Kenneth's Milestones Year 4

August 20, 2004 - We were all three coming up with words that start with the blend "Sn" for example, "snow, snail, snake." Kenneth contributed "snide."

June 23, 2004 a man came to the door soliciting us to switch to another electricity compnay. Kenneth, upon overhearing the conversation said to the man, "well, actually, there is a problem with our dining room light fixture." It has a short in it, and apparently Kenneth remembered that it was related to electricity.

He whistled on June 22, 2004

June 20, 2004, Kenneth answered the phone, it was Daddy.

June 13, 2004 We adjusted the car seat to the top slot.

June 2, 2004 asked the handy man if the mortar mix he was using to repair the cracks in our fireplace brick was a solid or a liquid. "Is it a solid or a liquid?"

May 26, 2004 We were all making sandwiches and helping each other he compared it to a food chain by calling it a "best helper chain."

April 23, 2004 Regarding cleaning Reid's face, "If we made a pie out of wipes and splatted it into Reid's face, his face would be all clean!" the same day he said, "well, there's no use crying over spilled milk!" also that day he showed confusion over Reid's age. I explained he would eventually be 1 year old on his birthday. Kenneth looked puzzled and said, "how old is he now?" I said, "7 months." Kenneth said, "why is he going backwards?"

April 7, 2004 Kenneth placed his first phone call, to Daddy, he dialed the number himself.

May 20, 2004 "Why do you have a big toe, a small toe, a medium sized toe, another medium sized toe and a bigger medium sized toe? Why do you have all different sizes of toes?"

May 16, 2004 At brunch at Commander's Palace he asked if Captain Hook was called Captain Hand before the crocodile ate his hand off.

May 14, 2004 At the Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans he had an opportunity to pet a baby nurse shark. It was in a little tank, and a woman instructed him just how to do it with two fingers. We showed him the stool to stand on so he could reach, which he did. He petted the shark, and afterwards asked for a towel to dry his wet hands, there happened to be a stack of towels there for just that purpose. Once his hands were dry he said, "Mommy can you throw this away?" I pointed out the waste basket nearby and he grinned from ear to ear and said, "Wow! She has everything you need!"

April 27, 2004 Rode his tricycle from our driveway to the stop sign at the corner near Lori's house and back. He got stuck on the grass a couple of times, but quickly learned out to unstick himself.

April 23, 2004 I was explaining that after Kenneth turns 4, Reid will turn 1 year. Kenneths said, "Well, how old is he now?" I answered, "7 months." Kenneth asked, "Why is he going backwards?"

April 23, 2004 regarding getting Reid's face clean after a meal: "If we made a pie out of wipes and splattered it in his face, his face would be all clean!" same day, "Well there's no use crying over spilled milk."

April 7, 2004 Kenneth placed his first phone call. He called Daddy and he dialed it himself.

March 28, 2004 went diving in the punch bowl box full of peanuts.

March 9, 2004 "I'm hungry, probably it would be good if you just dropped me off at Hooter's."

February 20, 2004 He noticed a car with two different colored tail lights and offered three possible explanations why. 1. It's burned out 2. One has a darker red bulb than usual or 3. The light or lamp isn't working.

February 17, 2004, "Is there a pipe from the library book drop to the library? It would have to be the same sizeas the book and the same shape as the book."

February 16, 2004 another nightmare: A poisonous sand crab was in the living room and he wanted Mommy to kill it.

February 14, 2004 He had a nightmare, "I was trying to get into a playhouse but it was full of too many children and I was too big to fit."

February 13, 2004 A vase mysteriously cracked and broke leaking water all over our dining room table. He came up with myriad solutions for how it happened:
1. a rat's nose bumped it.
2. A cat's claw scratched it.
3. "I" bumped it too hard. etc.

February 12, 2004 "To go around being called 'me' isn't sensible."

February 11, 2004 "May I have a word with you?"

February 11, 2004 "I'll cheer you up! I'm your brother, after all!"

February 4, 2004 "Does Robert have a window on the back of his house so he can see the sun set?"

