Limitless

This kid.

He never ceases to amaze me.

A couple days ago, we were playing the "guessing game" with his National Geographic animal cards. I like these cards because the animals usually have two or three words to describe them. They are often pictures and facts about a specific species.

Animals like: Mexican fireleg tarantula, Harlequin ghost pipefish, South American gray fox, Rock hopper penguin, etc.

All those animals are really neat. But do you want to know the neatest part?

Brady P. can read all those names.

*** MIND BLOW!!!***

I mean, sure, he has seen those cards dozens of times. Maybe he is memorizing some of the names, but we have at least 50 of those cards (can't have enough!), so he does rely on the words for cues. I can see his eyes roll over the words as he says them.

He is reading those words!

My heavens. The pride of this mama just swells  1,000% when he does things that might otherwise seem, well, impossible to others.

He is defying the odds.  Breaking boundaries of everybody's expectations. The maturing of this little man is truly a magical process to watch. I can't believe I get to be front and center every day. Though he can be a lot to handle at times, the rewards that spout forth from him are seemingly endless and limitless.

He is a good problem solver too. The other day we went out for a walk/run, and he stopped down at the Jamsen's Bakery/King Copper beach. There was too much snow on the rocks to throw them, so he threw snowballs instead!

Ready to launch!

He usually finds a way to have fun. I am still learning from him. Especially when it comes to animals. And how much a hug can mean. And the power of absolute silliness.

But he is also learning quickly from me too. For me to not teach him something because I don't think he'll learn is only error on my part.

For instance, I watched him set his eyeglasses on the table with the lens side down for over a year. I winced each time and silently flipped them over. But then I thought, "well, what if he just set them with the bows down himself?"

So I told him it's better for his glasses when he sets the bow side down. He remembered by the second time I told him that. It took almost a year to get him to set them down nicely instead of throwing them, so I just tolerated the lens side down, I guess. 

I settled.

But again, that is my error.

Never settle. The possibilities are endless!

Brady doesn't settle. He likes to be helpful. He likes to do things the "right way" once he knows why. He likes to put things where they go and back where he found them. I feel so fortunate to have a child like that!

So we will keep teaching each other. Patience is a virtue, and love is key. But pushing the envelope will help us change the world.

Anyone can do it.

All the power to you, my friend!

New Animal Names

Hey there!

I would wish you happy holidays and all that, but I am not a fan of Christmas. If you can't tell, I'm done pretending in life, so I prefer not to say things to people if I don't really mean them.

It's a process, but we've got to start somewhere!

I do like New Year's Eve, though. I'm rooting for 2022 to give us a bit more liberation. We'll see, I guess!

Completely switching gears, let me tell you about something that amazed me yesterday.

Brady P is a tiny bit obsessed with animals. 

Remember how I told you about Old MacDonald perpetually? Well, I forgot to tell you that it's played at the same volume you'd hear in a crowded bar, and accompanied by "crazy" disco lights. My neighbors can attest.

Our ceiling...

What have I created???

And neither one of those are my decision on a daily basis. HA!

Back to the amazing story.

Brady P found a bag of animal figurines that I got for him for Christmas. Yeah, I know... Christmas is over, but I was hoping to use those as bribery one at a time for prizes for listening to me when it's really important.

We didn't get that far.

He found them, and he squealed! "Mummy!!! New animals!!! Let's open it!"

"Actually, Braeds, those are for prizes when you do something -"

"Ohhh! No way! Let's open them now!!!"

Oh, man. He was so excited that I acquiesced.

He already has a whole basket of animal figurines: birds, mammals and insects from the savanna, jungle, farm and forest. 

Cool. 

He knows all about them, so they have become a bit mundane. He categorizes them and puts them back in the same order.

Every time.

60 animals going back into the basket in a categorical, yet logical  (or OCD) order. Yeah, I can safely say obsessed.

So these new animals had to be different, and I was happy to find some more exotic ones. Some of them were so exotic that I had to take a screenshot of the listing of animals with their names, so I could make sure I matched them correctly for Brady P. 

Cuz he would know.

He even knew some of the ones I had to check the names for.

When he pulled out this animal with stripes on it's butt and back, he said, "Okapi!"

And I checked the list and said, "Umm, wow, yeah! That's the okapi!"

Then he pulled out this short black and white one with a long nose and said,"a tapir!"

"Woah, yeah! That's the tapir. You are right!"

He also surprised me by correctly naming the meerkat, platypus, wildebeest and boar. But those first two... holy heavens in a flower pot. The kid is a genius.

