Wren is now 17 months old. He is a naughty sweet baby who loves to run and climb and read books. His favorite subject is "broom brooms" (excavators, diggers, front end loaders). His vocabulary in this area includes:
* digder (digger)
* druck (truck)
* yuck yuck and pointing (rubbish truck)
He is now sleeping through the night from 8pm till 6am and he wakes in a cheerful frame of mind yelling "mama" and pulling board books off the shelf into his crib.
His knees and shins are always scraped and bruised because he thumps and falls over frequently. He has learned to say "OW" and point to the painful part and I then snuggle and kiss it better.
His nightmare is squirrels. A while ago Joshua and I started feeding small walnut pieces to a hungry looking squirrel. The squirrel learned to come to the glass patio door and wait on the mat for us to notice and feed him. One day, Wren opened the patio door and the hopeful squirrel hopped up the stairs towards him. From that moment on he has become terrified of squirrels.
If he is in the yard and notices a squirrel on the fence he starts screaming in fear and stumbles towards me crying "num nums, num nums". I used to say squirrel num nums to him when I fed the critter and the num nums part has stuck. I make a big show of chasing the squirrel away but he is not easily consoled.
Wren enjoys riding in the stroller. When I take him into the basement to do laundry he runs into the garage and climbs into the stroller on his own, then waits, hopefully. I wish could walk all the time but I have to disappoint him. However, yesterday we went to the zoo and he really enjoyed seeing the crows and the siamungs. The Siamung apes were calling and now if I ask Wren what a monkey says he starts hooting and chuckling like a monkey.
Wren and Frost are arguing a lot more these days. Wren wants what Frost has and Frost wants what Wren has (odd though that sounds). Frost wants a turn riding Wren's tricycle, on Wren's push car, using Wren's animals and setting them up in zoos. Wren wants to play grownup lego, carry around small rocks, eat Frost's breakfast and generally be into whatever Frost is doing (including having a game controller).
It is hard work keeping them on friendly terms.
Frost is quick to launch into a story of self pity. How he was "just" doing this and Wren hit/took/broke/injured/hurt him in some way. Wren just shouts loudly and then screams and then cries and then hits if Frost messes with him. Frost is not always the victim. If he thinks I am not looking he is quick to take things from Wren or even maliciously hide something Wren is enjoying in order to watch Wren look for it and become upset. Frost does not think Wren is quite as cute but sometimes likes to play with him. Wren will push Frost on the push car and roll cars back and forward. Wren will throw a ball.
The best game is when Wren CHASES Frost with a heavy object. Yesterday, it was the stapler. Frost screams with laughter and runs away in real fear of being clobbered by the stapler. Wren loves the power and laughs so much he stumbles as he chases Frost with the weapon of choice.
I know I shouldn't leave it on that note. They do love each other. Wren loves to sit next to Frost in the car, is thrilled when he sees Frost in the distance (as at Camp Orkila last weekend) and Frost takes care of Wren when he is allowed in safety. Still, we have to make more effort to play with Frost alone and give Wren some supervision in his Big Boy Games.
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