February 4, 2004 "Maybe you could recharge a battery if you put it out in the lightening."

February 3, 2004 regarding his Valentine distribution at school:
Kenneth: I want to put my friends names on them.
Mommy: They've asked us not to.
Kenneth: Why?
Mommy: because you can't read, and you have to pass them all out.
Kenneth: I can read.
Mommy: You can read all your friend's names?
Kenneth: Yes.
Mommy: Well, they've asked us not to.
Kenneth: I want to be disobedient.

January 31, 2004 I left Kenneth and Reid alone for a few seconds while I dashed to another room to hang some laundry in the closet. When I returned, Reid was fretting, but not really crying. Kenneth said, "Can you kiss his nose because I just bit it and it made him cry."

January 30, 2004 He was playing on his computer and I kept hearing a lot of clunking sound. I looked over and he was painstakingly moving the trackball and key board on and off of the tray to his chair as needed to play an arcade type game. I watched him for a long time, he was quite proficient, but it looked so awkward. I asked him if it would be helpful to adjust the chair and desk so he could reach both simultaneously. Once the adjustment was made his whole face lit up and he said, "I can use both if I'm scooted up!"

January 27, 2004 I heard a big thud come from the bathroom, followed by tears. Kenneth has fallen and I picked him up, offering my sympathies. He says, sobbing, through his tears, "Is this why you told me not to jump?" (I wasn't going to say I told you so, but he did it for me!)

January 25, 2004, "If your eye falls upon something, is that just an expression?"

January 23, 2004 "My toy zoo doesn't talk, but Caroline's does. It says, 'boing, boing, ooh ooh ahh ahh.' Probably, mine doesn't have batteries in it. Can you go get some batteries for it at Radio Shack?"

January 17, 2004 Playing with a retracting pen, pushing the button repeatedly, he declared, "It's just like a hermit crab!"

January 15, 2004 "We can't pick up my room, it's too heavy!" followed by laughter

January 15, 2004 His preschool teacher told me that during a new student tour he declared loudly, " No! I don't want any more new people here!"

January 15, 2004 pretending to be Dizzy the cement mixer from Bob The Builder he said, "I'm standing up on my hind wheels!"

January 14, 2004 Reid was spellbound by one of Kenneth's brightly colored toys Kenneth watched him for a moment and then said, "I want you to keep him as long as he's amazed by stuff!"

January 13, 2004 We got Fritos to eat with some chili Michael made. A rare treat, he asked, "Did we get these from Tony's Ranch?" Irma love Fritos and that's the only time he's ever seen them.

January 13, 2004 "I want to be a Santa when I grow up, but how will I get a sleigh? How will I get a suit? How will I get a hat and how will I get a belt? Santa needs those things, but he can't find them if he's a kid!"

January 13, 2004 "Is Carol going to make another little baby?"

1/04 We were talking about birthday parties, and as always the subject of his own birthday came up even though it is still 8 months away. I suggested that he could invite some of his friends from the Spanish Schoolhouse to his next birthday party. He said, "Yes and some of my actual friends too. Actual means real."

January 7, 2004 We were mailing art to Aunt Tricia and I had to go look up her zip code. Kenneth asked, "What's a zip code?" I explained it is used to help the mailmen sort the mail. "Why don't you know Aunt Tricia's zip code? Do the mailmen all have different colored bags?" (Well, that's logic, how else would they sort the mail if they didn't have different colored bags?)

January 7, 2004 He was explaining something to me and he used a nonsense word I didn't recognize. I asked, "Who is <blank>?" He replied, "It's not a who, it's a what."

January 5, 2004, "I'm gonna ask you a grown up question instead of a kid question, 'cause I'm gonna ask you a question about you instead of about me. Why do you like tomatoes so much?"

January 3, 2004 We were making canned biscuits and I asked Kenneth if he wanted to help me pull them apart and spread them on the cookie sheet. He replied, "Sure! If you don't mind if there are some holes in them!"

January 2, 2004 "I don't like working. I just like playing, but you have to use your brain to play!"

