Rowan's World of Words

As Rowan's ability to communicate verbally steadily improves we find ourselves in a constant state of anticipation waiting for what he has to say next. Most of the time we are delighted by the sweet sounds coming from his mouth and at other times we think it might be best he didn't voice his opinion at all for instance when you are trying to buy the organic eggs and he insists at the top of his voice that we get the blue carton of eggs.

This morning as Richard and Rowan got near the school Rowan started asking: "School! Where are you? School!" - literally talking to the school. I find this to be adorable because it is Rowan's attempt at being silly or funny. If only you could see the expression on his face when he does this. Kind of hard to explain. Sorry about that.

Now that he is speaking a little more clearly we get to see how his mind works. Now we understand what he likes, dislikes and those things that he finds funny and why he thinks they are funny.

So, this afternoon as we arrived home and he saw the tracks that were made in the snow the day before by a makeshift sled he jumped for joy, laughed and excitedly shouted: "Daddy! Daddy! Snow!" The joy he felt in remembrance of the fun he had with his Dad on the sled was palpable and heart warming.

We also now know of an imaginary friend that Rowan seemed to have acquired. His name is "Dog" and he is a dog. He is a dog that likes to hide under the bed and run around corners. Apparently he gets into quite some mischief too because every now and again I will hear Rowan saying: "No! Dog! Go! Go!"

I am sure there are plenty more cute examples to tell you about but I recognize the fact that only Richard and I find all this to be super fun and fascinating. I am just happy to have the opportunity to share these joys of ours with you.

Cold and Snowy Day

Today we experienced the start of what people are calling a Winter storm. It was snowing quite a bit but not enough to call it a storm of any kind. So, I am not really sure whether it is actually still going to get worse. It does make me wonder when our friends are running around in the cold to collect and stack wood on their porch so that it would be at hand when they really need it. Then I think well, we have heating in the house and suddenly it dawns on me that a Winter storm could easily cause the electricity to fail and then we would be in a world of trouble. Now I am worried. I am going to check the weather forecast now and will leave you with this adorable photograph of Rowan watching his train going around and around the track.

Yup! He's a Montessori Kid

It has been quite a while since Rowan has attended school for 3 days in a row. I must say I really missed the little guy and we are looking forward to having some fun over the next 4 days. We'll keep you posted.

Oh Sh...

"Oh sh!" he says as the slippery bag falls from his busy little hands to the floor. As I cringe with the realisation that I might be responsible for the prolific use of this new exclamation, I can't help but giggle for the poor little kid, innocent as can be, has no idea that his shortened version of what most people consider to be a nasty old word, does not hide the fact that someone in this household has been saying things they shouldn't have been saying.

That someone is me because when I am stressed out and things go wrong I tend to loose it. I will add this though: the reason he only says sh and not the entire four letter word is because I usually catch myself in the middle of saying it and thus I stop at sh. So there you have it.

We thought a good remedy for this situation would be to get Rowan to say something else when things don't go his way. So the other day Winnie the Pooh gave us an adorable example of how to express yourself in the face of disappointment or frustration: "Oh bother!"

Great! It is the perfect word and Richard and I have been using it every time Rowan says "Oh sh!" So tonight we finally got him to repeat it when he spilled a whole cup of cold water over his lap and onto the floor. "Oh bother!" we said. "Oh bugger!" he said. Progress? Umm... no... probably not.

Dr. Rowan PhD is on the Case.

So, it's been a while since the last post and that is because I didn't think you would have been very interested in hearing all the details of the two week long sick period that we have been going through. I will say this, we are glad it is over and done with because it seemed like this relay race of ours was never going to end. Every time one of us passed the baton we returned to our starting positions for another leg all the while cheering the other members of team Jones on to finish strong. Phew! We did it! It's over and at the end of it all we walk away with a much bigger appreciation for good health and antibiotics. And in the spirit of keeping healthy we thought we would start training Rowan to be a clever and good little scientist so that one day perhaps he will find a way to eradicate all these nasty little viruses.

We found this really great science kit at a second hand store the other day. We only payed $5 for it and Rowan absolutely loves it. I am also quite amazed at how quickly he came to understand the idea behind using a microscope. He played with it for over an hour today, looking at all sorts of different fibres, animal hair and the wings of some or other bug. I am looking forward to seeing what this science play will eventually lead to. We will keep you posted.