Soap

Tani loves soap so I thought I'd write a little about this subject. Tonight during his bath Mommy Malka let him hold the bottle of Johnson's baby wash. He was so happy exclaiming "Tani's soap" and "Tani's bottle of soap!". He likes to open and close it and to try to pour some on his hand. He often ends up pouring out quite a bit so it can be frustrating to let him play with it. Washing hands has been a favorite activity for a few months now. He likes to climb on the step stool in the bathroom to reach the sink and hand pump soap dispenser. He can't reach the handle to turn on the water so I do it and he runs his hands one at a time under the water - but he mainly wants to hold the soap and push the pump on the soap container. I usually let him get two squirts of soap out before moving the soap out of reach. He usually exclaims "more soap" but he moves on. I love helping him wash his hands at daycare as he can reach the sink by himself. It's a bit hard though as they have removed the faucet handles because the toddlers would try to turn on the water throughout the day. There is an automatic soap dispenser so he can put his hand under and the foam lands in his palm.

Cars, trucks

Melissa's congregation co-sponsored a showing of the powerful and moving film "Praying with Lior" at the Allentown JCC. She arranged for baby-sitting so I was able to attend the film and listen to part of the discussion with a local family with a special needs child and one of the producers. But then 6 pm arrived and babysitting was over before the program completed, so I took Tani a few blocks down to a pizza place. OK, it took a while to get to the car. Tani first got a drink of water from the fountain, then he wanted a couple of stickers from the friendly lady at the front desk, and then he zipped and unzipped the jacket of a nice man who was picking up his friends at the front entrance. Then we were off for pizza. We got two slices and sat down at tables in the take out area to eat them. The tables are next to a bar and several televisions are on - at this time the Steelers and Giants were playing. Tani seemed mildly interested in the football game while eating his pizza, but when a Toyota commercial came on with cars zooming around his face lit up. When the commercial was over and it switched to a yellow pages ad he shouted "more cars!".

A couple of days ago the garbage truck came to pick up the trash in our apartment complex when Tani and I were in the parking lot. It's one of these big trucks that can lift a dumpster up and flip the contents over into it's large truck bed, replace the dumpster, and move on to the next one without the driver having to get out of the truck. Tani watched with fascination. He waved "hi" to the truck driver with awe and enthusiasm. When the truck left our area, he grabbed my hand and ran after the truck which was heading to the dumpster across the street. There he watched the truck empty two more dumpsters of trash. I think he would followed that truck around the entire complex.

One more story that Melissa told me. She and her friend Heather who was visiting from Wellfleet took Tani to Trexler Park which is a couple of miles from our house. Tani loves dogs but dogs aren't allowed in our apartment complex. Lots of people walk their dogs at Trexler Park so it's a good place for Tani to interact with dogs. Since the summer he has shown great interest in walking other people's dogs and does so whenever he has the chance. Apparently he met a very nice doggie at the park, but there was also a little boy who had a fabulous truck and he allowed Tani to play with it. Tani had to give the truck back and was so upset that he didn't even want to walk this great doggie, which he normally would have loved to do.

The picture attached to this post was taken about a month ago at Trexler park. There's a little stream near the path and Tani wanted to go down to it. And then he walked in and Mommy Malka went with him. They both had a good time!