Scoo Bus! Shayer!

Cameron’s favorite toys right now are busses, construction trucks, motorcycles or bicycles, and airplanes. And since we have been spending a lot of time in the car lately he sees these vehicles everywhere. Honestly he must have the eyes of a hawk because he’s constantly screaming “Look!” and then scream the appropriate name for whatever vehicle he’s spotted. I often have to look around, even peak in the rear view mirror because it hasn’t registered to me that one of these things has passed in our line of sight. I’ll be peering around searching for the thing he’s screaming about and telling him that I can’t find it and in my head I’m thinking he must be hallucinating. And then sure enough just as it’s almost out of sight I spot the thing he sees.

These vehicles are such an obsession for him right now that even last night while sleeping he called out, “On of f on off! Dumpy Truck!”. Because we are traveling through downtown Baltimore during rush hour we see lots of these vehicles everywhere and he gets so excited. Now we are helping him distinguish between the different kinds of busses and trucks he sees because until now he really hasn’t understood the differences. All busses regardless of their size and appearance and color are school busses, and all construction vehicles whether they are diggers, front loaders, rollers, or cranes are all called dump trucks. And his “accent” is so adorable. The words are pronounced Scoo Bussss = School Bus, Cibby Bussss = City Bus, Dig Er = Digger, Crwane = Crane, Dumpy Truck = Dump Truck, Air Pwane = Airplane.

Another fun thing the boys are doing is finishing sentences from books that they know and love. They have memorized books such that I can say a line from a book, pause before a key word and they will fill in the blank; often saying it in unison. For example:

Me: “Wow said the Owl, when she saw the leaves on her tree were ____?”
Boys: “Gweeeen!” (green).

And they can do more complex responses.

Me: “Wow said the ___,”
Boys: “Owww - Hoo hoo!”
Me: “as the rising ____ …”
Boys: “Sun!”
Me: “…showed through the _____ _____.”
Boys: “Morning Missss.” (morning mist)

We’re still working on taking turns with things and for the most part they are okay when I tell them that “It‘s Evan‘s turn.” or “It‘s Cameron‘s turn.” though only when it is adult directed, as all adults are the ultimate referees. But we’re also working on the concept of asking to Share. It is a very complex process to figure out how to say a new word, communicate it to someone who has what you want, and then to wait very patiently until they understand and are willing to relinquish said object within an acceptable time frame. Right now the boys know to say “Shayer!” (share) and pat their chest in sign language to symbolize the words “me” or “my turn” and then rub their chest in sign language while saying “Peeees!” (please). But the problem really occurs when for example Cameron has a beach ball and Evan walks up to him and says “Shayre!” and pats his chest and then reaches to take the ball. They are suddenly then in a contest of wills to see if Cameron really doesn’t care about the ball and will give it up or if there will be a stalemate because he doesn’t want to share his ball. Last night in this example Cameron did not want to give up the ball so the boys stood in the middle of the room in a perfect stalemate, each holding the same ball, frowning at each other saying “Shayre! Shayre! Shayre!” to each other.

It’s so hard not to laugh when putting the ball in time out.