been a while
It's been a while since I posted or read regularly. Life's going well. I'm sure I've said this before but it's incredible how busy a stay at home mom can be. We're at the Y three days a week. We do playgroup once a week. Then we try to get together with friends as often as we can. When we (all these we are Lucas and me) actually have a day at home, I feel like I've missed something. What's really funny is that these days aren't really more relaxing for me. But I have no doubt that they are more relaxing for Lucas, which generally keeps him calmer so the the day is slower. But I'm no less exhausted for it! So life's going well but I'm dragging ;-|
Enough about me...
Lucas :-) He wipes me out, but he's an amazing kid. One of his popular phrases right now is, "If we need to do it, then we need to do it, right mommy?" It cracks me up but I'm (most of the time) very good about not cracking up and just responding as him he were just another adult saying it. "That's right Lucas!" Could this kid be any cuter?
29 and 30 months
• MOST Brushes teeth with help -
--yes. not perfectly, but he does it by himself twice a day
• MOST Washes and dries own hands
--yes.
• MOST Draws a vertical line
--yes.
• HALF Draws a circle
--yes.
• HALF Balances on one foot
--yes, it's so cute!
• FEW Puts on a T-shirt
--sort of. He can if he takes it slow, but gets frustrated sometimes.
• FEW Names one color
--Yes. And every other color I've bothered teaching him.
• FEW Names one friend
--Yes. And then some.
31 and 32 months
• MOST Recites own name
--Yes. Says first, middle & last. Spells first & last.
• MOST Draws a circle
• HALF Puts on a T-shirt
• HALF Balances on each foot for a second
• HALF Recognizes ABCs
-Yes. Says, sings & reads alphabet.
• HALF Brushes teeth by herself
• FEW Uses two adjectives
--Yes. And them some.
• FEW Draws a cross
--Sort of. Only when I walk him thru to make a Tt.
• FEW Points to objects described by use
--Yes. Although, I'm not sure I understand this really.
33 and 34 months
• MOST Names one color
• MOST Names one friend
• MOST Carries on a simple conversation
--Yes. But not just simple.
• HALF Alternates feet going up and down stairs
--Not yet.
• HALF Uses prepositions (e.g., on, in, over)
--Yes. "Ha ha. I jumped over daddy!"
• HALF Speaks clearly most of the time (75 percent can be understood)
--Sort of. Others seem to understand him, but it's because he speaks in full sentences, not because he enunciates.
• HALF Stacks eight blocks
--Yes.
• FEW Is toilet trained during the day
--Sigh.. He was.. then we started all over again :-(
• FEW Wiggles thumb
--Yes. I asked him to and he did. LOL
• FEW Expresses a wide range of emotions
--Yes. He constantly asks me if I'm sad or angry or happy and shows the emotions himself.
• FEW Draws a stick figure
--Not yet.
35 and 36 months
• Describes how two objects are used
--Yes. And two objects used together and then what to do next with those objects.
• Uses three to four words in a sentence
--Yes. When we started counting the other day, he reached about 12 words... I'd say average is possibly 7/8.. Actually, he loves run-on sentences...
• Names two actions (e.g., skipping, jumping)
--Yes. Names while acting on them :-)
• Hops and skips
--Yes. In music class.
• Follows a two- or three-part command
--Yes. And then gives them!
• Separates fairly easily from parents
--Yes!! Ok I shouldn't be so excited but he goes to the Y Daycare every week happily! Ok, I was sad at first.
• Rides a tricycle
--Almost!
• Balances on each foot for three seconds
--Not even close
• Gets dressed without help
--Not quite.
Let's see..
Lucas has made it to his own room and his own twin mattress (his diego bed.) I only bring him into our bed in the morning when he seems to have had a nightmare. However, I still lay with him til he falls asleep for nap and bedtime. He does still take naps because I force him to and because well.. cuz I'm willing to lay with him for my free time * shrug* Sleep is still a struggle because he has my sleep habits. If I didn't have to sleep, I wouldn't. He feels the same. The problem is, once I've gone to sleep, if I don't have to be up at 7am, I'd rather not be. He, on the other hand, has something in him that tells him that he should wake up as early as possible and as often as possible. He'd be up for the day by 6am if I wasn't able to lay with him and convince him to go back to sleep. The problem is, his playing with my hair drives me crazy. He's done it since the first day he was born. I've never liked it. Now I hate it. I don't let him do it. But he does it when he's 99% asleep. I can't figure out how to get him to stop. SO, this means that even though I get to lay in bed extra, I don't sleep extra. Just because I don't like sleep doesn't mean I don't need it.
