Yesterday Aaron sat down at the kitchen table and wanted some milk. There were books of the table that he wanted me to read. While he drank milk. He also wanted a bib but there wasn't one of the table. I told him to get a bib from his room. He extended his arm towards his room and whined "No can reach it!" This is a common tactic for when he doesn't want to do something. I told him he had to get down from the table to go get it. He said "Mama do it!"
I refused and he continued to whine and talked about wanting milk and stories. Finally I said "Aaron, look at me." Which he reluctantly did. I said "Why don't you get down from the table, go to your room and get a bib, come back and I will get you some milk and read you a story." He immediately said "Yeah", started to get down from the table, and added "Sounds like a plan."
24 January 2010
23 January 2010
Learning every day
Aaron loves to learn new things. I suspect this is common for toddlers, but since this is my first, I don't know what is normal for this age. Aaron practically taught himself the alphabet and his numbers by prefering books that are alphabet or counting based (I have Ten Little Ladybugs and Dr. Seuss' ABC's memorized). And he often stops us mid-book to point out the words he knows or to ask what a specific word is. But other than this self-directed learning, Thom has really taken the lead in teaching Aaron the things that he knows.
I remember when I was pregnant, Thom used to take Aaron on walks in the stroller to get him out of my hair on the weekends. After one of these walks, Aaron came back able to recite his street address. Thom had mentioned prior to this that we should teach Aaron his address in case he were to get lost. I never would have imagined that he could learn his address at age 2. I think I often underestimate what Aaron is capable of because I am often surprised by what Thom is able to teach Aaron with simple games.
For example, he taught Aaron his left hand from his right during breakfast time. Aaron has a bowl of oatmeal every morning. We usually still help him fill up the spoon and then he puts it in his mouth. (Aaron could probably do it all on his own if we wanted to clean up oatmeal off the table and floor every morning.) So Thom would put the spoon on either the left side or the right side and tell Aaron which side it was. Later, he'd ask Aaron "Left or right side?" and Aaron would respond by holding up the hand that he preferred and saying what it was (at which point Thom would correct him if he was wrong.) He still gets his left and right confused, but most of the time, if he is looking for a book on the shelf that I can see, I can direct him to it by telling him it is more to the left or more to the right of where he is looking.
Now that they have mastered left and right, Thom is teaching Aaron time by placing the spoon at twelve o'clock, 3 o'clock, etc.
Aaron now also knows all the sections of the Wall Street Journal (his favorite is the elusive Journal Report that seems to come sporadically). He knows names of plants and trees in the backyard, as well as birds he sees out the window from the kitchen table. Thom has also taught him to say "May I be excused from the table, please?" rather than just saying "All done!" And he could spell both his name and Audrey's name well before he was 2 1/2.
I'm really impressed with how easily Aaron picks stuff up, but also by how easily Thom integrates learning into their daily routine. He seems to see a learning opportunity in everything. Sometimes he'll be explaining something to Aaron in a way that I think is too mature for his age or is too complicated for Aaron to understand. Lately it's been addition and subtraction. But I've learned that Aaron is often more capable than I expect. In fact, he already knows that 100-100=0.
I remember when I was pregnant, Thom used to take Aaron on walks in the stroller to get him out of my hair on the weekends. After one of these walks, Aaron came back able to recite his street address. Thom had mentioned prior to this that we should teach Aaron his address in case he were to get lost. I never would have imagined that he could learn his address at age 2. I think I often underestimate what Aaron is capable of because I am often surprised by what Thom is able to teach Aaron with simple games.
For example, he taught Aaron his left hand from his right during breakfast time. Aaron has a bowl of oatmeal every morning. We usually still help him fill up the spoon and then he puts it in his mouth. (Aaron could probably do it all on his own if we wanted to clean up oatmeal off the table and floor every morning.) So Thom would put the spoon on either the left side or the right side and tell Aaron which side it was. Later, he'd ask Aaron "Left or right side?" and Aaron would respond by holding up the hand that he preferred and saying what it was (at which point Thom would correct him if he was wrong.) He still gets his left and right confused, but most of the time, if he is looking for a book on the shelf that I can see, I can direct him to it by telling him it is more to the left or more to the right of where he is looking.
