Daniel's First Letter

Christy reports that Daniel recognized his first letter yesterday. He was playing with the magnets on the fridge, and grabbed "I." Before he plugged it into the music player (also attached to the fridge, it plays songs and says all the names and sounds of the letters), he said, "I!" And then he plugged it in.

Grampians

Daniel has been saying 'Gramma' for weeks.  When he hears a knock at the door, he often says 'Gramma' as he runs to answer it.  More recently, he has started calling his Grandpa Tidd 'Pa'. He says is softly and shyly each time.  Very cute.

Bath time

Daniel likes baths but isn't fond of getting his hair wet.  I think it's a combination of leaning back and not liking water in his ears.  During the last few baths after rinsing shampoo from his hair, Daniel has looked at me with water running down his face and said in a very serious tone "raining".

Tired Tantrums

Daniel has begun showing signs of impending toddlerhood. Specifically, he now seems to get quite disagreeable and cranky in the afternoons, as he is getting tired.

Daniel's New Games

Daniel's "games" are getting more interesting.

Last night, we watched an episode of "Thomas the Tank Engine" where Thomas races with bus-guy. Today, Daniel has his wooden Thomas toy in one hand, and his official Denver Nuggets team van matchbox car in the other, and then he runs around the house, "racing" them.

Also, when I got home from Naropa tonight, Daniel was lying on a pile of blankets in his nursery, saying, "ni'-ni'" (night-night). Then he'd spring up and walk into the living room, and Christy and I would say, "GOOD MORNING!" and he would cackle and run back into the nursery and start all over again.

He is also enjoying the "pokey" game. Things that are pokey include pine-cones and pine tree needles. He touches them and then I'm supposed to say, "OH! OUCH! POKEY POKEY!" and he laughs his head off.

More Pretend Play

Daniel has a toy cell phone that he likes to "talk" on.  He's had the phone for months and always enjoyed pushing buttons and answering it ("heh-ro!").  When we were headed to Fort Collins to visit his grandparents, he had a longer, more involved conversation on his phone.  Sounded something like:

Heh-ro?
mmm-hrmm-bl (tough to describe - he has a way of making sounds in a conversational tone that's pretty cool)
Cookie!
mmm-hrmm-bl

Also, Jarl and I heard him "counting" from the bathroom.  Daniel likes to drop pieces of cat food into her water dish.  We suspect that's what he was counting.  He said: 1-2-3-4-5-6 quite clearly as he played.

Pretend Play

Christy noticed during breakfast this morning that Daniel was engaged in "pretend play."

He had two sippie-bottles, one green & one blue. He would lay them both down, say "nite-nite," and then make snoring noises, and then he would stand them up and act like it was time for the bottles to wake up.