Call It What You Want...

A short glossary of Mark terms, because some unnamed Grandma keeps pestering me for a new entry, and do we really want to read about snotty noses and not being able to sleep? (No. And I don't want to write about it either. It makes my nose stuffier.)

BEE-bee: Baby. Either in reference to a picture of a baby or the one in Mommy's tummy. Or, occasionally, in reference to an actual baby, though he doesn't pay as much attention to them as you'd think, given his fascination with pictures of them.

COOK-kie: Just exactly what it sounds like. Usually said while pointing to the overly large barrel of cookies on the counter.

DAT, also DIS: That and this. Nouns interchangeable with any word he doesn't want to say. Often accompanied by a point.

DCKL: (mostly sounding like a funny noise with his mouth) Tickle. Usually when he's been tickled, the laughter has stopped, and he wants it to continue.

DAH-Deee: His favorite person.

EAT!: (often repeated) Eat. It's a good way to get him to the high chair. "Time to eat, Mark!" He replies, "Eat! Eat! Eat!" and rushes in the general direction of the table.

EEF: The sound a dog makes.

EEPS: Grapes. Apparently, though not confirmed.

GUCKY: (Guk-Key) Lucky. Mark has two dog friends named Lucky; both are very nice and like little kids. Last week the boy Lucky and his owner came over to say hello. The girl Lucky is often visible from our front yard (sometimes leading us to really want to cross the street to say hi).

ISH!: (often EESH) Fish, often the ones at the Library, though sometimes referring to fish in books or those at Meijer. Often repeated excitedly from the entrance doors of the library.

MAAAH-Meee: Someone who gets him what he needs. (In a choice between the two parents, it's usually DAH-Dee.)

MUK: Sounds like it should mean "milk," but I think it means "Something out of the refrigerator".

NO: (sometimes accompanied with shaking of the head) 1. No. 2. Yes. 3. Maybe. 4. None of the above. Often an answer to a question, but frequently not a negative response.

No, No, No: (Accompanied by a naughty smile, often said to Grandma or other non-parental grown-up): Mom and Dad don't let me do this; are you going to?

RAH, also DAH: Sounds made by Lions, Tigers, Elephants, and sometimes Dolphins

YUCKY: (usually with a giggle) A fun word to say without much meaning. Also a funny word for Grandma to say. Grandma seems to mean something by it, but Mark just likes the sound of it. Synonyms: Yes, Yak, Yakety yakety yak, yesterday, yellow, and any other word that begins with "Y".

Other words that he understands that make occasional appearances: BOOK, DOG, CAT, BEAR, COAT, JACK (jacket), UMM-MAH (Grandma), BATH, PEES (please, accompanied by the Baby Sign for please, rubbing his belly, which he learned from his cousin Jonathan).

Well, that is a short glimpse into the vocabulary of the boy. I have not chosen to include various tones of shriek as they are hard to phoneticize.

Mister Bear is one of Mark's best friends. He goes places with him, sometimes sleeps with him, gets hugs and kisses, and is generally always there for his best boy.

Today, however, he was just a little too close at bath time.

Tim brought the dripping bear back downstairs after the bath. Dripping. Not just damp.

Mark had to go to bed without Bear. Truthfully, he's got enough friends in there. He's not going to be lonely. But I was sure that we needed to get things back to right as quickly as possible.

After an hour on low heat, he was still splattering water (not just damp). So I decided to up the odds of getting poor Bear dry tonight and increased the heat to Permanent Press. In less than an hour, Mister Bear was dry and fluffy again (though he'd escaped from his pillowcase).

I stitched the spot on his back that was starting to come open, and tomorrow morning, there will be a happy boy. He'll have a big hug for his best Bear.

I am still receiving AOL Instant Messages on my phone.

The next option is to change my number. I don't care to do that. I finally got onto the "no call" list and don't care to go through that again. ("Most of our pay-ahead customers don't get telemarketing calls," said Cody. Yeah. Mine did.) I think I just sit back and let it ride.

