Some Ianisms

 

- This morning, the very first thing Ian said upon waking was, “The museum is closed today.”  He is correct, starting in September, the museum is closed on Mondays.  This is interesting, because it means that the first thing he was thinking of was what day it is – often one of my first thoughts as well.

- Ian was telling me about a new drink he had with Erin (Iansitter extraordinaire).  He apparently didn’t know what it was called, but he told me it was “sudsy, with bubbles, and sweet like honey.”  A good description of soda.  (Or champagne, which could explain why Erin is able to get him to bed so much more easily than we are).

- Ian is getting interested in the sounds in words. For a while we’ve been pointing out the starting sounds of words starting with letters he knows – such as, “La-la-la-lamp and Li-li-li-lilo – same sound, same letter”.  He clearly wasn’t quite getting it for a while because he’d respond with things like – “and la-la-la-ball”.  Now he seems to have made the connection and often points out starting sounds of words, or words that sound similar.  At dinner he was eating raspberries and asked, “rasp-BERR-y - is that like the kind that growl and will eat us”?

- Things that will eat us is a fairly regular topic for Ian these days.  The other day he had collected acorns and was trying to open one.  Doug was pointing out that people can’t bite into acorns because they are too hard.  Ian asked how squirrels eat.  Doug: “They have very sharp teeth that they use to crack open the acorn so they can eat the inside.” Ian (clearly reacting to the sharp teeth, “Then we have to be veeeery careful not to get close to them because they might eat us.”

- On the same topic, the other day Ian told me, “and the best thing that I am afraid of is bears, because they have big sharp teeth and I know because I saw them at the museum.” (presumably he meant the thing he is most afraid of).

- Also on the safety topic, Ian is very concerned lately with police officers, how they keep us safe, and when they might say “no-no”.  At home when we suggest that something (like balancing on the edge of the chair with one leg) is not safe, it goes like this – Ian: “will the policeman say no no?” Mommy: “No, but I say no-no because I want you to be safe” Ian, dismissing the relevance of what Mommy says: “But if he saw me would he say no-no?”.  Mommy: “No, but I don’t think it’s safe.” Ian: “But if he saw me?”  He is also happy to explain that if there is a car crash and it’s an accident you don’t have to go to jail, but that if you do it on purpose you have to go to jail until the judge says you can go home, and also that kids never go to jail “because they’re just learning”.

- Tonight at bedtime we were reading a book that had different pictures on the two opposing pages.  Ian asked why the pages were different colors (one had a red background, one a green background).  I explained that they were two different scenes, etc.  Ian showed me earlier in the book where the two pages had the same color and said, “If I was writing a book I would make them both the same color.”  This was interesting to us because it implied that he understood that someone wrote the book and made the decision about page color, and because he displayed a family trait of assuming you can attempt to change something you’re not satisfied with by creating it yourself.