Sunday, June 28, 2009
letters & sciences
After tonight's dinner Elias as usual helped me empty the dishwasher. Then, because I can't load it again in his presence (he insists on "helping" empty it), I asked if he wanted to go in the other room and read, or play with blocks, or do puzzles. To my surprise, he said "blocks!" (he always says "book!"). Well, great; I love him playing with his wooden alphabet blocks while I look for signs of a future great architect or engineer. I got the blocks and started building a tower. He joined in, but wasn't fully focused: he kept fiddling with individual blocks. Then he thrust one in my face and yelled "D!" Sure enough, it was the D block. Good boy; so smart; now put it on top and let's build a tower. He went off to retrieve another block and came back saying oo! oo! oo! I said "yes, you found a blue block," a little disappointed because he wasn't pronouncing "blue" as well as usual ("bwooo") and wasn't that into my nice tower. But then I saw the block: a red "U." "Good boy!" now more enthusiastically--that was a new letter for him. Then he got another new one: "P!" and another "Q" (kkkwooooo) and another "I," and another "W," (oo-oo) and another, "Y" and "Z" on the same block. These were all blocks he found and volunteered names for by himself, and in the course of it all, only got one wrong. I am so impressed, both "objectively" and as a totally biased, adoring mom. I wonder at what age Hemingway or C.S. Lewis learned to read. Yet, as wonderful as his budding literary genius is, what about his spacial skills? Geometry? Physics? Then he made Mom even more happy by stacking a few block towers as high as he could reach. That's my boy!
tricky tongue
When I picked up Elias on Thursday he had the end of his tongue stuck out of the corner of his mouth with a quirky grin on his face. To that point his tongue had been pretty reclusive. Since then, however, it's out a lot: pointy and to the side (nearly always to the left) when he's being playful, and spread out in front when he's concentrating on something. Hmm. He does seem to cycle through a focus on various body parts (there was a few weeks there that he took every opportunity to pull down the collar of my shirt and stick his hand down there), so I guess it's finally gotten around to his tongue.
I'm not so entertained by his second tongue transformation this week. He's always been a good eater, to put it mildly. In fact, it's been amazing to the point of being a little worrisome the vast quantities he consumes at each of his 5 daily meals. Truly, over the last year (since about a month ago) he's not eaten well only five times, perhaps, when he wasn't feeling well. People wouldn't really believe me when I'd say my toddler eats adult-sized meals, then are bowled over when they witness it in person. My parents still talk about when we visited for his first birthday, how I would be feeding him with a spoon, and in between spoonfuls he had both hands shoving in food continuously, until his round little belly just couldn't hold any more. What's more, he seemed to love eating just about everything. I was pretty good about giving him a huge variety of mostly healthy, home-made, preferably fresh & organic foods. From beets to spicy chili to (yes) sardine-wrapped capers, he ate it all. The only dislikes he seemed to have were lettuce, anything much beyond room temperature, and cold milk. He ate like a maniac for maybe 4 months, which apparently is common with Ethiopian adoptees. Since then he's been gradually becoming more reasonable with the amounts while developing some strong preferences (broccoli, green beans, applesauce, meatloaf) and moderate dislikes (noodle dishes). However, this week suddenly he starting eating like a "normal" 22-month old: irritably refusing to eat almost everything, especially if it's new to him; spitting things out; playing with his food then screaming bloody murder if I take it away; and begging for sugary stuff & soda. It's terrible! I pretty much blame it on daycare, but there's not much I can do about it. I just keep offering lots of good stuff without forcing him (or endlessly cajoling him--how annoying and counterproductive!) to eat any of it. I try to not act differently and keep reminding myself that (per pediatrician's advice) as long as they eat about a tablespoon, they'll be fine. Even his 20% of normal is still way more than a tablespoon, but still, I wonder if I should be looking for a medical problem. He is also unusually short-tempered lately, and even had several angry crying bouts (again, highly unusual). I guess even with the World's Best Baby I won't totally escape these common but trying motherhood challenges.
