Nhamo in paradise

Throwing

Okay.  So the optimist in me is trying to pass this off as Gabriel being sick and stuck in the house all day.   The pessimest, however, is afraid we've entered a scary new land of toddler independence.

Overall we had a good day.  After he woke up from his nap (too early..he tired and whiney) we went for a nice walk to get coffee and came back to play "bat ball" for a while.  BTW - he told us that we were going on a 'nice walk.'  We came back inside when it started to rain (he decided this - his rule is we come inside when it rains - even if its only drizzling.  I can't convince him otherwise.)  then from about 4:00 - 6:30 he was a throwing, kicking toddler.  Lately I've been putting things in time-out when he kicks them and that usually works pretty quickly.  Today, it almost seemed like he was *wanting* us to take the toys.  Now that I'm writing this I'm thinking that perhaps he was testing out the rule.  (Does the same thing happen when I kick this? how about this?  what if I throw *this*?)  Still, with both Ty and I being sick it was especially hard.  I give kudos to us, though.  We were consistent in the rule and stayed calm throughout (at least on the outside.)  I especially think he was testing because several times he didn't get upset at all when I put the toy up and at least one time he actually handed me the toy to put up after he threw it.  If he's not upset with the toys in timeout, though, where do we go next?  Ty was wondering about at what age do we start to put *him* in timeout.  I'm thinking he would understand it if we tried it.  ARGH - where's the 'feeding and handling of toddlers' book when we need it?

sick, sick, sick...

we're all sick.  blech.

Elephant Firefighter

 

 

 

Happy Birthday, Gabriel!

Ack!  The monkey boy is two!  As a two year old he has been busy:

- learning new words *everyday*.  And consistently using 2-3 word sentences.  Some recent ones include "no work, mama. stay home, " "no like that," "I want oatmeal (with) blueberries," and his longest one yet: "Helmet on head ride motorcycle."

- identifying his own feelings as well as other people's.  He is especially into the book "The Bear Snores On" because the bear first feels mad, then sad, then happy.  He stares at these pages for the longest time and asks for us to read the pages over and over.  Yesterday in the car he said "stay home; home happy."  And he continues to need to process situations where anyone is sad or mad.  "Mama (said) no.  Mad.  ahhh. No like that."

- hitting the ball with the bat. The boy is *good.8  He easily smacks that thing 30-40 feet.  He can throw a round ball overhand with fairly decent accuracy and is starting to master throwing a small football.  He'll get it right to me 75% of the time.  Standing 3-4 feet away, he can catch a large ball about 75% of the time and can catch a small football thrown to him about 50% of the time.  anytime he catches the ball, though, we have to tell him ahead of time that it's coming and remind him to 'get his hands out.'

- running.  His running has really 'taken off' lately.  :-)  He no longer runs with his hands trailing behind his back - which was cute but definitely slowing him down.  He can also go up and down steps one foot at a time (but not alternating.)

- showing his affection to the people he loves.  Ty and I are always getting surprise hugs and kisses.  I love it when he sees one of us after being apart for a while.  He gets sooo happy! He squeals and his whole body shakes with delight.  

- playing 'pretend!'  He has been pretending to feed and cloth his baby dolls for a while now.  The same with his little people critters (he went through a big elephant phase where he acted out the scenes he had seen at the zoo.)  This past week, however, he's taken pretend play to a whole new level.  Today on his birthday he was playing with his fireman and was 'feeding' them eggs.  I made an off handed comment that they would probably appreciate some coffee as well.  He said 'coffee,' went into the kitchen and pretended to scoop coffee off the counter!  He brought it to the firemen and fed them coffee.

- Understanding jokes - and playing them on us!  We were waiting for baba outside her class when he pointed to the wall and said 'spider.'  When I looked, he laughed and laughed.  There was no spider and he knew it.  We did this game over and over.  then he pretended to grab the spider off the wall and toss it at me.  Finally he put the spider on the ground and pretended to bounce the ball over it.  LOL.  His other favorite joke to play is answering questions wrong on purpose. "Did we see an elephant"  "noooo."...big grin.  

Here's a photo document of the day:  firetrucks, teeball, leaves, cake and big baba hugs.

 

 

 

boy tracing

Gabriel has been really into his drawing lately.  This week I asked him if he wanted us to trace his body on paper, not expecting him to really get what I was asking.  Surprise, surprise - he laid down adn kept perfectly still while we traced his body.  He got such a kick out of it!  He did a lot of pointing to his chest and saying 'me.'  We taped it on the door and then he and baba decorated. :-) 

Saturday Market with papa

 

 

boy and his ball

"Mine"

Oh boy.  Gabriel has discovered the concept of 'mine' and is using it's power for all it's worth.  Everything is now MINE.  He has a need to inform of us of this constantly.  He'll be playing with his crayons and then suddenly look up and say '"mine."  We've simply been assuring him that yes, those are his crayons.  He's starting to take this concept a little too far though.  The last few days anytime he either can't have something or has temporarily lost something to a time out he will yell 'mine' and clutch whatever it is tightly to his chest.  For example, yesterday he started drawing on the floor after he already had a warning to only draw on paper.  The usual consequence to this is that we put the marker in 'time out' for a minute or so.  This time I went to take the crayon and he immediately pulled it away, yelled "Mine!" and turned away from me.  Oy.

This is coinciding with his new use of 'my' as well.  Over and over we hear "my mama," "my baba," etc. 

