teedle toddle

home again, home again.
i wish i had some new pictures or some video, but i left my camera on the east coast and it's en route as i type. so we'll just have to wait. pooh.
mr.mister is a bonafide toddler. after taking his first steady stretch of steps to his great aunt courtenay in the great hall of mt. airy a few weeks ago (i think he was inspired by his young friend sawyer), t2's been an unstopable beast on 2 feet. he's a comical mix of a drunk and frankenstein, staggering around with his arms straight out in front of him. it's a familiar image if you've ever mixed big tayloe and a bottle of patron.
with his new found skill has come an enormous amount of confidence to try dangerous things, including climbing on anything he can swing his leg up on and then trying to jump off. this has taken precedence to throwing things and hitting people. however now instead of trying to explain gentle, i'm faced with trying to teach a toddler that sitting in a chair is ok, but sitting on a table is not. it's kinda tough not only because it's tedious but also because i find that even as i enforce the rules, i'm questioning them. i mean, some tables really do look like chairs.
sometimes i try to sum up the ways my time as a stay at home mother could come in handy should i ever find myself in an office again. there's the patience, and the organization. but there's also this fundamental right and wrong stuff. like don't bite people and don't hit them and don't go bananas and jump off other people's furniture because all of that is really offensive and rude and no way to make friends.
speaking of making friends, one last thing. thursday we were at the park. t2's toddling around and i'm watching him. i'm also eavesdropping on other kids' conversations. there's this little group of 3 year olds, maybe 4 or 5 of them, all playing in the sand with buckets and shovels and such. one little boy has a toy flip cell phone. while the other kids are building a castle, the cell phone kid is unflipping his phone, putting it to his ear and shouting, "IT'S JUST A STUPID MEETING! CANCEL THE STUPID MEETING." then he'd flip it closed and put it in his pocket. a few seconds later, he'd repeat it all.
poor little parrot. the other kids were looking at him like he was retarded. it makes my heart ache.