A Social Bu-fly

Rider is lucky enough to have the world's best sitter/nanny. She calls him "friend", and they have wonderful adventures together for four hours at a time, three days a week. I told her early on that I am not the least bit concerned about Rider getting messy, and she is one of those rare people who is able to embrace messes with gusto. I am talking mud pits in the yard complete with gushing hose, peanut butter and honey "playdough", oranges stuffed into jars of water like specimens in formaldehyde, a paint swamp on top of a table with little melting islands of tempera cake, Playdough painting. Serious fun.

Today, they did do a bit of mud puddling, but actually ended up going to the library, about a ten minute walk from here. She goes there with him frequently, and he has already made friends with one of the librarians who told the sitter she loves to listen for what he will say. Seems strange already there are people he knows in this world that I don't. But Rider is a real social butterfly. (Bu-fly, as he says it). The sitter commented on it, how he doesn't parallel play, but heads straight into the other person's reality. Ta-dah! Where did he get that from? Neither his Dad or I are that way.



He reminds me of the little boy in the batik that my sister made for me years ago of the "Sun" tarot card from the (and here is where it gets weird) Rider-Waite (also known as Rider) Tarot deck. I didn't make that connection until just now when I googled "Sun-Tarot"! (!) He is totally that little golden boy-that burst of joy-galloping into the picture staight at you.

Rider Goes on Strike

To keep Rider busy while I was searching for my ipod today, I had him help me sort the laundry. The only real reason I can ever find to sort the laundry is when I have lost something, otherwise, I consider the laundry a kind of free-form carpet. So I kept handing him rags and saying, "Can you put this in the hall?" I showed him where the pile of rags was. (We have a lot of rags, and I don't really know why.) I gave them to him one at a time to buy myself time to find the ipod, and oh yeah, fold the laundry. So he does this over and over again, each time with me going, "Can you put this in the hall?" He was like Lucy in the chocolate factory. Finally around trip number twenty I go, "Can you put-" "Hall!" he cut me off. So about ten more times he looks at me with the rag, takes it from me and stalks off to the hall untill finally, I swear, he glared at me, picked up an armfull of rags and hurled them into the middle of the unsorted laundry. Fight the power, young man!

"Big boss man.
Can you hear me when I call?
Well, you aint so big.
You just tall, that's all."

by Al Dixon & A. Smith

His World According to his Words. . .

Words Rider says at eighteen months : Mommy, Daddy, Bahj (Bahjah), ball, tree, milk, dog, fish, cat, bird, water, bath, bubbles, truck, boat, book, car, medicine, white, blue, red, yellow, duck, (cack-cack for quack), eat, more, no, yes, OK, uh-oh, now, pig, oink, cow, moo, horse (clicks tongue to make hoof noises), light, star, out, down, up, finished, flower, sky, key, apple (bapple), orange, baby, brownie, cheese, cous-cous (coo-coo), fork, spoon, cry, watch, potty, clock, tick-tock, bed, nanna, boo, mouse, paint, swim, go, hot, cold, block, play, poo-poo, pee-pee, ceiling, rock, airplane, nose, eye, eyebrow, cheek, chin, feet, sock, shoe, hand, mouth, tongue, teeth, belly-button, hair, hat, tummy, Coke (OK, I'm not proud of it, but he knows his Mommy's habits), this, that, thank you, there you go, where, chair, berry, icky, cereal, brush, block, good girl (referring to Bahjah), good morning (also only ever delivered to Bahjah), hi, bye, cookie, bear, butter (referring to fake spray butter or peanut butter), wow, stuck, bike, four-five-six (skips seven) eight, nine ten, sheep, bah, go, welcome, and a few I've probably forgotten . . . and those are just the ones he says-he understands more!