Recently I received a "Hey Sexxxy" message from Amadolla. I decided that it would be worth it to reply and let her know that I don't think she'd find me sexxxy at all. Apparently I am her ex, no less, and I really did a number when I dumped her. Incidentally, I'm in the Marines. Could it be the same person after all?

I told her my name's Jenny and I'm just a mom in the burbs (somewhere -- she doesn't need to know where). She says "I've" been on her buddy list for years and why did she get a message from this screen name if it's not her ex? I tried to explain that AOL's been a bit messed up and so on.

She ended up saying I was (blank)in lying to her and she would never talk to me again.

So far, everyone that I've TOLD what's going on, I've stopped getting messages from. "Momwith"etc and a couple others I haven't replied to, but think I'll probably have to in order to stop getting their messages too.

T-mobile people have "never heard" of this before.

Yeah. Whatever.

It was past time for another visit to the Children's Museum, and since the innards were calm (at least for the day), I decided today was the day. Without consulting the boy, of course. He tried to be cranky as we bustled around getting ready to go (filling a cup with milk, gathering a snack for him AND one for mommy/baby, putting on jackets...) but got interested in wherever it was once we got into the car. He loves to watch the world from his carseat. Sometimes he talks to trucks/ducks/people/dogs, and sometimes he just watches. Today was mostly a watching day.

The museum was a madhouse, an absolute zoo of unruly schoolchildren on field trips, some properly chaperoned, some careening down the famous children's museum ramp pushing strollers (why, may I ask, is there a baby in a stroller along on a school field trip? Which of these third graders is the parent of said small child? None? WELL THEN WHERE IN HEAVEN'S NAME WAS THE PARENT??? About forty yards behind, as it turns out, which, on famous ramp is about a half a floor), some gaping at nothing and then walking RIGHT INTO and falling on top of the stroller carrying said good-natured boy and his puppy, who got to come along. (Shhhh, the people at the desk thought it was stuffed...)

But! This is a happy post, because, due to my employment at friendly farm and historic museum, I get in free! And due to the boy's not-so-advanced age, so does he! So we made a beeline to the PLAYSCAPE area, the place just for preschoolers/toddlers/babies (school groups must have reservations). It, too, was a madhouse, but in a much more supervised manner. It was a happy madhouse.

Mark played in the absolutely amazing water run, mostly just letting the water drip over his hand and picking up toys out of the water to drop them back in, and then wandering over to another part of the fixture, completely ignoring his mother. I could've gone for coffee and he wouldn't have noticed.

Then off to the sandbox, completely nonplussed at the three-year-old girl who took a toy exactly out of his hand and said, "I want this." He didn't care. He got something else and continued on his happy little way.

Then it was a break for lunch (and re-entry into chaos, as the lunch-disaster area was, of course, full of all ages of people, not just veyr happy small fry). It was stressful and eternal (good thing we packed the milk and the applesauce), but eventually we were out of that area and back to Playscape once again. Why mess with a good thing?

We visited a climbing area, a play house, a fun pretend garden, the soft crawly area for babies (people under 2, please!) and then found THE CAR. It was a large wooden car, with which Mark fell in love. Unfortunately the object of his affections was being saved by a rather larger boy for his mommy (what mommy would tell her 4-year-old to save that toy for her???), but he agreed to share it with Mark. (Happily, I found another car to offer him for his mom when she asked him where the car he was supposed to save was. And thanked him for sharing with the baby. Even though Mark is NOT a baby...)

Mark loved the car. He proceeded to drive the car around the entire Playscape area for the next hour. He drove it over the mountains. He drove it through the tunnel (about 10 times. In a row). He spent the entire time crawling all over the place on his knees with this big wood car. Once again, I could've dropped off the planet, and it would've been okay with him, as long as I didn't take the car with me when I left.