I'm not so entertained by his second tongue transformation this week. He's always been a good eater, to put it mildly. In fact, it's been amazing to the point of being a little worrisome the vast quantities he consumes at each of his 5 daily meals. Truly, over the last year (since about a month ago) he's not eaten well only five times, perhaps, when he wasn't feeling well. People wouldn't really believe me when I'd say my toddler eats adult-sized meals, then are bowled over when they witness it in person. My parents still talk about when we visited for his first birthday, how I would be feeding him with a spoon, and in between spoonfuls he had both hands shoving in food continuously, until his round little belly just couldn't hold any more. What's more, he seemed to love eating just about everything. I was pretty good about giving him a huge variety of mostly healthy, home-made, preferably fresh & organic foods. From beets to spicy chili to (yes) sardine-wrapped capers, he ate it all. The only dislikes he seemed to have were lettuce, anything much beyond room temperature, and cold milk. He ate like a maniac for maybe 4 months, which apparently is common with Ethiopian adoptees. Since then he's been gradually becoming more reasonable with the amounts while developing some strong preferences (broccoli, green beans, applesauce, meatloaf) and moderate dislikes (noodle dishes). However, this week suddenly he starting eating like a "normal" 22-month old: irritably refusing to eat almost everything, especially if it's new to him; spitting things out; playing with his food then screaming bloody murder if I take it away; and begging for sugary stuff & soda. It's terrible! I pretty much blame it on daycare, but there's not much I can do about it. I just keep offering lots of good stuff without forcing him (or endlessly cajoling him--how annoying and counterproductive!) to eat any of it. I try to not act differently and keep reminding myself that (per pediatrician's advice) as long as they eat about a tablespoon, they'll be fine. Even his 20% of normal is still way more than a tablespoon, but still, I wonder if I should be looking for a medical problem. He is also unusually short-tempered lately, and even had several angry crying bouts (again, highly unusual). I guess even with the World's Best Baby I won't totally escape these common but trying motherhood challenges.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Very scary morning
5:45am is too early for this much reality.
Elias has been a bit "off" lately: weird sleeping habits, and gets WAY overwrought when I refuse to read to him (in particular, my bed and the bathroom are outside the prescribed reading region). Perhaps it's all the bug bites that he has on the left side of his face, making him look all lumpy and probably causing him some pain/itchyness. Anyway, I was counting my blessings that he got up at 5:30am this morning, not 5am, and only cried in my face for about 1 minute, not 45min, when (half asleep, from bed) I said "no" to If You Give a Pig a Pancake. So he decided to entertain himself by getting me to take him into bed with me, jumping up and down, standing and walking on me, and looking out the window above my bed, and fiddling with the blinds--which was actually sufficient for me to fall half-asleep again (Ah, the powers of mommydom!) Then he started whining again and sort of fell on my face, and for some reason I couldn't roll him off. I looked, and he had the cord to the blinds around his neck just like a noose and was choking!! That'll wake you up. I lifted him up to free him, and after one whimper he was back to normal. Whew. I knew drawcords (and really all sorts of loopy ropelike things) were one of the more dangerous things around the house and am pretty careful about having them out of reach (as this one would have been, under normal circumstances), but now I have direct experience to drive that point home. Please let it be a warning to you, too.
Elias has been a bit "off" lately: weird sleeping habits, and gets WAY overwrought when I refuse to read to him (in particular, my bed and the bathroom are outside the prescribed reading region). Perhaps it's all the bug bites that he has on the left side of his face, making him look all lumpy and probably causing him some pain/itchyness. Anyway, I was counting my blessings that he got up at 5:30am this morning, not 5am, and only cried in my face for about 1 minute, not 45min, when (half asleep, from bed) I said "no" to If You Give a Pig a Pancake. So he decided to entertain himself by getting me to take him into bed with me, jumping up and down, standing and walking on me, and looking out the window above my bed, and fiddling with the blinds--which was actually sufficient for me to fall half-asleep again (Ah, the powers of mommydom!) Then he started whining again and sort of fell on my face, and for some reason I couldn't roll him off. I looked, and he had the cord to the blinds around his neck just like a noose and was choking!! That'll wake you up. I lifted him up to free him, and after one whimper he was back to normal. Whew. I knew drawcords (and really all sorts of loopy ropelike things) were one of the more dangerous things around the house and am pretty careful about having them out of reach (as this one would have been, under normal circumstances), but now I have direct experience to drive that point home. Please let it be a warning to you, too.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
First day of summer
Today was pretty exhausting, as are most weekends. Elias woke up about 5:50 this morning, then, like every morning, got me up by clapping his hands (I picture him summoning his butler). I tried really hard to sleep in after that but was thwarted by Elias popping in every-more-frequently to bring me books, toys, and the cup of dried bananas I'd given him to tide him over, always urging "Up, Mamma, up!" I finally stumbled out and read him some books and watched some PBS: a BBQ cooking show and part of a travel show on Florence (I'd seen those very sights just a couple years ago!). Then I realized we were late for church and did some scrambling. It was the first time that I didn't give Elias at least one sit-down breakfast.
