pish, duts, pizza, and uh-oh

We are in a faster lane for speech development these days. pish=fish, dut=duck, by the way. I feel like last week, Daniel would repeat just about anything I said! Very fun. We are convinced he is one of the smartest people on the planet because when reading to him, we asked him, "Where is the duck?" and he pointed to it. Daniel did the same for cat in the Hickory Dickory Dock book. I have been putting the phone to his ear for a while when Soott or one of his grandparents calls, and he has not shown much interest. But, last week again, he realized the person on the other end is talking to him, so he listens. Scott asked him to say duck, to which Daniel quickly replied. Then, he looked at me with a huge smile and yelled, "Daddy!" Into the phone. Oh, and another aside, when we have these word repeat sessions, I always ask him to say, "Mommy" to which he replies, "Daddy." What's a girl to do?

To see Daniel grow more and more independent fills me with pride and fear. I am so proud of him for wanting to walk to the car, and back to the house, by himself. But then, I worry about him running into the street and getting hurt. He wants to eat food in its true form (well, strips) instead of cut up into little pieces. So, I have to stand six inches from him to make sure that he doesn't choke. Daniel prefers to go forward down the stairs, on his rump, rather than more or less sliding down backwards on his stomach. Again, I have visions of him missing the stair and tumbling the whole way down. I made the comment to Scott that I understood why my parents were such worriers - I don't know how I'll ever let him drive a car on his own, much less spend the night at a friend's house in elementary school!

We have also crossed over to utensil use at meal times. Daniel loves to jab his fork into his food. His aim for the food and his mouth is pretty good! Food seems to be an inconsistent area of life right now. Foods like pizza, which he used to scarf down, have less appeal. I can't get him to eat any vegetable besides winter squash, except for broccoli I smuggle into his pasta dishes.

Daniel can also scoot his little ride-on car forwards! And, he has taken an active interest in toy cars and airplanes. He pushes them all over the house now. Around the table, under the table, and he really likes to make them go under the couch so he has to reach under and get them out.

I took him to this play gym on Monday to check out their class for 16-24 month olds. It's a neat place with all kinds of mats and activities for climbing, a ball pit, swining, etc. Daniel was all excited as we waited to go in with the class, but then he was pretty freaked out by the jingle bells during song time and the parachute at the end of the class. I hope he will get used to it, and the other kids and teacher. He kind of squawked at anyone short, or tall, that came within a foot of him.

Obviously, my child needs to be socialized!

Oh, no pics because the USB cord for the camera is smashed. Am working on a replacement!

Moms on Oprah

I watched some of Oprah today and found it very thought-provoking. She interviewed Elizabeth Vargas about her decision to leave "World News Tonight" because of her children. Then, she interviewed working and stay-at-home moms about their decisions and situations. It reminded me of a comment JAB made when we were in Columbus for Nat's big 3-0. She said that women of our generation had been raised to think that we can have it all, but the truth is, we can't. I agreed. Then, Oprah said something today that I agree with more and wish I came up with myself. She said that women can have it all, we just can't have it all at the same time. I agree with that whole-heartedly. I think that motherhood teaches compromise. There are lots of adjustments in priorities - which are for the better. But, for women who are used to doing it all their own way, compromising can be especially hard.

My one over-riding complaint about the whole motherhood/career situation (other than women just need to give each other a break and not judge each other on their choice of occupation after having a baby) is why hasn't the job market better accomodated moms so that they can do both without feeling as guilty for either not spending enough time with their kids or not letting their employers down? It's called PART TIME opportunities that are still thought-provoking jobs. Job shares for teachers would be great. It astounded me to join a profession full of women with so little to offer someone part time. Couldn't kids have one teacher before lunch and one after? Or one on Mon/Wed, one on Tues/Thurs and they alternate every other Friday? If women spent less time justifying their decision to work or not to work, and more time coming up with ways to lobby employers for flexibility and creativity in job creation and child care providers to allow for part-time parents, we might just get somewhere.