SPL's Blog

Wow, the final blog post for 2006: the long-overdue 17 month update and video montage.

This month has been a new dimension both verbally and emotionally.  Sam ushered in a new developmental phase and you could recognize it by the haggard looks on all of our faces and dark circles under our eyes (also a lot of smiles mixed in — when we realized we’ve figured out what a new strategy that works (the old "divert, distract" isn’t as foolproof anymore).  As part of this new phase, Sam now has tons of opinions about what he wants to do (imagine that!?!) and when he wants to do it (one answer: now) — part of his process of establishing himself as his own person.

The cool thing is this disequilibrium has pushed our creativity and helped us develop new parenting strategies.

This month has also been a verbal explosion.  Sam repeats (and mostly retains) much of what is said to him.  We were constantly amazed at how keyed in he was on language acquisition (both English and Mandarin):

— Sam translated "Stop" while Ayi (his babysitter) was telling me about it in the car (she was telling me that Sam understood when to stop @ the street intersection)

— John taught him to say "Pearce" in response to "what’s your name?" and then realized that it had stuck (and that he wanted him to say Sam instead :-).  Never fear — Sam quickly figured out his first name too.

— I lost track of all the words but the English ones included owl, yummy, apple, Christmas tree, wreath, moose, & Santa Claus

Most endearing moment:  said "I love you" for the first time (Wednesday November 15)  And a close second was that he started putting his toys and clothes away more reliably early in December

Obsession of the month: Mozilla got one of the One Laptop Per Child on loan so John brought it home to show Sam.  I’m not sure if it was the size (small), or the color (green), or that fact that we let him push the keys and use it himself (he doesn’t get to do that with our laptops) but it was magical to watch him engage with it.  And you’d have thought his best friend died if you’d heard him scream when the computer had to go "night night."  No joke.  I have never heard a noise like that from him. 

Sam has also started to anticipate parts of the stories that he reads most often (e.g. the next animal in the ABC book, and especially the "F" page which is fish or the "quack quack quack" part of the Boynton book "Barnyard Dance."

Favorite books: Peter Rabbit and Friends (thanks Gigi!), Good Dog Carl (thanks Sturtevant family), and anything Sandra Boynton has written (John’s fave :-).

Other highlights of this month include Thanksgiving with Auntie Beth, Uncle Scott, Andrew, Kate and Emily, cutting down our own Christmas tree, and getting new galoshes (see video for footage and photos).

Hope you all are having a good New Year’s Eve.  Sam sends his love to each of you.