Thursday mornings are Melanie and Grandma time this semester.
My favorite son-in-law (in case you’re not already in on the joke, he’s my only one, and always will be, since I have only one daughter) wears several hats and one of the current ones is student (final semester–yay!). So, in order to give him a nice block of study time on Thursday mornings (he is normally Mr. Mom in the mornings while the lovely Ellen is at work), I drop “the boys’ (Zach and Michael) off at school and work respectively, then swing by the Klaus haus to pick up still-pajama-clad-but-always-smiling, 15 1/2 -month-old Melanie.
After commenting on school buses and red lights en route to Gramma’s, we have a little routine once we get there. Thursdays are laundry day here, so we usually head to the basement to put the first load in the washer. Then we come back upstairs and find Melanie some breakfast; the current favorite is Cheerios with peaches, and milk served with a straw in the snowman glass.
After breakfast, Melanie is ready for books–she is usually ready for books the second she sets foot in the house!–but I can generally persuade her to bring some out in the kitchen and “read” by herself on the rug while I swish up the breakfast dishes. Dishes done, bathtime arrrives.
When Zach was little, I found it easier and quicker to bathe him in the kitchen sink for his first year+; Melanie still fits, so that’s where she has her baths at Gramma’s–for now. (The first time we tried this, she was too afraid and I didn’t force it–just sponged her off standing in the sinkful of suds and got it over with. Last week I got smart and, with the introduction of the yellow duck, she happily sits in the sink and enjoys it all.)
This morning, after she was all dried off from the bath and we were getting her dressed, I pronounced “Ta-da!” as each hand and each foot emerged from its respective sleeve and pantleg. Well, I started something! Melanie’s every move for the next few minutes was accompanied by a toddler-initiated “Ta-da!”
Not being one to introduce sloppy use of vocabulary, I set about refining her understanding of the word. When she was putting blocks in her shape sorter block can and tried to use that word, I told her she needed to put the block through the hole first. When we were playing a new game–Find the Frogs (I have a jar of eight plastic frogs of various colors that I place about the living room and she finds them and brings them back to their jar home.)–we did not use “Ta-da!” until each found frog was being placed in the jar.
I could say something here about the importance of context, but I will leave it to you to ponder the point if you wish.
Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see when/where that new vocabulary word turns up in the days to come!
Crazy Auntie Erin’s here … “Ta-da!” 😉
Glad I read this just now…Melanie is here for the morning and I’ll be watching…er, listening…for the new word!
🙂
I was helping at Breakaway last night, received 3 Valentines from various kids, and was “eaten alive” by numerous stuffed animals held by squealing children (I even ended up on the floor covered in kids and toys, screaming in “pain” – the spider was the most “deadly” 🙂 ) As they chased me around the room (me “screaming in pain” more with each step) and as I clutched their cards and as one sweet child dictated to me the words he wanted written on his Valentine to his mommy (that he loves her “because [she] tucks [him] in at night…”, etc.), I realized something, or rather, something I already knew was cemented in my heart – I want to have children of my own some day! Since I’m single and don’t think I’m destined to be a single mom, I’ll just be enjoying how wonderful it is to care for others’ children and what a privilege it is that those mommies and daddies entrust their children to my care for a few short hours once a month until that day comes when my future husband and I have our own little one(s) to cherish, correct and cuddle with.