If developing a sense of self is a milestone for 2 - we're there!

more words..and sentences!

Yesterday Gabriel pointed to the toy store (it's right behind the bookstore, where we were heading) and said "Mama get new bat!"  A whole sentence!!!!  LOL..his old bat is dirty and has a small piece missing, but it's still workable.  Still, the wee bear said a whole sentence!  So yes, he got a new bat.  :-)

And then today he said  "put blueberries on plate."  Our little boy is talking!

It's shabbos, the boy is asleep, I'm curled up on the couch listening to the rain.

all is good

Sorry

On Wednesday's Ty watches Gabriel from 8:00am to about 2:00pm.  Yesterday morning they played bat and ball outside for a long time and then went for a stroller walk.  At this point Gabriel was getting tired and started getting very whiny.  After yet some more bat and ball, and more whiny boy, it was time to go inside for a snack and a nap.  Gabriel, however, had other ideas.  He ran over to the little drawing board with have outside and picked up the markers.  Ty told him it was time to go inside and to put the markers away.  "No, no" he said.  This continued for a small bit in true toddler fashion as both of them grew more frustrated with each other. After Ty again told him to put the markers down and go inside, he pulled the markers towards himself and said "no, mine."  At this point Ty was angry and officially 'done.'  She swiftly took the markers from him, picked him up and brought him inside.  Gabriel let out a huge cry and proceeded to sob for several minutes. 

Afterwards, though, he and his baba sat in the rocking chair together.  Ty felt horrible that she had yelled and taken the marker like that.  She and Gabe quietly talked about what had just happened.  Ty said to him, "Baba got mad.  Baba took the marker.  Baba sorry."  Gabriel listened very intently and then repeated this summary back to Ty ("Baba mad. Baba sorry.")  Then Ty offered to go get the markers and bring them inside (a pretty good compromise!) He was thrilled when she brought out big pieces of poster board for him to draw on.  He proceeded to draw pictures of what had just happened, saying 'baba sorry.' 

Although I know Ty initially felt bad about this situation, it was actually a wonderful bonding and learning experience for Gabriel.  People are going to get angry at each other.  And people, even people who love each other, sometimes say or do things when they are upset that they later regret. The best thing we can teach Gabriel is not the ability to avoid anger or arguments (an impossible goal), but the ability to repair a relationship.  The ability to say 'I'm sorry' is in short supply and is a vital skill in maintaining a healthy relationship.

It looks like Gabriel has really taken 'sorry' to heart.  A few hours late he accidently rolled a ball over Ty's foot and said 'sorry baba' 

His new awareness, though, has now made me more careful in my own actions.  This evening, with Gabe on my hip, I saw an ant on the counter and squished it without thinking.  He looked at the ant and said 'sorry ant.'  Oy!

Cinnamon roll happiness

 

"no bye bye, stay home!"

It looks like this week was a little too much for our wee bear.  Yesterday I was changing his diaper and told him we needed to get dressed for the day.  He began sobbing and cried 'no b..., no b..."  The ... are because I couldn't understand what he was saying through his tears.  i kept trying to clarify what he was saying (i.e. "no diaper?"), and he cried harder each time I didn't get it right. Finally Ty figured it out and said 'no bye bye?" "yeeeess," he cried, "no bye bye, stay hooome!"  :-(  Ahhhhhh.

It *has* been very busy this week - with Kari Ann, Arif and Samira in town for sunday - wedensday, and then full days of work/daycare thursday and friday - both the boy and I have been out of the house most of the week.  Poor, poor wee bear.  I called dad and told him we were going to skip Saturday market this week and stay home.

After assuring Gabriel that we were not leaving, he got dressed and then rushed us outside to play 'bat ball.'  For the rest of the day he wouldn't let us leave his sight.  :-)

More firsts...

First day in the 'big kid' daycare room.  He's a 'swallow' now.

 

First rain boots.  (And every day after all we heard was 'rain boots, rain boots.'  Luckily the newness wore out so now he doesn't have to wear them ALL the time. 

Baba love

Everyone has a love bucket inside them - and when the meter reads low, you need to fill it quick!  The best refill?  A big baba hug!

 

Our Scotland family came to visit!

 

 

letters

Yesterday Gabriel noticed the letters of his name on the dishwasher for the first time.  He pointed to each letter and grinned with glee as I said each one's name.  This morning he wanted me to do it all over again.

Happy Sukkot!

 

  

 

 

Still here...

No worries, all is well.  The quiet is a combination of the high holy days + the first week of school + a huge computer meltdown.  On the upside...I am now the owner of a brand new mac!  My old computer was a 7 year old pc.  I've been having fun tweaking old pictures.

Another language explosion

Today Gabriel said "I sweep."  He was a little parrot all day - mimicking everything we said ("I know", and "all right" were popular.)  He has been doing this all week, it's fun to watch.  He engages us in conversation all day, mostly by describing the things he just saw, or something we did recently that he is thinking about.  For example, as we were eating dinner he launched into a conversation about how we saw 'Little One' the kitty outside while we were playing ball. 

The conversation went a little like this:  Gabriel: "little one 'me-ow' outside." Mama: "yes, we saw little one outside." Gabriel: "bat ball me-ow". Mama: "little one was outside while we were playing ball."  Gabriel "Yeah."

Tonight he was saying something that sounded like "I'm you" or "animal"...but it wasn't either.  Whatever it was it was cracking him up as he was saying it all through the bedtime routine.