Item! "Baby" makes James' top five word list

That is right people-- after spending quite a few weeks discussing babies, reading books about babies or about being the big brother, James has started to make some connections about the baby and mom's belly. Hopefully he even understands a little about what is going to happen. I know he cannot possibly get the concept totally, but it is a start. He even offers drinks of his sippy cup to my belly occasionally. FYI the other top 5 most talked about things in James' vocabulary are (in no particular order):
1. Autos
2. Hello!-popter (helicopter)
3. airplane
4. baby
5. animals (referring to the neighborhood children's farm he wants to visit daily).

We have spent a lot of time at the children's farm the last few days. We spend an hour there most mornings while on our dog walk. The dogs get tied up and make an enormous ruckus as other dogs go by, while James and I go to visit the goats, pigs, rabbits, guinea pigs, and sheep. I spoke with one of the farm beheerders and he told me that most of the animals had their top teeth removed, and therefore could not damage small hands if by chance they took a bite of a kid! Umm, that's one way to do it. I don't know what I thought their management strategy was-- I think I assumed they had some process to weed out aggressive animals, or in some way provide gentle animals for the farm. Perhaps they do that as well. I don't know why this information was so surprising to me, but it was. Knowing that anesthesia is optional at the human dentist, I wonder just what the process is for removing these critters' teeth.

James' language continues to grow exponentially. He starts the day by saying "morning Ghost" and "morning Keska". The dogs have been much easier to manage, by the way. I think they trust me now and have settled into our pattern here. I am sure when I showed up without Mike they panicked-- "Oh no, she never walks us! Des she even know where our food bowls are?" But now they understand I will feed them, I will take them out, and we will have a good time! The days are warmer, which not only means an enjoyable time outdoors, but also that they are more quickly tired. Hooray on all counts.

We went Saturday for a ride in a real AUTO-- which thrilled James to no end. He repeated "ride in auto" for the whole trip, the rest of the day, and most of Sunday. Our former neighbors Cor and Marian took us to do some grocery shopping. It was such a treat to buy all the heavy and/or awkward things. I stocked up on dogfood, toilet paper, and bought some welcome home beer for Mike. Rounding out my shopping list over the next few days should be a cinch. Marian also helped me find the over-the-counter ointment used for chicken pox here. James is still symptom free, I am happy to report, but I wanted to have the calamine equivalent at the ready just in case.

We have also made trips to the local Ijssalon (ice cream stand) twice in the last week. The first time I tried to buy one cone to share-- big mistake. I was thinking first that I was dealing with a rational actor, and second that I could help fight off the drips while James enjoyed most of the cone. MISTAKE. Every time you try to take an ice cream cone from a 2-year-old he will cry. Every time. It doesn't matter if you hand it right back. He will cry every time. So, the second time I learned my lesson, and just handed him the kid-size chocolate cone. It was hard for me in uber cleaning mode to just let the drips fall as they may, but I did. We had to remove his shirt after a while to use as a rag to clean face/stroller/mom/etc. We eventually sat on the grass, while keeping the dogs away from the baby cone, and had a spectacular time. Unfortunately I do not have more photos-- the moment I started shooting I got the "low battery" message. For a short time on the walk home, "auto" and "big truck" were replaced with "lekker ijsje-- lekker ijsje" (delicious ice cream).
As part of the nightly ritual we have been reading a new book (to us), called Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see? It is an Eric Carle book-- I love his stuff, but am more familiar with the insect titles. A few nights ago when I was reading it to James he, apropos of nothing, licked his own leg. I looked at him, to make sure I had seen what I thought I'd just seen, and then thought-- "okay, no big deal, he's just licking his leg". We often kiss (if reachable) or blow a kiss to scratches and bruises, but there wasn't really one there. I thought, maybe he is just expanding on the "kiss the hurt spot" theme. He did it again last night. I was perplexed, then looked down to see the page we were reading:
"purple cat purple cat, what do you see"


which shows a purple cat licking its own arm. So I guess it makes sense. I hope he's not going to take every book quite so literally, but I was glad to make the connection on this one!

The real question, is does this mean my child is
a). brilliant, or...
b). way too open to suggestion