No More Waiting

Because I have been waiting.  Waiting to get pictures or video of some of Asa's new tricks, his cuteness... But Asa is bound and determined to thwart all my hopes and plans.  (Apparently, he turned two several months early.)  So: written descriptions will have to do.

Mad Scientist
Asa holds his breath, tenses all the muscles in his jaw, neck and arms, juts his lower jaw out and holds his arms up or out... and looks for all the world like a mad scientist calling down the lightning onto a newly-created monster.  I keep waiting for him to cry "It's ALIVE!!"

Wink
Most of the little kids I've known, when they were learning to wink, would close both eyes.  Not Asa, who taught himself this trick: he closes one eye most of the way.  True to form, he is most likely to do this when there is either a teenaged girl present, or someone who is completely fawning over him.

Words
He is turning into a real little parrot.  There are words that he knows well and uses appropriately: animal noises, "Mommy", "Mummy", "Joey" and various other names; "down" (usually from his high chair); "cookie", "duck", "baby" and, of course, "no", complete with scolding finger.  But suddenly he's repeating words that we've said.  In the past few days, he's said (usually only once or twice) "teacher", "apple", "pasta", "chair", "I love you" (to Mommy, as we watched her pulling out of the driveway on her way to work), "bye-bye", and several others.

Choices
See above, "turning two early" and "no".  We watch the wheels turn in his head as we ask him to do things, watch him consider what he wants to do.  He is very specific when he wants someone to read to him - he chooses both the book and the person.  He chooses his toys and will not be distracted.  He loves being able to choose what he eats for lunch, usually between two or three healthy options.  The beautiful part is that he's more likely to do what we ask him, like help clean up his toys, if he's been able to make his own choices about other things during the day.  (Yes, he helps clean up.  Especially when it involves putting objects in a container.)

Feeding Himself
With a spork.  Usually.  Fingers are still easier, and now that he's learned to lick them after, they're also way more fun.  In other motor control news, (and still talking about choices) he now loves crayons, and not just for munching.  He is careful in his color selection, and often does more than just move the crayon back and forth in the arc of his arm.  Which is particularly helpful right now, because...

We all, in this house, admit to a little cabin fever.  Today is M.'s fifth snow day since Christmas break, and it's sleeting/freezing raining onto the accumulated and packed 30" of snow that had been on the ground.  We haven't left the apartment in 24 hours, and aren't likely to be before tomorrow morning.  I like snow.  I like New England.  I'm not usually fed up with winter until early March.  This year... I was so done with all of this last week.  And there's still more snow in the forecast.

So we'll be here, running around the dining table, drawing with crayons, and looking (for the millionth time) at Asa's baby pictures, which he begs to do at least three times a day.

And I'll continue to try to get pictures or video of all the abovementioned developments... something better than this:

Blurry Mad Scientist.  Kinda how the snow makes us all feel.