He played with his 25 new animals with an excitement as if he had electricity running through his body. I've never seen somebody so absorbed in figurines. Like they are his friends and they're alive.

But good for him!

After he pulled them all out and read their names on my cheat sheet, we had to look a couple of them up because, well, they were not correct.

We gave them the correct names.

Trust me... we would know.

The pile of new animals surrounding the drain after their inaugural tubby

Old MacDonald Perpetually

When is the last time you heard the song "Old MacDonald Had a Farm?"

Oh, that's nice.

Did you know that Old MacDonald also had a zoo? And a circus? And an aquarium, a band, a jungle and a bird park?

Did you know that Old MacDonald can be spooky for Halloween and jingly for Christmas?

Sometimes Old MacDonald has carnivorous animals on his farm. Sometimes they are silly animals... or make-believe animals.

I would be willing bet that every single kid channel on YouTube has its own rendition of Old MacDonald. At least one. 

Some are slow and twangy. Some are rock and roll. And you better believe that there is everything in between!

Wait. How would I know this? Why would I care?

Maybe it's because Brady P is quite possibly Old MacDonald reincarnated. I don't know if that's true, but one thing that's certain is that my little boy is ABSOLUTELY OBSESSED  with Old MacDonald and his farm. Or zoo. Or jungle or whatever he has during what ever holiday at whatever tempo in whichever language.

This was Braeden's first song that he really liked to watch on the computer -- probably starting when he was two years old.

Now he is seven.

He has had other obsessions during these five years: Baby Shark, The Yummy Song, alphabet series, some pop songs for dancing and others. But Old MacDonald always comes back.

Always.

Do you know how many times I have heard that song? Sometimes the same version five times in a row? Sometimes it's just Old MacDonald for two hours straight!!!

I don't know if you can even fathom that, but it's true. Ask anyone in our family.

If someone ever figured out how many times we have heard that song in any version or language, I would hope they would never tell me. We are at least in the thousands, I swear.

This little boy loves Old MacDonald. 

Biggest fan ever.

I don't know how long this obsession will last, but I would imagine we have not heard all the renditions yet. Oh, no.

We will find more before our time here is done.

I wouldn't be surprised if Brady P writes his own version someday!

Here is one of his latest favorites... from 1946! He even acts it out on his trampoline. Enjoy!

Animal Instincts

So there's this boy.

He's really sweet to me.  And although I've known him for a few years, it seems like the truer I am to myself, the more he appreciates me.  Sure we have our bouts, like any relationship, but it's clear that he loves me unconditionally.

The other day we were at Burger King (a funny place for a scene, if you ask me) and he was in the booth bench beside me.  He put down his cheeseburger, and with ketchup all over his hand, slipped his arm around my neck and fingers in my hair.  He looked me straight in the eyes, and with his breathy little voice, he said, "Hiiieee, Mom!"

What a little charmer.  PDA in Burger King.  

He stood there on the bench with his arm around my neck while I tried to eat my Whopper.  But, for some reason, eating didn't seem as important as just closing my eyes, snuggling right back with him and repeating, "I sure love you.  You are so sweet."

I didn't even care who was looking on because, as the saying goes, "You can't stop love."  And the fact that my four-year-old son finds it necessary to swoon over me at a burger joint while his nana finishes her fries across the table just fills my heart through the entire universe.

So I treasured it.

He has done that same sweet thing more and more often lately.  I lift him up into my arms after school and he just plants a sweet kiss right on my lips.  I don't even have to ask!

And to make me wonder if he is buttering me up for something, he put all three dozen animals away into their bucket without being asked before bed time last night.  What a great little helper!  I am so proud of the little man he is becoming.

Speaking of animals, though, listen to this.

Brady P. cycles through different obsessions.  For a while it was dance pop music, then EIEIO (for an hour straight, if I could stand it) and now it's animal sounds.

He watches one hour of computer a day, and I let him pick what he wants to watch because it's his special time.  Well, there's this collection of videos of animal sounds from all over the world.  I mean, there are animals I have never even heard of on here: coypu, capybura, tapir and oryx to name a few.

As each animal is introduced, a video clip plays while its name is displayed in fourteen different languages, and a lady says its name in a strong South African accent.  The video plays a couple signature sounds for each animal.

Braeden has watched hours of this because it's his new obsession.  

Well, one day, one of those videos came on after an EIEIO song (or forty) during music time.

Here's where my mind was blooooooooown away.  In the video that day, the lady did not say the names of the animals, and Braeden was not watching it -- just listening.