Now that they have mastered left and right, Thom is teaching Aaron time by placing the spoon at twelve o'clock, 3 o'clock, etc.
Aaron now also knows all the sections of the Wall Street Journal (his favorite is the elusive Journal Report that seems to come sporadically). He knows names of plants and trees in the backyard, as well as birds he sees out the window from the kitchen table. Thom has also taught him to say "May I be excused from the table, please?" rather than just saying "All done!" And he could spell both his name and Audrey's name well before he was 2 1/2.
I'm really impressed with how easily Aaron picks stuff up, but also by how easily Thom integrates learning into their daily routine. He seems to see a learning opportunity in everything. Sometimes he'll be explaining something to Aaron in a way that I think is too mature for his age or is too complicated for Aaron to understand. Lately it's been addition and subtraction. But I've learned that Aaron is often more capable than I expect. In fact, he already knows that 100-100=0.
22 January 2010
Aaron's First Glueing
It suddenly dawned on me that Aaron could start doing craft projects. My mom told me how I used to do "glueings" in preschool. So I got out the glue, pulled an empty snack box out of the reclycling and found a 17 bean soup mix I didn't like and some alphabet pasta that Aaron didn't like last year that's been sitting in my pantry. And viola! We have his first glueings. He loved it. Kim did these with him. They were sort of collaborative, but Kim showed him how to use the glue and how to put the beans on the glue. After his nap, he wanted to do more, so I found some more cardboard and we did another one in the afternon (not pictured here).Post Christmas gifts
Technically the wagon is from Christmas, we just didn't get it assembled until this month. But the guitar is a gift from Thom. He and Aaron have been playing with Thom's acoustic guitar for at least a year, so Thom decided to get Aaron a child sized guitar. He loves it, although it didn't take long for him to get it out of tune turning the knobs. Now they can play their guitars together. So far Thom is just teaching Aaron how to hold the guitar and how to strum the strings with his thumb. And we are teaching him to be careful with it and not to bang it on the floor. Actual songs will come later. But when there is music on that Aaron likes, he will get out his guitar and "play" along.
I also got him a small djambe drum since he likes Thom's so well. He also plays that along with his favorite songs. I ordered the drum when I ordered the hutch conversion kit for his play kitchen. He loves his kitchen so much and uses it every day, it made sense to invest in the hutch to store his growing collection of empty bottles and spice containers that go with the kitchen now. He loves having the extra shelf space to put things on. Anyway, the hutch wasn't enough to qualify for free shipping, so I got the drum, too. Aaron loves music, so I hope exposing him to instruments at a young age will help get him interested in music lessons later. I'd like him to play at least one instrument.
We didn't really intend to get him so many new toys around Christmas. I like to get new things for him throughout the year to keep him challenged developmentally. But I think shopping for the holidays sort of became a habit and we just couldn't stop. My next plan is to clean out a cabinet for a craft cabinet for Aaron. He has already done his first glueing (to be a future post) and I think he is finally at the age where he can start doing little crafts. I want to get a few staples such as pipe cleaners and tempera paint, but then hopefully most of the crafts at this stage will involve items from around the house and yard. Nature collages, repurposing cans and boxes, making macaroni necklaces, etc.
Where has January gone?
Earlier this month I took Audrey to the doctor for a cold that was lingering. Kim was here with Aaron. When I came home, I took Audrey out of the car and was about to close the door when I saw a ladybug on the top of the door frame that would have been squished. I carefully scooped it up into my free hand and took it inside for Aaron. He was eating lunch, so I managed to put it into a jar for him. After lunch, he went outside with Kim and she got the ladybug onto his finger. I tried to get a shot from the front that showed the joy on his face, but the ladybug flew away before I could take a picture.We had two milestones this week, both two days ago. I had Audrey on the floor doing tummy time while Aaron was doing some mazes in his dry-erase maze book (a good pre-writing activity). Before I knew it, she rolled over onto her back for the first time! She even rolled to her side from her back, but couldn't make it all the way back to tummy.