BUT, we very happy that he's moved himself into his own room. He'll do almost anything to prove that he's not a baby. He still says all the time, "I was a baby, but I grew up to be a big boy" And to show that he really is a big boy, he's working on his grammar. When he says something incorrectly, I don't tell him he's wrong, I just repeat it back correctly. Well, he catches it and he tries to remember to say it correctly the next time. His grammar is incredible because of this. He's got better long term memory that anyone else I've ever known. Absolutely unbelievable. He's not only memorized several books. He's memorized the backs of the books too. Yes, the backs of the books! LOL He's not a normal little boy. Just another sign that he's mine & Greg's. hehe :-)
So I've been trying to help him remember other important and not important things. He can tell you that his name first, middle and last name. He can tell you his street number and name, city, state, country and planet. Greg was so excited about the planet, he skipped the continent.... He can tell you the first three numbers in our phone number but still gets a little confused with the last four. Even though he's got great number sense. it's not his specialty. He can count to 49 BUT he gets lost at 14. 15. 16... I believe it's cuz 15 isn't fiveteen. It took time to get 11, 12, 13 & 14... But it's fine cuz he can read all the numbers.. He's just not to good at going in the right order.. or something.. But he can hold up each individual finger to ten. Greg even taught him the "Guess the Number" game. "Mommy, what number I am holding up?" I guess 4... and he pulls out his hand holding up 5, shakes his head, giggles, puts his hand back behind him and says, "Try again. Mommy, what number I holding up?" LOL it's still the same number! He lets us go until we get it! Too cute! He's still trying to figure out some of the grammar :-) But what's amazing is that if he notices that I say something different, he will try to fix it.
His specialty is letters. He can say them, sing them read them and tell you most of the sounds they make. If you ask him what letter a word starts with by stressing the first sound, he'll tell you.
We're playing with spelling words now. His first spell was LUCAS.. then DAKE.. Now he's got MOMMY, DADDY, HI, BYE and almost got EXIT & GO. I work on exit every time we're in the elevator at target. And what does exit mean? "This way out!" The GO is for Go Diego Go :-) Which is one of his favorites now. (His favorites don't change easy. Orange is still his only favorite color.) He still likes Little Einsteins but he's got three favorites. So when he asks to watch something he says, "can I watch one of my favorites please!?" Which means, either, Little Einsteins, Dora or Diego. He gets to watch two shows a day, so he's forced to choose between the three :-\ There's a toy aisle at target that's got all three, he's totally in heaven there! And I totally encourage his obsessions. I know, I'm horrible.
His favorite movies are still the Pixars. Toy Story 2 (which he calls Woody Jessie Buzz) is his absolute favorite. Then it's Toy Story (woody buzz). Then there are Mikey Sulley Boo (Monsters, Inc) and Finding Nemo (Nemo:-)). He does know the titles too cuz that's how I refer to them. He still has an obsession with good and evil. My worry is that he's not so much concerned with people being good. He's more interested in the bad and desperately wants to help them be good. In Dora, he always talks about Swiper and how he says "oh man!" And from Diego, "Bobo Brothers are always getting in trouble." Little Einsteins, "I don't want to watch that one, Big Jet is in it." The worst is Star Wars, no, he's never watched them. He has the figures though. And he always plays with Darth Vader and talks about how he's just like Darth Maul. BUT he does love Luke and his sister Leia :-) (He's playing Lego Star Wars as I type.)
