Shawna’s Whimsical Weblog

Marshall started school again at the beginning of August. He really is enjoying himself and had been bringing home copious amounts of a “gold star” equivalent as seen above. The literal translation is “I’m a good owl”. The teacher hands these out to the kids when they do an extraordinary job of being a good listener and paying attention. There are other hand outs for other desirable characteristics in class. Marshall has also received accolades for being respectful, responsible and cautious. I had told Marshall that when he received the 10th “buen buho”, I would take him to the store and he could pick out one item of his choosing. The store in question being the 99 cent store. For a week he stood poised wondering when the 10th “buho” might be bestowed upon him. Finally, last Friday, he received his reward (although he couldn’t recall exactly what he had done to receive it). Off we went to the store. I thought for sure Marshall would pick out one of the many water guns available. But lo and behold, Marshall chose the following item:

Marshall with his prize, a butterfly net
He already is talking about his next “buen buho”.

What’s that taste like?
Liana has been crawling up a storm this past week. She was also fairly cranky up to the point where her bottom front teeth broke through a few days ago. I was finally able to capture a picture of them today.

She has moved up to eating solids twice per day and now chomps on the spoon when you put it in her mouth. I have been enjoying the process of making baby food, time-consuming as it is. I am planning on moving her up to solids three times per day in the middle of the month. However, she seems most interested in “tasting” items not normally listed on a menu. She can’t get enough of paper products or grass.

Picnic Blanket
This past week we have been enjoying the cooler weather in the evenings out on a picnic blanket in the grassy area across from our house. Marshall’s favorite activity is playing with the neighborhood kids: our direct neighbors Sarah (7 yr) /Julianna (4 yr) and Caitlin (5 yr) a few doors down. It’s pretty idyllic watching him collect “treasures” like seeds and BBs, ride his scooter/tricycle or draw on the sidewalks with chalk. Liana spends time giggling at our funny faces and belly-placed zerberts or furiously crawling to clutch onto the nearby grass.

That doesn’t go there by Tim
We see Marshall’s creativity manifest itself in surprising ways. It’s one thing when he draws a picture with crayon. It’s something else when he hacks his toys into something new.

Normally, he mixes and matches different components from unrelated toys. Perhaps he’ll place the accessories from one toy set into the hands of the figures from another. The results are often anachronistic (putting the pirate in the dune buggy) or bizarre (the skull from the pirate attached to the hose from the fire helicopter), but the hacking of the various elements are just naively innocent and cute.

Enter My Little Pony.

Or rather, enter the pistol from the Pirate set into My Little Pony.

“Hey, the tail fell out. I’ll replace it with something that can serve as a tail! Done and Done!”

(Too bad this one turned out blurry)

Never mind the disturbing mental image that comes as a result.

The story on how Liana was born…

I woke up on Groundhog Day 2010 with above average back pain. I thought to myself, “Wow, I must have put on more weight and my back is really starting to feel it.” Tim had already left for work and Marshall was hungry for breakfast at his usual 6:45 AM. It was around 7:30 AM I think I felt my first contraction. Of course the contractions are so mild at first that you could mistake them for something else. I got online to give Tim the head’s up that I might be in labor and busied myself with reading up on the difference between “false labor” and “real labor”.

Within the hour it became clear I was indeed having regular contractions. They were still 16 minutes apart, so I felt like I still had time before having Tim come home. I soon rang my mom, but was sent to voice mail. Uh-oh. Another hour passed and I still haven’t heard back from my mom. At this point in time, Tim decided to leave work and stop by my mom’s house. Contractions continued to be erratic coming in at 4 to 14 minutes. I have them written here on a piece of paper: 9:44, 9:52, 10:09, 10:19, 10:26, 10:30, 10:41, 10:51. At that point in time, Tim arrived home and began to record contractions for me on his Blackberry. My mom had gone for a walk with the dog and had been sidetracked by pulling out some invasive weeds in her local canyon. She would arrive shortly after Tim to watch Marshall when Tim and I headed to the hospital.

I kept thinking, “My water should break any time now.” I called Labor and Delivery around 11 AM and they told us to come on down. I had been walking through the contractions up to this point. The 40 minute car ride to the hospital was not as pleasant. We checked into L&D around 1:30 PM and was finally examined around 2:45 PM by a Dr. Lee. I was only 2 cm dilated and she suggested we go get some lunch and walk around for 2 hours. This seemed like a good idea at the time, even though I had Tim pushing on my back any time a contraction hit as a counter-measure. Spoiler Alert: Back Labor is really, really painful.

