Snapshot

Recently I started keeping a list of funny things I've heard Ida say. The list is on the side of my fridge so I forget most of them by the time I get around to writing anything. Also the likelihood of losing the scrap of paper is high, but now I have a few snapshots of Ida's world recorded a little bit more permanently:

• "Look at that snowman! He lost his shoes."
• "Okay, hands. Five more minutes, and then it's sleeves' turn." (see also: "Okay, fork. Five more minutes, and then it's spoon's turn")
• At the grocery store candy aisle I asked if she wanted a candy cane and her answer was "I want everything!"
• "I got an owie sometimes."
• "Sometimes I fell down the stairs and bonked my head."
• "It's not chocolate time. It's not marshmallow time. It's just breakfast time."
• Her ear was clogged from being at the pool: "I want my ear back on!"
• "We don't eat frogs. We just eat dinner. Dinners are not yucky."

At one point yesterday afternoon Theo really wanted to play with Ida and she really wanted to be alone. (Not common--it's usually the opposite.) Ida was sitting at the bottom of the stairs and he asked, "Ida, can I sit by you?" She shook her head and moved up one stair. He moved up one stair too and asked again, "Ida, can I sit by you?" This back-and-forth continued stair by stair until they had reached the top of the stairs and Theo said, "Ida... there aren't any stairs left."

Recently Theo has been a little bit obsessed with "when we lived in the brown house" (the brown brick condos we moved from last spring and currently live across the street from). So has Ida, although I doubt she actually remembers it; she pretty much just repeats what Theo says about it.

Even though it has only been since April and we drive by it every day, I am kind of surprised that Theo remembers as much as he does about the actual condo--for instance, that we had a balcony, and brown blinds on the bedroom windows; that he had drawers under his bed, that we took the stroller to the pool, and that John and Sharon were our neighbors. "The brown house" is a unit of time to Theo, like "when we lived in the brown house" was when he learned how to use the toilet, and when Ida was born, and when certain pictures or rugs or paint colors were in different rooms than they are in our current house.

Theo has never been a big talker but he has opened up a lot lately, even just in the past few weeks. When he strikes up conversations with me I am always amazed to think of what must have been going on in his head and we never knew until he was ready to tell us. Right now he loves to talk about time passing, what he was doing at a certain point in the past, what he's doing now, and what he will be doing in the future, and also what Ida will be doing when she gets to be four like him.

The other day in the car both kids were telling me about what they did "yesterday." Theo: "I went to the zoo yesterday, and I got water sprayed on my head." Ida: "And we cleaned Theo's teeth!" The last time we went to the zoo was last summer, and the last time Theo went to the dentist was in September or October. So...as you can see "yesterday" is a pretty broad term.