baby Doodle update

Baby Doodle is two years and eight months old and his brain processes and learns so quickly it's unbelievable. He taught himself the lower case alphabet (having mastered the capitals long ago) by typing emails to various family members. He realized on his own that the letters he pushed on the keyboard, which are caps, did not look like the letters that appeared on the screen. He studied each one after pressing it and two days later was identifying lower case letters wherever we went.

The conversations he has with himself are incredibly adorable. I can't recite an entire one here, but he plays both sides of the conversation (himself and whoever he's pretending to talk to). An example: "Do you want to jump up and down? Yes. Oh you do? Me too! Oh you're a good jumper. Thank you. You're welcome."

He has an unbelievable memory. The other day in the car he announced, "Grandma is 59 years old." Which he learned having only heard it once or twice when we were there for Thanksgiving along with the ages of tens of other relatives. Speaking of numbers he points out numbers, especially double digit numbers wherever we go. On the highway between DC and Philly he pointed out the speed limit, interstate, and exit number signs. He's obsessed with what number is on each bus that passes us in our neighborhood and elsewhere. The 9 is his favorite because that's the one we've most frequently taken to see Mr. Doodlebug at work. He's also fond of the 27, 32 and 35 because we see those the most. When we were in NYC he wanted to know the number of every single bus he saw, which was impossible to pay attention to for an entire day.

On our way to DC a few days ago he informed Mr. D and I that we had just passed Ikea. I hadn't seen it and knowing how loud their store sign is, was skeptical that he'd actually seen an Ikea. He continued to tell me that he saw the letters K-I-A. Perhaps he'd seen a Kia dealership, which very well could have been possible given the commercial area we were speeding through. Still I was impressed by his ability to transfer knowledge and think critically.

He had his first visit to the dentist today. He did incredibly well. He sat quietly eating almonds and watching PBS while I got my teeth cleaned. When it was his turn he laid in the chair and opened his mouth wide for the hygienist. He followed each of her instructions: close your mouth, hold your teeth together, open your mouth wider. When it was over he rinsed his mouth, without spitting, and thanked the hygienist for his new toothbrush. His behavior is not always so stellar -- he had a melt down before we went to the grocery store this morning because he didn't want to wear the jeans and fire engine shirt that he had picked out. When he's with his friends, especially other boys, he acts crazy and hyper, nothing like when he's alone or with girls or younger kids. Nevertheless, he's pretty well behaved on the whole.

He's so bright and cute and loving and sweet.

With my brother last weekend.

Playing the drums, one of his favorite pastimes.