Photo of the kids after attending a showing of Despicable Me 2. They took favorite stuffed animals to snuggle in case there were scary parts in the movie. Then they took the animals on a walk and put them on their heads as one does.

Some more quotes from talking with my son:

What does Ivan think it means to be a grown-up?
“When I’m grown-up I will open doors with keys. I will wear glasses.”

“There’s an ant in the house. I call him Annie.” After it rains there have been a lot of ants entering the house. They are called Annie and Ivan loves each one. We are less pleased.

“Daddy, you and I are twins. We have the same head!”

Birth of a new superhero whom we will call Binky Blaster.
i (pointing his pacifier at me menacingly across the breakfast table): This shoots fire. FOOSH!
A: Your binky shoots fire?
i: Yeah, FOOSH!, there is fire on your hand. FOOSH! There is fire all over you. The milk is raining it off of you.
A: Thank goodness for the milk.
i: Yeah, milk is good.

Breakfast time and Ivan is hungry.
i: CEREAL! CEREAL!
A: Is that nice asking?
i: May I have some cereal, please?
A: Yes.
(As I get out the cereal) i: CEREAL! CEREAL! I want CEREAL!
A: Have some patience.
i: I already had a patience. I want cereal.

For those who may not know Eggy and Owie are the names Ivan has given to his feet.
“Owie and Eggy are playing baseball in the grass. Kick! Kick!”

Another collection of what Ivan has said.

Eric assembled the backyard play dome while Ivan was napping. Upon coming out and seeing it and doing a bit of climbing he said, “Thank you, Daddy, for this dome.” Unprompted politeness and genuine gratitude are the cutest.

While pointing at the zookeeper’s house in the book Goodnight, Gorilla Ivan said, “That’s the dear house.” As each animal’s cage is shown, the reader says goodnight to that animal. “Goodnight, Elephant.” “Goodnight, Armadillo.” In the zookeeper’s house, his wife says, “Goodnight, Dear.” Logic tells Ivan that this makes the house “The Dear House.” I spent too long thinking, “But, Ivan, there are no deer in this story,” before I caught up with Ivan’s logic.

“No, I want REAL yogurt.” Ivan has started calling the-thing-he-wants the “real” one. So, I’ve offered him a real yogurt not his preferred kind or a real shirt but not the Spider-man one or real shoes but not the green ones. He will push them away demanding the “real” one.

“When I get big and am a grown-up, I will eat spicy things.”

Ivan started pulling random condiments out of the fridge. When told he was not allowed and should stop, he pointed at Grandma Tam and said, “She started it.” While true that Tam had taken sandwich fixings for lunch from the fridge, Ivan had missed that she was not playing a fun new game.

Siblings:
e: I want to be alone!
i: How about stop being grumpy, Ezri?
e: ROAR!
i: AHHHHHHHHHHHH! (giggles)

Parent quotes that made sense in context:
“Ivan, your sister is NOT a cow trampoline.”
“There is no TA-DA! in naptime.”

“Can we play in the park at that castle?” Some of the houses in our neighborhood are quite grand and some of those grand house have pretty epic play structures in their backyards. Ivan is more than interested in trespassing.

A: We’re gonna have a good time. (sung)
i: No, that’s the Beatles.

Ivan was not interested in going to bathtime at all until Eric introduced the game “Does it sink or float?” Now, we find a plastic toy or kitchen utensil or other household item to test for buoyancy and Ivan gets into bath with no issues to test his theory. If we could just come up with a scientific test that he would need to don his pajamas to perform.

A: Ivan, why are you surly?
i: No, I’m Mike. You’re Sully.

“Ring around the table. Pockets full of bagel. Xylophone Xylophone – we all dive in.” Ivan likes adapting lyrics – this version of Ring Around the Rosie sure beats his oft repeated “Scooby Dooby Doo, where are poo?” Poo remains hilarious for Ivan.

Today while strollering through the neighborhood we learned that Ivan and I can recite the entirety of Knufflebunny by Mo Willems verbatim. Ivan’s “wumpy flappy” and “snurp” are too cute.

Ivan is having trouble transitioning his wardrobe to warmer weather. It took several weeks before he would give up his mittens and hat when leaving the house. Now, he is very wary of shorts or wearing short sleeved shirts. Then he just sweats and looks pink in his long sleeves. We’ll make the transition, but he remains certain that he wants long sleeves and pants.

Anytime someone in the family says, “Me too!” Ivan will say “Me three!”
Mostly it goes a little like this:
i: Peeps are my favorite!
e: Me too.
i: Me three.

How Ivan feels about pancakes, “It’s very yummy. Tasty. It’s delicious.” Ivan knows more than one word for delicious, but pancakes are the only time he’s been motivated to use all three.

The claim yelled from his room after bedtime, “Catastrophe!”
Upon entering the room, “Binky, my binky”
Eric, “Did you drop your binky?”
Ivan, “Yeah” followed by soft sobs.
Binky was retrieved. Catastrophe ended.

“My big sister is eating his green beans.” It’s a nice complex sentence, but Ezri noticed his improper use of possessive pronouns immediately.

While playing with Hulk action figure during happy hour:
A: Does Hulk like to drink apple juice?
i: NO!
A: What does Hulk like to drink?
i: Beef!
Not sure where it came from, but it seems plausible.

Singing, “Pinky dinky doo, where are you?” This combination of the theme songs from Pinky Dinky Doo and Scooby Doo is a joke Ivan finds hilarious.

