So, today I decided it was time for a second haircut. I had recently mentioned to Zak that I thought I would take Koa to one of those kid's haircut places and he mocked me. Yes, mocked! He thought it was silly that I do everything else "from scratch" so to speak, but I wouldn't cut his hair myself. He reminded me that he is a year and a half old and would not care what his hair looked like. So, bravely, I put it off. But this morning I decided something needed to be done. So, I called my sister (who used to be a hairdresser and who cut Koa's hair the first time) to ask for pointers. She is camping in the mountains this weekend and couldn't be reached. So, I consulted the Internet. I found this article. I decided to cut it anyway. There are some before and after pictures in Koa's nineteen month photo album for you to critique.
His hair is not the only thing that has been growing like crazy lately. His vocabulary is doing it's thing, too. I'm not terribly surprised, but he is quite a talker! His favorite words right now: wash, bash (a combination of bath and wash), It's stuck!, Why?, and I don't know. I thought the "why" thing was supposed to come much later, but he has gotten a head-start on that apparently. It's usually in response to doing something he wasn't supposed to do. He no longer yells, "No, no, no." when he does something naughty. Now he looks at the result (or hands it to me) and says, "Why?" Then he replies to himself with, "I dunno."
After much debate in our house we decided to get some videos for Koa. We are not so anti TV that we keep it off when he is in the room, but we have never encouraged him to watch it by playing kid's shows. Until very recently he has not cared at all when the TV is on. So, I went to the library and got some Signing Time videos. It is a program they show on PBS, but here it comes on Saturdays in the middle of the day, so there is no way I ever think to stop and watch it. He seems to like them OK. He still won't sit still through an entire one, but I'm perfectly fine with that. They have books that coincide with the videos and actually he likes the books more. We have watched each of three videos once, but he likes to look at the books pretty much every day and he is starting to pick up on a few new signs. He now knows bath, ball, milk and help, in addition to all the ones he already uses regularly.
The other TV program he likes is Wheel of Fortune. I always like to watch that in the evening while I am making dinner and as soon as Koa hears it, he comes running into the room. One night I started making dinner, but it was too early for The Wheel and the TV was off. Koa went and got the remote and brought it to me! The funny thing is I think he kind of gets it a little bit. He always throws out his guesses which is usually an "M", but the other night he guessed "S". I'm kind of embarrassed that I am encouraging him to watch TV, but I guess it could be The Bachelor or something! Mostly we think he loves clapping with Vanna every few seconds.
Along with all of the new developmental things, we have been dealing with new attitude problems. I guess they aren't exactly new, but rather a slow-growing problem. He has been whining a lot more and has been "talking back" a lot when I ask him to do something he doesn't want to do--which means high pitched screaming some of the time. So, we started our own form of "time out". We have a corner by the door where he has to go and stand (facing in or out, but it has to be in the corner) as soon as he starts to talk naughty. He is allowed to cry or scream as long as he wants in the corner, but he is not allowed to come out until he can tell us, "Yes" he is ready to have a good attitude and he has to show us his smile. He really hates this... The first couple of times there was much screaming and gnashing of teeth (like 15 minutes at a time), and if he thought Dad might show mercy and rescue him, it was even worse. But once he realized no one was going to rescue him (via the screams), he has figured out he really can have a good attitude pretty quickly. The first few days we had to employ the technique several times a day, sometimes in rapid succession. However, now it is usually once a day or less and life is so much more pleasant without the whining and back talk!
We decided for Halloween Koa would be a Colorado Rockies baseball player (Go Rockies!) so my sister sent him a jersey since we couldn't find anything out here and I ordered a hat for him on-line. Yesterday I went and bought him a ball and glove. He loved it! He wears the glove as a hat and throws the ball like a wild man! The glove is pretty big but I just could not resist! Well, I just went to the mail box and got the jersey and it is a basketball jersey with the Rockies logo! So, maybe I will get him a basketball now. Like he needs another ball! At any rate, I think it was probably time for him to have a ball and glove.
Speaking of the Rockies--Wooo Hooo! It's about time they made it to the Series! Now let's hope their home games go a little better then their first two in Boston! I've never been much of a baseball fan--it's just too slow for me--but I am being converted. We even went to a Hawaii Winter Baseball game the other night. HWB is sort of like Minor League baseball, but the players come during their off-seasons to Hawaii to continue working on their skills and get scouted by teams. Most players in HWB are already signed and are just working their ways through the farm systems. Koa ate his first hot dog (which I am still lamenting) because Zak insisted that is part of the baseball experience (but, to Zak's chagrin, there were no boiled peanuts, sausage dogs, garlic fries, or Cracker Jacks ). That was a lucky night for us -Zak's class got canceled because his professor was sick, so we took advantage of a rare Friday night off and enjoyed some family time.
Speaking of school, last week Zak finished his last big paper (An Exegesis on the Lord's Prayer) for the class that he considers the hardest of this semester (Biblical Interpretation). He will officially finish the class next Friday, but he is mostly finished already. So, he's pretty much down to three classes left until December 15th when he's all pau! Today he already went to class, so we have the afternoon to play. We're going to go to the pumpkin patch and pick us a pumpkin before Zak locks himself away again for the evening (he needs to prepare his lesson for our Malama Group meeting tomorrow).