I got dressed and we headed downstairs to the cafeteria. I really just wanted a place to do some yoga back stretches (cat and cow poses for the yoginis out there). However, there really wasn’t any place to do them. Tim decided to grab something from the cafeteria and I tried to find a hallway to stretch out on the ground. However, when you are in a hospital, you will get everyone asking you is you are OK if they see you on all fours. “Just in labor!”, I’d say. “I’m OK!”, I’d say. Finally I decided that these contractions were getting stronger and closer and we best head back to check-in, although it had only been 45 minutes.

Back in L&D, I was really becoming rather agitated about my increased discomfort. Dr. Lee examined me again to find I had moved from 2 cm to 3 cm. When you hit 3 cm, you are considered to have been moved from “passive” labor to “active” labor. And boy howdy did that labor seem “active” in the next 2 hours while I waited on an epidural. I can basically remember screaming for a minute every 3-5 minutes. By the time the anesthesiologists showed up, I think I was getting a little hoarse. Part of the delay was due to the fact that my blood had in fact turned to syrup and the nurse DonnaMarie couldn’t get the proper suction to draw it. I also had the chills and was shaking a lot. But after what seemed an eternity, Emily would insert that lovely needle that would put the lower half of my body into a state of pins and needles and all was good with the world. Tim fed me ice chips which still somehow managed to give me heartburn. I thought about all the food I’d be able to eat once the baby was born.

Dr. Gross and Dr. Wilson would be my delivering doctors. They didn’t check on my dilation until 8:30 PM at which point they said, “Hey you’re 10 cm and at +2, want to have a baby?” Huh. My water still hadn’t broken, so they did that for me. Then after 3 sets of 3 pushes, Liana was born at 8:53 PM. It’s funny how quickly everything goes at the end. I tore along my previous scar tissue from Marshall’s delivery (not uncommon), but not nearly as bad as a surgical cut. It took me twice as long to sew me back-up as to push Liana out.

Liana was 6 lbs and 10 oz. She measured in at 20.6 inches in length with a 34 cm head circumference. She was pretty blue on delivery which was dismaying to me, but apparently not out of the range of normal since she got an 8 out of 9 on her two Apgar tests. Having not been up all night, I was not completely delirious on meeting my daughter. I was moved to tears on how beautiful she was and how happy I was to finally meet her.

We spent two nights in the hospital. Basically these were fairly tedious days filled with doctor and nurse visits. We would have been happy to go home sooner, but I am fully happy to be able to live in a place where they want to make sure there are no problems in the 24 hours after delivery for the mom and the baby.

From the desk of Tim Hamon:

The third birthday isn’t what I consider to be a monumental milestone, as far as milestones go. Considering how Marshall’s life has mostly consisted of us keeping him out of trouble and harm, it’s not really his doing, in the strictest sense. The milestones themselves are much more subtle and rewarding than a mere calendar tick.

His preschool has a minimum age requirement. Specifically, before Marshall turns 3, one of his parents is required to be present in the class. The obvious reason is that younger kids often need more “hands on” guidance for things like potty training and sitting still. The younger kids can’t be expected to do as much by themselves. The school year started in early August, so Mal had about 8 weeks of preschool with one of his parents helping out.

Since he just turned 3, it was now appropriate for us to send him to preschool by himself. We don’t really mind participating in class, but there is a point where we want to “cut the cord” to a certain extent and compel him to experience school by himself. Mom and dad can’t be there forever.

As such, I explained to Marshall that now that he turned 3, he was going to school by himself. I was a bit surprised when he got upset and crying. I asked him what was the matter. Between the sobs and tears “I can’t go to school by myself. I need help crossing the street.”

This is a special milestone moment, but not for necessarily obvious reasons. See, the first “rule” we ever imposed on Marshall was when he was an infant: You do not move around while you are on the changing table. I don’t exactly remember how we got it to stick, but the bottom line is that we didn’t want to turn our back on him and have him roll off the changing table. The rule stuck to the point where I was able to leave the room to address some sort of diaper-related issue and he’d still be lying there, waiting for my return.

The second rule came about when he was able to walk around: You must hold someone’s hand while crossing the street. (Technically, this rule is “You must hold someone’s hand while crossing any place where a car has a right to go.” This was to prevent loopholes such as driveways and parking lots, which may actually be more dangerous.)

