Saturday, September 13, 2008

Toddler skills

I was sharing this with some mom friends and thought I should post it here, too. They were asking what our toddlers could do right now, and here are a few things my 19-month-old is up to...

I was impressed last night when he dumped out some goldfish crackers on the living room floor and then went into the kitchen, pulled a chair over to the counter, climbed up and got the Dustbuster down and brought it into the living room to clean up the mess!

But today he unfortunately used the same skills to get a permanent marker down from a kitchen cabinet and draw all over himself and the countertop! (We still haven't gotten it all off his face or hands!) We normally keep the chairs up on the table to stop him from climbing on them.

He can follow simple commands now and is very good about throwing things in the trash when we are done with them! (Too bad he also throws away things we need!)

He can open a straw wrapper and sometimes even put the straw into a juice box or juice bag! (Usually he is not supposed to...he just grabs his brothers' drinks and makes off with them! But they could not manage those straws by themselves until age 3 or 4!)

He can climb almost anything! He can also jump off the floor with both feet, and is a crazy amazing dancer. He is starting to walk down the stairs the normal way, only holding onto the wall slightly--scares me!

He can also identify SpongeBob ("Ba!") even from across a store... (blush).

He makes a cute "Shh" sound with his finger up to his mouth (but likes to scream first and then Shh himself!), and can imitate all kinds of noises, like the noise of the printer and the noise of the vacuum cleaner! He can also do an adorable fake sneeze on command.

He has a magic power over computers so that just barely touching them, he can turn them off or close programs or open new windows or even change major settings! ;)

He is pretty much a daredevil with great large motor skills, but not many words yet. Though one of his newest words, which sounds like "ga ga," is actually his attempt to say "en garde!" (He picked this up from foam swordfights with his brother!)

He also thinks it's hilarious to lick people, or to spit into his hand and rub it on people! He is such a boy! But he's so, so cute, and will occasionally give us huge hugs and even more occasionally give us real kisses, and it melts me.

Monday, September 1, 2008

School time!

All three boys started school this past week! I have a 2nd grader, a 4th grader, and then one in Mother's Day Out 2 mornings a week!

We're only sending the little one because his brother was in the same program at the same age with the same teacher, and we loved her, and I'm thrilled to report he likes it! He's never done well in the church nursery, just cries or has to be held, but both mornings he went to MDO, he stopped crying within minutes, played, had fun, and then wasn't eager to leave at the end! Amazingly, he also did well in the church nursery this week, after the two days of MDO. He is always in a great mood afterwards and babbling like a little chatterbox, so I think it's going to be good for him. (And it really is like a preschool, despite being for 1-year-olds...they do art projects, learn songs & fingerplays on the themes of the week, have storytime & some structured playtime, etc.) It was really nice to have a few hours to get things done, too.