Talking: Well, I stopped tracking words this month; I could have kept it up a bit longer I suppose, but it was getting hard to know which words Ant was just repeating vs. which ones he really knows. Although now for the most part anything he repeats he often will use again in the right context very quickly. The two major changes this month were starting to call us "daddy" and "mommy" instead of "dada" and "mama", and saying "S"s properly (F has now also been replaced with S in a lot of cases, so 'fan', which used to be "han", is now "san". And washing machine has gone from "heen" to "sheen". Some of my favorite words this month have been that Santa says "ho ho ho", mixer (maser), beater (beatah), food processor (pasah), oregano!, climbing, coaster (coaser), flashing (hashi), bannister (bansa), and thermometer (mahtah). He's got almost all the animal sounds now, and when we tell him a new one he picks it up quite quickly. He w as also walking around saying "ay BEE see" for a few days. Occasionally "dee" was thrown in there as well, but mostly it was just abc. Couldn't ever figure out what the trigger for that was, it seemed to be quite random. Finally, he's just starting to put together three word phrases - the other day he said "mommy's car keys", Mark's dad says that Ant said "papa hold bansta", and there have been a few other things that pop out from time to time. He's also started using "it" - as in 'open it' (open-ah), 'dropped it' (dop it), 'find it' (hind it). Okay not quite finally - he's also started saying more and more when we read his books with him. The Elmo lift the flaps book is really cute, he'll say "Oh no!" which is what Elmo says when he can't find his blanket, as well as "hewwo" for the lady talking on the phone, "sinky" (stinky) for the lady holding her nose in the car with Oscar, "dump" for the dump truck, and "cuckoo" for the clock.
Movement: Not too much new here. We've seen lots of walking on tiptoes in the last week or so, which is quite cute. Also he twists his hand back and forth, and says "tatah" (as in the agitator in the washing machine), both when we're down looking at the machine, as well as just randomly. He also has started doing that for the 'wheels on the bus' song.
Mental: One of the things that really astonished me this month was that Ant seems to have memorized at least one of his books. We have the Boynton book "moo ba lalala", and after he learned some of the animal sounds, I started reading to him, leaving spaces for him to fill in the sounds. He got the first two no problem; "A cow says Moo, a sheep says Ba". With no added prompting, he then contined filling them in: "Three singing pigs say La la la"... "little dogs say Ruff Ruff Ruff", "Some other dogs say Bow Wow Wow". He mostly says that dogs say 'woof', so the fact that he filled in the ruff and bow wow, was amazing! Another fun discovery was that one day he was holding the triple paste which goes on his bum, and said "paysht....bum!" again with no prompting whatsoever. He's also started calling himself a baby when he sees pictures or himself in the mirror - although at Mom and Roy's house the other day he pointed to the pictures o f himself and said what I thought sounded very much like Antony. The last big change this month is that he finally seemed to start paying attention to the music playing in the car. We've been having his kids CDs on for a long time, but this was the first month he gave any indication he was listening - after each song ended, at first, he would say "mowah, mowah!". I would respond "more coming, more coming". Now, at the end of each song, he says "coming!". And was incredibly angry when I tried to take him out of the car when we got home the last two nights. I have never ever seen him so upset before! He and Sami seem very enamoured of each other, talking about each other all the time. And they were so excited at Christmas to see the other again, and are really starting to play well, almost together. (The absolute best was when they gave each other a mutual, unprompted hug).
Toys and games: Bowls, pots, pans, thermometers, spoons, wisks were the big favorite this month. Taking them out of the cupboards and putting them into the living room; stacking and unstacking them, and mixing inside them. Also very very happy with the trucks, cars and trains he got for Christmas. As well as the coaster from Mom and Roy! He also is drawing a little bit, and mostly just on the paper. Right handed.
Teeth: Nothing to report.
Feeding: Ant has become a bit more fussy as far as feeding goes. Doesn't seem to like chunks (and spits them out immediately). The beans in minestrone, for example - no way! If I put them through the food processor they go down just fine, so perhaps he has my texture issues. I kinda hope not! He went through a few days of eating very very little, during and after a stomach bug he had, but seems to mostly have improved.
Sleeping: We're mostly on one nap these days, although still two on occasion, especially when he gets up early. We have had a number of days where wake up time has been closer to 7 than 6, which is nice!