So we had these animal sounds playing raw and unnarrated through the speaker.  Braeden stopped playing with his other obsession, the flipping Ninja Turtle, and stared in deep contemplation.

He was listening intently to the animal sounds.  Just animal sounds with no music or narration.  

Do you know what he did?  He told me what animal was making the sound.  He listened briefly, and after a moment, said the word as best he could.  

Not always able to make out the exact word he is saying, I looked at the video that played up on the counter and saw the name of the animal making the sound.  I can't say he got them all exactly right, but he was differentiating animals with savant-like precision.

Do you know what sound a kangaroo makes?  How about a guinea pig?  Orangutan?  Moose?  Toucan?  Lynx?  Sloth?  Meerkat?  Anteater???

Brady P. knows.  And he can pick their sounds out of 100 other animals.  The boy just amazes me.

Not only does he like what he likes, but he excels at it.  Flabbergastingly so.  He has graduated beyond Old MacDonald's farm and can now give tours at the Disney Zoo.  Maybe we'll go there someday.

Here's a link to the Zoo Video we listened to that day that made me realize just how far he has come.

And for fun, here's a picture of Brady P. the first day I took him out to skate.  His skates were too big, but he glided from side to side pretty naturally -- if I held him up!

 

Taking a break

 

Trying to... get up? 

Haha.  Nobody can be a genius at everything!

Frogs and Letters

So there's this pond.  It's back in Clyde's field, next to the community garden and near the trailhead.

This pond has frogs in it.  Beautiful, metallic, fluorescent, croaking frogs.  They are the type of frogs that do that airy-balloon-throat-bowmp-type sound.  I am not a frogologist.  I don't know any specific language for them.

But I know the kids love them.

I took Captain Donny Jr. and two of his nieces out for a wildflower walk past the gardens, and the girls had to visit the frog pond first.  I mean had to.  That's fine.  B and I like the pond too.  Besides, kids don't pay attention to what you are telling them if they are distracted by something else. 

In this case, frogs.

B pointing to a frog

Brady P. can even spot those frogs in the pond.  Aster counted nine that day... I think.  They often appear and disappear.  Then we find another one once we hear it croak!  So fun.  I like to be a part of this type of entertainment for the kids.

And just look at these magnificent amphibians.  Their eyes look like they're made of copper!

One of the alluring frogs

B and I will always visit the frog pond when I go to the garden as well.  Once he hears them croak, he points and shouts, "Ah!" in their direction.  Yup, we'll go see the frogs!

Then he is so sweet.  "Biyee!" he says and waves to the frogs before we leave.  He is so inclusive.

Now if we were in our house, and one of his toys was singing about letters, he would find his toy frog animal when the letter F came up.  Because he knows that frog starts with the letter F.

When the letter B comes up, he finds a bear. He finds the camel for C and the kangaroo for K (Whaaaat??? He knows the difference???).  He finds the horsey for H and the zebra for Z.  The lion for L and the giraffe for G.  Need I go on?  How did this kid get so smart?

Do you understand what I am telling you? (Of course you do, your not an idiot.  But let me reiterate.) Braeden can hear a letter.  He must visualize the letter in his head because he can then match it with one of his animal toys that starts with that letter.  He finds that animal in his pile of animals, pulls it out and points proudly, making sure I see.

I just shake my head in awe. How many three-year-olds can do that?  Really?  I am so amazed.  What a little man.  Genius, I tell you.  Genius. I couldn't do that when I was three.  Or four or five even.

I didn't really like to learn to read, but Braeden loves it.  He will open his books and "read" each page by saying the letters or names of the things he sees (the best he can, you know). He is so hungry for knowledge and showing off what he knows.  

And good for him.  He will help to show this world how inspiring that extra chromosome can be.

The Name Game

Whew.  Brady P. and I just returned to Copper Harbor from almost two weeks on the road.  This past weekend I white-knuckled my life to the Twin Cities of Minnesota to take IMBA's mountain bike Instructor Certification Program.  I passed!  Need a lesson in mountain bike fundamentals?  Look me up when you're in da Harbor.

Brady P. was safe and sound at Grammy and Grampy Rogers house in Northwest Wisconsin while I was away.  Their house is more in the boonies than Copper Harbor.  I always feel so relaxed there, and he loves to be there, too.

Though he shudders each time their rooster crows (the rooster attacked Grammy while she was holding Brady P. one time), he will run around and chase the chickens on their property.  They also have two cats and a dog.  The female black lab will lick him incessantly if we don't shout, "May!  That's enough!"  He tries to push her away, too.  She is a non-stop lover.