At church I volunteered for infant/toddler daycare. Elias usually really likes going there, but this time wasn't so happy because I was there. There were 38(!) kids, and many were crying. I found out Elias really doesn't like me comforting other kids--he'd see me picking someone else up and run over to defend his claim on me, demanding to be picked up also. He doesn't always need to be the center of attention, as long as he's the center of MY attention.
He only napped about an hour today, much to my chagrin. Afterwards I filled up a pot with sudsy water for him to play with on the deck. I ducked back inside to do something, and returned to find his face completely covered with suds. He decided to taste the bubbles, as well as stir them up with the spatula. We both thought it was pretty funny and a good way to cool off on a hot day.
At church I volunteered for infant/toddler daycare. Elias usually really likes going there, but this time wasn't so happy because I was there. There were 38(!) kids, and many were crying. I found out Elias really doesn't like me comforting other kids--he'd see me picking someone else up and run over to defend his claim on me, demanding to be picked up also. He doesn't always need to be the center of attention, as long as he's the center of MY attention.
He only napped about an hour today, much to my chagrin. Afterwards I filled up a pot with sudsy water for him to play with on the deck. I ducked back inside to do something, and returned to find his face completely covered with suds. He decided to taste the bubbles, as well as stir them up with the spatula. We both thought it was pretty funny and a good way to cool off on a hot day.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Can you read too much to your kid?
Everyone always touts how important it is to read to children, but isn't there a limit? Elias has always been book-crazy, and it hasn't relented even as his choice of books has changed over the last year. Well, not so much changed, as expanded, since he still likes his pop-up and picture books made for infants. Given his choice, I would spend my entire day either reading him books or bringing him food (I'm sure he'd prefer those to be joint ventures, but I try to keep mealtimes in the dining room and free of books.) I have to intentionally carve out time to do other things like play with blocks or cars or stuff outside.
Much of the time we're home he'll be following me around with a carefully chosen book in his hand, pleading "book! book!" (which is reminiscent of a chicken clucking) until I acquiesce and sit down on the couch. Then he giggles, scrambles up beside me, and snuggles in for the big event. He especially likes it if we share an afghan over our legs before opening the first book. At the end of every book he happily declares "All done!" slams it shut, and then either flips it over to the beginning ("more? more?") or lays it aside and scrambles off to choose another one. Now most often he'll bring back 2 or even three to save himself the effort of getting down between books, then carefully deliberate as to which order they should be read. There seems to be no time limit to this activity in his mind, with only hints of the supposedly limited attention span of toddlers showing through when he switches books on me before the previous is completely finished, usually on the second-from-last page. A visitor is pretty much the only thing that is sure to lure him away...but then, chances are, in 10 minutes or so he'll be bringing a book over for the visitor to read to him!
It's so hard for me to decline that cute face and high little voice pleading "Please, book? Please?" I'm sure he know that, so maybe that sure bet for intense mommytime plays a part in his book obsession. Yes, it interferes with housework or pretty much anything else I want to do, and I'm really, really bored with some of the books, but I don't mind so much being manipulated in that way. I treasure the snuggle time, especially weekdays when I see so little of him. Also, I see his desire as a providential blessing, because it was related to me that a final, strong and explicit desire of his birth mother was for him to get an education. He may well be the first in his line to become literate--which at this rate, may happen any day now.
