Morgan is Two and a Half
Morgan is two and a half today.
She knows all the words you could reasonably or unreasonably expect her to know (energetic, noticed, unfortunately, chupacabra, quidditch), and makes up her own when she needs more. She likes to invent little songs, usually to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", about whatever she's doing at the moment. ("Splashing, splashing, little soap. Splashing, hum hum, in our tub....")
She is really into imaginative play. She loves her little kit of doctor's tools, and tries to get any grownup (or dog) that wanders into range to be her patient. She also spends a lot of time putting out imaginary fires by going down slides, locking people and things in jail, and flying rocketships. She tells a lot of stories about her and her babies, driving her purple sports car (with orange stripes, and car seats for all fourteen babies) to the grocery store or the pool or her condo in Hawaii.
She counts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, fourteen, TWENTY! She knows either the name or a sound for I think all the letters in the alphabet, both for most, and will read them off trucks and signs and so forth. She hasn't quite figured out how to put the letters together into words yet, but she's good at guessing from the first letter and a bit of context. She also has a terrifyingly good memory, so as long as she's had a book read to her a few times she can then 'read' it to the dog, using the pictures and possibly parts of the text as memory aids, usually not perfectly but better than I could if the text were covered.
She recently decided she didn't want to go to gym class any more, which is a surprise because I thought she was enjoying it. I guess we'd gone through the whole curriculum, so she might just not have been getting a lot of new skills out of it any more. We'll try again when she's three and the independent classes start up. I'm not really sure how preschool is going. It seems like every time they have a holiday or she has a cold, she doesn't want to go back, but then she gradually gets to like it again until the next holiday. She comes home with lots of scribbles for me, and occasionally for her other parents, and tells me she cried. The teachers tell me about lots of things that they've done with her, and that she's not crying all that much. Sometimes she reports things that other kids did that day, and now she's listing three of them as friends (I suspect, based on my observations at drop-off time, that these are basically the art-table posse), although she doesn't seem to be what you'd call playing with any of the other kids much, either by her report or the teachers'. She does play with other kids at the playground now and then, but she's at a stage of social skills where she's good at coming up with ideas, or copying someone else's, but not so much at incorporating other people's ideas into her play in a fluid negotiated manner. She's also gotten nervous about approaching kids she doesn't know, but with a little encouragement from either me or them she does well once she's talking to them.
She is just now tall enough to ride all the rides at Happy Hollow. She thought very hard about trying the roller coaster, but decided it was a bit much for now. She really likes the swings, though, and has determined to try the Frog Hopper next time we're there (it was not running on our last visit).
I need to put some thought into ways she and the dog can play that they both like, because she would very much like to play with him but neither of them likes the other's favorite games at all.
And that is Morgan at two and a half: a cheerful, energetic, very focused little sprite, who loves books, music, and dressing up.
She knows all the words you could reasonably or unreasonably expect her to know (energetic, noticed, unfortunately, chupacabra, quidditch), and makes up her own when she needs more. She likes to invent little songs, usually to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", about whatever she's doing at the moment. ("Splashing, splashing, little soap. Splashing, hum hum, in our tub....")
She is really into imaginative play. She loves her little kit of doctor's tools, and tries to get any grownup (or dog) that wanders into range to be her patient. She also spends a lot of time putting out imaginary fires by going down slides, locking people and things in jail, and flying rocketships. She tells a lot of stories about her and her babies, driving her purple sports car (with orange stripes, and car seats for all fourteen babies) to the grocery store or the pool or her condo in Hawaii.
She counts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, fourteen, TWENTY! She knows either the name or a sound for I think all the letters in the alphabet, both for most, and will read them off trucks and signs and so forth. She hasn't quite figured out how to put the letters together into words yet, but she's good at guessing from the first letter and a bit of context. She also has a terrifyingly good memory, so as long as she's had a book read to her a few times she can then 'read' it to the dog, using the pictures and possibly parts of the text as memory aids, usually not perfectly but better than I could if the text were covered.
She recently decided she didn't want to go to gym class any more, which is a surprise because I thought she was enjoying it. I guess we'd gone through the whole curriculum, so she might just not have been getting a lot of new skills out of it any more. We'll try again when she's three and the independent classes start up. I'm not really sure how preschool is going. It seems like every time they have a holiday or she has a cold, she doesn't want to go back, but then she gradually gets to like it again until the next holiday. She comes home with lots of scribbles for me, and occasionally for her other parents, and tells me she cried. The teachers tell me about lots of things that they've done with her, and that she's not crying all that much. Sometimes she reports things that other kids did that day, and now she's listing three of them as friends (I suspect, based on my observations at drop-off time, that these are basically the art-table posse), although she doesn't seem to be what you'd call playing with any of the other kids much, either by her report or the teachers'. She does play with other kids at the playground now and then, but she's at a stage of social skills where she's good at coming up with ideas, or copying someone else's, but not so much at incorporating other people's ideas into her play in a fluid negotiated manner. She's also gotten nervous about approaching kids she doesn't know, but with a little encouragement from either me or them she does well once she's talking to them.
She is just now tall enough to ride all the rides at Happy Hollow. She thought very hard about trying the roller coaster, but decided it was a bit much for now. She really likes the swings, though, and has determined to try the Frog Hopper next time we're there (it was not running on our last visit).
I need to put some thought into ways she and the dog can play that they both like, because she would very much like to play with him but neither of them likes the other's favorite games at all.
And that is Morgan at two and a half: a cheerful, energetic, very focused little sprite, who loves books, music, and dressing up.