adult toddler talk

Pepe played with his trains this evening. All of a sudden we hear:
"Edward, state your problem!".

more potty talk

we moved into using m&m's for potty treats (yes, i remember blogging about how i do not want to use food as treats, but we really want to get this done, so there you go). so tonight after dinner we explained everything to pepe. he will get 2 m&ms when he sits on the potty, and 5 when something comes out. as soon as we finished he ran to the potty and sat on it for a couple of minutes - the rule is that he needs to sit at least a minute. he got his m&m, went playing, and immediately after he finished the m&m's he ran to the potty again..."more m&m's". .. so we had to reset the rule to include space/breaks in between sitting on the potty....men, the toddler mind, so primitive, so sophisticated, so goal oriented...

pepe the hiker

we took pepe to the fells again this afternoon. this time we followed the reservoir trail, an up and down 6 miler I had done with my boot camp group earlier in the week. we got caught in the rain, but we had a blast. pepe did amazingly. we hiked for 45 minutes and decided to turn around, in spite of pepe's persistence that we had to keep going. he jumped over the rocks and tree roots, and basically ran not walked the trails. he kept talking all thw way, repeating what chris and i were telling him about keeping his eye on the ground so not to fall. i was so proud of him and i envision nice vacations camping and hiking in new hampshire, which are really my favorite types of getaways....next year for sure.

You'll be all right

Everytime someone gets hurt and Pepe sees that or hears someone crying, he tells us, or goes to the kid and tells him; "You'll be all right".

Yesterday our twin neighbours were screaming around bed time.
P: It's Helli and Pillar, they cry coz they needs their mommy.
AM: Yes, maybe they need their daddy..
P: No, they need their mommy...
AM: OK
P: Sometimes at school I get sad and cry bc I miss mommy and daddy.
AM: Yes, and do the teachers hold you?
P: No
AM: What do the teachers do?
P: They tell me - You'll be all right".
AM: And what do you do?
P: I stop crying...
AM: Good, coz you know mommy and daddy come get you really soon..
P: Yes...

little monkey

For a while now Pepe has been into imitating whatever we or others say. Chris and I use "hon" or "baby" when talking to each other, so Pepe now calls us "Hon (Baby) can you come here, Hon, can I have a baba?" We still have a hard time restraining from having little arguments or discussions in front of Pepe (so tough to change a habit) , and he butts in and repeats what one of use said, "Yes, mommy, you need to turn the lights off", "Yes, daddy, we need to pain the porch...".

The boy is also bossy, and loves to be in charge. Like yesterday at Toys R Us, during my Pepe shift (Chris and I took 1/2 h shifts Toys R Us/Starbucks), at the train table, he bossed this 2 y old around telling him where his train needs to go, and making up Thomas stories. The boy loved it almost as much as Pepe. As soon as one of the adults said something, Pepe kept repeating, "Yes, the trains go over the bridge, Yes, be careful, Yes you need to go now".

toward easier times

we have officially transitioned into easier times with pepe. bedtime is a breeze, transitions are much easier, as pepe repeats the warning we give him and tells us what is going to happen next. he in much more understanding of rules, of bribery (you need to have 3 bites of dinner if you want to watch tv), of other's property. hew. terrible 2 and 1/2s might be gone...

charlie

charlie is pepe's godfather. he and his wife sonia have been our weekly game night friends every friday or saturday night, keeping up our social life from the moment pepe was born. he has always shown interest in pepe, but more recently pepe has been showing lots of joy when hearing that charlie is coming over. 2 weekends away pepe gave a 1.5 hours concert when charlie and sonia were here. he is usually shy playing music around others, but when charlie picked up the banjo, he picked up his guitar, instructed charlie how to "just touch the cords", and started playing. everyone had a ball. yesterday after dinner pepe and charlie played with the trains and the automoblistix cars, had conversations, traded tires, etc. at some point charlie lay down on some pillows on the porch and pepe did the same thing. it was such a sweet moment.

i think charlie will be our "if you don't want to tell us something but you need confidential advice go to person" when pepe gets older.