Much of the time we're home he'll be following me around with a carefully chosen book in his hand, pleading "book! book!" (which is reminiscent of a chicken clucking) until I acquiesce and sit down on the couch. Then he giggles, scrambles up beside me, and snuggles in for the big event. He especially likes it if we share an afghan over our legs before opening the first book. At the end of every book he happily declares "All done!" slams it shut, and then either flips it over to the beginning ("more? more?") or lays it aside and scrambles off to choose another one. Now most often he'll bring back 2 or even three to save himself the effort of getting down between books, then carefully deliberate as to which order they should be read. There seems to be no time limit to this activity in his mind, with only hints of the supposedly limited attention span of toddlers showing through when he switches books on me before the previous is completely finished, usually on the second-from-last page. A visitor is pretty much the only thing that is sure to lure him away...but then, chances are, in 10 minutes or so he'll be bringing a book over for the visitor to read to him!
It's so hard for me to decline that cute face and high little voice pleading "Please, book? Please?" I'm sure he know that, so maybe that sure bet for intense mommytime plays a part in his book obsession. Yes, it interferes with housework or pretty much anything else I want to do, and I'm really, really bored with some of the books, but I don't mind so much being manipulated in that way. I treasure the snuggle time, especially weekdays when I see so little of him. Also, I see his desire as a providential blessing, because it was related to me that a final, strong and explicit desire of his birth mother was for him to get an education. He may well be the first in his line to become literate--which at this rate, may happen any day now.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Genius revealed
It's amazing to me that Elias still amazes me almost daily. Yesterday he was busy reconfirming his genius status while being his delightful self. Genius, of course, entails being unusually gifted in a multitude of areas.
Language:
His current favorite books are some of his longer ones: Dr. Seuss' ABC's, If You Give A Pig A Pancake, and Are You My Mother? Yesterday he started with the ABC one, and surprised me by flipping open the cover where the alphabet is printed all jumbled up, and thrusting his finger at the M, and loudly declaring "M!" Then Q, then B! Wow. Then at the end of the book, he went and got one of the many wooden blocks "decorating" the living room, handed it to me, and said "M!"...and sure enough, it was the M block! Then he got another and said "Q!" and it was the Q block. Wow, Wow! Different context entirely; I don't know if I've ever went over the letters on the blocks with him. No wrong guesses, either. He's soaking up the alphabet like crazy, and I haven't even been "trying" to teach it, definitely not quizzing him with letters. Well, that's going to change now! The daycare folks say they don't really emphasize the alphabet either this early. When reading the book, he constantly quizzes me on his favorite letters, B, I, G, R, Q, and M by pointing at them and looking up at me waiting to say what they are. B and I are favorites perhaps because he uses the words "bee" and "eye" quite a lot, and likes confirming that these are somehow different. It seems to me that identifying a sound with a symbol (even more than an object) is a pretty big concept for someone who just turned 22 months old.
Geometry:
After the letter shockers we went outside a bit to play. He found some of the sidewalk chalk and happily chewed on one while I sketched out his favorite letters on the driveway. I decided for the heck of it to try a few shapes, too, since I'd introduced those while coloring a week or so ago. He nailed "square" and "circle," although he wasn't too sure about "triangle." Sheesh, what else does this kid know? I think now I'll introduce "trapezoid," "spiral" and "parabola."
Sports:
OK, so I don't specifically recall this from yesterday, but for months now Elias has been very accomplished in catching a ball, getting it just about every time. True, I throw it to him softly, but I haven't seen any other kids his age (or up to 3yrs old) that can do that!
Theater:
After his bath we dried off (well, he dried off; I usually remain wet) and sang songs while I slathered him up with moisturizer. He loves action songs, and he asked for the schoolbus song. He acted out all the verses (wheels, doors, driver, babies, wipers, horn), skipping to the next hand motion he wanted before I was quite done with the previous one, to ensure that'd be the next verse. He really gets into those hand motions.
Music:
Elias' bedtime routine is to have a sippycup of warm milk while I sing to him two or three lullaby-type songs, usually "Rock-a-bye Baby" and the alphabet song, ending with the doxology (my repertoire is severely limited). Well, he "gonged" those by shaking his head "no" very seriously when I started "Rock-a-bye," then the alphabet, then "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore," then "Yankee Doodle," then maybe something else (I was running out of songs), until I finally came to "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." So apparently now the song must fit his mood. He settled down very happily and listened to that, occasionally supplying the appropriate sound effect for animals he knows and signing "more" when I'd stop: quite the music director. Finally, after a cajillion verses, I switched to the doxology (which he always loves) and put him to bed.
