Hey!
Two things, one taken from the entery I wrote on BabyCenter.com( just on a message board, no publishing offers yet.) The second just an amazong little blip.
Spencer picked up a shiny quarter off the coffee table this morning, studied it, and said " Here's a quarter Mama, here!"
Not that amazing you say?
We have NOT talked about the various forms of currency yet. AT ALL.
Genius I tells ya!

Okay now for the little entery : ( note : This was in response to a mother's lament about her son taking the toothbrush from her hands, and doing nothing with it, save for eating the toothpaste. )

Thank god that I am not the only mother that has a toothpaste sucker! My son Spencer, (22 months)loved, when he was an infant that is, to have his teeth brushed by mama. It was almost akin to nursing, it was such a bonding moment. Now, the toothbrush goes, in chronolgical order: 1.To his mouth( right side where a large portion of the toothpaste is inhaled )
2.Toothbrush is then pulled out of mouth and examined briefly.
3. To the floor,for further examination, as if it were not inadimate and was preparing to do a jig. 4.Into mama hands where it is hastily washed off with hot water,then recieving the infamous pea sized amount of the "berry"( I shant say I want to ever incounter a berry of a similar flavour in nature..I dont' think one exsists..) flavored toothpaste.
5.Back to entery 1. for another round, and finally, and with much ceremony, our friend, Senor Toothbrush, is thrown into the bathtub. Sigh. AND did I mention all the while, mama is trying to brush her teeth at the same time, using the theory that he will want to imitate mama? This action causes him to try and take my toothbrush from my mouth. AND I am singing "Brusha brusha brusha...." the whole time? ARRRGGGHHH. Maybe he just wants to taste a new flavour of toothpaste, and maybe I'm a bad singer. Probably both. Suffice it to say, at this age, it's a battle we all have to choose. The fact that we are guinely concerned shows that we are paying attention to our childs oral well being and that in itself is important. Holding a child down could make a child ALWAYS have bad feelings connected with brushing.That's not good. But to always let it slide, well that says that oral hygiene is not that important, and we all know it is. My answer then: Moderation I guess, there are nights when Spencer does a great job ( for only being alive 22 months ) of taking care of his teeth.Most nights go by the above schedule. I try to keep from too many sugary foods ( and I know that milk has sugars too, as well as juice, yadda, yadda,the undue sugars are the ones of which I speak) carrots and other crunchy foods, if your toddler will eat them, are good for oral hygiene as they produce saliva ( kind of like putting your mouth in an areobics class ) which in turn helps a little bit. Not enough that you should forgo brushing every night, or at least the attempt. Don't stress yourself out too much. Talk with his or her peditricitan and/or dentist. I am sure they can help too. OR.....keep asking on message boards like this..someone is BOUND to come up with an answer that will work. best best best luck to all of us Mamas ( and Daddies too!) 5032781
2:22 PM on 03/30/2005 Jennifer
more later

mama

Again, a long time, no write.
Well finals are FINALLY OVER and the Smith-Kautt household is on spring break, or at least the very last bit of it.
SO I will try to let you in on a little bit of Spenco-info before Spring term starts up.

Spencer is a fountain of information that all who will hear. ANd given the volume of our lil man, it's usually anyone with a 5 mile radius. The concept of " indoor voices" has not quite sank in.

Spencer loves to point anything and everything out to mommy ( yes he's pretty much dropped "mama"...sigh.....) and daddy. His favorites are "big eyes, big eyes"( and various other body parts ), "big steps, big steps" "Good job, good job." ( he hears that one from mama and daddy a lot!)

There are of course numerous things that are more situational, such as "Emergency!" and "Good dog" ( prequled by or ending in panting ) and "Fred Myer, Fred Myer, Fred Myer!"
The latter usually means that he wants to go for a walk, riding high in his red radio flyer.
Or rather, " reedd radeo fryer". The boy loves the outdoors, loves walking,running and climbing and for a while here in Portland it looked as though it was going to be a dropless Spring. Much to my chagrin, the last few days have left us inside, everyone suffering from a bit of the cabin fever. Spencer is not quite at the age where he wants to play pretend for more than 5 minutes, so it's the weekend has been constructed around a lot of car races and even more games ofand
"Where's the BABY at?" This forever baffling question can occur even when said baby is well in eyes view, even with no hands in front of the eyes. I myself, being the psuedo-baby anaylist believes that he uses that saying sometimes to cope with frustrating things, i.e. staying indoors all weekend. There are other times where it is more obvious, but I digress. Suffice it to say that Spencer has, at the moment, a way of dealing with unwanted feelings, a good way. He also has learned that saying "Rats!" like Charlie Brown is an effective way of displaying those less than Gerber like moments.

I am so proud of Spencer, he has over the last few months really devolped what, well if it where happening to an adult, one might label it an addiction to reading. Ahh the horrors right? No of course not, but it really is amazing, first thing in the morning he points to his bookshelf and says with much glee, " Book, book, wanna book!"This of course is due to the fact that the two books he took to bed have bored him. He won't sit in the crib with out one. I love it, curling up with a good book, I hope to say that he learned this from me. We read about 35 minutes (apx.) everyday, and if not that more. It's so awesome to see him say things like "No tv, no tv, heavy book ,heavy book !" Which brings me to something else, the little man has, I think, don't quote me here, burned out on Thomas the Tank Engine. Yes, I know it's somewhat unbelievable, but I beleive that his parents jsut went a little overboard in trying to please our lil guy. He still loves his train set, his trains, ( Thomas included) his cars, and most of all his emergency and construction trucks/cars, but that excitement for Thomas, well it just dosen't seem to be there. He has much more wanted to see the apartments being built down the street with plenty of active dumprucks, excavators, and front loaders than watch even 5 minutes of a Thomas video. And yes, I am proud of that as well. I know that around this age it's all about being hands on.

And his hands are on everything. Like when we went to the Childrens Museum during spring break.

But that's another entery and mama ( I can still refer to myself in that way!) needs to take a little nap in the remainder of the time she has left while spencer takes his.

more later!