It took a lot of discussion to decide whether we were going to throw a party for your first birthday, and though the subject really hasn’t come up this year, I have been thinking a lot about it. We really want to encourage you to grow up with a conscious mind about the things that matter most in life and how consumerism can undermine those values. It's important to realize that there are much more meaningful things to focus on than material desires.
Your daddy is especially cautious that we not spoil you and rob you of the opportunity to learn the importance and value of family and hard work versus having a lot of “stuff”. No matter what we decide to do regarding birthday parties from here on out, I hope you always know that everything we do is for your benefit and carefully decided with love.
You’re pretty receptive to everything we are teaching you now, and so I’m confident that you will understand why we choose to do the things we do even if they go against the grain or are sometimes uncomfortable!
This month one of the greatest lessons we are teaching you is manners. You are at a stage now where you’ve learned that you’re capable of asserting yourself, but you don’t always do it in the most constructive manner.
More often than not we are totally pleased with your behavior, but recently you started swatting at things you don’t like or people you want to stop bothering you. Obviously, this does not fall into the category of “pleasing behavior,” but it’s a natural development and one we are working through with you. We correct you by telling you that the behavior is not nice and insist that you apologize, which you always do. Most of the time the apology is immediately followed by more swatting which is funny and a tiny bit frustrating, but is usually easily resolved by redirecting you to something else.
Another issue is that you’ve learned to say “move.” You’ll encounter someone or something in your way and demand it/them to “Move!” In this particular instance we will tell you that isn’t nice and ask you to say “excuse me.” You’re happy to do it, but usually need reminding the next time!
Aside from the life lessons, we are really contentious about your educational future. We make a concerted effort to expose you to activities that encourage you to learn through play as a way to keep you engaged and excited about learning.
One “toy” we have plenty of are puzzles – you absolutely love puzzles. They’re fun for you and feel like play even though you are learning. One puzzle you have is a farm animal puzzle and with each piece you place you speak the name and sound of the animal. You love to do this with and without us to play along. You also have a color matching puzzle which you will deliberately mismatch and say “No match” and then place in the correct spot. I love how excited you are to play with puzzles and more than that I love how much you’ve learned through playing with them.
We are building up our collection of them and it takes you almost no time at all to master them. Your newest puzzle is a chunky puzzle by Melissa and Doug (my favorite line of toys for you, by the way). This particular puzzle has you captivated because it Is a puzzle made up of various types of vehicles from land, sea and sky. Also, the pieces are chunky so you play with them as if they are toy cars/boats too!
We work so hard at presenting you with as much opportunity to learn things and plan activities carefully in order to keep you engaged in learning and I’m so glad that you have benefited so much from our efforts!
Daddy and I are pretty certain that if we send you to school (rather than home school you) you will go to a Montessori school. Mostly because their curriculum is centered on learning through exploration/play versus lecturing which is obviously our preference and is what we believe suits children your age best.
The best teaching we’ve ever done with you so far is to let you do/experience things and help guide you through by talking about whatever you’re doing. I used to sit and do flashcards and other traditional things like that, but going with the route of learning through play and application has been much more successful. It’s been amazing to see you flourish on this alternate plan and whatever route we decide to use for your education (home or outside schooling), it will definitely be influenced by how best to keep you learning through practical application.
I get weekly email updates about what developmental changes we can expect to see in you week by week. Almost every update speaks to exactly where you are in your development including one we got one week during your 20th month which said if we (as parents) were planning to add a sibling to the family the best time to start talking about it with you would be in the third trimester! Daddy said, “It’s like they are talking about our lives specifically!”
This month one of the updates spoke about fears. It specifically said “Your toddler my suddenly develop a fear of something particular, such as insects or water.” The funny thing is that in the weeks preceding this email you started to freak out about bugs! These days, whenever you get in the tub you start panicking if you see anything floating (usually it’s crumbs off of your body or lint from your socks). You immediately assume the floaters are bugs and you bolt to the opposite end of the tub yelling, “Mama! BUG!!!” The look on your face is hysterical. No matter how much I try to reassure you, I can’t calm you down and you continue to panic until I am able to catch the floating “bug” to remove it from the water. The authors of these updates must have cameras installed in our house because as Daddy said, every single one seems to be oddly specific to our lives!
You say new words every day now. While playing with your Uncle Miguel he used the word “almost” when you fell short of getting your ball over the net on your trampoline. After that you kept saying, “ah-mose!” This is just one example of how quickly you pick up on words and phrases and start to use them in your own vocabulary.
My favorite thing you say right now is the phrase “All of them” which sounds like “all- bum” when you say it. It’s sort of a mash up off the three words, but I know exactly what you’re saying.
We had a conversation about Bella (Auntie’s dog) one morning (2/8/13). You asked for Bella in the morning and when I said, “where is she?” you said. “Her room” I said, “Yes. She is. Good job!” Then you said “Seebing?” which means “sleeping” and again I said, “Yes, baby she’s sleeping!” Then you said “Wit Annie?” I realized you were putting all your thoughts together to make a sentence and I got really excited and said, “Yes, she’s in her room sleeping with Auntie! You’re right!” As you can tell I’m totally in awe of how smart you are.
I have to say I feel sort of special because I totally understand most of what you are saying (some of what you say is still complete gibberish) and just about everyone (including Daddy) turn to me now and then to ask what you said. I guess you and I are totally in synch when it comes to communication!
One thing I don’t have to translate is “I love you!” which you have said to Daddy and I this month. I thought you might have said it once before, but I never heard you say it (or anything like it) again since that day, so I’ll have to assume you didn’t and that this is the first time you’ve said it.
It was just before bed, when daddy was saying goodnight that you very clearly said, “Wub oo” to Daddy. We thought the timing was perfect since it was three days before Valentine’s Day. He said, “Son, I love you. Can you say, ‘I love you’ to Daddy?” and you responded by saying “Wub oo!” You enjoyed our excitement so much that you kept saying it and Daddy melted EVERY TIME! Now you say it to me when I’m leaving for work. It’s super cute and so special.
You got your first kiss on February 17th and everyone I tell jokingly asks if I wanted to hurt the little girl that kissed you, but it was too cute to upset me that much. We were in the park and both you and the little girl were chasing squirrels. Just before that we were picking flowers and so I handed you one to give her which you did. She sniffed it and pranced around holding it then she laid her hand on your head and kissed you on the top of your head. It was so cute I could have died. I wanted so badly to get a picture, but didn’t want to offend her dad. The little girl’s name was Nicolina. She was Croatian and giggled at everything you said.
This month has been amazing for you developmentally. I think it’s the first month that I’ve not looked at you and felt sad about how much you’ve grown. I’m really enjoying all of the new things you’re doing and learning and I’m very proud that you’re my son. I know your little brother is going to appreciate having you as his role model!
Happy 22 months, son!
Love,
Mommy
No comments:
Post a Comment