Micellaneous Milestones

Since my last post, we've had some busy times! Here's a brief update.

Papa attended a Doxology seminar in Nebraska, where he learned about the devil and his wily ways from Dr. John Kleinig. He, and several pastors from our circuit, greatly enjoyed their time together (scrumptious food enhanced their experience, I've heard) learning about how to beat down the Evil One. The boys are into superheroes and "getting bad guys," so I'm still stewing about how to make a connection for them with this.

We celebrated my birthday with my lovely mother here (who also enormously helped out with the kids while Papa was away)! Turning 31 feels great, in a very achieving gravitas kind of way (especially when you leave sentences like this dangling for a week on your blog. I am FULL OF GRAVITAS. :)) And thanks for the "Happy '29th' Birthday" card from my brother, who's unofficially moved me into the "older person" stage. :) The boys spontaneously sang me "Happy Birthday," which brought me to tears. Little C shrieked and grinned, which brought me joy. Papa bought me a beautiful card and some pretty earrings--and the boys helped with both! I'm very thankful for all the wishes and cards and gifts; truly, my cup overfloweth.

Papa presented on "Family Matters" at an LWML Fall Rally at our church, which I was able to attend (thanks, Mom!). It was great visiting with many women, singing for the group, and even participating in a skit without knowing what I'd have to say or do ahead of time. Let me just say that Mrs. L.E. is hilarious and utterly trustworthy! Papa's presentation was fantastic, too--as he's prepared for this, he's helped me prioritize our children's spiritual care (more on this in another post). That's always a "win, win, win," as I teasingly tell the kids.

P's reading. I mean really reading. While he phonetically sounds out words sometimes, many times he just looks at them now and just says 'em. No help. Just the other day, he brought me a baseball thing and said, "Does this say, 'Get in the game'?" Yep. You read that right, buddy. So his "Letter Lessons" have been really fun! We just started Section Eight of The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, so we're about halfway through that book. He's been practicing holding a pencil correctly with the help of a gripper, and we'll start a formal writing program soon, mostly because he keeps bugging me about learning how to write more than just his name. Hey--I'm not complaining!

P and I have also been doing "Math" (or what he sometimes calls "Number Math"), where he practices counting to 100 on the abacus or I write simple addition on our white board and he figures them out by counting dots. The first time we tried this a week or so ago, he literally quivered with excitement. "Mom, I just love this!" he said at least three times. I had to quell thoughts of him, at nine, performing complicated equations with a dry-erase pen on a window (I saw some news segment on a young math whiz years ago who'd do that). So far, I'm just glad he thinks it's all fun. We'll be starting weekly science and history lessons in the next month, too.

S has developed into a tackling machine. Not out of any desire to hurt stems his sudden pouncing; he's just a really physical kid. He's been giving hugs a lot, which is fantastic! I just find myself bruised more frequently. We're working on his gentleness around C, because while she laughs and grins every time he "hugs" (see: pushes, sits on, drags) her, we don't want any trips to the ER. He also is still our little singer. Last week, while he and P played in the leaves, we caught him yelling--YELLING--the Stephen Starke version of the Lord's Prayer. He also randomly bursts into song, sometimes mid-sentence. He also regales us with random comments, like the one just recently when I was helping him in the bathroom: "Mommy, I won't poop on you." I was so relieved to hear that! :) Yesterday we heard him walk into the living room and see something P had done, and he goes, "WOW! A-MAAAAAZ-ING!" His enthusiasm is contagious!

C is testing the waters with walking! She'll pull herself up by a chair or something and then let go--and stand for a second or two by herself. She's definitely thinking about letting go and taking steps (believe us, we can see that look on her face). She's also starting this cheesy-grin/grimace thing. It's so big, it looks like it hurts her face, and we can't help smiling every time she does it! She's a happy little girl. She's eating table food all the time now, and in a month or so we'll start introducing whole milk already. *Sigh.* My baby's not really a baby anymore! P will play with her by himself, and he just loves her, and she him. It's great to see their sibling relationship develop. S and C are still at the "NO, C! That's MINE!" or the sitting-on-her stage. S loves her; he just doesn't want her in his stuff. I admit I dream that someday S and C will have a Jackson/Johannah relationship (that's a Duggar reference, for those of you who don't know).