So, the milestone is not three years, or even that he’s going to school by himself. What blew me away is that he actually thought he had to walk to school by himself. And to do so, he would knowingly violate one of his cardinal rules. (Never mind the logistics that he may not even really know where he’s going.)

“Awwww!”

A secondary (and less interesting) milestone came about last night. We transitioned Marshall to a “big boy bed.” We’ve got to make plans to re-use his crib, so had him sleep in his bed last night. He cried and fussed about it a little bit, but he eventually quieted down and went to sleep.

As we were winding down, I went in to check on him. I cracked open the door and peered in, but he wasn’t in his bed. I didn’t see any boy-shaped outlines on the floor, which I expected. That was curious. Maybe he went into our room, or the extra room. However, I heard him breathing. I cracked the door open a little more to find him balled up in the corner with a curious interpretation of a restful night of sleep. I cleared off his bed and put him down in a more traditional position.

“Awwww! My neck!”

Marshall’s soundtrack has diversified. A few months ago I mentioned it was a string of “children’s music”. Now, he is a fan of pop music. He currently requests the “Bum Bum Bi Dum” Song, which most other individuals refer to as “Disturbia” by Rihanna. The other top song you can find him singing is “Human” by The Killers. Grandma Sullivan was very confused when Marshall kept proclaiming “My Hands are Cold” (a line from “Human”), when in fact his hands were nice and toasty. Lesser favorites include “I Hate This Part” by the Pussycat Dolls and “Please Don’t Stop the Music” by Rihanna.

Marshall couldn’t resist this motorized ATV at Connor’s 3rd birthday party

Couch Potato
In addition to watching his girlfriend Rihanna’s videos on YouTube (we don’t actually let him watch the “real” Disturbia video -too disturbing), Marshall is a fan of all things video. He watches Curious George, Thomas the Tank Engine (back on the playlist) and other PBS shows (some in Spanish) at Grandma Sullivan’s house. At home he will watch any number of DVDs I have gotten out from the library about John Deere equipment or other vehicles. One time I put in two DVDs back to back to see if he would get bored, but Marshall sat and watched them contentedly.

It’s Still Not Potty Time
We have made a very small baby step in the Potty training direction. While previously it brought on much tears and screaming, Marshall will now at least sit on the potty. Mind you he has never actually done anything while sitting there. Tim tries to relax him by reading a book to him while he’s on the potty at night before bed, but it has yet borne any potty success. I’m going to wait at least until July before I put Marshall into training pants. I just don’t think he’s ready yet.

Feets of strength
In the past month, Marshall has actually started to use the pedals on his tricycle from time to time. His preferred method of transport is still to scoot, but at least it’s a start. He also has gotten pretty good at kicking the soccer ball around since Tim has been bringing him to my earlier Weds night soccer matches. He looks forward to asking a teammate of mine, Kate, to borrow her “pink ball”. I have opted not to enroll Marshall in the “Little Kickers” classes or swim classes this summer. These classes are just too expensive or have odd schedules. I don’t think Marshall’s soccer/swimming ability is going to come up lacking in the long run, if I don’t enroll him this young. I figure we will use my brother’s pool or the Community pool within walking distance when it gets warm this summer.

You see on this page?
Thankfully, Marshall loves him some books. If you sit with him, he will bring you book upon book upon book to read together. One of the games he likes to play while reading is “I Spy”. He will initiate the game by exclaiming, “You see on this page!?” Sometimes, if you are within earshot, but not currently reading to him, he will scream “You see on this page?!” to try and initiate a reading session.

I love it you drill
It’s very touching to hear your child say “I love you.” However, Marshall may not know what he is actually saying when he mimics those words back to us. You are just as likely to hear him say “I love it you item/action he really doesn’t like”. For instance, he’ll say “I love it you change my diaper”, when it is clear he really doesn’t want his diaper changed. I’m wondering if he’s just missing the word “not”. In any event, it really is fun to be holding (simple) conversations with Marshall these days. Plus, I do think he loves us. ♥

I have retreated back into my non-blogging cave. Part of this is due to the fact that weekend time, AKA “free time”, is now split between my seriously active physical routine (hockey, yoga, soccer) and prepping the new house in Poway. The other part is directly related to begging Tim to write things for me, since he’s well… good at and some junk. But, Tim is very busy with his comic, the aforementioned Poway house and sleeping. Thus, you’re stuck with me afterall. I have to think back to the point of these postings. I had wanted to document the small changes that Marshall was going through on a month-to-month basis. Truly, he is still changing on a week-to-week basis.

