Ok, I know it's been a very long time since my last post. What can I say- I just have a difficult time keeping up with all my projects these days. But I have been e-mailing myself little stories and tidbits about Reshen while I work as I think of them, and have finally complied more than enough for a blog post and have put them all together to give you an idea of what the boy has been up to the past couple of months. Warning- this is long, but what do you expect... the little man has been busy growing :-)
Reshen has an interest in reading and writing- meaning he realizes that letters make words. When we're reading he'll point to words and ask "What that say, mommy?" To help him connect the written word to the spoken word, I've been trailing my finger along the words when I read to him and now he does the same. He also "writes" names when he draws, which are up-and-down squiggles, but are very different than his other drawings. He helped me with his valentines this year, by writing his friends' names with very deliberate squiggles in the same spot on every card.
Another leap has been he now draws people with extra components. He makes a big circle for the head/body and little circles inside it for eyes (and sometimes even a nose) and sometimes adds a line for a mouth and circles on the bottom for feet. I was amazed the first time he did this. I assumed this was something that would come later. He also floored me by drawing "big tall trees and wind" once, with lines and circles for the tree and squiggles for the wind.
His medium of choice is the marker- preferably black...although he was banned from them for a short while because he bit the tip off one of them when we weren't looking. "I bite it!" he told Alan, handing him the chewed off tip and smiling at him with black marker all over his face. Good thing it was non-toxic!
For awhile, Reshen had formed an attachment to a small, plastic Minnie Mouse character. I'm not sure why, other than she's in his favorite TV Show, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. The funniest thing about his attachment, was that he wanted Minnie to sleep in his crib with him. He even requested that I make her a bed, so she had a small blanket set up beside his pillow. When I put him in his crib to go to sleep, he would turn her over on her belly, just like he sleeps and would pat her back like I pat his. Sometimes she would fall out of his crib through the slats in the middle of the night, and if he noticed, he would begin yelling "Oh no, my Minnie fall out! Mommy help you!" Our boy is fickle, though, and no longer loves her like he used to, only a month ago. It was cute while it lasted.
He's been fascinated by the going to sleep process and likes to pretend to put mommy and daddy to sleep. If I yawn or rub my eyes he runs over to me and asks "Mommy tired? I put you to bed." He pretends to pick me up and then pulls me towards a pillow, saying "C'mon Mommy. Lay down." He then goes through all the motions of giving me milk, putting a blanket on me, patting my back, giving me a kiss and then even pretends to close a door. It's really cute. Too bad my pretend nights are short, though, and I can't sneak in a real nap :-)
Reshen has been so affectionate. He still runs up to me with spontaneous hugs and kisses and says "I wuv you" or "You're my best friend." Sometimes if I leave the room and then come back he will come up and hug me and say "I miss you." or "I'm glad you're back!" He is also very good at blowing kisses and we do this when I drop him off at daycare and as I'm leaving his room at bedtime. It's really sweet and makes up for all the times he's not so "soft" with mommy.
He loves to pretend to spray people or pretend get people wet or dirty.
Some things he pretends to do are spraying people with hoses, dumping water on people, throwing salt on people (long story where this came from- I know, it's weird)). He uses funny sound effects and then cackles with delight when you pretend to be surprised and brush yourself off. He understands now that firetrucks have hoses and often pretends to be a firefighter. The other evening after dinner he was in the living room by himself and I heard him making his hose spraying noise. We peeked in there to see him wearing his fire hat and holding a small cord (from the computer) "spraying" all the furniture. Too cute. Alan had to find him his own "hose" to use, though so that he wouldn't destroy our electronics in his hose-spraying-frenzy.
Funny things he says:
- "I be right back" while he holds up one finger and looks at you intently
- "That is turk-noise (turquoise)?" I love it when he says this. He's obsessed with "turk-noise" right now and is always identifying it.
- "I have a good idea" when he thinks of something else he wants to do or play
- "Hmmmm... Let's see." or "Hmmm... Let's think." with a finger on his chin and a thoughtful expression.
- "I don't know." He says this *so* sweetly. I love it.
-"Dat (that) mines (mine)!" I just love how he puts an S on the end of mine. It's really cute :-)
-"I driving Mommy crazy!" What can I say.. he's very observant.
We think Reshen is going through a growth spurt. He can eat *so* much all of a sudden. He ate an entire cheeseburger by himself a couple of weekends ago. It was a small, simple burger but I was shocked that he ate the whole thing. He will also eat a meal and then 30 minutes later comes up to me saying "I hungy (hungry) Mommy. I want food!" It's been a challenge to continue to give him healthy things to snack on, when he asks for food so often. He also goes through spurts where he will sleep a bit later in the mornings (till 7 some days) and is said to be taking really solid, long naps at daycare....although this past week he's been awake before 6 a.m. every day, so I guess he's not consistent about it. Perhaps he will be able to fit into all of his 2T pants soon! Just as long as he grows *up* and not *out* :-)
Reshen is really into Dr. Seuss books- his favorite being Wocket in my Pocket, but he also likes Fox in Socks and Green Eggs and Ham. For a good few weeks we read Wocket in my Pocket almost every night before bed and he can now "read" the entire book outloud himself (ok, so he just memorized it.. but still impressive, right?). It's so cute to hear him say "And I feel quite certain there's a Jertain in my Curtain." Of course, no one else would probably understand him as it's out of context, but I sure do :-) We have discovered the books-on-video at the library... basically they are DVDs that show the pages of the book and have a voice actor reading them. Reshen loves the Dr. Seuss series of these.
