Let the conversation begin.

A child's first words are a coveted moment, that turning point when the family's video library stops resembling a collection of Rudolph Valentino clips and enters the era of talkies.  And as with all childhood milestones, those first forays into speech are often surrounded by controversy.  In our case the incessant, pressure creating queries started coming before the first year was even up, and only increased in frequency thereafter:  Is he talking?  Has he started talking yet?  Isn't he talking yet?  Nevermind the fact that he started walking three months earlier than the norm, or the fact that he was communicating with over 30 appropriate hand signs with an efficiency that probably surpassed anything early speech could have provided.  In fact, as time passed the most inappropriately forward of people at church felt it their responsibility to ask such questions as "do you think teaching sign was a bad idea?" and our all time favorite, "are you worried about autism?"  No.  Our wonderful pediatrician was very encouraging.  His son, he told us, did not say a word until he was upwards of two years old.  So we settled in for the long wait, and were greatly surprised, therefore, when in October, Calvin suddenly started repeating animal sounds.  He could moo, quack, woof, meow, and even sound like a siren. 

December, 2007
And then during the gap between Christmas and New Years we were delighted by a sudden flourish of new words.  Like a ship taking on water, Calvin's vocabulary increased exponentially right before our eyes.  He mimicked every word he heard and quickly tucked it away in his mind's dictionary, and this trend has continued.  And after what had seemed like an excruciating wait under the caring yet disparaging eyes of our church community, I'm sure you can imagine our vexation when, just the other day, we were told "he is such a good talker for a boy his age!  You must be so proud!"  Yes, in fact, we are.

January, 2008

When is a chore not really a chore?

When it's a fun, of course.  We've started including Calvin in several chores around the house:  aside from picking up his toys he also helps us load the dryer, carry dirty clothing to the laundry room, and unload the dishwasher, among other things.  We're not fooling ourselves here - we know this will only last until he realizes that these things are "chores," but we figured it couldn't hurt to introduce the idea of helping early.  His favorite chore, though, is one that he just picked up on his own - feeding the dogs.  At the mere mention of feeding time he dutifully picks up Moose's mini-dog dish, trots over to the garage door for one of us to fill it, then marches right back and plops it down, after which he invariably seems to get disappointed that the dog is eating his hard work.  We enjoy it every time.

And once again...

Final score:  Michigan 28, Michigan State 24

Had O.J. Simpson possessed any wit back in 1994 he would have fled straight to Lansing to hide.  After all, that's the last place anyone would look for a Heisman Trophy winner.

Put them back!

On Sunday we took part in that well known, tried and true Halloween ritual of carving pumpkins.  After dozens of years of partaking in this activity ourselves you'd think we'd have been prepared for the slimy mess it can produce, but our memories go back only so far, and clearly they didn't include visions of toddlers up to their shoulders in pumpkin guts.  Well, now they do.  Unlike our friends' children, who'd we had heard were, at best, "uncertain" of the cold wet stuff inside the big orange balls, Calvin had no such qualms about charting this unknown territory.  It was all we could do to keep him from grabbing the (safety) knife and helping us cut out the lid, and there was only a brief moment of questioning wonder before he reached right in.  He loved the fact that spoons were involved, but did not quite grasp the concepts of emptying and sorting and spent a lot of his time trying to put the goop back in (here, Mr. Pumpkin, you need this!).  When all was said and done (read: all three pumpkinds empty) the newspapers were scattered, the floor slippery, and the laundry promising to be interesting.  Calvin was bored by the actual carving part of the evening, but was clearly pleased with the results.  After his bath we lined them up on the coffee table, dimmed the room lights, and brought them to life with tiny candles, and he was absolutely thrilled.  We have to admit that we are pretty pleased with our handiwork, too. 

The 2007 Ophoff Jack-o-lanterns:

 Want to see more?  Visit the Oct 27-Nov 2 album... there are also pictures from our Sunday visit to two different farms and pumpkin patches.  

???

And where did they want the people to enter?