Is that your mom?

Andrew and his mommy have finally returned home after their beach trip, so I got to play with the little man this morning for the first time in a while.  And he had some new toys.

One of his new toys is a 6 inch Superman action figure.  He already has a tiny little Superman toy, probably only about 2 inches tall, so we went to grab it.  He came running back, pointing at the bigger one, saying, "That's Superman's Momma!"

"Um, I'm pretty sure he's a boy," I told him.

"That's Superman's Dada!"

OK, that sounds more like it.

Not from around here

I was playing with Andrew tonight, and he kept asking me to talk like Yoda.  Naturally, I obliged. 

We were near the United States puzzle, so Drew started asking me, "What state are YOU from, Yoda?"

I told him, "I am not from the United States.  I live on a planet called Dagobah."

He said, "Is that by Ohio?"

Yep, that sounds like a teacher!

Andrew told my wife and me a very funny story the other day, and the funniness wasn't as much in the telling as it was in the understanding.

Drew has been going to a half-day Mother's Day Out program two times a week for the past few weeks.  He told us the other day that one of the other kids, Jackson, asked about Drew's Curious George t-shirt.

He told us, "Jackson said, 'Is that a monkey on your shirt?'  Then Miss Jennifer said, 'You need to go over there where your name is.'"

I can totally see the teacher saying, "Jackson, go back to your seat and sit down!"  I find myself saying very similar things all day long!

State of knowledge

My son is not even three and a half years old yet.  But he can name over half of the US states on a map.  I am just beyond amazed.

He's been counting since he was 1, he could say the alphabet forwards AND backwards when he was 2...

I'm fully expecting him to start reciting Pi to 20 places any day now...

What the HECK??

Just when we think we've got this potty training thing down, it all blows up in our face.  Andrew had been doing SO well, not having accidents, staying in big boy underwear for the entire day (still sleeping in a diaper, but waking hours were all in a dry pair of underwear).

Then in the past couple of weeks, it's like he's totally forgotten how to hold it in!  When we suggest he go use the potty, he says, "I don't have to go."  We've had to force him to go try.  When he does tell us he needs to go, it's usually seconds before an accident.

Tonight, I asked if he needed to go and he said, "I don't have to go."  I told him we'd go try in ten minutes anyway.  Ten minutes later, I said, "Let's go use the potty."  I got up to walk to the bathroom with him, and he stood looking at me as he peed all over the floor. 

My wife and I are at our wits' ends!

I guess it's back to diapers for a while! :(

This is sad

Tonight, I provided several quality minutes of entertainment to my son as he watched me attempt to swat a fly in the kitchen.  

Fly - 1

Dada - 0

Not going to disown you just yet, son...

Lately, Andrew has been regressing in his potty training and having quite a few accidents. My wife and I don't harp on him for this, but we do let him know that we're not pleased when he doesn't make it to the bathroom, because his accidents are usually avoidable. 

Several times, as one of us is cleaning him up ad getting him changed, Andrew looks up at us and asks, "Do you still love me?"

Of COURSE we still love you, buddy!  We just don't love the smell of urine in the morning!

Um... what?

My son is very polite.  He knows when to say thank you, and he says it often.  However, he doesn't say it correctly.  I've since learned that it's normal for kids to pronounce the "th-" sound as an "f-" sound until they can master that blend, but I hadn't realized how pronounced it could be.

For the longest time, whenever Drew thanks us, it sounds like he's cussing at us. 

"You did such a great job, Andrew!"

"F*&k you, Dada!"

"Um, let's try more of a T sound... TANK you, Dada!"

"Ta-   F*&k you, Dada!"

Super what?

My son is very into super heroes.  Of course he is, he's my son.  And I won't lie, I've promoted that agenda from day one.

So today, sitting around the table, Andrew points at each of us in turn and calls Mama "Batman," me "Green Lantern," and himself "Wolverine."

He then asks, "What does Wolverine have?"

Naturally, I answered, "Wolverine has a mutant healing factor."

Trying this out himself, Drew said something that sounded like, "A mooting vader?"

I should have just gone with "claws."

:)

I love being a dad!

I really don't know why the idea to blog about fatherhood just occurred to me this week. My son is a few months past 3 years old now, and so there certainly has not been a dearth of material and events to write about.

Before Andrew was born, even, I had intentions of writing a book about fatherhood.  I took notes and wrote stories during the pregnancy, during his first year of life, and a little beyond even.  Other things happened, and the book is still in limbo, but I really should have been putting those stories onto a blog this whole time.

But hey, better late than never, right?  And now that he's three, he's walking, he's talking, heck, he's even almost completely potty trained! -- there's still plenty to write about AND I can always go back and fill in some of the details!

If you're just reading this, I hope you enjoy from here on out.  The title of this blog comes from Andrew's favorite meal.  My boy loves him some cheese.  And when he was two years old, anytime we asked him what he wanted to eat - breakfast, lunch, or dinner -- it was "Mac'oniandkeysandkeys"  (loose translation into English - Macaroni&Cheese and cheese).  Now that he's three, he usually only asks for that meal at lunch and dinner, preferring yogurt or cereal for breakfast.  So his palette is definitely expanding.