Storyville 2012

Last August, I took the boys to Storyville for the first time. They were new walkers and still very babyish. I remember meeting an 18-month-old boy there and being amazed at how much older he seemed than my two 15-month-olds.

So now, watching my almost 2-year-olds play there, I was amazed yet again.
Babies no more; these boys are boys! Playing, pretending, talking up a storm. 

What a difference 8 months makes.

Cary said, "Eat, baby! Eat breakfast!"

Dean put these two babies in the crib and told them to "Take a nap!"

Washing the clothes.

Dean liked the Lego table, but couldn't take his eyes off the loft upstairs where the really big kids played.

Cary gave the bear a hug and then sat on his lap. "Sit!" he said. "Sit on bear rap!"

Look familiar, anyone?

And even though it has nothing to do with Storyville, I have to include this photo of Clair, just because I love this picture of her.

My sleeping beauty:

Good Lord, I love this girl.

Obsessions

Cary is obsessed with lawnmowers.

Obsessed!

He can hear one a mile away, and he'll stop what he's doing, go to the front door and search for it, all the while saying "mah-mow-uh" over and over and over and over and over and over and...you get the picture. He wakes up asking us about lawnmowers. He goes to bed saying the word.

But he has taken his love of lawnmowers to a level that I think shows how developmentally ahead of the curve he is. Yesterday, he took his fork at dinner, ran it along his highchair tray, and said "mah-mow-uh," and then made a rumbling noise!

Imaginative play at 16 months old?! Hello! My child is a genius!

(See this article, which includes this line: The transition to imaginative play usually comes during the toddler years, around the age of 3.)

He did the same thing in the tub last night, dragging a foam tub letter through the water, saying "mah-mow-uh" and rumbling. I am very impressed.

Meanwhile, Dean is obsessed with the Wild Things in "Where the Wild Things Are." He LOVES when I enact the part where they roar their terrible roars and gnash their terrible teeth, roll their terrible eyes and show their terrible claws. He loves the roaring part most of all.

(Sidenote: Once, in the car, Dean wanted me to do the roaring, so I did. Cary misinterpreted the roaring as the grumbling of a lawnmower, and of course began to look frantically around for the garden tool, while saying loudly, "MAH-MOW-UH!!!" over and over and over. Sigh.)

Dean loves those Wild Things so much, I have not thought a thing about roaring and gnashing and showing my claws. But last night, my textbook sleeper awoke in the night, as if he were afraid, and refused to go back to sleep. (This is unheard of. The FEW times he's ever awakened in the night, he's always gone right back to sleep after being given his lovey and his blanket).
We ended up bringing him into our bed, as we were afraid he'd wake up Prince Lightsleeper.
This was a disastrous move, as Dean has no idea what to do in our bed (he's never there!) so he tossed and turned, stroked my nose, re-situated Lovey the Puppy a thousand times, hummed, rolled back and forth on the pillows, and just generally kept us awake and uncomfortable for two, two-and-a-half hours.

At 4-ish, Lester put him back in his own bed, and he slept soundly.

But I can't help but think that he had a bad dream about Wild Things gnashing, clawing and roaring at him.

What do you think? Can babies be afraid of things this early? I haven't introduced the Wild Things as something to be afraid of, so where would he get that from?

I would hate to have to lay off the book for awhile. But maybe I should?

We need our sleep, but mostly I just hate the thought of my sweetie lying in the dark afraid of wild beasts saying, "We'll eat you up!" :-(