Two-word stories

Matthew's been telling a lot of two-word stories lately, recounting super-exciting events in his life.

It all began with a one-word story, actually. One day he had dirt in his hair when we were at the playground. I brushed it out of his hair. He spent weeks reliving the excitement, saying "dirt" and grabbing his hair.

Then Jeff's parents visited, probably two months ago now. There was a wasp in our livingroom, and his dad swatted it with a broom. This is one of Matt's very favorite stories: "Grandpa. Bee!"

At Thanksgiving, Matthew's most memorable moment, apparently, was eating ham. And Jeff's dad was there. He tells this story a lot: "Ham. Grandpa." Over and over again with the ham.

Sometimes Matt wants to look at pictures of my dad on Facebook, and one of his favorites is of him on the ground with Murray the dog. Matt will go over to the computer, point to it, and say, "Grandpa! Boom!" Sometimes he throws in his dog-barking noise for good measure.

Matt has a shirt that says "Big Brother" in iron-on letters, and the second B fell off. It was a big event! It's one of his newer stories: "Uh-oh! B! Uh-oh! B!" Usually it's followed by out-of-control laughter.

Another good one is when we walk in the neighborhood, Matt reminds me of how things used to be but aren't anymore. For example, a house near ours has a small fountain in the yard that hasn't had water in it for months. But don't worry! Matt will remind you that there used to be water there! And how exciting it will be for him when it's turned back on in the spring. Another house has a chair under a tree, and the chair used to be tipped over. Now it's not, but don't worry! Matthew will remind you, "Chair! Boom!"

How many fun times in your life can you recount with just two words and some enthusiastic gesturing?

So, so tired...

Wowsers, am I tired! This first-trimester tiredness is not kidding around. I was tired the first time, but my routine was something like this:
4 or 5 a.m. - Wake up and not be able to go back to sleep. Get up and edit.
7 a.m. - Go back to bed until 9.
10 a.m. - Go to work at office job.
2 p.m. - Come home. Collapse into napping or just lounge around.
4 p.m. - Try to rally and eat something.
5 p.m. - Edit.
8 p.m. - Relax with Jeff, read, etc.
9 p.m. - Go to bed.

This time, it's something like this:
4 or 5 a.m. - Wake up and not be able to go back to sleep. Think about how I wish I were sleeping.
6 a.m. - Fall asleep and just lay in bed listening to Matt shouting about different things while he's hanging out with Jeff.
7 a.m. - Get woken up by Jeff. Struggle to get to kitchen table for breakfast.
7:30 a.m. - Say bye to Jeff with tears in my eyes.
7:30-8:30 a.m. - Play with extremely energetic toddler.
9 a.m. - Go to gym for hour-long water aerobics. Pretend to flail around in the water for the second half but really conserve as much energy as possible.
10 a.m. - Hang out with extremely energetic toddler.
11:30 a.m. - Put Matthew down for nap. Wander aimlessly in house after eating lunch. Try to nap. Sleep 10-15 minutes before waking up and not being able to fall back asleep. Edit.
1:30 p.m. - Entertain extremely energetic toddler.
2 p.m. - Cry a little on the inside at how tired I am.
3 p.m. - Play outside.
4 p.m. - Lay on living room floor and try to keep Matt entertained without having to move very much.
5 p.m. - Cry tears of joy when Jeff gets home! Make supper.
6 p.m. - Wash dishes.
7 p.m. - Put Matt to bed. Use what little energy is left to mope around and try to do little household tasks. Ask Jeff if it's too early to go to bed.
8 p.m. - Relax with Jeff, read, etc.
9 p.m. - Collapse into puddle of tiredness or edit or go to bed.

I kind of feel like I'm not going to make it.

Dinda

Matthew does a million cute and adorable things every day, but he's bound to outgrow one of my favorites any day now. And I will be so sad.

One day he woke up and just started saying "danidna." Throughout the day he said what sounded like "danidna," and then he shortened it to "dinda." For weeks he was saying "dinda" enthusiastically in all different situations, and we could not figure out what it meant.

Then one day it hit me: Matt was trying to say "ing" but it was coming out "dinda." He says it for rings, string, buildings, anything that ends with -ing, and now also for the sound that bells make.

Adorable.