Mechanical engineering:
Carrying over to this morning's genius demonstration, as we were getting ready to leave for school & work, I found that Elias had taken out the hinge pin and doorstop assembly to the back door, and was carrying this new toy around the house, fitting them together and taking them apart again. Just before leaving I looked for it to put back, but he had already reassembled it and put it back on the hinge!
Language:
His current favorite books are some of his longer ones: Dr. Seuss' ABC's, If You Give A Pig A Pancake, and Are You My Mother? Yesterday he started with the ABC one, and surprised me by flipping open the cover where the alphabet is printed all jumbled up, and thrusting his finger at the M, and loudly declaring "M!" Then Q, then B! Wow. Then at the end of the book, he went and got one of the many wooden blocks "decorating" the living room, handed it to me, and said "M!"...and sure enough, it was the M block! Then he got another and said "Q!" and it was the Q block. Wow, Wow! Different context entirely; I don't know if I've ever went over the letters on the blocks with him. No wrong guesses, either. He's soaking up the alphabet like crazy, and I haven't even been "trying" to teach it, definitely not quizzing him with letters. Well, that's going to change now! The daycare folks say they don't really emphasize the alphabet either this early. When reading the book, he constantly quizzes me on his favorite letters, B, I, G, R, Q, and M by pointing at them and looking up at me waiting to say what they are. B and I are favorites perhaps because he uses the words "bee" and "eye" quite a lot, and likes confirming that these are somehow different. It seems to me that identifying a sound with a symbol (even more than an object) is a pretty big concept for someone who just turned 22 months old.
Geometry:
After the letter shockers we went outside a bit to play. He found some of the sidewalk chalk and happily chewed on one while I sketched out his favorite letters on the driveway. I decided for the heck of it to try a few shapes, too, since I'd introduced those while coloring a week or so ago. He nailed "square" and "circle," although he wasn't too sure about "triangle." Sheesh, what else does this kid know? I think now I'll introduce "trapezoid," "spiral" and "parabola."
Sports:
OK, so I don't specifically recall this from yesterday, but for months now Elias has been very accomplished in catching a ball, getting it just about every time. True, I throw it to him softly, but I haven't seen any other kids his age (or up to 3yrs old) that can do that!
Theater:
After his bath we dried off (well, he dried off; I usually remain wet) and sang songs while I slathered him up with moisturizer. He loves action songs, and he asked for the schoolbus song. He acted out all the verses (wheels, doors, driver, babies, wipers, horn), skipping to the next hand motion he wanted before I was quite done with the previous one, to ensure that'd be the next verse. He really gets into those hand motions.
Music:
Elias' bedtime routine is to have a sippycup of warm milk while I sing to him two or three lullaby-type songs, usually "Rock-a-bye Baby" and the alphabet song, ending with the doxology (my repertoire is severely limited). Well, he "gonged" those by shaking his head "no" very seriously when I started "Rock-a-bye," then the alphabet, then "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore," then "Yankee Doodle," then maybe something else (I was running out of songs), until I finally came to "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." So apparently now the song must fit his mood. He settled down very happily and listened to that, occasionally supplying the appropriate sound effect for animals he knows and signing "more" when I'd stop: quite the music director. Finally, after a cajillion verses, I switched to the doxology (which he always loves) and put him to bed.
Mechanical engineering:
Carrying over to this morning's genius demonstration, as we were getting ready to leave for school & work, I found that Elias had taken out the hinge pin and doorstop assembly to the back door, and was carrying this new toy around the house, fitting them together and taking them apart again. Just before leaving I looked for it to put back, but he had already reassembled it and put it back on the hinge!
Monday, June 1, 2009
hey this is working
In planning to recommend blogging to someone who likes to send frequent musings and updates to a large distribution list via email, I decided to try it myself, to see how easy it is to set up. Sheesh, it's easy. Even a computer clutz such as myself can do it!
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