“This is called a”
Marshall is so proud to be naming everything! To inquire about the name of something, Marshall will put the proper questioning tone at the end of a sentence, “This is called a …?” While I delight in the fact he can name most objects around the house, I like that he can make jokes! This morning I witnessed this interchange.

Marshall holds up a cheerio from his cereal bowl, “This is called a moon”.
Mom says, “Yes, that does look like a moon.”
Marshall grins and pops “the moon” in his mouth. “Marshall eats the moon!” *laughter*

What toddlers daydream about…
Tim caught Marshall the other day in one of his a-thousand-yard stares. Tim asked him what he was thinking about, to which Marshall replied, “Trains”.

”Thank you Marshall”
As you might have noted in one of my last posts, we have been trying to instill a basic level of manners in Marshall. Marshall will now hand us a toy he wants us to play with and state, “Thank you Marshall” before we have a chance to do it ourselves. He also will occasionally give us an unprompted “please” or “thank you” for something we do for him. We have used the “I can’t hear you” card when Marshall forgets to say please. This often leads into a “Who’s on first” interchange, when I can’t understand what Marshall is saying pronunciation-wise. When asked to iterate what he just said, Marshall will then say “Pleeeeeaaaaase!” “No, what did you say?” “Pleeeeaaaaase!”

Television
We introduced a number of television shows in the past few months. The shows in Spanish have been treated with very little interest and we have decided to let those go until he is listening to Spanish in pre-school. Maisy has been a great favorite. I like the simple topics and the fact that the plain backgrounds don’t distract from teaching new vocabulary. Marshall requests Bob the Builder on a daily basis, but I think it may still be a little fast-paced for him. He often loses interest after 5 minutes. We gave Thomas the Tank Engine a try, but Tim and I couldn’t abide by the fact that the show seems to be filled with petty, mean-spirited trains. Thomas has been removed from the playlist.

Potty Training
Parent: “Marshall, do you want to use the potty?”
Marshall: “NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!”
That is all to report on this subject.

It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time
The soundtrack to Marshall’s life appears to be one nursery rhyme followed by another. He will break into one of many different nursery rhymes out of the blue. “Baa, baa black sheep”, “Gingerbread man”, “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “No more monkeys jumping on the bed” seem to be some of his top tracks at the moment. He can sing along with most his children’s music CDs. We all enjoy a little “Peanut Butter Jelly with a baseball bat”.

Loud Noises
Marshall has long been scared of loud noises. He is terrified of the food processor, hairdryer, garbage disposal, and power tools. He will insist on us being “All done, All done!” while any of the above objects is in use. The other day Tim went to use a hand cheese grater. When Marshall saw the shiny metal object, he started crying “All done, All done!” even before Tim had started to use it.

Playdough
My mom and Marshall have found countless ways to play with the playdough I made. It has become food or hats for his dinosaurs, a way to attach people to cars, a medium for cookie cutters (to stand or take form), bowling items and a baton to run relays. Marshall is still a huge car aficionado and picked up a number of new vehicles for Christmas he spends countless hours with. Other current favorite activities include batting a balloon around, gardening (hoeing, digging and watering), throwing airplanes, and coloring with crayons.

All better
Marshall has long been a trouper with the tripping and tumbling commonly found in the toddler age set. He will get back up while stating “all better” and rarely even asks for a hug. This past Tuesday at “family dinner” night, my brother was playing with Marshall. My brother had a small bear and Marshall had a smalled stuffed Tigger. In a series of unfortunate events, my brother’s bear kept meeting with an injury. Every time Marshall would bring Tigger over to the bear to give the bear a hug and tell him “All better”.

Speech Patterns
Clearly Marshall’s vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds. The fact that “Pterodactyl” spills out of his mouth is a little wild. He is definitely reaching an age where he is soaking up words like a sponge and likes to mimic words that he hears. He has also in the very early stages of using “I”. He can be found exclaiming “I love milk!” or “I’m sorry” instead of “Marshall have a cookie”. Pronunciation is a whole another ball of wax.

There you have it. Some of the small changes that Marshall has exhibited in the past few months. It’s a really fun time. It seems like I’m always saying that. Go us. I’ll leave you with a picture of Marshall saying “cheeeeese!”. Note the “noodles” that the dinosaurs are eating.