Daycare: We went for a transition visit this past week, spent 1.5 hours there. Ant seemed to enjoy himself, particularly liking the windows that let him see into the rooms next door, with the infants and older toddlers. He was saying "hi" to them quite a bit. He also sat at the table with the other kids and had a snack while they had lunch; I was a bit nervous that he wouldn't sit still for long as we're still strapping him into the high chair for meals at home. He starts for real next Thursday.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Ant diary: Fifteen months
Growth check: Ant is still a weed! At his doctor's appt today they measured him as 33.25 inches and 23lb3oz. 94th and 32nd percentiles, respectively. Head at 47cm, 46th percentile. I can't quite believe he's grown two inches in three months, although he lay nice and still for the measuring, so I'm pretty sure it's right.
Talking: Oodles more words this month, approximately 143. And he's very good at repeating things we say, although I don't count them as words until he's used them on his own, for the most part. We were reading a book the other day and I said "the lion is leaving - he's packed his bags to go on vacation", and Ant repeated "vacation" exactly right! Didn't repeat that, but I was impressed that he said it perfectly that one time! Also lots more two word combos, including "baby cwying" at the doctor's office today at various times when we heard that. Some of my other favorite combos includ "heen open" when he wants to open the washing machine (heen), "hone hinging" when the phone rings, and "mama/dada home!". Some other words I'm impressed by include "tainer" for container, empty, home, basement, broken, cooler, dark, fluff (huff), 'geen bean', monkey, oatmeal, pom-pom, power, raisins (hay-in), shower (hower), salmon (hamon), stuck (huck), and waffle. All of which he clearly understands the meaning of. My absolute favorite word though - happy. It has been said to me a couple of times totally out of the blue when we're snuggling on the chair in his room in the morning. SO sweet! He also says snuggle (huggle) although that one isn't official yet.
Movement: For a few days, Ant was practicing walking backwards, but I haven't seen that again for a while. He also really seems to enjoy turning around in circles. Lots of stomping for a while, but that also seems to have stopped for now. He's also learned to throw things a bit, and will say "trow" when he does. Cute! He's 'running' on occasion - not full blown running just yet, but definitely more than walking. Also likes to dance to the radio in his room.
Mental: More leaps and bounds here. He's started pointing out his own body parts if you ask him - he definitely does his hair, ears, bellybutton, knees, toes, and hands. He throroughly enjoys making towers out of objects, saying "towah" the whole time he's doing it. I'm also extremely impressed by his grasp of some very complex concepts - he's understood 'help' for a while, but he uses 'stuck' appropriately when his foot or hand is stuck in something, 'dark', 'home' and 'power'. He's also now got names for a lot of his books - some the actual name (Tails is Tayah, for example), others are something about the book that he gravitates towards. The ladybug book is 'home', because that's what's on the last page which is his favorite. Blue hat green hat is 'oop' (i.e. oops), because that's what we say when the turkey has his clothes on incorrectly. He also will say please when we ask him to, and just the last few days has started sayin g thank you (something like 'ca ca', but very repeatable) when giving something to us. So he doesn't quite understand that concept just yet, but still - the fact that he's saying it is astonishing. Finally, he's now saying "poop" before / while he's going! The other thing I wanted to mention is that he and Sami seem to be getting a lot better at sharing things.
Toys and games: Ant has started enjoying his stuffed animals more, now knows names for a lot of them. He's more into books this month, often bringing them to us to read, or asking for them by name when we're upstairs on his bed. He really likes containers, opening and closing them.
Teeth: The fourth eye tooth just cut sometime in the last day or two. Finally! I can't believe it's been over a month since the third one cut. Now all we have left is the two year molars. Probably get those in the 18-20 month range would be my guess.
Feeding: Pretty much same old, same old here. One thing that's been added is raisins, which he absolutely LOVES. Whenever he's fussy in the car (we still have him facing the back, btw, he really doesn't seem to mind), I just hand him back some raisins and he's happy as a clam. There's also a veggie/butter/seasoning mix from trader joe's that he really likes.
Sleeping: The daylight savings transition went totally smoothly, thank goodness. Although wakeup time has moved back to around 6:15. 6:45 was so nice! Those extra few minutes of sleep, or time to prepare for hockey/gym were very useful. We've been doing one nap on occasion. Sometimes it works well, other times not so well. I think we'll leave him with two aside from a couple of days a week, to mimic what it might be like when he goes to daycare. I don't think we need to push him to one nap every day until he's ready for it. There have also been a few times now when he's woken up in the middle of the night, we've given him a cup of milk, and then put him back in the crib again - and it's worked! We had been taking him into bed with us when that had happened before (which was fairly infrequent). But I tried that the other day and he was only interested in playing, which I was NOT, so I figured I'd try the crib . And it worked like a charm.
