Ryder update: 3 years and 3 months

My little boy goes to school! It’s called jardin here in Cusco. 8:30 am to 1:30 pm. Our neighbor took us there and helped us to avoid the 200 sole registration fee. It’s 400 soles for the month and includes snacks. Although, last week, the teachers told me Ryder tries to eat everyone else’s food and asks for more so I’ve just paid 40 soles so he can also have lunch. Those who know Ryder, this will not surprise you. Since he was a baby, he’s begged food off of strangers.

Pretty much sure: Ryder is left-handed.

His favorite food is chicken. It’s even his first Spanish word-beyond hola and gracias that is. He likes hamburgers too, and French fries. In general, he doesn’t prefer fish-so we share dishes well.

His favorite vegetable is carrots. He requests a carrot soup I made with coconut milk regularly, except he doesn’t realize just yet I never make the same dish twice, so he hasn’t gotten that again.

His schedule has changed radically since starting school. Now he wakes at the crack of dawn and goes to bed by 7:30 pm. He wakes me by shouting, “It’s hot outside! It’s sunny! Time to get up! I want breakfast!” And at twilight he says, “There’s not sun anymore.”

 

When we walk to school, he usually insists on plucking a weed flower for me. Sometimes he’s not strong enough, so I have to pick it, give it to him, and then he gives it back. “I want to get a flower for you!” he’ll announce.

Every day he says the same thing: “I won’t cry at school Mama! I stopped crying!” because indeed the first week or two were rather heart-wrenching, though now he loves it. He used to say in the most touching way, “but I want my mama.” He also says, “Wonder what we’re going to eat at school. Maybe spaghetti!” He also loves to talk about Liam and Raphaela, the kids whose names have stuck the most. Liam and he are best friends, surviving a bite attack has not seemed to dampen the friendship (Ryder was apparently aggressively grabbing his arm and Liam bit to release).

The school is entirely in Spanish. Ryder is not speaking in Spanish yet, though he seems to understand more and more.

He enjoys church and has a friend there named Brando. Rather than rolling the r, Ryder calls him Blando. It’s quite adorable.

He still loves going to the park, swinging, and singing his favorite songs. He has built up quite a repertoire:

Old McDonald, Farmer in the Dell, Twinkle Twinkle, ABCs, The Rainbow Song, Shoe Fly, I Love the Mountains, The Wise Man and the Foolish Man, Eensy Weensy Spider, One Bottle of Pop, This Old Man, Roll Over, If You’re Happy and You Know It, Row Row Row Your Boat, Daddy’s Homecoming, Jingle Bells, and I Feel Like A Morning Star.

Ryder is potty trained except in the night. He aspires to be fully, saying every day, “Don’t go pee pee in your pants, get a surprise egg!” But though the motivation is there, the bladder control doesn’t seem to be.

The school had a rather adorable day where the children dressed up as animals, I didn’t get the memo, seemingly the only downside to be the only gringos in the school is the language barrier.

 

Ryder loves all animals, though he is reasonably intimidated by all the stray dogs here ( I am too. One drooling, snarling one followed me for a bit on the way home last week!) He picked out the lion hat himself.

Ryder likes to share his food. And he doesn’t take no for an answer.

 

If there’s one character quality that I admire most about him, it’s how brave he is. Examples:

-He didn’t cry when he got his yellow fever vaccine. He literally said, ‘It was just a pinch, Mom.”

-He loves to ride roller coasters with his Dad.

-He goes to a school where he doesn’t speak the language and comes out smiling and with friends.

Ryder is a little mini Jacob in a lot of ways. But Ryder and I are best buds too.

 

Three months til three

Ryder is three months away from turning three.

The older he gets, the more fun he gets. How is that even possible?

My favorite memories of this age are:

In the middle of the night he’ll thump out of his bed, without a word to me, flop down next to me and go to sleep on my pillow.

Then, when he wakes up, he and I will gaze dreamily into each others eyes as he says, “Touch yer hair?” and strokes it. Then we’ll start giggling together. It’s my favorite part of the day, I think.

I’ll tell him to go give his sleeping dad a kiss which he happily does.

Then he wants breakfast. 

First we go sit in front of the heater together.

He can pull himself onto the potty now and make a “triceratops poo poo.”

He says “Thanks Mom!” to every little thing and it melts my heart.

He loves to go to the firetruck museum, and to go to church because  “friends and toys.” He calls museums “meeums” and he begs to go to them. When he’s ready to go he says “lets get outta here!” Jacob also loves the way he so cheerfully and engagingly says, “Come on!”

 

He learned to pray. He likes to bless all the members of his family, and misses them.

He loves to “ming” (swing) and sing songs at the same time. Current favorite song: “Farmer in the Dell.”

He makes friends easily, mostly by running in circles and getting kids to chase him. He has a best friend here, and they are fun to watch-almost identical in age, Ryder follows him around and copies him exactly. He likes to tell his friend jokes who apparently retells them at home. Well, the jokes are as simple as falling off a swing on purpose, but…

Ryder is all boy. He already loves burping and potty jokes, and the missionaries just gave him a whoopee cushion for a present.

He repeatedly says, “Baby is Mickey Mouse, Mama is Minnie Mouse, and Dadu Goofy!” Consequently, when watching his dad play his favorite game, Sonic, on the ipad, he said, “Good job, Goofy!” When our friend Burton came to visit us for 24 hours, he apparently made quite the impression, because Burton made it in the list now as well, and is Goofy also.

He goes to playgroup once a week. Tokyo has some awesome play spaces, I gotta say. One thing I’ve noticed about him, is he is never the one crying. He can make others cry unfortunately at times, but no one makes him cry. He’s very tough. He laughs when he gets hurt.

Ryder says, “Dadu workie?” When I say yes, he says, “When Dadu gets home, that’ll be happy!” They play dinosaurs together making them talk to each other.

Lately Ryder has been babbling so nonsensically Jacob and I both came to the independent conclusion that he is mimicking Japanese.

We took Ryder to Sanrio Puroland, home of Hello Kitty. He’s now a fan. It’s sure easy to teach a kid what they like, isn’t it? So influenceable.

He likes swimming, but he likes hot tubs better. Takes after me in that respect.

We read Disney books before bed. He always needs a “bako” or to get tucked in, a glass of water, and a good night song which he sings along with. He’s easy to put to bed.