We’re back, vacation was awesome. Duhdee spent most of his time helping work on the new house. He and Grampa got a lot done this past week. So much that before we left today we actually moved furniture in. I think “Knottacamp” is officially open for business (just don’t expect any heat or hot water just yet, lol.)
My job was pretty much to entertain the Monkey boy. I think I did a bang up job of it too, lol. Monkey and I had tons of fun riding on the quad. Grampa bought a harness so Monkey was safely strapped to me while we were riding and it worked out great. We even did a little bit of trail riding (very easy trails of course!) Monkey’s favorite part were water (puddle) crossings. He would giggle and sign “go, go, go” everytime he saw even a little trickle of water across the road or trail. He was not a fan of crossing the brook at full speed. Duhdee tried that trick once and I had the pleasure of helping a soaked and stunned Monkey off the quad, lol. He bounced back quickly though.
Speaking of Monkey, the boy had an amazing week. I’m sure I’ll forget some stuff but here’s a list of his new things.
- he slept in a big boy bed for a week
- he is doing really, really well walking on uneven ground (the whole yard is uneven right now!)
- he is doing really well climbing stairs (up and down)
- he said “mah nanana” on Wednesday (translation “more banana”) while eating breakfast
- he perfected his “truck” sign
- he learned to sign “go, go, go” (quads are a great motivator!)
- he has nearly perfected the official “helicopter” sign (it involves two hands and is pretty tricky, he is concentrating really hard on this one!)
- he is using his stacker toy all on his own with no begging
- he and Grammy have a game of their own (throwing rocks in the brook) and he actually engaged her on his own while Umma backed off
- he saw an airplane when we were riding across the field behind the neighbor’s camp on Thursday and told Duhdee about it the next day when they got to the same spot
- he is now signing “bird”
- he didn’t freak out when he saw me with my wet hair wrapped in a towel, in fact he LAUGHED and signed “hat”
- he is now signing “hat”
- he is perfecting his “please” sign
- he pretended to sip my tea, including lip smacking (no idea where he got that but it’s CUTE!)
- he can now put the ends of his pop tube together to form a circle (he’s been trying to do this for months)
- he played the Hat Game with me and Auntie K (OK, so he THREW the “hat” at K instead of handing it to her but it is progress!)
- he signed “ball” in the truck on the way home
And as long as that list is…I know I am forgetting some stuff. He just had an AMAZING week. Oh, and on Saturday…everyone and their brother showed up at Knottacamp to help out and Monkey was perfectly at ease. He didn’t cry or try to hide. He ate and played in the living room with his toys with a new little friend even when Duhdee and I were in another room. Truly amazing.