Confessions of a Toddler

Ryne and I have been having some interesting conversations lately.  It's so great to be able to talk to Ryne and have him talk back (in conversation, of course - this Momma isn't into back-talk!).  He makes me feel a little less crazy, like in the early days of talking to an infant and in a sense, talking to yourself!

So last night was one of the cutest conversations ever, although a short one!  We bought Ryne a pattern blocks puzzle.  Ryne likes to dump all the pieces and all the puzzles boards out on the table or floor, thus every piece was out and scattered about.  I think the puzzle board was a house, so I pointed to the rectangle and asked Ryne, "which piece goes here?"  He picked up an oval, which is smaller than the rectangle so it does fit in the hole, and Ryne said "Is it this?"  And then he said "Noooo,"  "it's this!" and then put down the oval and picked up the rectangle!  Note:  he said the word "no" which I thought would never happen!

Now a bit of explanation.  I'm not big on letting Ryne "watch" TV; however, he rarely actually watches it. He likes the music on the Disney shows, so for the most part he runs around playing with other things and then stops when he hears the music to dance and wave his arms like a orchestra conductor!  Most of these shows have times when they ask the audience which path they should take or which shape goes in place, etc, and they will give options saying something like "Is it this shape or is it this shape" while showing different shapes.  Anywho, you probably get the idea!  So I guess Ryne has been paying a little more attention that I realized.  My nephew does this too a lot and it is just so darn cute!  It's almost like you get to see their brains working to problem solve.

Earlier today, Ryne went into our bathroom and looked behind the door for his ball, which hasn't been there in awhile, but he always likes to look.  Ryne asked "Where's the ball?"  and I said "It's not behind the door anymore" and then he said "I doe,"  which is I know.  He even used a hand gesture to kind of show his disappointment.

Also earlier this morning, we were looking out the window of the back door.  Ryne has a ball that lives out in the back yard.  He asked, "Where's the ball?" and I said "I don't see the ball" [because the patio table was blocking it] and Ryne said "There's still a ball!"

If Ryne ever runs for President, which I personally don't think I can handle because I get enough criticism about my child and it kinda sucks, but he would not have the word "honest" in front of his name like good ole Honest Abe!  Ryne told his first lie this week.  Now I know he doesn't necessarily know it's a lie or what a lie is or that he shouldn't tell his mother lies, but he did...and I thought it was kind of funny considering the situation.  Ryne was wanted to look out the back door window again for "the ball," but the blinds were down.  Ryne likes to whack the blinds around to try to see past them and we have told him time after time, after time, after blue-in-the-face time that he cannot touch the blinds!  So Ryne whacked the blinds and I said, "Ryne, do not touch the blinds."  He whacked them again.  This time I got down on his eye level and pointed to the blinds and said, "No touch."  So he said "tuss" for touch for the first time.  I got excited about him using a new word and grabbed my phone to message Adam about it.  I was still looking in Ryne's direction but didn't have eye contact with him and lo and behold, he whacked the blinds again!  Again, I said, "Ryne, don't touch the blinds," and he said "I di'int tuss" with his little hand gesture, showing some attitude!  I was so shocked, but started laughing (I couldn't help it) because he just lied to me...at his age!

Ryne also had conversations with his stuffed animals.  We've noticed that it takes him longer to actually fall asleep when we put him down for a nap or at bedtime.  I listen to him over the monitor.  He talks to Blue Bear, Tad and Duck Duck quite a bit.  The other day, he asked, "Tad, where's the ball?"  He will ask them if they want a bite or a baba.  It's so cute to listen to!

So what I've recently come to grips with is the fact that Ryne learns in a incredibly different way, than what I've ever seen during my various experiences with children and different from the way I learn things.  I remember my first day of Latin class in 9th grade.  Mrs.  Crossno (Oh how I love that woman!) said not to memorize Latin, but to learn it.  I kind of feel like Ryne learns through learning, not  memorizing.  Ryne is an asker.  He asks, "what's this?" all the time.  He may ask about the same thing a few times in a row.  He doesn't repeat my answers usually.  Then sometime later, it may be hours, days or weeks later, he will bust out his knowledge, and we are totally blindsided!

It is very difficult to know what he knows and what he doesn't, and what words he can say and what he can't because he uses words on his own time - when he wants to, not when we necessarily want him to!  I am racking my brain trying to figure out more ways to challenge him, so he won't be so bored.  If any of you experienced mothers or teachers have any ideas for teaching the child who doesn't like to be taught, let me know!