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larryhammerTBD is two years and nine months old, and looking and acting even more like a small child.
I've only recently come to appreciate how much repetition is essential to toddlers -- not just for comfort, but how they process this big, confusing world. It's developmental. Conversations and questions are repeated because that's how the content gets internalized, confirming that things haven't changed in at least this one way. Ditto all the play working on processing emotional subjects and states.
The book collection is getting out of control -- we've 'sploded the bookcase in TBD's room, and piles are constantly falling off the coffee table. Books are starting to be requested, especially ones advertised in books in hand -- and if the library doesn't have something, "Bookstore?" Needless to say, the solution is not fewer books but better storage. "Daddy, read book" is a hard plea to resist, as is "More book." As for subjects, non-fiction is trending, and not just about trucks and construction equipment but the natural world.
Favorite TV right now is Ponyo, and we sometimes play-act Ponyo searching for Sousuke or the reverse. Other media enjoyed include Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and some Winnie the Pooh movies, but they're running a very distant second at the moment.
As for speaking, for a couple weeks TBD sometimes swapped syllables in unexpected ways: "holeman" for manhole, "backypig" for piggyback. This seems to be passing, though. OTOH, stumbling over words while trying to get out a complete sentence continues, and remains adorable. Emotions are getting more expression, directly, in conversation, and in play. And this time, I did manage to note more talking, talking:
On getting an explanation of a lifeguard seen in a picture book:
TBD: "Lifesaver! Like in book."
*pulls out a board-book retelling of A New Hope and opens it to Vader confronting just-captured Leia, with the caption "Trouble"*
*points to Vader* "Lifesaver! Saying, 'You're in trouble, get out of here.'"
Me: "Darth Vader is saying that to Leia?"
TBD: "Yeah."
Janni: "What's your favorite part of the zoo?"
TBD: "Umm ... the animals!"
TBD: "I trouble now."
Janni: "You want to get in trouble?"
TBD: "Later."
TBD: "Piggyback! Piggyback!"
Me: "You want an piggyback ride?"
TBD: "Like oinks."
TBD: ♪Rain, rain, go away / Come again some other day♪
Me: ♪Little $realname wants to play♪
TBD: "In puddles"
(this was not spontaneous, it turned out, but a repeat of singing that way with Janni)
TBD: "The moon is in the sky. Like in the book."
On seeing a mostly empty parking lot that had been crowded the day before:
TBD: "Not so much cars."
TBD: ♪One sock one sock liàng jīng jīng♪
(parodying "Twinkle, Twinkle" in Mandarin, while wearing one sock, of course)
As you can tell, there's more singing. Music class has started a new term, to TBD's joy, and the song parts of library story-time get all the interest. That, and picking out another two books to check out. *glances again at book piles*
And so it goes -- life as fast as a toddler on a bicycle.
---L.
Subject quote from "Tightrope," Janelle Monáe.
I've only recently come to appreciate how much repetition is essential to toddlers -- not just for comfort, but how they process this big, confusing world. It's developmental. Conversations and questions are repeated because that's how the content gets internalized, confirming that things haven't changed in at least this one way. Ditto all the play working on processing emotional subjects and states.
The book collection is getting out of control -- we've 'sploded the bookcase in TBD's room, and piles are constantly falling off the coffee table. Books are starting to be requested, especially ones advertised in books in hand -- and if the library doesn't have something, "Bookstore?" Needless to say, the solution is not fewer books but better storage. "Daddy, read book" is a hard plea to resist, as is "More book." As for subjects, non-fiction is trending, and not just about trucks and construction equipment but the natural world.
Favorite TV right now is Ponyo, and we sometimes play-act Ponyo searching for Sousuke or the reverse. Other media enjoyed include Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and some Winnie the Pooh movies, but they're running a very distant second at the moment.
As for speaking, for a couple weeks TBD sometimes swapped syllables in unexpected ways: "holeman" for manhole, "backypig" for piggyback. This seems to be passing, though. OTOH, stumbling over words while trying to get out a complete sentence continues, and remains adorable. Emotions are getting more expression, directly, in conversation, and in play. And this time, I did manage to note more talking, talking:
On getting an explanation of a lifeguard seen in a picture book:
TBD: "Lifesaver! Like in book."
*pulls out a board-book retelling of A New Hope and opens it to Vader confronting just-captured Leia, with the caption "Trouble"*
*points to Vader* "Lifesaver! Saying, 'You're in trouble, get out of here.'"
Me: "Darth Vader is saying that to Leia?"
TBD: "Yeah."
Janni: "What's your favorite part of the zoo?"
TBD: "Umm ... the animals!"
TBD: "I trouble now."
Janni: "You want to get in trouble?"
TBD: "Later."
TBD: "Piggyback! Piggyback!"
Me: "You want an piggyback ride?"
TBD: "Like oinks."
TBD: ♪Rain, rain, go away / Come again some other day♪
Me: ♪Little $realname wants to play♪
TBD: "In puddles"
(this was not spontaneous, it turned out, but a repeat of singing that way with Janni)
TBD: "The moon is in the sky. Like in the book."
On seeing a mostly empty parking lot that had been crowded the day before:
TBD: "Not so much cars."
TBD: ♪One sock one sock liàng jīng jīng♪
(parodying "Twinkle, Twinkle" in Mandarin, while wearing one sock, of course)
As you can tell, there's more singing. Music class has started a new term, to TBD's joy, and the song parts of library story-time get all the interest. That, and picking out another two books to check out. *glances again at book piles*
And so it goes -- life as fast as a toddler on a bicycle.
---L.
Subject quote from "Tightrope," Janelle Monáe.
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Date: 29 January 2016 06:22 pm (UTC)Repetition has been reassuring here, too, and the "Oh! Life is sometimes like books!" thing. (Much less common now than around TBD's age.) At this point, child describes the connection and trusts that I'll understand her, but around three she wouldn't stop till she'd brought the book holding the remembered link.
no subject
Date: 29 January 2016 06:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 January 2016 06:37 pm (UTC)Not so much cars is rather lovely and doleful...
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Date: 29 January 2016 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 January 2016 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 January 2016 07:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 January 2016 07:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 January 2016 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 January 2016 09:34 pm (UTC)I love this.
no subject
Date: 29 January 2016 09:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 31 January 2016 03:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 February 2016 02:57 pm (UTC)