12/9/03 "Why are some Spanish words the way they are in English?" I'm not sure quite what he meant but it sounded like a fascinating insight.

12/8/03 I was explaining to Michael that the photo store was going to retouch a photo I'd taking to remove an unwanted object. I told him they were going to bring the sky down to cover it over. Kenneth piped up, "If they bring the sky down, the moon and stars would fall!"

12/6/03 We'd been talking a lot about Santa and what to expect at Christmas time. We started talking about the fact that Tony and Irma were going to come over on Christmas morning, to which Kenneth replied, "Yes, but they will have to come in the door."

12/5/03 "How do you tease someone cruelly? What names did they call him? Why did they stop calling him names?"

12/5/03 We hadn't had spaghetti in weeks but at dinner out of the blue he asked, "Why do you turn your fork around with spaghetti?"

12/5/03 Happily traipsing off down the hall, he cheerily said to himself, "I think I'm going to mess up my room!"

12/4/03 "Probably Rudolph got his red nose by dipping it in some ketchup. Probably it was bright ketchup!" and same day "Did you know there are different colored spiders?"

November 26. 2003, 4:00 am: I got up when he called to me and at first he asked to come to my bed, but I refused. I told him I would lay down in his bed with him for a moment, which I did. The following conversation took place:
Kenneth: I need to lay down with you because I had a bad dream
Mommy: What did you dream about?
Kenneth: I dreamed about ice cream, but that was a sweet dream. Then I dreamed about Fee Fie Foe Fum
Mommy: And that was a bad dream because it was scary?
Kenneth: No, that was a sweet dream too
Mommy: Oh.
Kenneth: What does "Fee Fie Foe Fum" mean?
Mommy: Well, you know, that's a really good question. I don't know that it means anything. You know how when something is silly or not true we say it's "nonsense?" Well, "Fee Fie Foe Fum" is a lot of nonsense words. "Non" means not, and "nonsense" means it doesn't make sense. "Fee Fie Foe Fum" just doesn't make any sense, so it's nonsense.
Kenneth: Perhaps we can ask Daddy when he wakes up because he's taller than you and he knows everything.

Our neighbor Deyna put on some reading glasses, and when Kenneth saw this he asked her why. She answered, "because I'm old." Many days later, we were in the car and he asked me out of the blue, with no mention of the glasses, "Is Daddy old?" Daddy wears glasses. 11/03

11/7/03 Getting onto the highway he asked, "Why are we going on the George Bush?" recognizing where we were. Later the same day he asked, "Is Christmas a few little agos away?"

11/10/03 "Why do Ken and Lori prefer dogs?"

11/16/03 "Is Genie a funny way of saying genius? Why is a lamp a good place to keep a genie?"

11/10/03 He asked me a series of questions to which I did not know the answer. I said, "I don't know." about three times in a row. Finally he said, "Maybe we'll have to aske a real genius."

11/4/03
Kenneth: Why Don't Ghosts Have Noses?
Mom: Perhaps they have lost their noses
Kenneth: No, I don't think they are like the sphinx

11/4/03 "Why do you think they're silly mice instead of serious mice?" and "We don't have any Oompa Loompas or smashed caterpillars"

10/23/03 While playing with his dinosaur excavation toy from Lyle & Troupe for his birthday he told me, "I want to put my sandals on so I can be a palenotologist." Sure enough, the paleontologists in The Magic School Bus in the Time of the Dinosaurs are wearing sandals. Hilarious!

10/22/03 Favorite new word is "explain," During some pretend play today he said to me, "You've never been to Gymboree before, so I'm going to explain it to you."

10/22/03 Deliberately tried to hold a crayon the correct way without me saying anything, and has actually taken an interest in coloring and when doing so works hard to stay in the lines. I guess preschool is doing more than teaching him Spanish!

10/21/03 He rejected the fancy complicated face I put on our Jack O' Lantern this year, "I think we need to throw our Jack O' Lantern away and get one with eyes that are tri-an-gu-lar and a nose that is tri-an-gu-lar." Oddly, ours rotted the next day and we did in fact have to replace it.

