Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Our son is a genius. I'm not kidding; he's really amazing. It's such a pleasure to watch him grow and develop, and to see his personality starting to come out. If these months are any indication, it's going to be a blast.

Oh right, the genius part. As you know, part of Theo's bedtime routine is the nightly bath. He's become so accustomed to it that he actually goes there during the day to throw toys in, which is his way of saying, "Okay, it's bath time." Since he's already shown that he's a pretty smart kid, wife thought it would be a cool idea to start to get him used to the toilet. If we can at least get him used to sitting on the toilet, maybe he'll just want to do it more often.

With that in mind, we bought him a toddler toilet thing that sits on top of your own seat. Every night before bath, we plunk him on it for a bit, just to get him used to sitting on it. We ask him if he has to go potty, encourage him, etc. The thing is, the other night, it worked. He actually went in the potty. It was amazing.

Just tonight, I was getting him ready for bath time, and I stuck him on the potty and asked if he had to go. He squeezed out a couple of drops, and you could tell he was trying really hard to go because he knew this was where he went potty. Such a smart kid. I'm telling you, he's going to be toilet trained in no time flat.

But that's not the end of the story. After bath, we went into his room to get his sleeper (it hangs on a nail on the wall, and we ask him to grab it for us, which he does). I realized that there weren't any diapers out, and that I'd have to get some from the box. To keep him occupied, I grabbed an old harmonica, and played a tune for him. As he hadn't seen the harmonica in weeks, it was pretty cool.

Of course, he then grabbed it out of my hands and put it straight in his mouth, which he has done before (part of his emulating everything we do routine). I was going about my business, holding him in my arms while getting these diapers (I wasn't about to let a naked baby wander around our rented house), and suddenly, I heard the sound of the harmonica. I looked at Theo, and he looked at me, and we both burst out laughing.

He actually played the harmonica. After I got a diaper on him, I showed him again how to play, gave it to him, and he did it again. And then again. It was so amazing. The best part was that he cracked a huge smile and a big laugh every time. It was great. I love being a dad.

Hey, did I mention that he also holds his hands out to pray before meals? All we have to say is, "Okay Theo, let's pray," and out come the hands. He holds on until we say "Amen," then he lets go. I've checked, though, and he isn't closing his eyes.

Enough about my amazing son, although I think I have the right to a bit of bragging. He's so incredible. Oh right, enough about him.

Moving on. How's the weather where you are? Guess what? It's snowing here A-FREAKING-GAIN!!!!!!! Yesterday I wore shorts. Today it snowed. If this province's intention is to slowly drive me crazy, it is succeeding. I can't even figure out how to spell succeeding, it's getting to me so much. Crap.

At least it didn't stick this time. It was more like Lower Mainland snow, so at least I felt at home. Of course, back home, this weather would have come and gone in December or January, but whatever. Three weeks from tonight, I'll be blogging about the end of the school year, so it's at least coming to an end quickly. All I want is for there to be no snow over grad weekend. Man.

Moving on. Again. Had a productive day again today, although I'm sure I could have done more. Wife and son went off to another mom's group this morning, this one specifically for the moms to do a book study and chat time. The kids are supposed to all play in the nursery next door and give the moms some time off. Theo, however, was having none of that.

You know, I can't say I blame him for his separation anxiety. To start off your life being abandoned in the nursery every night is bad enough, but it's even worse when we're so inconsistent with our church attendance that he can't get used to any particular set of surroundings or people. We've decided that we're just going to go to the church down the road for the rest of the semester because he needs some consistency (it took us seven months to figure this out, but whatever). If nothing else, maybe by the end of the time here, he'll be used to being left in the nursery during church services.

While they were off doing that, I was doing homework. Oh, back up a bit. Chapel this morning featured speeches from the candidates running for student union positions for next year. If there was something I could be less interested in, I'm not sure what it would be. Went out afterwards for coffee with the chapel intern here, which was a lot of fun. He's a great guy, and I really respect his opinions and his musicianship. Fun times.

Back at home, I did a bunch of editing and worked on a handout for a class presentation. I'm such a nerd that I downloaded a Hebrew font just to put some Hebrew words on the handout. With my rudimentary knowledge of Hebrew, I was able to get the words typed out. It's going to be the best handout ever.

After that, well, the day seemed to just evaporate again. Lunch, an afternoon of mixed Theo time and school work time, dinner, a trip to IGA for some ice cream that I'm going to eat as soon as I'm done here, and the night-time routine for Theo. Wife is out at the weekly art night that happens in these parts, being an artist with all her artist buddies. Actually, all these clubs on campus are just big flirting sessions (which, I hope, isn't why she's going), but there are really interesting speakers at this particular club. For example, tonight one of the music professors is coming to do a brief talk and then play his harp while the artists do their art. Lah-de-freakin'-dah. They'll also snack on the finest caviar and champagne.

So. I guess that's all for today. I'm going to grab last night's 24 and check it out in the next couple of days. I finaly got smart and bought some DVD-RW's so that I don't have to wait to fill a DVD to burn one (it's a waste of DVD to have one show on there). Nice. I'm looking forward to seeing what overused plotline the writers come up with this week. I'm sure I'll have comments on it later this week, too.

Hope you all are having an excellent week. See you tomorrow.