I realize that conversing with a toddler can be a bit difficult at times. Their speech is awkward, not always pronouncing things quite right yet, missing some parts of speech and such. It's so interesting though as their vocabulary expands and their sentences become more structured. Little man doesn't talk a lot, like my nieces do, but he can certainly talk if he feels like it. The mother of another 2 year old just a few months younger than my little man exclaimed her surprise and jealousy at how well he speaks already. Her son has been saying basic one word sentences and not much else. I was like, aw it's alright...its just the different timeline for that development. I mean...what else do you say to another mom who is worried about their child's development rate?
I guess I do kind of take for granted that I am able to converse somewhat with little man... It's a good thing these days when I've been so stressed out I haven't been so in tune to what is happening with other people. I'm glad he's smarter than your average bear and can tell me "I want eat" when he's hungry or "I want juice/chocolate milk" when he's thirsty. (we're working on please and thank you) Now, if only he'd say "I gotta go potty" more than that one time he said it and ran to the bathroom unprompted.
These are a couple of the most recent conversations:
Me: (after picking him up from his dad's) So what'd you do today?
LLM: I go daddys.
Me: Yeah?
LLM: Uh huh..go park and play. I run really fast. Really really fast. And I fall down. I got booboo. See?
Me: Oh I see, you went to the park and ran around really fast. That must have been fun. But you got a boo boo??
LLM: I got 2 boo boos
Me: Aw you have 2 boo boos? I only see one, where's the other one?
LLM: I got boo boo here my knee. 'Nother boo boo here (points to foot)
Me: Oh I see the boo boo on your knee. What happened to your foot? Is there another boo boo?
LLM: Yeah, it hurts. ::pokes it:: owwie.
Me: Well don't poke it!
LLM: I poke it, it hurts.
Then last night when I picked him up from the sitters. She gave me the run down of his being naughty yesterday. Apparently he bit and hit one of the other kids (Connor) and swiped toys away from the other boy (Giovanni). So he had a couple time outs. Which is rare if you know this kid.
LLM: I do myself! (trying to get in the car into his carseat...he's been really independent about that lately) Here mommy hold dis (he pulled the straps open so he can sit in between) I buckle...click!
Me: Click! Good job buckling in. I'll get the rest.
LLM: I need my sungasses pease
Me: Ok, lets finish strapping you in with your buckle and I'll get your sunglasses. So what'd you do today?
LLM; I went Miss Jill's
Me: Yeah, what did you do at Ms Jill's?
LLM: I play Connor
Me: So you played with Connor? What about Giovanni?
LLM: I play Jobanni too
Me: That's good, what else happened?
LLM: (gets really quiet and whispers) I got time out.
Me: Yeah, I heard you got a time out, what happened?
LLM: (still whispering) I push Connor
Me: I heard that you hit Connor. You know that's not how we play right?
LLM: (still whispering) uh huh...
Me: Ok, well I expect you to play nicely with both Connor and Giovanni from now on ok? Or Ms Jill will give you more time outs, got it?
LLM: yeah. (finds his left over cereal box in his seat) mommy pease i eat cereal?
It really amazes me how he can interact in this way...but with all this comes the attitude as well.
"Leave me alone!" (yes, already. this has already started happening)
"Don't touch dat!"
"Das mine!"
Usually the tantrums begin with "I wan do myself!" (I want to do it myself!) and if it's not something he's able to do he gets so extremely frustrated. Unfortunately, I can't help him understand that he's not big enough to do it yet (either he's too young or he's just not physically developed enough yet). He's like a 4 year old trapped in a 2 year old's body sometimes...
Friday, September 5, 2014
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Techie kids amaze me
I'm pretty sure I wrote about this before, but as I'm reading an article about the best math apps for pre-schoolers...I have some more thoughts on it now that little man will be 3 in a few months. (ugh. did I just say that? almost 3?!)
In this day and age, we can't get away from technology and electronics. We use it every day, we're surrounded by it; heck, for some of us it's part of our bodies. I remember a few years ago there was this uproar about how we "should" be raising our kids - how they need to put the iPad down and go play outside like the old days. Well. News Flash! These aren't those times anymore.
