Morning Play Date

We spent Memorial Day destroying someone else's house, rather than our own. And actually, the mom who invited us over was smart enough to shuffle everyone outside to a park near her house. Brilliant, I tell you.

While there, Connor took Teo on an airplane ride:


And apparently Teo was not impressed with Connor's navigation skills, because despite the fact that Connor was ready to take him on a drive in the red car that wobbles,


Teo preferred to keep his feet on the ground for this trip and gave Connor the OK from below.


However, after Teo had given Connor the green light, he was able to con sweet Miss Esther into his car. She gave him the once over, and they were off.



It was really fun to see Connor actually playing with a few of the other kids - though we could've done without the bruiser "Tristan". This was the most giant 2 year old I had ever seen (seriously, the kid could've knocked me down if he wanted) and he didn't mind throwing his weight around and at one point decided to follow Connor for a few minutes, shoving my little guy out of the way. His mom kept looking at me pleading "he really does understand sharing and taking turns" but I kept thinking - apparently not, but instead said "maybe he's having a tough morning". I was secretly glad, as I'm sure Connor was, when the bruiser left because that left mostly kids from the mom's group there - and they're a pretty peaceful group.

Based on some e-mails with friends in my mom's group, I'd been counting the number of words Connor uses when he talks to try and see if the notion that 5 words at a time is the max Connor could comprehend. Interestingly, Connor does give most of his commands in 5 or fewer words "Mommy, get the panda" - sometimes with a coerced "peas" at the end - particularly if I wait a few moments to respond or if I tell him "no". But when he's really excited about something, he'll string two or three sentences together with up to 12 words per sentence. For example, "Connor and Mommy are going in the maroon car to see Esther! Daddy stay home. ...". Wow! I had no idea until I started listening. And while Connor seems to be getting some sense of verb tenses, pronouns are not even close. When he wants to be carried, he still looks at me and says "Carry you" and sometimes it's pretty tricky because he'll refer to me as "me" instead of "you" so I forget and think he's wanting to do something himself. Most of the time, he still refers to himself as Connor. While Bob Dole-esque in nature, at least it's clear.

Elaine