Technical skills

One of my favorite milestones of late is that Ian can play games on the iPhone by himself. Even just last month there were several games he liked but lacked the dexterity to manage on his own. So it led to a lot of frustration for both of us as he would micromanage our every click on the screen with fits of "No Mommy, there!" But now he just says, "Mommy I wanna play Thomas on Daddy's phone." and I'm all "Knock yourself out, kid."

I'm not sure what age you're supposed to be able to do certain things. I actually read a fascinating article this morning about when kids can recognize colors. But he kicks butt at the matching game! And he can navigate through the stories that it reads to him and knows which arrows do what and how to get back to the main menu. I know adults who can't do that.

I've heard some folks say that they don't want their children exposed to too much technology too soon, but I haven't seen a single negative aspect to it thus far. Since it's all he's ever known he doesn't know to be nervous about its repercussions and just enjoys matching tiles and reading books in the back seat.

Mommy Mommy Mommy!

Mommy? Mommy! Mommy. Mommymommymommymooooooommmmmy That was my evening. He wanted up. He wanted me to play with him in the choochoo room. And those were all great ideas, but we still had to put food away and diapers needed changing and these things are not on the little boy game plan.

We did okay and ended up staying late watching Thomas train videos and eating Frosted Flakes until we were both falling asleep on our feet. So he's finally asleep without much fuss and the house is very quiet.

And now I miss hearing his voice.

This is the way ...

The other day Ian was not interested in getting in the car seat for school, so I started singing a song about it. It worked miracles and our morning commute became much more tolerable. But he was so happy with our new song, I have to sing it every morning. By the time I get to the office I'm hoarse! Basically I run through a lot of the stuff he doesn't like doing in the morning (waking up, getting a new diaper, putting on shoes, eating something, combing his hair, packing his lunch, buckling up, driving to school, waiting our turn at stop lights, etc.) His favorite part is when we say, "This is the way we drive our car, drive our car, drive our car ..." with appropriate arm motions. He gets this HUGE grin in the back seat and says "More drive again?" after each verse (see earlier comment about getting to work hoarse).

This morning traffic was a bit more thick, so I was trying to keep one arm on the steering wheel, figuring he could only see one hand anyways. But the little stinker peered around the seat and said, "No mama! Two hands!"

So I'm the mom driving to work with my knees so we can fully explore the space of pantomiming "DRIVE OUR CAR, DRIVE OUR CAR, DRIVE OUR CAR" with a little boy in the back seat, grinning like a fool. I'll take that over the whining, though, any day.