Life's just peachyOh dear, Leo hasn't had an update since before Christmas, so here goes:
Hobbies du jour Balls, digging holes, running/racing/chasing, dancing, counting. Still loves to throw and kick balls, and now likes to catch as well. Rolls ball to Angharad and she gives it back to him, very cute. Pretty handy with catching, can catch quite a small ball now. Quite obsessive about counting objects and telling you how many there are, and reading numbers out. Surprised me today while playing with a toy cash register at playgroup, by pushing the .50 button repeatedly and saying "fifty, fifty, fifty." Has a scooter out of the toy libary at the mo which he loves to razz around on.
Chatterbox Rarely shuts up these days. His day starts between 7 and 8 with a "Mummm-AAY! Dadd-AAY!" and from then on it's non-stop commentary about everything going on in his world. Since last time I blogged, has switched to using first person most of the time although will still sometimes say "Want Mummy to come outside and play with you" or "I want mummy to come outside kick ball with Leo." His sentences are quite long and convoluted and sometimes he's managed to get all three ways of referring to himself in the same one. Most of the time though, it's "I want to kick my ball outside" etc. Or "I'm not going home yet" or "I want to go playgroup again and make stained glass windows again." It's so cute the way he's so enthusiastic about everything, e.g. doorbell rings "Oh! Who's at the door? Let's go and see who's at the door mummy!" or "Thank you SO much Daddy".
He delivers constant lengthy monologues; yesterday he climbed onto our bed, pulled my current book down (comically enough, given what followed, 'Children Are People Too: Understanding Young Children's Behaviour' by Louise Porter) and started telling a long story. "This story is called 'Mummy's', and it goes like this... [opens it up] One day, it's going to rain again. It's going to rain and rain and RAIN. And there was a... 5, and a girl... and there were some dots, 4 dots, and then - let's see what happened.... " and so he continued, with a crazy mix of imagined content, nonsense and that inspired by chapter numbers, bullet points and other features of the text until he got to the end and said "and that's the end of the story! Now let's have another one..." We needed to go to the shops then, so I told him we could have another story when we got back, but we had to go out now and get some veggies for dinner, to which he replied, "Oh, that sounds LOVELY Mummy, that sounds LOVELY." !! His voice is rather 'rp' and at times, as you can probably gather, he sounds pretty camp!!
He has discovered love - "oh I LOVE this song", also loves watermelon, running and of course Angharad, Mummy and Daddy.
Daily life Leo likes a rhythm to his day and his week. He knows the days of the week, what we do on each day and what's coming tomorrow or at the weekend. So he'll say that tomorrow is Friday when he goes to Jika Jika, for example. We still go to playgroup on Mondays and Thursdays, and Leo & Angharad go to occasional care on Friday mornings for a couple of hours (which is where they are now as I'm blogging with coffee... gorgeous)! In addition he's now started doing one day a week at childcare on a Tuesday, which he enjoys once he's got over the goodbye. It's interesting how this has impacted on him. He is always much more 'verbal' when I pick him up - talking with increasing sophistication and maturity. I guess he has to communicate more clearly to get his needs met there, whereas at home every grunt and whine is correctly responded to, and most needs anticipated. His diet has also widened, he is more prepared to try new food when he's sitting next to other kids eating the same thing and then he asks for it at home as well. Since starting him at childcare, I've come to think that one day a week is definitely beneficial for him as well as me and, even if I'm staying off work, I think I might start Angharad doing the same at a younger age. Emotionally I think it's harder for him to adjust to it at this age than it would have been say a year or 18 months ago as he's so much more aware. Although the benefit is that we can talk about it, and he does talk during the week about things he's done at the centre.
Favourite books Bedtime regulars at the mo are: The Magic Hat by Mem Fox (especially likes his mother's impression of a baboon, Granny, now where did I learn that). How to Catch A Star by Oliver Jeffers is wonderfully calming, and he loves beaches and rockets so can't go too far wrong. Dig Dig Digging is rhythmic and lots of good sound effects, and things to count. A massive favourite until it tragically had to return to the library was Za-Za's Baby Brother which for some reason, absolutely enchanted Leo. I guess the situation it described was very familiar as the baby arrives, mummy and daddy get very tired and busy with the baby, and then Za -Za discovers that playing with the baby is fun after all. Fireman Sam: Mountain Emergency also should get a mention, as he loves Pontypandy action. And it's not a book, but he LOVES Roary the Racing Car which has been on TV for the last few weeks but just finished, sadly. I like it too because it's only 5 minutes long and the main character is voiced by Peter Kay with a few ad libs to make mums & dads laugh too.