Not only can he read books to himself, but he likes to read them to us. He will read a page and then turn it outward and ask "You see that, Mommy?" He must be picking this up from daycare when they have story time :-) He gets into reading frenzies sometimes where he will sit and read every single book that he has (which is *a lot*). It's so cute to see him intently reading surrounded by a huge pile of books.
Speaking of daycare, I'm so happy we found our ours. Pam is just wonderful with him, as are the other young ladies that work there. It warms my heart to see him give his caregivers big hugs in the morning and to see them genuinely love him back. He brings home art projects almost every day and very often when I go to pick him up, they are all sitting and listening to stories, dancing to music, reading their own books or playing outside. His days seems very full and engaging there. We also now have a pool of qualified babysitters that we know and trust, which is a wonderful side benefit.
A few things Reshen has gained from pre-school:
1. How to spell his name. Ask him how you spell "Reshen" and he'll say "R E S H E N" and acts like he's pointing at the letters. He can also pick out his name from other words, and exclaims "Dat (that) my name!"
2. The days of the week. I don't think he gets the concept really, but can recite the days of the week in order and can sing "The days of the week song" in its entirety.
3. He can count to at least 20.
4. He learns songs and stories that aren't from me- like BINGO, The bear went over the mountain and more... it's funny to hear him sing them and reference them and I'm out of the loop!
5. How to play and socialize with other kids- both younger than him and older than him.
6. Manners. OK, I teach this too, but they really push them in daycare.
Yesterday when he was done with dinner he asked "Can I please be excused please?" I about melted it was so sweet. Thank you Pam!
7. He has learned trust and that other people can take care of him- not just mommy and daddy. This is important, especially since we don't live near family and he hasn't had many other people take care of him in his life.
Reshen is still obsessed with trains, but also now likes tractors as well. We got a book about farm machines from the library and for awhile they were the only trucks he cared about. I asked him the other day if he likes dump trucks. He said "no" so then I asked if he liked crane trucks. Again he answered "no." Then he added. "I not like any trucks, Mommy. Just tractors." How silly of me.
He's also really into buses right now, as we went on a bus adventure to downtown Seattle recently. We took the bus from north Seattle and Reshen was wide-eyed the entire trip, taking it all in. We went to see Daddy's work and then to the downtown library, but what he wanted to do most was ride the bus. At the end of the day when the bus ride was over and he was back in the car in his car seat, he began crying to "Ride on bus, see downtown library again!" He still talks about it. Who knew the metro bus full of stinky downtown inhabitants could be so exciting?
But his love of trains still trumps everything else. He now has 5 train sets. Not kidding. They aren't all set up at the same time, but he likes to alternate between them. We often pretend that our car is a Bullet Train and that we are driving on tracks. He sees notices them everywhere- signs, books, commercials... he's got an eye for them, that's for sure. During our Indiana trip, he saw a real steam train at the Children's Museum and got to sit on it. He really thought it was moving and was so excited. They also had a large model display and I really think he could have stayed there all day watching them. Then later that week we went to the train tracks and he got to see a large freight train.. which we are still talking about. We are planning on taking him for a real steam train ride this summer. I just hope he doesn't get scared of the loud whistle and decide he's afraid of them!
Airplanes have also struck his fancy lately.. mostly due to the fact he rode on 4 of them last week for our Indiana trip. He did so well and was excited to sit on his own in his special airplane car seat. He had his "own window" and "own tray" and he kept entertained with new books, DVDs, and special snacks for the most part. He even napped a bit. It was so much easier flying with him in his own sit rather than holding him the entire time like we had done in the past. Anyway, he was interested in the plane. We could see the wing from our seat, but he then asked where the tail was and looked thoughtful when I told him it was behind us and we couldn't see it from our seat. He also enjoyed watching the "crane trucks" as he called them, as they de-iced our airplane in Minneapolis. Big trucks spraying solution all over the planes does make for riveting entertainment I guess. He also asked where the engineer was LOL. I said the driver of the plane is called the pilot. So then he asked where the pilot was and I told him he was up front, driving the plane and maybe we would see him when we got off. He was lucky enough that the pilot actually came down the aisle and gave him a little airplane card and then helped me carry the carseat off the plane. He's still talking about that :-)
We are making some small head-way with potty learning. I made a potty chart where he can put a sticker on everytime he sits on the potty, whether or not he actually does anything on it. If he does actually "potty" then he also gets a chocolate chip and gets to put a special big sticker on the chart. It is more of a form of encouragement and also a visual reminder that there is a potty, as he had totally lost interest for awhile. He usually sits on it now before bedtime. He went pee-pee in it a few weeks ago and we made much fan-fare about it. The next day he wanted that chocolate chip again, or "potty treat" as we call it, and jumped up from the potty announcing that he was ready for it. I asked him if there was pee or poo in the potty and he looked in there and said "no." I explained the terms of the potty treat and he sat back down to try again. He looked like he was concentrating very hard and even strained a bit. He then looked between his legs and exclaimed "It's not working!" LOL I then explained that sometimes you just don't have to go... I did feel kind of bad for the kid, but I have to stick to the rules with this. I still think he doesn't know how to physically control his bowels yet, but I figure maybe he'll at least have the concept down by the time he's physically ready. We're still doing the no-pressure, fun approach. Just keeping the idea going ;-)
Our big boy was recently a ring-bearer in his Aunt Carly and Uncle Chris' wedding. He was utterly *adorable* in his suit. He was such a good boy and walked down the aisle by himself and cooperated for photos and even stole the dance floor during the reception. I'm so proud of my little man.
Well I suppose this is long enough for now. I'll probably think of some more tidbits later and put them in another post.
