The uncles should be stoked.

I apologize in advance for how choppy and awful this video is in terms of cinematography and editing. I got a new computer recently (and it's INCREDIBLE), but I'm still learning the ropes. iMovie keeps crashing and I haven't figured out why in the last 15 minutes, so I'm just going to post the video in all of its long, unedited glory. Eventually I'll clip it down like normal and add my usual titles and such. Maybe. If I ever get around to it. Which probably means never.

Typical Conversation with Johnny

I mentioned that Johnny and I have full conversations. Here's an example:

You may have noticed that in the beginning of the video, he's saying "sit" but it sounds an awful lot like a swear word... the word "skunk" is also a tricky one. The first time he said it I was sure he was saying the C-word. Ah, children are so funny. Even when they don't mean to be.

Talkin' up a storm

Johnny's vocabulary has consisted of one-syllable words since he started talking. When he added "Daddy" and "Johnny" to his repertoire, I thought that more two-syllable words would begin to tumble from that little mouth of his shortly thereafter.

Well, I was wrong.

After months of saying "Maaay!" for "Mater" from the movie Cars, he has finally started stringing words together to be more specific. Now he says "Wat Maaay!" which, of course, means "Watch Mater!" Duh.

He also says "both WAYS" (with the emphasis on the second word) when we cross the street since John and I are constantly telling him to look both ways before crossing the street. When he wakes up in the morning, he says, "Find nine?" meaning he wants to go in the play room and have me quiz him on his numbers.

This communication thing? Is FREAKING AWESOME!!!!! I can't even begin to explain how cool it is to have your child talk to you. We have conversations. For reals. Yeah, he only says two or three words at a time, but I totally get it. Other people may look at me quizzically when he says, "red torrrr?", but I know that he is talking about Vons, which has a red sign. That's one of the best things about being a stay-at-home-mom is that I understand 99% of what Johnny talks about since it's all in context. Being around him all day everyday seeing everything that he is experiencing makes it way easier to understand him.

TRAIN!?!

I'm part of a local mom's group that does a zoo meetup every month through a mommy meetup program at the zoo. We meet two or three zoo representatives at 8:45am (before the zoo is even open!!) and they walk us through a special program they have set up for us. Each month's program has a different theme and includes an exhibit, zoo keeper talk and a story. Last week the theme was "The three R's and the train". Not sure how the train relates to the whole reduce, reuse, recycle thing, but hey, the kids were stoked.

Well, Johnny had never been on a train before and TOTALLY dug it. It was the only thing he could talk about the rest of the day. Here's a conversation I would have with Johnny:

Johnny: "Train?"

Me: "Yeah, we went on the train today."

Johnny: "Fun!"

Me: "It was fun, wasn't it?"

Johnny: "Train? Zoo?"

Me: "We won't be going there for awhile, honey."

Johnny: "Train?! TRAIN!!"

Me: "We're not going the train again today, but you can tell Daddy all about when he gets home."

Johnny: "Daddy? Train!!"

And over and over.

So, I decided that we would go on the train this past weekend so Daddy could see the look of exhilaration on Johnny's face.

TRAIN!

Waiting in line with Daddy

Choosing a seat

Squirming around waiting to get going

Unhappy toddler face

The second John gets off the train, he looks at me and says, "You lied to me. He HATED the train." Oops. I guess Johnny was squirming when they sat down and he kept saying, "Down! Off! Down! DOWN!", but I told John to just ignore it and he'd get over it when the train started moving, because that's what happened last time.

Well, he didn't get over it. Apparently he cried the whole time and embarrassed the heck out of John.

So then we get Johnny some food and put him on his bike to leave when he says, "Train? Fun!"

Toddlers are so weird.

Wrong side of the bed

I do enjoy being a mom to a toddler, I really do. And most days are great and those are mostly what I write about here. But not everyday is sunshine and rainbows. Some days are just downright ugly. Like two days ago. Johnny just woke up on the wrong side of the bed and was INCONSOLABLE all day long. He kept handing me toys and saying "Off?" in an attempt to get me to take them apart. Unfortunately, none of these toys came apart, which I told him. Then he'd say, "Please?" and would get all upset when I would deny him yet again. This is what a toddler meltdown looks like (with a baby fussing in the background... sorry about that):

Embedding isn't working again. :( Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TcnodEQGQA

Johnny was like this all. day. long. Granted, when I took this video, he hadn't had breakfast yet, but that's only because he refused to eat anything I offered him. He also decided that he wanted to be into anything and everything that we don't like him getting into... like the refrigerator. Now that he can open it, he wants to open it as much as possible. Most of the time, I tell him to close it and distract him with something else. That day? Not possible. He kept getting out the cheese and then refusing to have any when I opened it for him. I finally resorted to holding the doors shut and that resulted in another epic meltdown. Luckily, these days are few and far between for Johnny and I hope they will stay that way... at least until the "terrible twos," right?

Sign Language

I've been trying to get Johnny to sign for a good nine months of his life and he's FINALLY getting it. Okay, not really, only one sign so far. And pointing. But I don't think that counts. Anyway, I've been working with him on trying to sign "more," "milk," and "all done" for a very long time. He has picked up the "more" sign, although I'm not convinced he really knows what "more" means... whatever. I should just take it and run with it, right?