So that leads to his great imagination. It's great! He'll sit and talk with his "friends" or make "people" (his word, not mine) talk. It started with the Little People Barn that we borrowed from a friend. The farmer is Farmer Tina and she takes care of the barn animals. The rooster goes around asking everyone to wake up. The cow asks everyone if they want milk.. and so on. Now it's legos, dolls, action figures and well.. anyone that looks like they have a story to tell.. We make up a whole Dora "show" with his Dora lego, including the "we did it" song. I guess a lot of it is still memory.. Cuz we do something, then he does his own versions of what we did.
But he's still a good story teller. When Greg gets home, Lucas goes up to change with him and tells him everything he did that day. He's so good that when I try to tell Greg, at dinner, about my day, he already knows most of it! He just loves talking..... with family. He's still uncertain about other kids. He's definitely not scared of anyone. He'll talk to anybody when I ask him to... but he doesn't take the initiative. He's still at parallel play.. But he'd just rather play on his own, or with an adult. He'll say hi, bye, see ya, have a nice week, and any other greetings to adults. With family, it's nonstop talking. Questions, commands, stories.. and even gibberish.
The gibberish is amusing, actually. I believe it's because I'm throwing different languages at him. We work on English, Nepali and Spanish. The Spanish is partially because of Dora and Diego. It actually started in his music class. Last term, there were three regulars in the class, one speaking hindi, one spanish and us. So when we got to the part when we tossed the scarves in the air, instead of just counting one two three, we added, "uno dos tres", "ekh dhwee tin" and "ekh dho tin". I didn't realize for a while that he'd caught on to the spanish. And when I did, I helped him learn more. So he gets to cinco now. (He'll be saying ocho cinco soon ;-)) And I encourage him to learn the spanish from the shows. As for the Nepali, I try to teach him general things through out the day, especially at bedtime. So sometimes it's clear that he feels like I make up random words with him. So.. he started to do the same with me :-) He speaks gibberish.
Wow.. this is day three of typing this update! a few minutes here, a few minutes there... That's the life of a mom, right?
Well.. another thing he impressed us on, is his want and willingness to go to KidStop, the daycare at the Y. The first time he asked to go to KidStop, it made sense. There was a room of toys and not too many kids, it looked enticing. But I explained to him that I wasn't allowed to go in there. That it was for kids only. His comment was, "I'm a kid." So I told him that we had to set up times for him, that he couldn't just go in whenever he wanted. Since he's free when I'm prepping for a class, I set up an appt for him to go during that time. He loved it! The first time, he just sat and ate his food most of the time, but then he played a little basketball.. and he was actually disappointed when I came to pick him up! I was hurt, there's no denying it. But I was thrilled that he was growing up. So every Monday morning, I ask him if he wants to go to KidStop and he says yes. There was only one time where Ms Marsha said that Lucas called for me, but he's never cried or tried to leave. They love how good and gentle he is. It's incredible to think that this is the same boy who couldn't take steps away from me! It's hard to accept that he's growing up, but I'm so proud of him.
So.. Lucas is the sweetest gentlest kid I've ever run across... except when he's being one of the boys. When he's with Greg or Ashish, they are insane. They play push, tackle, jump.. and others that I'm not certain about. And he still crashes cars and trains for what seems to me to be no reasons. But when it comes to people, he wants to know that everyone is happy. That no one is hurt. If I ever seem sad, he'll ask me if I'm happy. And wants to know if he can make me happy. However, it started because I always look sad when he's just got in trouble... He's gotten in trouble more in the last few months than he had in the couple of years before that. He's testing everything. EVERYTHING. And he seems to think everything is funny. Hysterical. And everyone loves his laugh, so he doesn't always get when he's laughing at the wrong time..
He gets in most trouble, right now, on the computer. The computer in the living room is his, so he's allowed on it, but we all use it.. and whenever he sees someone on it, he wants on it. He sees us type and wants to type the same... It really does look like we type randomly... He goes pretty good on the computer though, if he's not randomly typing... He can use the mouse. Knows where the delete and enter buttons are.. If we get him on Firefox, he knows to hit Crtl T to get a new tab, type L, hit down, and then ENTER, to get to the Little Einsteins site on Disney. He doesn't, however, understand that it won't work on all machines.
