Mommy's Big Boy

This has definitely been a month of independence for Beo! He spent two nights in a row at Grandma B's, complete with pottying and napping (neither of which has happened on previous visits). He unlocked and unbolted both doors and let himself outside, resulting in a quick trip to Home Depot to get some chain locks. And finally, today, he went to day care for the first time!

First day of day care: SLEEPY!

It took Kelson a while, but he convinced me to look into some day care time for Beo. Once I started investigating, I discovered a little place just on the other side of our block. They take a maximum of 14 kids at a time and run a sort of dual day care and preschool program. Right now most of the kids are Beo's age, so they do a simplified preschool program aimed at that age group. Today we tried it for the first time. Beo was completely comfortable having me leave, and when I went to pick him up he simply offered me a toy and tried to get me to come play.

Thanks for the Harley shirt, Uncle Duane!

The teachers were pretty amazed that he didn't have any kind of meltdown... he was a happy guy, ate a ton of food at lunch, and played away. I guess that means we've done our jobs producing a content, secure kid... Mommy and Daddy, on the other hand, were a bit emotional!

Beo has finally learned how to ride piggyback.

Beo's also doing much better playing with other kids. He seems to have learned how to express himself a little bit better - instead of hitting, now when he gets excited he will yell or hug or run around.

Nap hands

He continues to add more words to his vocabulary, many of them from Kipper, the show he watches almost every morning before breakfast. The show comes from Britain, so he's also started picking up an accent, which is kind of hilarious. "Push" and "pull" are "poosh" and "pool." I do really like Kipper, however, because it portrays so many real-life activities in a very simple manner. Beo has learned about boats, ice cream, fish, ducks, the park, and how to interact with friends. Often some new word will pop out and I'll think, where did that come from? Only to realize that Beo learned it from Kipper!

"Daddy, make Mario move!"

One funny example... I got out my origami paper the other day. I'd forgotten that this appears on Kipper, but Beo didn't! He knew instantly what he was supposed to do. He grabbed his paper, "folded" it up (ahem, crumpled), and ran around with it yelling "BOAT BOAT BOAT!" He then tried to take it in the bath with him, since Kipper and Tiger took their paper boats to a stream. That didn't work out so well.

My little naked fireman!