Right - stop me someone! Expect another essay in a few months' time.....
Chatterbox Rarely shuts up these days. His day starts between 7 and 8 with a "Mummm-AAY! Dadd-AAY!" and from then on it's non-stop commentary about everything going on in his world. Since last time I blogged, has switched to using first person most of the time although will still sometimes say "Want Mummy to come outside and play with you" or "I want mummy to come outside kick ball with Leo." His sentences are quite long and convoluted and sometimes he's managed to get all three ways of referring to himself in the same one. Most of the time though, it's "I want to kick my ball outside" etc. Or "I'm not going home yet" or "I want to go playgroup again and make stained glass windows again." It's so cute the way he's so enthusiastic about everything, e.g. doorbell rings "Oh! Who's at the door? Let's go and see who's at the door mummy!" or "Thank you SO much Daddy".
He delivers constant lengthy monologues; yesterday he climbed onto our bed, pulled my current book down (comically enough, given what followed, 'Children Are People Too: Understanding Young Children's Behaviour' by Louise Porter) and started telling a long story. "This story is called 'Mummy's', and it goes like this... [opens it up] One day, it's going to rain again. It's going to rain and rain and RAIN. And there was a... 5, and a girl... and there were some dots, 4 dots, and then - let's see what happened.... " and so he continued, with a crazy mix of imagined content, nonsense and that inspired by chapter numbers, bullet points and other features of the text until he got to the end and said "and that's the end of the story! Now let's have another one..." We needed to go to the shops then, so I told him we could have another story when we got back, but we had to go out now and get some veggies for dinner, to which he replied, "Oh, that sounds LOVELY Mummy, that sounds LOVELY." !! His voice is rather 'rp' and at times, as you can probably gather, he sounds pretty camp!!
He has discovered love - "oh I LOVE this song", also loves watermelon, running and of course Angharad, Mummy and Daddy.
Daily life Leo likes a rhythm to his day and his week. He knows the days of the week, what we do on each day and what's coming tomorrow or at the weekend. So he'll say that tomorrow is Friday when he goes to Jika Jika, for example. We still go to playgroup on Mondays and Thursdays, and Leo & Angharad go to occasional care on Friday mornings for a couple of hours (which is where they are now as I'm blogging with coffee... gorgeous)! In addition he's now started doing one day a week at childcare on a Tuesday, which he enjoys once he's got over the goodbye. It's interesting how this has impacted on him. He is always much more 'verbal' when I pick him up - talking with increasing sophistication and maturity. I guess he has to communicate more clearly to get his needs met there, whereas at home every grunt and whine is correctly responded to, and most needs anticipated. His diet has also widened, he is more prepared to try new food when he's sitting next to other kids eating the same thing and then he asks for it at home as well. Since starting him at childcare, I've come to think that one day a week is definitely beneficial for him as well as me and, even if I'm staying off work, I think I might start Angharad doing the same at a younger age. Emotionally I think it's harder for him to adjust to it at this age than it would have been say a year or 18 months ago as he's so much more aware. Although the benefit is that we can talk about it, and he does talk during the week about things he's done at the centre.
Favourite books Bedtime regulars at the mo are: The Magic Hat by Mem Fox (especially likes his mother's impression of a baboon, Granny, now where did I learn that). How to Catch A Star by Oliver Jeffers is wonderfully calming, and he loves beaches and rockets so can't go too far wrong. Dig Dig Digging is rhythmic and lots of good sound effects, and things to count. A massive favourite until it tragically had to return to the library was Za-Za's Baby Brother which for some reason, absolutely enchanted Leo. I guess the situation it described was very familiar as the baby arrives, mummy and daddy get very tired and busy with the baby, and then Za -Za discovers that playing with the baby is fun after all. Fireman Sam: Mountain Emergency also should get a mention, as he loves Pontypandy action. And it's not a book, but he LOVES Roary the Racing Car which has been on TV for the last few weeks but just finished, sadly. I like it too because it's only 5 minutes long and the main character is voiced by Peter Kay with a few ad libs to make mums & dads laugh too.
Right - stop me someone! Expect another essay in a few months' time.....
Delighted at making Angharad laugh
At the Kite Festival
1 comment:
Oliver Jeffers! We picked up a signed copy of his "The Incredible Book Eating Boy" at the last LA Times Book Festival. The main character is called Henry...
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