during dinner tonight, alden grabbed my spoon and held it up with his to exclaim, "TWO!"
i gave him another and asked how many he had now. he said, "three!"


our boy is busting out full sentences left and right now. they're not always properly structured, but then again, neither are mine. during dinner tonight he also told me, "mama, don't want it, carrot" to let me know he was finished with his orange stick. he has also started saying, "don't like it, milkies" and pushing me away when he is done nursing. could this be the beginning of a gentle self-weaning? hm. we shall see. i've recently instigated a new no-milkies when mama's sleeping rule, which is mostly working. i've woken up a few times to find that milkies are being pilfered, though. he's getting sneaky.

in addition to voicing his dislikes, alden has also started telling us what he wants in no uncertain terms. last week we visited the sandbox at the union square playground, where alden played with a borrowed shovel, pail and green digger. over lunch several days later, he looked at me very seriously, locking eyes and said, "mama, people shovel snow. green."
i asked him if he was talking about the time that we watched the park workers shovel the playground...? "big rock frog! green digger! alden want shovel!"
ohhh, the marble frog in the sandbox. "are you talking about the sand at the playground in the city"
"yes. alden need green digger."
"you want mama to buy you a green digger?"
"yes. alden want shovel. pail."

and so, it begins. it's my own fault, really, i think, that he's figured out this getting stuff thing so quickly. i took him out to buy him a motorcycle when he desperately wanted one he pilfered on the playground. when we couldn't find one, i bought him an L train, a school bus, a taxi cab and a police car (plan toys makes some great little wooden vehicles, but no motorcycle!) in an attempt to distract him. we came home and he played "vroom it!" for a little while, then looked at me and said, "ollie want motorcycle."