Later I had her in my lap and Aaron voluntarily gave her his stuffed banana and carrot to play with. They are actually age appropriate for her (unlike some of his toys he's tried to give her) and he let her have them while he did his mazes. She even managed to hold the carrot and drool on it. Which he noted, but he didn't freak out about. This was the best sharing he's done so far. Sharing is really hard for him at this age, so I praised him and then told Thom and Kim later while he could hear, again pointing out what a good big brother he is.
19 January 2010
4+ months
This is Audrey loaded up in the carseat for her 4 month checkup on Friday. She weighed in at 12 lbs 1 oz and was 24" long. I thought she'd weigh more since about 10 days before this, I took her to the doctor for a cold she'd had for almost 2 weeks and she had weighed 12 lbs even. Anyway, she seems to be doing fine. The pediatrician went over what foods we can introduce and when. I guess we can start her on rice cereal, or oatmeal or barley (just single grains, though) anytime between now and 6 months. Just 2 1/2 years ago when Aaron was at this age we were supposed to breast feed exclusively until 6 months. The recommendations have already changed. And we can introduce wheat and meat sooner, I believe. I have to look at the sheet she gave us in more detail. I don't think Audrey's quite ready for solids yet - I'll wait until she can at least sit upright in a high chair. Which we will need to coax away from Aaron.
Audrey was sleeping through the night for awhile. She nurses sometime between 9:30 and 10:30pm and I put her down in her crib. She stirs around 1-3am, but I can get her back to sleep by patting her, without taking her out of the crib. Then for awhile she was going until 5:30am, 6:30, sometimes 8am. I'd get up with Aaron and Thom and enjoy my coffee first and I'd keep checking on her. But then 3 nights ago, she woke at 4:40, and the last 2 nights it has been 3:40am. She fusses a lot before that and I try to get her back to sleep but she just keeps getting louder until I feed her. I wonder if she could be teething. She has acted like it for awhile now, always chewing on her fingers and drooling a lot. And I think Aaron's first tooth showed up around 4 1/2 months. And I remember teething always disrupted his sleep.
She's mostly outgrown her colic. It got better right around the end of the first 3 months. But she still tends to be fussier in the evenings.
She LOVES her big brother. If Aaron so much as glances in her direction, her face lights up. She watches him and today when I was holding her on my lap, she laughed at her brother when he was being silly. He of course is oblivious, although we are trying to get him to interact with her more. He has asked to hug her a couple of times, but other times when we ask if he wants to hug her, he says she is too little. She is too little for a lot of things.
17 January 2010
Long overdue Christmas post
I wanted to write a long post about our Christmas, but with Thom, Aaron and Audrey sick over the holidays and me being perpetually behind on work, I haven't found the time. And then I didn't want to post new entries on the blog until I did Christmas first. So I'm going to try to get caught up.
We had a live tree again. I like that it is small and easy to decorate and undecorate. I left off the glass ornaments after Aaron broke a couple last year and mostly stuck to non-breakable ornaments. Most of the ornaments have special meaning. There are ones from my mom; one from the first year we had the house, one of a pregnant snowman (when I was pregnant with Aaron), one from Aaron's first Christmas, and now one for Audrey's first Christmas. There are ornaments we've gotten from Aunt Janine every year, ones that my sister Theresa and brother Jeff made in year's past. A pickle from Aunt Sherry.
Aaron really enjoyed his advent calendars this year. My mom gets him one and so does Aunt Janine and Uncle Bruce. We also have a wooden advent calendar house with 25 doors which I put little ornaments behind for a little wooden tree I have. So every morning we opened all three advent calendars (which we had to do in the same order every day, because that is how Aaron is). He still wanted to do advent calendars after Christmas, but he adjusted pretty well when we told him advent was over.
When we opened presents on Christmas morning, Aaron actually enjoyed it, unlike last year when he cried and just wanted to play with his puzzles.
We got him a few things, but not much since we knew he'd get a lot of gifts from aunts and uncles. Our big gift was an all terrain wagon, but after getting Aaron to bed and looking at the assembly instructions at 8:30pm, with Audrey still awake and fussy, I put the wagon back in the box. It had been sitting in the entry way for weeks and sat there until this last Thursday - Aaron never said a word about it. But after Grandpa assembled it on Thursday, he loves playing with it and riding in it. He thinks Grandpa gave it to him!