Don't get me wrong, I totally limit iPad time. Plus I know for a fact when he's at the sitters during the work week, he's playing and learning the old fashioned way (mostly). I told her he only should get a short time with the Leap Pad. Plus, she doesn't like it because he only watches Team Umi Zoomi and doesn't actually play any of the learning games. I agree. Thankful for her and her family EVERY DAY. Little man is in a good place.
That said, I actually am a big advocate of iPad learning. I sit and interact with him if I can while he's using it. I point out things and call them out, I ask him to tell me where things are, and he tells me what they are too. He gets excited when something fun happens on the screen. He gets frustrated when something doesn't work the way he expects it to. Downtime is movie time. He loves short films. Actually, he watches far too many movies/tv shows in my opinion. But I do give him a lot of downtime and that's what he wants to do. Thankfully, they're all age appropriate.
The other day I watched him expertly navigate through pages of apps until he found the one he wanted. Toca Train.
In this day and age, we can't get away from technology and electronics. We use it every day, we're surrounded by it; heck, for some of us it's part of our bodies. I remember a few years ago there was this uproar about how we "should" be raising our kids - how they need to put the iPad down and go play outside like the old days. Well. News Flash! These aren't those times anymore.
Don't get me wrong, I totally limit iPad time. Plus I know for a fact when he's at the sitters during the work week, he's playing and learning the old fashioned way (mostly). I told her he only should get a short time with the Leap Pad. Plus, she doesn't like it because he only watches Team Umi Zoomi and doesn't actually play any of the learning games. I agree. Thankful for her and her family EVERY DAY. Little man is in a good place.
That said, I actually am a big advocate of iPad learning. I sit and interact with him if I can while he's using it. I point out things and call them out, I ask him to tell me where things are, and he tells me what they are too. He gets excited when something fun happens on the screen. He gets frustrated when something doesn't work the way he expects it to. Downtime is movie time. He loves short films. Actually, he watches far too many movies/tv shows in my opinion. But I do give him a lot of downtime and that's what he wants to do. Thankfully, they're all age appropriate.
The other day I watched him expertly navigate through pages of apps until he found the one he wanted. Toca Train.
I watched him as he started the train, stopped the train to pick up a person, select their seat, start the train, pull the train whistle, speed the train up, change the screen view, slow the train down, stop the train to pick up cargo, sort through the cargo, select which cargo he wanted (it was a pumpkin), put the cargo on the train, start the train again, pull the train whistle, change the screen view, stop the train, dropped off someone, picked someone else up, selected their seat, start the train, pull the whistle...and do it all over again. I sat there in silent amazement as I watched him. It seemed extraordinarily simple to me, the tasks he was doing with the train. But I slowly realized he was doing a more complex order of tasks. Something that is simple, but something that isn't necessarily innate and must be learned. He was processing this quietly, planning out a course of action.
It's not just this one game I realized. He's been doing that with several other games. I noticed he's less frustrated now because he understands the different concepts with the different games and can apply them. He amazes me every day.
This is just one observation I've made with the iPad use. And maybe it's just because he knows how to use the game now, but I marvel at the complexity of our brains and how we learn. I marvel at the beauty of what God and nature have given us. I marvel at our very being.
Seriously though, I'm totally going to be my mom when he gets older and I do not know how to operate some new fancy technology asking him for help ALL THE TIME. Man, I hope not.
It's not just this one game I realized. He's been doing that with several other games. I noticed he's less frustrated now because he understands the different concepts with the different games and can apply them. He amazes me every day.
This is just one observation I've made with the iPad use. And maybe it's just because he knows how to use the game now, but I marvel at the complexity of our brains and how we learn. I marvel at the beauty of what God and nature have given us. I marvel at our very being.
Seriously though, I'm totally going to be my mom when he gets older and I do not know how to operate some new fancy technology asking him for help ALL THE TIME. Man, I hope not.
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