The Little Things

Yesterday, Maya and I were having a discussion. I don't remember how this discussion started but, like so many with her, it quickly became one of those that lead over to how she has this idea everything is either about her or belongs to her. That good old "me, me, me" syndrome, ya know. And maybe because she doesn't yet understand the fact that she can be "me" when she is talking about herself and I can also be "me" too -or we can both be "You" too -well, here's what I can remember of what was said:

Maya: I'm Maya. I'm 'me.'
Gram: No, you're 'you' and I'm 'me'
Maya: No, I'm 'me."
Gram: Oh no, no, no! I'm 'me' and you're 'you."
Maya: (With a bit of a wail and whimper in her voice) -"NO. GRAM! I'm 'ME' and I'm a 'people!'

Yeah, she got me with that line. Yep, my Little Princess, you are indeed, "a people" aren't you?

Other news around the house - we're trying to get Kurtis to eat more table food and when we are really brave, sometimes we entrust him with utensils to try to gather the food up onto a child's spoon or a little child's plastic fork. No, we're not quite crazy enough as yet to entrust him holding a metal type utensil cause sometimes he gets frustrated and things fly. I don't want to have to go to the ER after having my eye clipped by the tines of a fork, even if it might be a small salad size fork. Pain is pain and I want no part of it!

So, anyway - here's Kurtis with his little plastic fork in hand, eyeing up some biscuits and sausage gravy we had last night for supper. That stuff off to the side, on the high chair tray? Also some biscuits and gravy that I had tried to feed him but, as he usually does with table food, the first bite or two, he has to reach into his mouth and pull whatever it was you gave him on the spoon or fork out and then place it on the tray where he might eventually address eating it with his fingers.

Here he is now, trying to actually use the fork in the manner for which it was intended. It was a struggle for him to get a little bit of food onto it, but eventually, he succeeded in that quest.


I'm wondering if maybe we could title this shot below as "Houston, we have lift off!" He finally managed to get a big of biscuit with the gravy on it onto the fork and into his mouth. A move that warranted his getting a big round of applause too and lots of "YAYS" for hitting the mark.

Wasn't that just oh, so exciting now? Watching the little guy as he manages to spear his first bite of food with a fork - all by himself -and then, actually getting it from the fork into his mouth? Oh, the things you get to see when you stop by here, huh? Fascinating stuff, folks!

A little further report on the sleep front here reveals that we have now had four - yes FOUR -nights in a row that this little fellow was asleep by about 11:30 p.m. (early by our standards but probably has a lot of folks wondering why on earth a 23-month old would still be awake at that late an hour. Hey, I'm training him to fit right in completely with my Mom's side of the family -that would be the group that are almost all pretty much night owls. Ok, I may actually be the only one of my generation in Mom's family who still keeps the wild, way, way late hours -I'll concede to that.)

The best part of this change in his sleep patterns -beside his conking out a little earlier - is that he has slept straight through the night! No disruptions of anyone else's sleep time by his waking and having a royal fit until someone comes and picks him up, comforts him or caters to whatever other little whim he might be thinking at that particular point in time. So, that means his Mom has now had four nights of uninterrupted sleep and Gram has had two nights where she was able to crash by 2 a.m. and sleep through until at least 6:30 or 7 a.m. The first two nights of him changing his ways, I was so wired and accustomed to not being able to go to sleep till around 4:30-5 a.m. that I was up all night anyway. By the third night, I figured maybe it was safe and I could try for a few extra winks then too!

And today, I got the quarterly newsletter a friend of mine out in Cleveland sends out to everyone in her family along with copies to some select others - such as friends like me. Her newsletters are always a treat and I always really look forward to reading what her one sister has to say too -that sister having graduated from high school with me. Bernie and I probably could have had contests when we were in school to see which one of us maybe talked the most. I think I probably would have won but even so, she would definitely have been there giving me a race for the title. She, like me, writes just the way she talks too and so, when I read what she has contributed to her sister's newsletter, I always feel like Bernie is sitting beside me or standing in front of me, telling me with all the animation she generally has when she's conversing with a person, of the most recent events to her life.

And today, when Bernie signed off her contribution, her final words where "THINK SPRING!" And I could just picture her in my mind's eye, hear her saying that too!

And that really summed up my sentiments today as well.

Yes indeed folks. THINK SPRING!