Shawna asked me to come up with something for Marshall’s second year birthday weekend. There were a few obvious things that I could talk about. Shawna was out of town, so it was just the two of us left to our own devices. I could talk about the Costco cake calamity, the spurned dish of “Macaroni and Awesome” or car carrier toy given to him by his grandmother.

I could also use the opportunity to cleverly and back-handedly complain about how I had to move our stuff out of our condo, by myself. But, clearly, I wouldn’t do something with such petty martyrdom. And really, that doesn’t really have anything to do with Marshall.

That leaves me with something that is kind of fun to share: As he gets older, Mal becomes increasingly interactive with his world. He remembers more and more, he interacts with things on a level below their surface. He’s able to conceptualize things and deliberately use his imagination.

So, along those lines, I started a new tradition with him. Every night, after his normal routine and a book or two, I sit down with him in the dark and tell him a spontaneous, improvisational story. The story is episodic, in that I don’t intend to complete it and I build on the previous night. I repeat a lot, so that the two of us can remember what’s going on in the story up to the present point.

And, being a writer, this comes off as a challenge in its own right; based on the oral nature of the storytelling and the limitation of the audience, story time has proven to be challenging in ways I couldn’t imagine.

The story is fairly simple: One day, the little boy and his bear climbed up the tallest tree in the land. They climbed and climbed to the very top and looked to see what they could see. From the top of the tree, they could see the Far Away Land, about which they knew nothing. That day, the little boy and his bear decided to travel to the Far Away Land. They head out, meeting adventures along the way.

Part of my design was to leave various details up to Marhsall, to involve him with the story. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but I hadn’t really prepared myself for the way a two year old sees the world. On the second night, the boy and the bear came to a river. They saw a little man with a big boat. He was going to ferry them across the river, but he wouldn’t go with them past that point.

“What color is the boat, Marshall?” I asked, when the little boy and the bear came down to the river bank.

“Blue boat!” he replied.

“Okay, so the little man in the big blue boat took the little boy and the–” I tried to continue, but I got interrupted.

“Red boat!” Marshall exclaimed.

“What? We just said that it was a blue boat.”

“Purple boat!” Marshall countered, apparently willing to compromise with me, choosing something between Red and Blue.

“Too bad, buddy. The paint is dry and the boat is blue. The little man can’t afford to dry-dock his boat and repaint it” I countered weakly. I mean, who’s story is this, anyway?

The funniest part about this process is that he and I have this argument every time we talk about the little man and his big boat. We recap the story every couple of days and we get to the river and have a debate about what color the little man’s boat was. That is as much of the story as the actual narrative; it’s the piece of the story that wrote itself, without any of my intervention.

Nowadays, Shawna joins us for storytime, laughing with me when Marshall forces me to alter the story universe when he suggests anachronisms or continuity breeches.

(We had an exchange that went something like this:

Me: What’s the little boy’s name?
Mal: Marshall!
Me: That’s a great name for a little boy. What should we call the bear?
Mal: Marshall! (giggle)
Me: Uh… Doesn’t that get confusing?

For the record, the bear has since been named “Blue Bear.”)

In conclusion, Mal is less and less of a baby these days. He’s more and more of a little boy. I thought I’d leave with an image that best describes him these days:

Much progress has been made and there is much work left to be done.

September was a very busy month for for Marshall and us. We took trips to the Zoo, Sea World, Wild Animal Park, and Sequoia National Park. Not to mention that we finished out the month by moving out of our condo and in with my mother. Let’s not forget that Marshall turned 2 years old as well on the 26th! Busy month indeed. This is reflected in the 112 pictures added in his September photo gallery (compared to a paltry 23 for August).

Music Together
My birthday present to Marshall was a series of music classes (10 total) through the Music Together program. Marshall loves listening to his Hullabaloo CDs and I thought he might enjoy the classes which are supposed to teach tonal and rhythmic patterns while still being fun for children. The classes run 45 minutes and Marshall likes to play with the various instruments that are brought out during the class (egg shakers, drums, bells, tambourines, etc). By 30 minutes he’s ready to head outside and play at the nearby fountains (our class is held at a Synagogue). He can now sing a bit of the Itsy bitsy spider and likes two songs that are sung in the present participle named “Every Day” and “See how I’m jumping”(see below). In the “Every Day” song, it aptly tells of the going’s on of various family members (mommy wakes up, daddy wakes us, baby wakes up -stretching and stretching, stretching and stretching, followed by working and playing, followed by getting tired and sleeping). Today when we were riding home from a long morning of shopping and Marshall was leaning his head against the carseat and looking pretty tired. I asked Marshall what was going on and he replied quietly, “Marshall sleeping”.