OK.. I'm sick of typing.... I love my boy. I'm very proud of him. He's his own person now and I'm certain that he's not just two. Absolutely certain.We know we're not going to send him to preschool so I've been searching for ideas on what to teach preschoolers at home. It was definitely easier teaching others' kids. It's definitely more rewarding teaching mine.
Enough about me...
Lucas :-) He wipes me out, but he's an amazing kid. One of his popular phrases right now is, "If we need to do it, then we need to do it, right mommy?" It cracks me up but I'm (most of the time) very good about not cracking up and just responding as him he were just another adult saying it. "That's right Lucas!" Could this kid be any cuter?
29 and 30 months
• MOST Brushes teeth with help -
--yes. not perfectly, but he does it by himself twice a day
• MOST Washes and dries own hands
--yes.
• MOST Draws a vertical line
--yes.
• HALF Draws a circle
--yes.
• HALF Balances on one foot
--yes, it's so cute!
• FEW Puts on a T-shirt
--sort of. He can if he takes it slow, but gets frustrated sometimes.
• FEW Names one color
--Yes. And every other color I've bothered teaching him.
• FEW Names one friend
--Yes. And then some.
31 and 32 months
• MOST Recites own name
--Yes. Says first, middle & last. Spells first & last.
• MOST Draws a circle
• HALF Puts on a T-shirt
• HALF Balances on each foot for a second
• HALF Recognizes ABCs
-Yes. Says, sings & reads alphabet.
• HALF Brushes teeth by herself
• FEW Uses two adjectives
--Yes. And them some.
• FEW Draws a cross
--Sort of. Only when I walk him thru to make a Tt.
• FEW Points to objects described by use
--Yes. Although, I'm not sure I understand this really.
33 and 34 months
• MOST Names one color
• MOST Names one friend
• MOST Carries on a simple conversation
--Yes. But not just simple.
• HALF Alternates feet going up and down stairs
--Not yet.
• HALF Uses prepositions (e.g., on, in, over)
--Yes. "Ha ha. I jumped over daddy!"
• HALF Speaks clearly most of the time (75 percent can be understood)
--Sort of. Others seem to understand him, but it's because he speaks in full sentences, not because he enunciates.
• HALF Stacks eight blocks
--Yes.
• FEW Is toilet trained during the day
--Sigh.. He was.. then we started all over again :-(
• FEW Wiggles thumb
--Yes. I asked him to and he did. LOL
• FEW Expresses a wide range of emotions
--Yes. He constantly asks me if I'm sad or angry or happy and shows the emotions himself.
• FEW Draws a stick figure
--Not yet.
35 and 36 months
• Describes how two objects are used
--Yes. And two objects used together and then what to do next with those objects.
• Uses three to four words in a sentence
--Yes. When we started counting the other day, he reached about 12 words... I'd say average is possibly 7/8.. Actually, he loves run-on sentences...
• Names two actions (e.g., skipping, jumping)
--Yes. Names while acting on them :-)
• Hops and skips
--Yes. In music class.
• Follows a two- or three-part command
--Yes. And then gives them!
• Separates fairly easily from parents
--Yes!! Ok I shouldn't be so excited but he goes to the Y Daycare every week happily! Ok, I was sad at first.
• Rides a tricycle
--Almost!
• Balances on each foot for three seconds
--Not even close
• Gets dressed without help
--Not quite.
Let's see..
Lucas has made it to his own room and his own twin mattress (his diego bed.) I only bring him into our bed in the morning when he seems to have had a nightmare. However, I still lay with him til he falls asleep for nap and bedtime. He does still take naps because I force him to and because well.. cuz I'm willing to lay with him for my free time * shrug* Sleep is still a struggle because he has my sleep habits. If I didn't have to sleep, I wouldn't. He feels the same. The problem is, once I've gone to sleep, if I don't have to be up at 7am, I'd rather not be. He, on the other hand, has something in him that tells him that he should wake up as early as possible and as often as possible. He'd be up for the day by 6am if I wasn't able to lay with him and convince him to go back to sleep. The problem is, his playing with my hair drives me crazy. He's done it since the first day he was born. I've never liked it. Now I hate it. I don't let him do it. But he does it when he's 99% asleep. I can't figure out how to get him to stop. SO, this means that even though I get to lay in bed extra, I don't sleep extra. Just because I don't like sleep doesn't mean I don't need it.
