Bacon-meat-cracker

The Nugget has just recently discovered his shadow.  At first, he tried to high-five it, unsuccessfully.  Today, upon waking from his nap and discovering it on his wall, he "ate" it.  He grabbed a handful of shadow, brought it to his mouth, made munching sounds, then said, "Mmm, good.  Tasty."  Today, when I asked him what it tasted like, he said "chicken".

The Nugget has recently been saying daily, "Hug Papa.  Eat yummy cookie."  At first, we thought they were disjointed thoughts, but then noticed that they were continually stated together.  So we assumed he meant that he wanted to hug Papa and eat a cookie with him.  Today, while thinking some more about our last trip to the West Coast, I realized that indeed, the last time the Nugget saw his Papa, he did indeed give him a hug and shared a cookie with him.  If he is recalling this specific event, I am amazed, because it happened 3 months ago.

On the same line of thought, I've been trying to ignore the barrage of Christmas merchandise and decorations already in the stores.  While it makes Hubby absolutely crazy-mad to see Christmas trees in October, I accept it calmly as the retail ploy it is...HOWEVER, at the campus bookstore yesterday, the super-friendly cashier was wiring festive ribbon to a faux evergreen wreath.  The Nugget asked what she was doing, and I said vaguely, "Making some decorations.  That's called a wreath.  Isn't it pretty?"  But the cashier, ignoring my throat-clearing and violent head movements, cheerily added, "It's a Christmas wreath!  Do you LIKE Christmas?  Santa is coming to bring you PRESENTS.  It will be so fun!"  If you have raised toddlers, you know exactly where I'm going with this.  He has already asked me about the presents and going to church for Christmas about 546,721 times.  Loved ones, you may start discussing Christmas with the Nugget on Dec 24, mmm-kay?!

I've been working harder to schedule at least one "down day" during each week, where I can just give the Nugget my full attention and let him choose the activities, within reason.  Today he chose to ride his bike, then abandoned it in the backyard, but wanted to keep his helmet on.  Then he helped me sweep the driveway, still with helmet on.  Then he decided to take a walk down the block WITH the push broom, still donning his bike helmet.  While all of this is totally fine with me, I had to wonder what the neighbors thought.

The Nugget now recognizes the aroma of bacon.  While heating it in the microwave, he caught scent of it and came running in from the other room asking for "Yummy bacon-meat-cracker, please!"  

The Nugget has been putting his toys to sleep for awhile now.  Lately, he's added a gentle back rub and "ssshhhh" to the routine, just like we do for him at nap/bed time.