With the cats, Braeden will stick out both his hands, put one on their shoulders, one on their hip area, then push them to the ground.  I think he really likes to exert his will and change the physical position of others (especially something smaller than himself).  He sure likes to "push" people off the couch!  I'm just glad the cats allowed him to do this without inserting any of their sharp appendages into his flesh.

Grammy and Grampy Rogers live along a gravel road.  Braeden knows just where it starts off their driveway, and he loves to go for walks.  Just like in Copper Harbor, he will sit for breaks, but I think he is building up his stamina.  To keep things moving forward, Grampy Roy made up the hat game.  Grampy throws his hat like a frisbee down the road, then Braeden races him to the hat.  Whoever makes it there first gets to throw it next.  They go on and on down the road, giggling all the way.

He got to play at a couple different parks while he was visiting.  The swing is usually his favorite at each park.  He runs right up to the little kid safety swings, points and says, "Eh!"  But he has tried the big kid swing when that wasn't an option.  Hanging on for dear life, he did pretty well.

Brady P. also got to visit a farm.  At this farm, he saw dogs,  chickens, horses, cows, pigs and ducks.  He was pretty cantankerous when we were there, so I don't think he spent as much time enjoying their presence as he otherwise would have.  But he pointed and waved to all the animals anyway.

Speaking of pointing and waving -- oh, my.  This last story takes place in a clinic waiting room (Grammy was getting her eyes checked for an hour).  This experience illustrates the essence of how my life will continue to evolve with Brady P. by my side.

We were in the waiting room which nearly wrapped around the whole third floor of the facility.  I started by plopping him on a little kid chair, and he immediately picked up a book from the table.  This one made animal sounds, and the elephant was his favorite that day.  Probably because it was the most abrasive to everyone else around.

You know how people come and go in a waiting room? They sit down as far from the next people as they are comfortable, and usually start checking their phone.  Brady P. let no phone checking happen that day.

He went up to every single person, tapped their knee, looked up and them and smiled as if to say, "Remember me?  I'm Braeden!  What's your name?"  Luckily, 99 out of 100 people are charmed by his sincerity and curiosity.  

When he points to their face, I have to ask the person what their name is because that means he wants to know it.  They will tell us, so I can repeat their name as he points to them, me and himself.  This is another of his favorite games.  I guess we could call it the name game.  He absolutely has to know what someone's name is.  Then when I quiz him by asking, "Where is Jan? (the lady we just met)  Where is Braeden?  Where is Mama?"  He points to the right person each time.  Sharp little tack.

Without getting too long-winded with this experience, let me summarize that we met every single person in the hall that day.  He approached every person who sat down.  He hugged the legs of each person who walked by.  He pointed until they said their name.  He made a few friends that would probably remember him if they ever saw him again.

By default, I met a lot of people too.  I can sense how my life is opening up as we encounter these scenarios.  Good thing I already know that Brady P. and I are going to help save the world.  It will be helpful to know everybody's name. 

Wisconsin Dairy Air

Though I could be content sitting on the beach throwing rocks all day, sometimes life beckons.  And it makes me get my butt out of the rocks.

This past weekend, Brady P. got to visit Grammy and Grampy Wais in Wisconsin while I drove to Cadillac, MI for my Michigan Outdoor Writer's summer conference.  Not going to lie, it's always nice to do Amanda things once in a while.

Grammy and Grampy had lots of plans for Brady P.  They went to Glendale Farms to pick strawberries.  He got to do all the things I loved when I went to pick as a kid: pet the animals (goats, cows and bunnies), ride the tractor wagon all snuggled up with Grampy and eat strawberries until his face and hands were red.  Ah, the simple pleasures of the summer.

Sampling the strawberry fields

He got to sit out in his pool on the hot days while Grammy blew bubbles for him.  He has surprisingly good aim popping them as they go by.  He even popped two at once -- one with each hand!

Brady P. got to see lots of cows, too.  He visited the farm my brother used to work at.  Sure was a lot of mooing going on there!  We are still working on the "moo" sound.  He giggles when I say moo to him.

Once I got there, I got to chase him up and down the sidewalks.  Something about a sidewalk -- perhaps the systematic cracks -- keeps him going and going instead of stopping every twenty feet.  I had to try to keep up with him!

In the sunshine, he spotted the ants on the sidewalk.  He studied them closely in his little squatting position.  Tracing their path with his finger and following them with his eyes.  Any passersby might wonder what he was doing staring at the ground so intently.