See How I’m Jumping
About a week before Marshall turned 2, he actually started jumping with both feet off the ground. Jumping is still a little awkward, but hitting a bouncy castle at the park earlier in the month and once again mid-month has propelled him towards a standard jumping technique. He now often requests a “bouncy castle”, and I think he will have at least 2-3 opportunities to hit one in October.

Living with Grandma
We hadn’t really expected to move out of our condo so soon this year. However, it actually may turn out to be timed rather well. Marshall loves being at Grandma’s house. He loves the backyard and enjoys the company of her Scottie, Willy. Marshall will follow him around the yard and if he sees the dog outside will request “Marshall outside”. I think the first few days may have been a little strange for Marshall (he was extra hyper before bed) and he still has trouble going down for his mid-day nap. However, this has been the case for some time now. We like being able to walk to the store/dinner and there is a playground at the Del Mar Hills school (also within walking distance). If Marshall actually is having any trouble adjusting to his new home, we think he will be well settled by the time we leave him with Grandma at the end of the month to head to VA for Molly’s wedding.

Ah, the automobile. It is the paradox of the modern age. We need them, but only because we’ve created a landscape where we can’t live without them. They provide us with freedom, but only the same freedom shared by everyone else on the road at the time. They brand us with our image, but with an image that presents entirely the wrong message.

Shawna and I took Marshall to one of the local parks. It was a warm day, so we chose a school playground that was entirely underneath a protective roof. We rounded the corner only to see the push car pictured here. Shawna and I share a look as if to say “one guess what Marshall is going to be playing with for the rest of the afternoon.”

Unabated and without any competition for the new toy, Mal toddled over to the car. It only has one door (on the left side), which he hurriedly threw open. He climbed into the car haphazardly, trailing his left leg behind him. As he attempted to close the door, he is frustrated twofold; the door won’t Shut because his left leg is still in the way and his left leg can’t get into the car because it is stuck in the door. The battle between Marshall and the laws of physics rages for a few moments, before the cosmos chalks up another victory and Marshall flees the car defeated, broken and awash with tears.

Nevertheless, having the attention span of a bug, he returned to the same car only a few minutes later. He seemed to have since solved his foot/door problem, so he is able to climb into the car’s cockpit. As the photo illustrates, the car has a hole in its undercarriage, so the driver can push his feet through. Additionally, the front wheels are both on independent swivels, like a shopping cart. Therefore, the locomotion of the car is somewhat FredFlinstonian, in that it is totally and solely (ha!) related to the feet of the driver.

Well, whatever Marshall wanted that car to be, or however he wanted that car to convey him from point A to B, it wasn’t going to be. He struggled to move the car, crying angrily and bitterly all the while. He slowly moved towards fixed objects, yet seemed unable to steer the car away from said objects, occasionally becoming lodged under the play structure or against a support pole. It was like watching a train wreck, except the train was very slow and very screamy.

We can only guess what he expected from that car, but it didn’t deliver. In true Hamon Stubbornness, he entered and exited the car a 4-5 times, perhaps hoping that the toy would have somehow changed to suit his sensibilities. Each experiment ended in tears and frustration, with Shawna and I remarking “Ok, maybe THAT was his last time…”

Alas, he finally abandoned the toy to the playground from whence it came.

Marshall takes great pleasure in his accomplishments. Recently, he has started to exclaim “did it!” upon the completion of such tasks as climbing up a slide, climbing up to sit on the couch, or climbing up the curved ladder at the park (did I mention he likes climbing??). It’s nice to see that Marshall has started on two word phrases. He usually does an adjective and noun combo, like “Mama’s shoes”, but more phrases are coming out now too. For instance, “done” has now become “all done” (complete with the sign language for it). Marshall’s annunciation can be quite striking at times. Yesterday, he repeated “river”, after Tim pointed it out in a picture. However, many of the earlier words Marshall learned are pronounced at a very rudimentary level. “Garbage truck” or “fire truck”, still remain to be called “uh-uuuh -uh”. “Cat” is mostly still pronounced “at”.

