Ode to Oaklen

I have a binder for each of my kids to hold various paper keepsakes like doctor's notes, artwork, certificates, birthday cards, etc. I have written a couple different "Odes to Oaklen" in his book and now I figure that these "odes" should transfer to this blog. Typing is always so much easier for me than writing. It's so cumbersome for me to write, although I do feel that I should preserve my handwriting for historical purposes once in a while. :)

Anyway, here is an Ode to Oaklen.

I'm still two mom - Randomly he'll come up to me and say "I'm still two mom!" Thanks Oaklen for reminding me that you're only two and it doesn't last forever. ;)

I can't see the creatures coming - Oaklen loves the word "creature." If you put two fingers near him and try to "walk" the fingers up to him, he thinks they're creatures. He also sees things and says that they are creatures. When I turn off the lights as we go from the bathroom to his bedroom for the night, we walk in the dark and he says "I can't see the creatures coming." It's funny that he says that and it's even funnier if you think of it in a different way. Most kids are scared of the dark and say things like "I'm afraid of the monster." But Oaklen has a different way of thinking about it and says "I can't see the creatures coming." He acknowledges that there are creatures but the dark bothers him only because he can't see them coming. :)

I'm scary - When he hears a noise outside that seems scary to him he says "I'm scary" instead of "I'm scared." He keeps repeating it until we acknowledge that he said it.


Walking up the stairs - He is now old/big enough to take one step for each stair. He no longer has to stop on each step like a smaller children do. :( My baby is growing up!

His sighs - He must have remembered me doing yoga with him when he was in the womb because he always uses his deep breaths to relax him. A lot of times when he's crying he'll calm himself down by doing a big sigh. Often, he'll even say "I'm sorry Mom...forgive me." That just melts my heart! He also sighs when he needs to relax to go to bed, or he's ready to settle down to read a book on the couch. When I cry he comes up to me and says "breathe in...breathe out."

Hair pulling - He has a love for hair and especially Mom's hair. I'll be reading him a book and he has to look up at me and stroke his fingers through my hair just to make sure I'm still there. When we have co-slept, he'll almost always have some of my hair in his hand as a comfort. Sometimes it gets quite challenging and frustrating that he wants to hold or pull my hair. I draw the line when he starts to pull Salem's hair while sitting in the grocery cart. Salem is a good sport about it and knows that Oaklen is a turkey. :) I really hope he'll grow out of this hair pulling phase.


Little munchie - I've called him my little munchie because he is always wanting to eat. He usually wakes me up in the morning by holding my hair and saying "Let's go have food, mom!" When we finally do have breakfast, he's looking around for something to eat less than an hour later. (Don't think that he must not have eaten that much for breakfast because he usually has a banana, a big bowl of oatmeal/cereal/rice/millet, plus something else like applesauce.) Even now as I type this blog post I have had to get up twice to give him a snack. Also, his favorite part about nursery on Sunday is the snack.

Orange - There is no question that his favorite color is Orange. He wears this orange sweatshirt (pictured below) at least once a week. He wakes up from his nap and tells me everyday that he dreamed about "orange garbage trucks."


His perch - Speaking of orange garbage trucks, he loves to sit on the back of the couch and look outside. I've tried numerous times to get him to sit on a chair at another window but he likes to be up a little higher on the back of the couch in front of the biggest window. Thursdays are the favorite day of the week since that's when the garbage trucks come by. It was a real treat a few weeks ago for both Salem and Oaklen to watch the various work trucks cut down the tree across the street.