Talking: Oodles more words this month, approximately 143. And he's very good at repeating things we say, although I don't count them as words until he's used them on his own, for the most part. We were reading a book the other day and I said "the lion is leaving - he's packed his bags to go on vacation", and Ant repeated "vacation" exactly right! Didn't repeat that, but I was impressed that he said it perfectly that one time! Also lots more two word combos, including "baby cwying" at the doctor's office today at various times when we heard that. Some of my other favorite combos includ "heen open" when he wants to open the washing machine (heen), "hone hinging" when the phone rings, and "mama/dada home!". Some other words I'm impressed by include "tainer" for container, empty, home, basement, broken, cooler, dark, fluff (huff), 'geen bean', monkey, oatmeal, pom-pom, power, raisins (hay-in), shower (hower), salmon (hamon), stuck (huck), and waffle. All of which he clearly understands the meaning of. My absolute favorite word though - happy. It has been said to me a couple of times totally out of the blue when we're snuggling on the chair in his room in the morning. SO sweet! He also says snuggle (huggle) although that one isn't official yet.
Movement: For a few days, Ant was practicing walking backwards, but I haven't seen that again for a while. He also really seems to enjoy turning around in circles. Lots of stomping for a while, but that also seems to have stopped for now. He's also learned to throw things a bit, and will say "trow" when he does. Cute! He's 'running' on occasion - not full blown running just yet, but definitely more than walking. Also likes to dance to the radio in his room.
Mental: More leaps and bounds here. He's started pointing out his own body parts if you ask him - he definitely does his hair, ears, bellybutton, knees, toes, and hands. He throroughly enjoys making towers out of objects, saying "towah" the whole time he's doing it. I'm also extremely impressed by his grasp of some very complex concepts - he's understood 'help' for a while, but he uses 'stuck' appropriately when his foot or hand is stuck in something, 'dark', 'home' and 'power'. He's also now got names for a lot of his books - some the actual name (Tails is Tayah, for example), others are something about the book that he gravitates towards. The ladybug book is 'home', because that's what's on the last page which is his favorite. Blue hat green hat is 'oop' (i.e. oops), because that's what we say when the turkey has his clothes on incorrectly. He also will say please when we ask him to, and just the last few days has started sayin g thank you (something like 'ca ca', but very repeatable) when giving something to us. So he doesn't quite understand that concept just yet, but still - the fact that he's saying it is astonishing. Finally, he's now saying "poop" before / while he's going! The other thing I wanted to mention is that he and Sami seem to be getting a lot better at sharing things.
Toys and games: Ant has started enjoying his stuffed animals more, now knows names for a lot of them. He's more into books this month, often bringing them to us to read, or asking for them by name when we're upstairs on his bed. He really likes containers, opening and closing them.
Teeth: The fourth eye tooth just cut sometime in the last day or two. Finally! I can't believe it's been over a month since the third one cut. Now all we have left is the two year molars. Probably get those in the 18-20 month range would be my guess.
Feeding: Pretty much same old, same old here. One thing that's been added is raisins, which he absolutely LOVES. Whenever he's fussy in the car (we still have him facing the back, btw, he really doesn't seem to mind), I just hand him back some raisins and he's happy as a clam. There's also a veggie/butter/seasoning mix from trader joe's that he really likes.
Sleeping: The daylight savings transition went totally smoothly, thank goodness. Although wakeup time has moved back to around 6:15. 6:45 was so nice! Those extra few minutes of sleep, or time to prepare for hockey/gym were very useful. We've been doing one nap on occasion. Sometimes it works well, other times not so well. I think we'll leave him with two aside from a couple of days a week, to mimic what it might be like when he goes to daycare. I don't think we need to push him to one nap every day until he's ready for it. There have also been a few times now when he's woken up in the middle of the night, we've given him a cup of milk, and then put him back in the crib again - and it's worked! We had been taking him into bed with us when that had happened before (which was fairly infrequent). But I tried that the other day and he was only interested in playing, which I was NOT, so I figured I'd try the crib . And it worked like a charm.
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