When he started yawning, I knew it was time to head out. He started for the door. We had to go back and put the car away. He started to have a small tantrum. He got tucked into his stroller (and got Doggy dug out of the diaper bag for him to hold) and we were headed for home.

He was asleep in 15 minutes. He was awake when we got home. He did agree to go down for his nap, but was giggling when I closed his door, went to my own room, turned down the monitor, and snuggled down in my bed for my own nap. An hour later he was playing happily in bed when I woke up. Not sure if he got any more nap (Mom calls that a "play nap"), but we had a fun day. And we'll sleep well tonight!

Mark has new shoes today. He is now wearing a size 6 1/2. He tried on three pairs of shoes and proudly tramped around the store in his new brown multi-purpose shoes (casual enough for every day but dressy enough to go with a pair of khakis). He offered the salesman at the store the most prized possession he had at the moment, his "under-3" prize from his McDonald's Happy Meal, a Little People dog. (Of course, he wanted it back right away.)

He wore his shoes all around the house and even wore them in his nap, but that was mostly just because he was asleep when we got home and his mom didn't want to wake him by taking them off. He played with them when he was getting his diaper changed, and, in general, seems very pleased with them -- and perhaps with himself for needing them. They look big on his little feet, but seem to fit just fine.

Daddy got a pair of free new shoes this morning in Boston in a "this would only happen to Tim" story. Apparently some lady bought them at the factory store across from his hotel for her son, but bought the wrong size. Now Tim's little feet will be another pair of sneakers happier.

I think someone else will need a new pair of shoes. A girl has to keep up...

Do I care anymore if I get AOL instant messages from people I don't know as long as they aren't in the middle of the night (and I can turn the darn thing off if it's not charging in my room) and as long as they aren't supposed to be for someone's husband in Iraq? Now is the time to ask the question because the next step is changing my phone number, which I do NOT believe will help since these messages aren't supposed to be for me anyway and are being sent by people on their computers, not on phones anyway.

Mark is in hog heaven as he has grandparents to dote upon him. This morning we made a trip over to the Prairie with no stroller because there were plenty of hands to hold. He was more than happy to charge forward and show them where to go, though he was a bit resentful that he couldn't go play outside. (It was cold, and there was a program going on outside.) But a trip to Steak N Shake and an elbow in his cottage cheese was enough fun to forget the disappointment (especially with said grandparents being right there for the fun).

Naps are a NICE thing. For everyone.

Mark has a good friend named Max. He got Max for his birthday (a little late, thanks to Uncle David trying to give him to other children, apparently) and likes him pretty well.

He's super cute and makes nice sounds when he "walks". He has a string and can be pulled along behind a walking child, and his head bobs and tail wags. Super cute.

Today Mark pulled Max out of the toybox and started to pull him around the room. I said, "Oh, are you and Max going for a walk?"

Unfortunately, Mark seems to understand the "w" word just fine -- on his terms. He dropped Max's string and made a beeline for the front door and tried to open it. It annoyed him that we had to take the time to put on jackets and stuff. It was wretchedly cold (stiff wind, drizzle), but Mommy indulged him (though what I actually meant was were he and Max going to take a walk around the house) and off we went, the boy, the Mom, and Max.

It was so cute to see Mark toddling down the driveway holding onto Max's "leash". We walked down the street to the water meter in front of Corbin's house and played on the meter cover for a minute, then came back (it was pretty cold). Mark lost his grip on the string a couple times crossing the street, no less. I was afraid we'd have smashed Max in the street if we weren't careful.

Back at home, we had to have a swing in the swing before we could go in. Max doesn't fit very well behind the safety harness in Mark's hands, so we had to readjust so Max was sitting next to Mark instead of on Mark's lap.

Back inside, it was time to go off to Mommy's doctor appointment, and Max was forgotten (for a time). But don't worry, he's still a good friend...