BUT, we very happy that he's moved himself into his own room. He'll do almost anything to prove that he's not a baby. He still says all the time, "I was a baby, but I grew up to be a big boy" And to show that he really is a big boy, he's working on his grammar. When he says something incorrectly, I don't tell him he's wrong, I just repeat it back correctly. Well, he catches it and he tries to remember to say it correctly the next time. His grammar is incredible because of this. He's got better long term memory that anyone else I've ever known. Absolutely unbelievable. He's not only memorized several books. He's memorized the backs of the books too. Yes, the backs of the books! LOL He's not a normal little boy. Just another sign that he's mine & Greg's. hehe :-)
So I've been trying to help him remember other important and not important things. He can tell you that his name first, middle and last name. He can tell you his street number and name, city, state, country and planet. Greg was so excited about the planet, he skipped the continent.... He can tell you the first three numbers in our phone number but still gets a little confused with the last four. Even though he's got great number sense. it's not his specialty. He can count to 49 BUT he gets lost at 14. 15. 16... I believe it's cuz 15 isn't fiveteen. It took time to get 11, 12, 13 & 14... But it's fine cuz he can read all the numbers.. He's just not to good at going in the right order.. or something.. But he can hold up each individual finger to ten. Greg even taught him the "Guess the Number" game. "Mommy, what number I am holding up?" I guess 4... and he pulls out his hand holding up 5, shakes his head, giggles, puts his hand back behind him and says, "Try again. Mommy, what number I holding up?" LOL it's still the same number! He lets us go until we get it! Too cute! He's still trying to figure out some of the grammar :-) But what's amazing is that if he notices that I say something different, he will try to fix it.
His specialty is letters. He can say them, sing them read them and tell you most of the sounds they make. If you ask him what letter a word starts with by stressing the first sound, he'll tell you.
We're playing with spelling words now. His first spell was LUCAS.. then DAKE.. Now he's got MOMMY, DADDY, HI, BYE and almost got EXIT & GO. I work on exit every time we're in the elevator at target. And what does exit mean? "This way out!" The GO is for Go Diego Go :-) Which is one of his favorites now. (His favorites don't change easy. Orange is still his only favorite color.) He still likes Little Einsteins but he's got three favorites. So when he asks to watch something he says, "can I watch one of my favorites please!?" Which means, either, Little Einsteins, Dora or Diego. He gets to watch two shows a day, so he's forced to choose between the three :-\ There's a toy aisle at target that's got all three, he's totally in heaven there! And I totally encourage his obsessions. I know, I'm horrible.
His favorite movies are still the Pixars. Toy Story 2 (which he calls Woody Jessie Buzz) is his absolute favorite. Then it's Toy Story (woody buzz). Then there are Mikey Sulley Boo (Monsters, Inc) and Finding Nemo (Nemo:-)). He does know the titles too cuz that's how I refer to them. He still has an obsession with good and evil. My worry is that he's not so much concerned with people being good. He's more interested in the bad and desperately wants to help them be good. In Dora, he always talks about Swiper and how he says "oh man!" And from Diego, "Bobo Brothers are always getting in trouble." Little Einsteins, "I don't want to watch that one, Big Jet is in it." The worst is Star Wars, no, he's never watched them. He has the figures though. And he always plays with Darth Vader and talks about how he's just like Darth Maul. BUT he does love Luke and his sister Leia :-) (He's playing Lego Star Wars as I type.)
So that leads to his great imagination. It's great! He'll sit and talk with his "friends" or make "people" (his word, not mine) talk. It started with the Little People Barn that we borrowed from a friend. The farmer is Farmer Tina and she takes care of the barn animals. The rooster goes around asking everyone to wake up. The cow asks everyone if they want milk.. and so on. Now it's legos, dolls, action figures and well.. anyone that looks like they have a story to tell.. We make up a whole Dora "show" with his Dora lego, including the "we did it" song. I guess a lot of it is still memory.. Cuz we do something, then he does his own versions of what we did.
