room in hopes of allowing G some limited sleep before heading back to work.

On the way to work/daycare (me driving us all as G had had essentially zero sleep; before 8 am they began doing jackhammer work outside), in an attempt to entertain Otter, I said "do you see any cars?" (a fair bet) and (in a "talking as if the kid could understand because otherwise you'd talk in perpetual non sequiturs" remark) "can you point to them?"

I was quite startled when in the rear view mirror I saw Otter do just that, extending his hand toward a cluster of three parked cars.

Smartypants. If only he could have voted.

Then again, someday he will. I look forward to that day with joy.

Otter is looking with joy to this afternoon, and tonight, and tomorrow. It's an amazing thing to have a joyful child.

The best Joan Cusack show ever--and Otter dances

On weekdays, after G heads to work and Otter has had breakfast while I putter in the kitchen, Otter and I head into the living room to watch Peep and the Big Wide World. If you haven't seen this show (and I suspect most of you haven't), it stars three animated birds: Peep the chicken, Chirp the non-specific "live-in-a-tree"- type bird, and Quack the duck. Joan Cusack narrates the show, which focuses on exploring science concepts and a sense of discovery. Plus, it's funny and entertaining. The explanatory copy for the show says: "PEEP is a funny, engaging series that celebrates being curious, being adventurous, and, for at least one character, being a duck."

I love that this morning, while they were exploring the idea of ice, Chirp slipped and fell, and Otter looked at me and said "Boom! Fahll dowwn." I celebrate that it's a show that Otter actually relates to in words, and another chance to admire Joan Cusack, who does a fabulous job making the narration interesting.

Of course, Otter also relates to some things he sees in dance. While we watched "Let's Make Music" (the best Sesame Street DVD ever, even better than Monster Hits), one song came on with people dancing. Otter and G and I all danced.

Over the past six months, Otter's dancing skills have gradually changed from 1) standing in one place and bending his knees while waving his arms some and NOT lifting his feet at all to 2) turning around and around and around until he gets dizzy.

But this week he discovered he could alternate spinning with a sort of mini-stomping dance: moving his feet up and down, left foot up, right foot up. It sounds awkward but it was pretty smoothly done. He's going to be jumping any day now.

VMOU: pumpkin music

Otter's daycare provider brought in pumpkins for the toddlers, and had them around all week last week with very basic faces painted on them. On Friday, each kid painted some additional color on their pumpkin and then got to take them on.

Otter's take on this is that 1) pumpkins are very neat toddler toys, and 2) pumpkins are essentially vegetable drums, which he demonstrates by banging on the pumpkin while saying "dubb ah dubb ah dubb ah DUH," a phrase he uses repeatedly in many situations, almost all of which involve pounding on something to try to make a noise.

MOU: more new words and signs

Otter just keeps adding signs and words, sometimes separately, sometimes together.

He now signs DOG (he's said dog for a week or two now), PHONE, PEAR (which he suddenly also says), BABY, SIT, and GORILLA with a fair amount of consistency. He says "tee" for train (as well as saying "choo choo") and "peepee" for pumpkin. He can name Sesame Street characters Telly and Herry (sometimes), says "BeeBee" for Big Bird, and points out the "girrrhhl" on the cover of one of his DVDs.

I think he's added "box" and "bag", but it's hard to tell between all the "buh" sounds he makes for varied words. Plus, he's putting an "r" on car and "balloon" is beginning to sound more like two syllables with a L and N sound mixed in somewhere. Barbara at daycare says he says "don't" when one of the other kids does something he doesn't like.

And he can say "tot tot" (or something like it) when he wants to play "trot trot."

If you're not familiar with it, it goes like this, while jogging the child on your knees:
Trot trot to Boston,
trot trot to Lynn
you better watch out
or you might... fall... INNNNN!
On that last line, you dip the child upside down.

Though usually he skips saying "tot tot" and just climbs onto his dad's lap and then bounces VERY hard (sometimes painfully so) and slaps his dad's chest as if to say "giddy up."