Up in the flower gardens in my parents' backyard, we walked through the blooming beauties and sniffed and "ahhed" until Brady's little chin was covered in pollen.  I started teaching him how to smell flowers when he was too young to really know how to sniff.  I would show him how to do it by taking a dramatic whiff, then saying, "ahhhh."  He would stick his little nose into the blossoms without a sound, but now he takes a good sniff.

I can't tell you how proud it makes me when he walks up to a flower all on his own, leans in and sniffs.  I find such joy in his appreciation for the plants and how stinkin' cute he is among the flowers.  I guess I just need to teach him how to look for bees now!

Horses and Donkeys and Ducks, Oh My!

Whenever someone asks me what words Braeden says, I answer, "Well, he can make farm animal sounds!"  And they usually nod like that's cool.  Better than nothing!

When I say sounds, I mean sounds.  If you ask Brady P. what a pig says, he won't say "oink."  He puts his little fist up to his nose, plugs his nostrils with two knuckles and inhales, making an impressive pig snort.  I like to show this one off for entertainment value and some good chuckles.

He pants like a puppy.  He shouts, "I-lie-lie-lie" to crow like a rooster.  And for the horsey, he sticks out his tongue and lets the raspberry sound fly.  At first I didn't understand how he could flutter his tongue through his lips.  It took me a few tries to get it right myself.

It turns out that Braeden is obsessed with farm animals.  He loves all things farm, especially Old MacDonald and any person that could possibly be related to Old MacDonald.  

For instance, our milk carton has a picture of a young girl with blonde braids feeding her cow.  When I open the fridge with B nearby, he points up to the top shelf and shouts, "Eh!"  After a couple times, I realized he was pointing to little Miss MacDonald, as we now call her.  He makes me take the carton out, so he can give her a kiss and a hug.  Then we wave good-bye to little Miss MacDonald, and she goes back in the fridge.  I had to cut her out of an old carton, so he can see her in other parts of the house and the milk can stay cold.

One of his favorite animals is the horse.  It was his first animal sound, and one that he fervently points to in books or along the side of the road when we travel.  It turns out, there are three horses within a wagon-pulling distance from our house.  We went to visit them the other day.

I kept Brady P. in the wagon, so he didn't get electrocuted by the fence or run under the large animals' hooves.  They were eating when we stopped by.  

Have you ever watched a horse eat off the ground?  Their lips are like vacuum cleaners fluttering back and forth, sucking that grass right off the ground.  They really clean it up!

About a minute after our arrival, they decided to check us out.  All three of them at once.  Luckily, my fear of horses has been waning, so I wasn't alarmed like I was when we visited the year before.  Braeden waved and told them what sound the horsey makes -- in case they weren't sure.

Horses visiting Braeden

Once they realized we didn't bring them any food, they went back to vacuuming grass.  We marveled for a while, but when the blackflies came out to eat us, I carted Brady P. back home.

On a different day we went to see the miniature donkeys at the Dapple-Gray B&B.  They are such sweet creatures.  I petted their furry noses, but Braeden wasn't ready.  He did get a bit brave while they were eating, though.

Watching the donkeys eat

He watched them eat for a while, then decided to throw rocks at them.  "Nope!" I called.  "We don't throw rocks at our friends."

After ignoring me, and hitting the fence with a couple more stones, it was time to go.

Our friend Staci, over at Into the Woods Mini Golf and Gardens (a great spot for mini golf, wandering through the flora and gathering with friends), started raising ducks this spring.  Braeden got to go visit when they were still duckling balls of fluff.  He fell in love with them.  He loved to pet them and watch them run around and peep.

Petting the balls of fluff

As they got bigger, he still liked to pet them and get as close as possible.  Now that they reached full-size, his favorite thing is to watch them flap their wings.  "The ducky is flapping her wings!" I tell him.  He claps after one of them gives him an elegant show.  Then he taps his right thumb to his left palm to sign "more."  So we wait for another flapper show.

Grown up ducks in the forget-me-nots

(Photo credit Staci Gibson)

Braeden won't willingly leave the ducks.  He would squat there all day at the door of their house waiting for a snuggle or a majestic flap.  Staci is great because she will encourage Braeden to feed and pet the ducks.  He's still a bit afraid to feed them from his hand, but we'll keep working on it.

I enjoy watching Brady P. interact with animals -- especially when he can reach out and touch them or visit them regularly in order to form a bond.  Animals are part of our world up here, so he gets a good dose.  Maybe we will meet the bears at the campground next!