"Almost 3"
To celebrate SPL’s final month before he turns 3, here is what he’s been up to:
Quotes:
SPL: “I need a birthday card for me!”
KEH: “Why is that?”
SPL: “Because I’m going to have a birthday party.”
SPL: “Wanna play Mario (as in Mario Kart for the Wii), mom?”
KEH: “Sure.”
SPL (running into the TV room): “This is how you play — you get this (the remote) and you turn it on and it goes “Wii!” — ok?”
In the car on the way to school 5/21:
SPL: “All cars have doors, mom.”
KEH: “What do you think the doors are for?”
SPL: “to keep out the coyotes, tigers, lions and crocodiles.”
And finally, Aris (a preschool friend — same age as SPL) to SPL @ school (5/21): “SPL, you need a haircut :-)”
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More examples of how he’s incorporated learning from different sources, this time from TV (yes, that’s TV :-): The background story is this: We’ve had more than our share of critters inhabit and do their best to destroy our front yard this month. We ended up finding not just 1 but 2 moles AND a gopher!?!?!
Sooooo…….SPL said this to John while they were wait for the Mole/Gopher man to arrive one Saturday:
SPL: “Let’s find something we like to do (while we wait ). When waiting is really hard for you, just do something you like to do.”
[SPL learned this from Ni Hao Kai Lan video (This is a mostly English but partially Mandarin cartoon on Nick Jr.) In this particular episode, Hoho the monkey had a difficult time waiting (the character is meant to be a 2-3 year old, I’m guessing 🙂 So his friends Kai Lan, Rintu (a tiger) and Toli (a koala), plus Kai Lan’s wise Grandpa (“yeh yeh”) help him learn what he *can* do to make the waiting time easier: do something you *like*.
I like this show a lot because it focuses on friendships and how friends can help each other solve problems (and they are preschool age problems (like waiting or being rained out of activities you really want to do) and the problem solvers are the children/children-like animal characters — along with Yeh Yeh :-). Each has a message like “don’t think about what you can’t do — think about what you can do.” And they put each to music and sing along to help each other find an example of what they can do.]
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And here’s a funny example of how he sometimes goes from grown up talk to kid talk in a nanosecond:
SPL was in his bed, ready for nighttime sleep when he knocked over a cup of water which got his sheets wet. Since it was more than a little bit, I said we needed to solve the problem before he went to sleep and between the tears he said “but mom I wanted to solve the problem tomorrow when I wake up.” and then the next thing out of his mouth was “I want my fish (a new toy that he won at a local fair on Sunday). Once again demonstrating how quickly his brain changes focus — it’s hard to keep up! 🙂
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Phrases that he has been using more frequently:
“That was my idea…” (e.g. putting fruit in a ziploc bag)
“I was thinking about that….”
“mom/dad — let me show you how this works…”
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On one of our blustery days in May, I got home from work and SPL was so excited to show me/reenact what he’d watched the wind do that morning while he was with Emily (his babysitter). He grabbed my hand and took me outside and raced over to set up the experiment: he placed the bucket “just so” and quickly the gust of wind blew it across the driveway. SPL was so pleased that I got to see it too :-).
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And his big accomplishment for this month: !
Three is right around the corner!