Some favorites

Zeke truly has the taste of a toddler. One minute he cannot get enough of something and then after 100 times of demanding to watch x, listen to x, play with x, eat x, he is done with it and completely offended if you foolishly offer x ever again. "Mercurial" does not begin to cover his taste. Some things last, though, and some things come back in style. Here are some of Zeke's favorites right now. (Yes, this is another one of those posts.)

Favorite Music: "World Playground", a collection of international music, is the favorite of the day. He loves the first song, a Senegalese song "Fatou Yo". He generally loves all of the collections from this company Putumayo and in a short time (thanks to coupons to Borders and a few gifts), we have collected "Reggae Playground", "French Playground", "New Orleans Playground", "Brazilian Playground", "Caribbean Playground", "Dreamland", and "African Playground". If you are trying to count that up, we want to acknowledge that it is completely excessive for our toddler to have such an extensive music collection, but it becomes necessary when Zeke just wants to dance and sing with music all day. My sanity truly gets stretched by his need for music all day. I have purchased more music for Zeke than I have for myself in the past four years just to keep a decent variety in play. True to what you would expect, the younger generation does not much care for the parent's music and Zeke has not taken an interest in anything I usually listen to. And, if you are wondering: Laurie who?

Favorite TV: Again, Laurie who? Zeke now likes to watch at least a few minutes of Sesame Street. Last week when he was sick, he just snuggled with me on the couch and was glad to watch unlimited amount of kid-friendly TV and movies for those two days, especially Tivo'ed Sesame Street. He also really likes this video of dogs that his Grandma Trish found for him on YouTube -- he knows the YouTube logo and is excited when he sees it on the AppleTV menu.



Favorite Friends: The usual suspects. Zeke loves Maggie. Zeke loves lying on Maggie's dog bed. Zeke loves nothing better than when he gets a snack than to call Maggie ("Ah-may!") and try and share it. Zeke likes "throwing" the frisbee for her. Zeke is also Aaron's little buddy ("ah-bay") and increasingly he will get upset if Aaron does not come with us somewhere. Alternately, Aaron can often convince Zeke to do things that I could not, like put on his mittens.

Favorite Toy: About a year ago I bought a toy laptop for Zeke. As with many of my parenting decisions, it was a decision of desperation. I bought him the toy in the hopes that I could transfer his disastrous interest in my laptop and in the mouse on Aaron's computer. The Vtech Tote & Go Laptop is geared for older children (3+, I think), but I wasn't buying it for the games, but for its mouse and keyboard. Initially, Zeke just liked to change the volume, listen to its music, and turn it off and on, but he has really started getting some of the games, especially the letter recognition games. I can't say it has entirely distracted him from our computers, but he does love his. He literally has spent hours playing with it. I bring it with us wherever I think I might need a toy to entertain him, and I have brought it to my business meetings that Zeke attends and to countless meals out. It is certainly one of the things he reaches for most consistently from the toybox. It is quite a picture of modern toddler play to see him playing on the laptop and then get a call from one of his toy phones -- I think he even gets a phone voice when he is multitasking. The reason why I leaned so heavy to Christmas toys that don't have buttons is just to balance out his interest in his laptop. (Psst -- they are on clearance at Target now.)

Favorite Food: Lots of food favorites come and go. This week, kiwi. Next week, no kiwi. This week, peanut butter crackers. Next week, no. But one snack that never gets old is cheese crackers, especially Goldfish. How did parents in previous generations raise children without Goldfish? Goldfish practically represent a food group around here. I often get the whole grain or try organic brands (bunny shaped) or even a vegan brand (electric car and wind turbine shaped -- no, really), as he will eat anything vaguely like a Goldfish cracker. Three bowls of it, if I let him. While he can say "cracker," he often signs "fish."

Favorite Things to Do: I keep a reasonably busy schedule for Zeke and have something planned that we can attend almost every day. Monday: Music Class. Tuesday and Thursday: preschool. Wednesday and Friday: various social groups (don't always make it). We also occasionally try and make it to story times and when it was warm we were going to the zoo and park frequently. Zeke's favorites, though, are Music Class and preschool. At Music Class, he is outgoing (and loud) and is always willing to give the teacher a hug. And, at school, he has the routine down perfectly and sometimes remembers to give me a kiss as he takes off to play. Today when I picked him up, I found him rolling on the floor and tickling his teacher. He obviously loves the teachers and loves his time there.