We got him a preschool game called Orchard in which players compete against a blackbird to get the fruit out of the trees. The players either win together or lose together - you don't compete against each other, which seemed like a good intro to board games. We let him play with the fruit by himself in the morning, so when we took it to my parents' house to play with his cousins, he had some trouble taking turns and following directions from his cousins. But we are working on the whole "game" concept.
Thom got him some Colorforms, like he had when he was a kid. He likes those, but just likes to put the pieces on the board, not actually using them to make pictures. Thom also got him a book called Long Night Moon.
We went to my parents house close to nap time, hoping that Thom and Aaron might lie down for a little nap. I didn't want to put Aaron down for a nap here since we'd have gotten to my parents' house too late. He fell asleep in the car, and wouldn't go back to sleep over there, but he had fun with his cousins.
Since my brother's kids spent Christmas day with their mom, we had another gathering of the family on Sunday after Christmas at our house.
It was nice to see so much of our family. I just wish Thom hadn't been sick the whole time he took off work (between Christmas and New Year's) and that Aaron and Audrey hadn't gotten sick, too. But they are all well now. And the tree is put away, the house is mostly back in order and January is half over. Not sure how that all happened.
Here's looking forward to a great 2010.
We had a live tree again. I like that it is small and easy to decorate and undecorate. I left off the glass ornaments after Aaron broke a couple last year and mostly stuck to non-breakable ornaments. Most of the ornaments have special meaning. There are ones from my mom; one from the first year we had the house, one of a pregnant snowman (when I was pregnant with Aaron), one from Aaron's first Christmas, and now one for Audrey's first Christmas. There are ornaments we've gotten from Aunt Janine every year, ones that my sister Theresa and brother Jeff made in year's past. A pickle from Aunt Sherry.
Aaron really enjoyed his advent calendars this year. My mom gets him one and so does Aunt Janine and Uncle Bruce. We also have a wooden advent calendar house with 25 doors which I put little ornaments behind for a little wooden tree I have. So every morning we opened all three advent calendars (which we had to do in the same order every day, because that is how Aaron is). He still wanted to do advent calendars after Christmas, but he adjusted pretty well when we told him advent was over.
When we opened presents on Christmas morning, Aaron actually enjoyed it, unlike last year when he cried and just wanted to play with his puzzles.
We got him a few things, but not much since we knew he'd get a lot of gifts from aunts and uncles. Our big gift was an all terrain wagon, but after getting Aaron to bed and looking at the assembly instructions at 8:30pm, with Audrey still awake and fussy, I put the wagon back in the box. It had been sitting in the entry way for weeks and sat there until this last Thursday - Aaron never said a word about it. But after Grandpa assembled it on Thursday, he loves playing with it and riding in it. He thinks Grandpa gave it to him!
We got him a preschool game called Orchard in which players compete against a blackbird to get the fruit out of the trees. The players either win together or lose together - you don't compete against each other, which seemed like a good intro to board games. We let him play with the fruit by himself in the morning, so when we took it to my parents' house to play with his cousins, he had some trouble taking turns and following directions from his cousins. But we are working on the whole "game" concept.
Thom got him some Colorforms, like he had when he was a kid. He likes those, but just likes to put the pieces on the board, not actually using them to make pictures. Thom also got him a book called Long Night Moon.
We went to my parents house close to nap time, hoping that Thom and Aaron might lie down for a little nap. I didn't want to put Aaron down for a nap here since we'd have gotten to my parents' house too late. He fell asleep in the car, and wouldn't go back to sleep over there, but he had fun with his cousins.
Since my brother's kids spent Christmas day with their mom, we had another gathering of the family on Sunday after Christmas at our house.
It was nice to see so much of our family. I just wish Thom hadn't been sick the whole time he took off work (between Christmas and New Year's) and that Aaron and Audrey hadn't gotten sick, too. But they are all well now. And the tree is put away, the house is mostly back in order and January is half over. Not sure how that all happened.
Here's looking forward to a great 2010.
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