April Update
I haven't managed to post here in quite a long time. My apologies, grandparents (and Kelly and Tabby!).
Over the last month Jack has learned both good and bad skills. Let's start with the bad:
1) Smacking us when he doesn't get his way. I can only imagine that he has learned this from the other kids at daycare. We are at a complete loss as to what to do about it, but are currently implementing the "No Smack" and "That hurts my feelings" tactic with a dose of "I'm not going to play with you right now" when necessary. It sort of works, though I think he sometimes does it to get a rise out of me.
2) Temper-tantrums. There are two major times he will throw a tantrum. The first (daily) is when we go to the garage to get in the car and he sees his wagon. He starts saying "wagon, wagon" (see below for actual word used) and when you try to put him in the car, he arches his back and screams. I've asked Kyle to find a place in the shed for the wagon so this doesn't happen anymore. The second tantrum is when he thinks you're taking him outside (aka- you walk by the back door) and you don't. It's like someone is ripping his soul out of his body. To appease him we spend lots of time on the back porch (screened in) listening to him chant about the lawn mower being underneath the deck.
Now, on to the good stuff.
He's learned quite a few new words. They are:
Grandma (ah-MA)
Grandpa (ah-PA)
Lawn Mower (mah-MO)
Wagon (yah-YIH or sometimes yaaaaaah-YIH)
Ice (with the "C" this time!)
Grapes ("Pips", but we get the idea that he's not talking Gladys)
Hungry (hun-GEE) accompanies the Hungry sign now
Poop Not always on target, but he knows what it is
Mambo! This one comes from "Breakfast with Bear" which we watch every morning while getting ready. It also includes a fantastic throwing-back of the head. Very nice.
New skills:
He's getting better at undressing himself. He can step out of pants if I pull them down for him, and can lift shirts off his head. Getting dressed? Not so much.
He kept exclaiming "poop" at us the other day until we finally a) realized what he was saying and b) put him on his potty chair. We let him sit there with his little naked booty and read books in the living room (yeah, I brought it into the living room so I didn't have to kneel on the bathroom linoleum) for a while. Nothing happened. So, we put a fresh diaper on, put the potty chair away, and dressed him. No less than 5 minutes later he pooped in his diaper. So, a little off, but he's getting the idea.
He's learning to "be nice" and I presume this skill comes from daycare. When he smacks us we also tell him to be nice. If the dictator is feeling benevolent, he will lean close to you, pet your head softly, and then give you a hug. It's really quite sweet, but sad that he developed the skill because it probably means that he's being told to "be nice" a lot at daycare.
He can point to lots of body parts including: eye, nose, cheek, hair, head, forehead, ears, teeth, tongue, heart, arm, leg, knee, tummy, toes, neck, back, feet, and fingers. He can point to his heart and say a word that resembles heart (more like "hot") and can also say Eye, Nose (noooooooohse), and something that sounds like cheek. He said "knee" in the car on the way home today, but it hasn't been a repeatable experiment yet so no points were awarded.
His new animal sounds include: snakes (though his obviously has a lisp), elephant (which I kindly instruct him that his version is actually the camel noise), a more pronounced meow for the cats, tweet-tweet for birds, and the oink of a pig.
He also loves to ride the lawn mower. As soon as we get into our neighborhood from going anywhere he starts singing about it. He runs to the back deck to peek through the slats and let us know it's still there. He would sit on Kyle's lap all day and cut the grass if he could. Lucky for me, this means that our lawn is remaining pretty tidy so far this year!
That's all for now. It's been a pretty good month and we feel like he's learning something nearly every day. It's a cool age so far and I'm really excited to be watching him grow like this.
Over the last month Jack has learned both good and bad skills. Let's start with the bad:
1) Smacking us when he doesn't get his way. I can only imagine that he has learned this from the other kids at daycare. We are at a complete loss as to what to do about it, but are currently implementing the "No Smack" and "That hurts my feelings" tactic with a dose of "I'm not going to play with you right now" when necessary. It sort of works, though I think he sometimes does it to get a rise out of me.
2) Temper-tantrums. There are two major times he will throw a tantrum. The first (daily) is when we go to the garage to get in the car and he sees his wagon. He starts saying "wagon, wagon" (see below for actual word used) and when you try to put him in the car, he arches his back and screams. I've asked Kyle to find a place in the shed for the wagon so this doesn't happen anymore. The second tantrum is when he thinks you're taking him outside (aka- you walk by the back door) and you don't. It's like someone is ripping his soul out of his body. To appease him we spend lots of time on the back porch (screened in) listening to him chant about the lawn mower being underneath the deck.
Now, on to the good stuff.
He's learned quite a few new words. They are:
Grandma (ah-MA)
Grandpa (ah-PA)
Lawn Mower (mah-MO)
Wagon (yah-YIH or sometimes yaaaaaah-YIH)
Ice (with the "C" this time!)
Grapes ("Pips", but we get the idea that he's not talking Gladys)
Hungry (hun-GEE) accompanies the Hungry sign now
Poop Not always on target, but he knows what it is
Mambo! This one comes from "Breakfast with Bear" which we watch every morning while getting ready. It also includes a fantastic throwing-back of the head. Very nice.
New skills:
He's getting better at undressing himself. He can step out of pants if I pull them down for him, and can lift shirts off his head. Getting dressed? Not so much.
He kept exclaiming "poop" at us the other day until we finally a) realized what he was saying and b) put him on his potty chair. We let him sit there with his little naked booty and read books in the living room (yeah, I brought it into the living room so I didn't have to kneel on the bathroom linoleum) for a while. Nothing happened. So, we put a fresh diaper on, put the potty chair away, and dressed him. No less than 5 minutes later he pooped in his diaper. So, a little off, but he's getting the idea.
He's learning to "be nice" and I presume this skill comes from daycare. When he smacks us we also tell him to be nice. If the dictator is feeling benevolent, he will lean close to you, pet your head softly, and then give you a hug. It's really quite sweet, but sad that he developed the skill because it probably means that he's being told to "be nice" a lot at daycare.
He can point to lots of body parts including: eye, nose, cheek, hair, head, forehead, ears, teeth, tongue, heart, arm, leg, knee, tummy, toes, neck, back, feet, and fingers. He can point to his heart and say a word that resembles heart (more like "hot") and can also say Eye, Nose (noooooooohse), and something that sounds like cheek. He said "knee" in the car on the way home today, but it hasn't been a repeatable experiment yet so no points were awarded.
His new animal sounds include: snakes (though his obviously has a lisp), elephant (which I kindly instruct him that his version is actually the camel noise), a more pronounced meow for the cats, tweet-tweet for birds, and the oink of a pig.
He also loves to ride the lawn mower. As soon as we get into our neighborhood from going anywhere he starts singing about it. He runs to the back deck to peek through the slats and let us know it's still there. He would sit on Kyle's lap all day and cut the grass if he could. Lucky for me, this means that our lawn is remaining pretty tidy so far this year!
That's all for now. It's been a pretty good month and we feel like he's learning something nearly every day. It's a cool age so far and I'm really excited to be watching him grow like this.
posted by Vienna @ 4/23/2006 08:17:00 PM
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