Appletoss
Marshall has kept his love of food. We recently reintroduced applesauce back into his diet (we had forgotten about this option when we moved away from baby food). Now you can hear him requesting applesauce (”appletoss”) 5-6 times/day. I don’t really know if he wants applesauce all that badly or that he just likes to say the word.

Marshall double-fisting his applesauce at 21 months.

Blue Book
One of Marshall’s favorite activities is to look at the two scrapbooks that Tim’s mom made for Marshall’s first year. Almost daily Marshall will request to look at the “blue book” (they are both bound in a light blue cover). Marshall has learned the names of all the people pictured within these two books. Don’t be surprised, if he knows your name next time he sees you. Thanks again Mamouse for these precious books.

Pool Time with Dad
Many an afternoon Tim will take Marshall down to our heated community pool. On occasion, Marshall will now request to go to the “poo-h”. He has even become acclimated with getting water on his face to the point that he will pour water on his own head during bath time (this always resulted in tears before). There is much squealing to be had between being launched up in the air by Dad or throwing rings and balls in the pool from the top step. We have had to implement a “no throwing in the house” policy, so Marshall now has to get all of his throwing in at the park and pool.

Flying Leatherneck Museum
During the summertime, the aircraft museum on the Miramar base holds “open cockpit days”. Last Saturday, we took Marshall to see what he would think about the big airplanes and helicopters. Marshall was too terrified to go in the F-18 and the F-5. We did get him into the open helicopter, but he’s still too young to really appreciate it. We can try again next summer. The next big adventure will be to Sea World for my company picnic at the beginning of September.

Dental Plan
Today was Marshall’s first trip to the dentist. We chose to take him to Dr. Stephanie Dixon. While I really liked her, Marshall really didn’t like the check-up provided by her. After many tears, Marshall was given a small plastic airplane for his troubles. I now joke with Tim that it is the most expensive airplane we’ve ever bought Marshall ($70). We had to pay out-of-pocket, since we haven’t added him to our dental plan yet. In hindsight, we could have waited until Tim’s open enrollment session (November). We were assuming everything was fine with Marshall’s teeth, but it’s nice to get that expert seal of approval. As with all child care, there is much debate on when a child should go for their first dental appointment. Our pediatrician, Dr. Robert Warner, had recommended we take Marshall in for his first dental appointment before his second birthday. In other dental-related news, Marshall is almost done with his teething pains. His upper canines are coming in. The last of the baby teeth, the big guns (second molars), show up typically between 2 1/2 - 3 years old.

**Shawna’s comment - I asked for a small blurb from Tim to add to the bottom of the 20 mo summary below.  I thought this short story by Tim deserved it’s own entry.**

It isn’t always possible for me to interact with Mal in a fashion that
was fun for both of us. Most of what you do when playing with one of
his age involves picking up whatever interaction scraps he throws at
you. Sometimes, this involves literal throwing, when it comes to
projectiles launched unerringly thrown at your head. Sometimes, this
is literal picking up, when it comes to picking up the debris and
detritus that he leaves strewn about the house.

This interaction is seldom equitable. In play terms, I’m usually just
Robin to his Batman. Actually, I’m Dick Grayson to his Bruce Wayne.
He gets to be the billionaire playboy out on the town, while I have to
wait in the limo and listen to Alfred going on and on about the way it
used to be. Bruce is out with two or three supermodels, and if I’m
“lucky,” I get to hook up with one of the wingman notties.

Apocryphal analogies aside, playing with Marshall can be a one-way
relationship. This was up until recently, when he and I started
playing hide and seek together.

It’s a modified version of the playground game, being that Marshall
can’t be entrusted to wait while I go hide. The game begins when we
chase each other around the house, circling the hallways that connect
the bathroom to our bedroom. I’ll get a head start on him, then I’ll
disappear to one of the 5 or 6 hiding places that I can conveniently
use. The hiding places are spread out across the rooms of the house
and they obviously have to be big enough to hide me.

Clearly, it would be too easy to win the game in the conventional
sense. He’d search for me for a few moments, give up, forget about me
and go about his merry way. The true game is to lure him into finding
the hiding space by sporadically calling out his name. We end up
playing a game of Marco-Polo echolocation until he has the right room.
I hide in obvious places, but even then, I often leave my legs or
feet out in obvious places.

I win every game. I get to be a part of the excitement every time he finds me.