10/22/00 "Por favor, that means please help me in Spanish." requesting help to put on his back pack.

10/20/03 "I would like to build a house with a glass chimney so I can see Santa coming down."

10/18/03 We were shopping in Michael's and he told me he'd seen something Veggie Tales and he wanted to go back and see it. I didn't see anything in the immediate vicinity so I started retracing our steps. I asked him where he'd seen it and he replied, "It was in the very first aisle when we first came in."

10/18/03 "Why is an empire bigger than an umpire?"

10/16/03 "There's nothing in my head today because it's beyond my imagination"

10/16/03 while discussing the fact that Mr. Bubble is pink he pondered, "Well then, what color is Mrs. Bubble?"

10/16 Has started using, "in this case." in explanations and conversations.

10/4 Reid was sleeping in my arms and Kenneth kissed him and said, "Goodnight, sweet dreams, I'll see you in the morning!" awww!

10/4/03 I was explaining to him about Mummies because he got a mummy toy from McDonald's. I was telling him that mummies are dead people that the Egyptians preserved. He asked, "Did they die towards Halloween?"

10/4/03 We were all discussing who Reid might look like. Irma asked Kenneth who he thought Kenneth looked like, to which Kenneth replied, "I look like you!" Umm, not likely!

9/30/03 I went in to check him after bedtime because I could hear that he was still chattering away. He was sitting up on his bed and he said, "I can't sleep because I want to know things! There are a lot of things and I want to know more of them! When kids are curious they just can't sleep, Mama."

9/24/03 "Grandma? Why is your face and arms all wrinkly?" and in the same day to Grandma, while opening a gift of some clothing, "Next time maybe you will bring me a toy." I guess we need to work on his social graces.

9/23/03 On the way to Charlie's house for playgroup, Kenneth said, "See that building there, mama? That's CiscoSystems, see all the cars? All those people are at work inside Cisco Systems"

9/22/03 I was telling Kenneth we would be going to Kindermusik on Thursday, he said, "Can we leave Reid at home?" No, we couldn't

9/17/03 "I just want everything back to normal." While sitting beside me while I nursed 2 day old Reid

9/2/03 I had to move the car so that we could get the garbage cans out to the street. Kenneth knew we had plans later to go to Chuck E. Cheese. When I came back in from moving the car he said, "I was sad at first because I thought you were leaving without me when I saw you driving away." Poor kid!

9/1/03 We were running a lot of errands in the rain. We parked at one store and Michael and I each got out and opened a back door to the car, Kenneth stalled and dawdled and was not climbing out so I said, "Come on, Kenneth! It's raining out here!" He finally scrambled out on Michael's side and immediately frowned and said, "But, it's raining out here too."

9/1/03 At the mall, he got a moose hat from our favorite sandwich shop as a prize with the kids meal. He was sporting it in the elevator when a woman said to him, "I like your hat." He replied, "It's a Moose." She said, "Yes! It's a BIG moose." and he answered, "Well, actually, it's a medium sized moose." Everyone on the elevator laughed!

8/30/03 at bedtime, "Mommy, are you willing to read to me?"

8/28/03 We went to pick up the portable hot tub to have at home for labor and birth, we walked into the birth center where we had to get it and he said, "We're here to pick up the tub that mommy's going to sit in to have Tuney!"

8/27/03 Mom took a "day off" and we didn't go anywhere or do anything, late in the afternoon he gleefully remarked, "I got to stay in my jammers all day!"

8/26/03 Driving to Caroline's new house for playgroup, we turned onto her street full of modern brick homes, which are very different from the homes in the historic district where we live he says, "Now, these are the houses I like!" There's no accounting for taste.

8/27/03 Playing in his room surrounded by birthday presents he says, "Are there any more birthday presents?" Greedy little guy, must have enjoyed them!

8/27/03 Said, "Congratulations Mom!" After I suceeded in wrapping the speaker on one of his birthday gift toys in cotton to turn the volume down.

8/24/03 Celebrated his third birthday