Ivan likes to sing everything to the name game song. He does it with everything he passes in the car like this:
“House, house bo bouse
fana fana fo fouse
mee my mo mouse
HOUSE!”

His sister was not sharing and was sent to her room. “Please go to Time Out with Ezri. Please, go to Time OUT! PLEASE!” We may need a new punishment for Ivan.

After watching Frozen with his sister, “How does she do that?” as he waved his hands around like the Snow Queen did when she made her ice magic. It occurred to me that he may not understand the difference between a Disney musical and a documentary.

It’s hard to say no when he attaches to my leg looks up and says, “Pick me up, PLEASE!”

As Ivan’s speech improves I miss some of his mispronunciations.
This holiday season his requests for “fwudge” where pretty cute, but he’s learned to ask for fudge.
When his boots weren’t on quite right he’d stand and describe himself as “lobbily.” Now he can say wobbly, but I sometimes still use lobbily.

When this jolly old elf asked Ivan what he wanted for Christmas, he said, “I’m a dragon!” Still adorably confused about the differences between Christmas and Halloween. Ezri said she wanted a Daisy Duck. The band on her head has reindeer antlers on the sides.

In the last week or two, Ivan has started speaking more often in full sentences. He uses prepositional phrases and even the past tense. Upon picking him up from day care he reported, “I played bad guys with Miguel.” It isn’t a complex sentence, but it’s got past tense and is standard English and I could understand what he was telling me about his day.

He has started calling his sister something very close to “Ezri.” I will miss him calling her “Every.”

me: “Ivan Miller Blau! it is time to get in the car NOW.”
Ivan: “NO! I AM NOT IVAN MILLER BLAU. I am NOT.”

“I stop crying.” He has started announcing when his meltdown has ended with this statement. There’s also, “I stop screaming.” He also likes to tell us, “I happy,” and “I laughing.”

While standing on a white piece of paper, “Hey, YOU, get off of my CLOUD.”

The kids were playing with my Beatles “Yellow Submarine” figurines, so I decided to put some Beatles songs on. Ivan’s reaction: “I like these Beatles singing!”

An old one from our vacation in Montana, Ivan awakens me to sob, “Amanda, it’s dark. It’s dark!” He has two night lights that he has unplugged from the wall – one clutched in each of his hands.

“I pooping. I pooping. It hurts. Kiss it.” Ivan narrates his constipation. The kiss he got was on his head. Ivan had his first poop in the potty this week. The constipation gave him a lot of warning. He also wore underwear afterwards to celebrate. It’s a small step, but he may soon be climbing aboard the potty train.

Ivan’s one and only joke that is currently on infinite repeat is:
Knock Knock!
Who’s there?
Sarah.
Sarah who?
Sarah-mouse-in-the-house. (he runs it together like it is one word which makes it unintelligible to those who aren’t already in the know).

“Ivan do it!”

“Me do it” is Ivan’s constant refrain these days. He wants to do everything. Zip his own coat (it’s gonna be a long winter), put on his shoes, clean-up the milk he spilled across the floor, climb into his car seat, get himself out of the bathtub. The independence boost is great, but it’s often hard when there’s time pressure to wait for him to do the things he wants to do himself or to figure out just how much help he will accept without meltdown. Can I give you a small boost into the car and then you can climb up? If I start your jacket zipper, would it count as you doing it? If I hand you the toothpaste, does that mean you will wail about not getting to “brush teeth self” until I replace it on the counter for you to grab? If I close the drawer after you’ve gotten your spoon for cereal, will that be encroaching on your accomplishment of getting your own spoon and earn me your angry face? It’s a daily negotiation.

The one we are working the hardest to end is Ivan’s idea that in order to be “Me walk. Me do it!” Ivan cannot be holding an adult’s hand. This is a deal breaker in parking lots and on busy streets. He often gets carried screaming to a car because he will not accept walking while holding a grown-up’s hand as walking himself and that is what he intends to do!

He is getting to be a pickier eater which is leading to “You eat it” and attempts to pass his food to you. He picked all the broccoli out of his chicken fried rice and declared himself done with dinner. At taco night, he did not eat the beef or the cheese, but devoured three tortillas and a pile of red peppers. Not eating cheese? Who is this child? It is hard to predict what he will eat. But, he is a passionate lover of pancakes. Yesterday’s first request by my children for an activity was that we build a robot. I couldn’t manage that one, but the second request that we make brunch with PANCAKES was in my grasp. Ivan ate 5 pancakes. I think he loves them as much as the detective Nate The Great in his current favorite audiobook. He’s quite the carbavore these days.

“I have an idea!” Ivan says this often. It is a phrase picked up from the book Oh No or How My Science Fair Project Destroyed the World by Mac Barnett which is in heavy story reading rotation. If you ask, “What is your idea?” He will say, “Grapes!” or less often, “Carrots!” and then he will laugh heartily.  This has nothing to do with the book and we suspect comes from his sister somehow. This book has also led him to repeating the phrase, “Oh no! Oh Man! I Knew It” which is what the girl in the book says when her robot goes on a rampage. It is amusing that when he drops something and I say, “Oh no!” He will smile and say, “Oh Man! I Knew It” to complete the phrase.

Ivan is getting quite good at singing along to Froggy Went A’Courtin and I Am My Own Grandpa at bedtime.

When presented with something he likes be it food, toy, book; Ivan will often annouce, “It’s my FAVORITE!”