danieljohnson

I don't think Daniel is quiet for more than two seconds at a time during the day. Even when you ask him to be quiet for just a little bit, he either starts whispering to whoever he was talking to or he starts humming Star Wars theme, thinking that not talking is being quiet. Some days this constant noise drives us up the walls. Isabella loves this though. Whenever she hears Daniel's voice, she immediately turns her head toward the voice and smiles. Daniel loves the attention. And then the Daniel-entertains-Isabella - show begins. He babbles or jumps or claps his hands or whatever makes Isabella laugh.
Last week he pulled out a kitchen chair, stood on it and announced: "Ladies, gentlemen and Isabellas". And then he jumped down landing just in front of Isabella and she laughed out of pure joy. Daniel of course thought this was so great and amazing that he had to do this about fifty times. Isabella laughed every single time.

- Those monsters scare me and I don't want to see them, Daniel said and kept on talking about the x box game his dad was playing.
- They don't really exist, I tried.
- I know mom, but they still scare me. I ate an ant.

Just like that. Out of the blue. He ate an ant.

- Really? Today? I asked him and glanced out the window. Snowflakes were slowly coming down like feathers and landed on the snowcovered garden table, where there was already at least half a metre of snow. No ant in sight...
- No not today. Earlier.
- Why did you eat an ant?
- You know you're allowed to eat ants.
- No I didn't know that. But why did you eat an ant, I asked again not realizing that he had already answered my question.
- Because you're allowed to. My daycare teacher has eaten a worm.
- That doesn't sound very yummy, I said and knew that I would always see that teacher in a different light.
Daniel laughed.
- I bit the ants head off. You have to be very quick if you want to catch an ant, they're fast, he continued.
- You can't eat spiders though, Daniel continued. Because if you do, you'll get spiderweb in your tummy. And that's not good.

I couldn't keep a straight face anymore, so we started laughing.
What a wonderful kid we have!
Ants, beware!

When Daniel's brother Nicholas was in Daniel's age, he had a period when he wouldn't sleep the whole night in his own room. So he slept in our bed for a while. We had a rule that he would always start the night in his own bed, and then if he woke up during the night, he could come to our bed. Like most kids at that age, he was extremely active in his sleep. He would kick and hit and twist and turn. And we were painfully aware of this and didn't get that much sleep. We would wake up several times a night with Nicholas sleeping with his head on Marcs tummy and feet on my face. Or the other way around. So we came up with an idea of having an extra matress on the floor in our room. Whenever he wanted to sleep in our room, he could, just not in our bed. A win-win situation; he got to sleep in our room and we got to sleep.

Daniel got the same way a little before Isabella was born. He couldn't understand why he had to sleep all by himself, when we got to sleep in the same bed and when Isabella was born, she got to have her bed next to ours. So we took out the matress again. And he would come to our room most nights and sleep on the matress.

Last weekend we could put the matress into storage. Daniel hasn't been to our room in a long time. Although this is a good thing, he feels more secure in his own room and is more self assured, I'm a little sad. He is growing up too fast. All too sudden there will be a day when he doesn't want to hold my hand anymore or give me a hug just out of the blue. Right now when I hear him playing in the living room making up conversations between Batman and Obi-wan, I know that it's not happening any time soon. And I'm happy about it. Who has the most growing pains Daniel or me?