But he's still a good story teller. When Greg gets home, Lucas goes up to change with him and tells him everything he did that day. He's so good that when I try to tell Greg, at dinner, about my day, he already knows most of it! He just loves talking..... with family. He's still uncertain about other kids. He's definitely not scared of anyone. He'll talk to anybody when I ask him to... but he doesn't take the initiative. He's still at parallel play.. But he'd just rather play on his own, or with an adult. He'll say hi, bye, see ya, have a nice week, and any other greetings to adults. With family, it's nonstop talking. Questions, commands, stories.. and even gibberish.
The gibberish is amusing, actually. I believe it's because I'm throwing different languages at him. We work on English, Nepali and Spanish. The Spanish is partially because of Dora and Diego. It actually started in his music class. Last term, there were three regulars in the class, one speaking hindi, one spanish and us. So when we got to the part when we tossed the scarves in the air, instead of just counting one two three, we added, "uno dos tres", "ekh dhwee tin" and "ekh dho tin". I didn't realize for a while that he'd caught on to the spanish. And when I did, I helped him learn more. So he gets to cinco now. (He'll be saying ocho cinco soon ;-)) And I encourage him to learn the spanish from the shows. As for the Nepali, I try to teach him general things through out the day, especially at bedtime. So sometimes it's clear that he feels like I make up random words with him. So.. he started to do the same with me :-) He speaks gibberish.
Wow.. this is day three of typing this update! a few minutes here, a few minutes there... That's the life of a mom, right?
Well.. another thing he impressed us on, is his want and willingness to go to KidStop, the daycare at the Y. The first time he asked to go to KidStop, it made sense. There was a room of toys and not too many kids, it looked enticing. But I explained to him that I wasn't allowed to go in there. That it was for kids only. His comment was, "I'm a kid." So I told him that we had to set up times for him, that he couldn't just go in whenever he wanted. Since he's free when I'm prepping for a class, I set up an appt for him to go during that time. He loved it! The first time, he just sat and ate his food most of the time, but then he played a little basketball.. and he was actually disappointed when I came to pick him up! I was hurt, there's no denying it. But I was thrilled that he was growing up. So every Monday morning, I ask him if he wants to go to KidStop and he says yes. There was only one time where Ms Marsha said that Lucas called for me, but he's never cried or tried to leave. They love how good and gentle he is. It's incredible to think that this is the same boy who couldn't take steps away from me! It's hard to accept that he's growing up, but I'm so proud of him.
So.. Lucas is the sweetest gentlest kid I've ever run across... except when he's being one of the boys. When he's with Greg or Ashish, they are insane. They play push, tackle, jump.. and others that I'm not certain about. And he still crashes cars and trains for what seems to me to be no reasons. But when it comes to people, he wants to know that everyone is happy. That no one is hurt. If I ever seem sad, he'll ask me if I'm happy. And wants to know if he can make me happy. However, it started because I always look sad when he's just got in trouble... He's gotten in trouble more in the last few months than he had in the couple of years before that. He's testing everything. EVERYTHING. And he seems to think everything is funny. Hysterical. And everyone loves his laugh, so he doesn't always get when he's laughing at the wrong time..
He gets in most trouble, right now, on the computer. The computer in the living room is his, so he's allowed on it, but we all use it.. and whenever he sees someone on it, he wants on it. He sees us type and wants to type the same... It really does look like we type randomly... He goes pretty good on the computer though, if he's not randomly typing... He can use the mouse. Knows where the delete and enter buttons are.. If we get him on Firefox, he knows to hit Crtl T to get a new tab, type L, hit down, and then ENTER, to get to the Little Einsteins site on Disney. He doesn't, however, understand that it won't work on all machines.
OK.. I'm sick of typing.... I love my boy. I'm very proud of him. He's his own person now and I'm certain that he's not just two. Absolutely certain.We know we're not going to send him to preschool so I've been searching for ideas on what to teach preschoolers at home. It was definitely easier teaching others' kids. It's definitely more rewarding teaching mine.