The one about jokesters

My boys make me laugh so much! Decker is learning to copy things we do and say.  Mike’s been working on nodding yes and shaking head back and forth for no.  Decker is very enthusiastic about shaking his head no.  He crawls around the house shaking his head, which makes him fall over or run into things.  Recently Mike was holding him, and he said to Decker, “Decker, is that your mommy?” and Decker started wagging his head back and forth so enthusiastically that he almost flung himself out of Mike’s arms.  Mike and I laughed because it seems Decker is already a jokester! I don’t know why they get such a kick out of giving the wrong answer- Reed is the same way.  His favorite movie is Tangled (yes it’s a Disney princess movie, but I just like to think he likes pretty girls) so he loves talking about Flynn Rider and reciting lines from the movie.  

I can say to Reed, “Rapunzel! Let down your…”  and Reed will choose any random object he can come up with.  Some responses I’ve heard are: feet, chapstick, teddybear, nose, shoes, fruit snacks.  The first time he decided to choose something other than hair, he laughed hysterically at himself.  I regret that I don’t have a video of that!

I love listening to Decker babble.  He’s working on his syllables and while we were in Indiana he actually used the sounds, “mama” in reference to me.  I’m pretty sure.  Or at least, that’s what we are going with.  Since Reed said Dada first, I’m sticking with the story that Decker said Mama first.  He has this hilarious faces, too. He scrunches his face and smiles and then suddenly drops it back to a serious look.  The two little bottom teeth make all of his expressions that much more adorable.

Reed is working on the calendar days of the week and on his states.  I ask him every morning, “Reed, do you know what today is?  It’s Tuesday! What do we do on Tuesdays?” Or some variation of that.  So he knows what days he has school and knows his basic routine.  We put a calendar on the fridge to talk about the days of the week and cross them off either at night or in the morning.  I think this has really been helping.  We also talk to him about where our family lives.  He knows that Grams lives in Wyoming, Grandma and Papa live in Indiana, Uncle Coy lives in Arizona, Uncle Clark lives in Utah, Foust house is in Missouri, Matt and Josie are in Colorado, and eskimos live in Alaska.  Not only that, but he can identify the states on the map.  Its easier for him to remember if he can relate it to where someone lives, but he also just likes to point and ask what other states are and then remembers them.  He knows 13 states and is working up. 

Yesterday, Decker sent himself down a tunnel slide at the park.  I like to take them to different parks and playgrounds around the city and let them explore.  Decker is hard to put down anywhere because anything he touches had to end up in his mouth.  If it’s a park with mulch, he wants to chew the wood.  What’s nice is that now I can put him up on the playground and let him crawl on it.  Luckily this was a toddler size tunnel slide, but it still shocked me!  I thought he was just checking it out, but he crawled right in there and down he went.

I love that my boys are so fearless, but I do wish they had some semblance of risk assessment.  A pause for consideration before doing something that could cause the loss of and eye, or paralysis.  Is that so much to ask?