We've enjoyed jumping in the leaves! And tracking them inside. :)

And a decluttering update: I've cleaned out the laundry room (!!!) and gone through about five bins of micellany besides. I've still got about ten to go, but it's all consolidated, and I've just been plugging away at it whenever we're watching something at night, like the St. Louis Cardinals play during this postseason. Between a clean and not-cluttered laundry room and the Cards, life is good right there.

Memorable Lines By a Two-Year-Old

Tonight, as I carried S to bed, I was teasing him, and he matched me.

"You're my big boy."

"I'm a good boy."

"Yes. ... and you're my egg-y boy." [S lovedy-loves eggs, hence...]

"I'm your egg-y boy. I want eggs in the morning."

"We can have eggs in the morning! And maybe we'll have a frittata."

"A fri-zza-za."

"A fri-zza-za? What's a frizzaza?"

"A doke." [BIG smirk.]

"A doke? You mean a joke?!"

[A big giggle!]

"A frizzaza is a joke! Good one, big boy!"

[Hysterical, gleeful, proud laughter!]

A two-year-old with a sense of humor! Who knew?

Poo-Poo Genius

S, in one of his many active moments.

Though I simultaneously grit my teeth and dry heave at saying this, potty training does have its upsides. (Have fun with that one, you Punsters. You know who you are.) Such as:

S and I had a little bathroom potty time last week after he failed to do the dirty where we'd really like him to. He's been in training pants and rubber pants consistently for the last few weeks, basically after Papa and I both realized 1) he was consistently dry for parts of days anyway, basically when we remembered to take him to the bathroom, and 2) we were tired of buying changing buying and changing diapers for a practically potty-trained toddler. Anyway, since we've done this before, we're not so hard-core about it (i.e. "If he's potty-trained, it means he'll tell us when he has to go and never, ever, ever have another accident. EVER!" This is like saying about a beginning reader: "If he's reading, then he'll read independently and never, ever, ever need any other help with letters or words. EVER!" But I digress.). So S does his dirty and we have little conversations, which turn out to be classic little moments. Like:

Me: So who's the boss in our family?

S: I'm the boss... (trailing off, then looking me in the eye) Mommy boss.

Me, pleasantly surprised: You're right! And who's the main boss in our family?

S: Boss, boss, boss... (thinking hard) Boston town.

Me, not getting it: Right, Boston town. But who's the main boss, S?

S: BOSS-ton town.

Me, finally getting it: BOSS-ton town. Boston town! (quickly thinking of all the metaphorical applications I've missed over never hearing this linguistic connection, then returning to the toddler) Like in the song--"Trot, trot, to Boston town, to get a stick of candy"!

S, grinning: Yeah.

And the really amazing and kind of scary thing about this? S has been making these kind of observations a lot lately. Like two weeks ago, when we went for an interview for an observational study he's a part of (I signed up for it for the free diapers--we got C's size this time--and the Target gift cards we get in "thanks" for showing off our brilliant kid. Plus, I get to spend time with S alone, which rarely happens at length). There, he did a few incredible things in front of Luke and Libby, like:

• Telling me "Mommy, I get down. Right NOW! Please." when he got bored with a video. Libby told me, "I've seen kids his age pitch fits, but I've never heard them ask to get down, let alone use manners."
• Upon pretending with a bear and a plate, cup, and spoon, and asked what he would do if the bear was thirsty, picking up the cup with a big smile and saying, "Give him some COFFEE!"
• Listening to directions very closely, like when he was already swinging his arm to knock down a stack of blocks he'd built and Luke said, "No." He immediately dropped his arm. No, he doesn't usually do that at home.
• Putting together a three-piece rattle together with no verbal directions an hour after he'd watched Luke do the same thing. And he did it three times with different pieces than Luke had used.
• When asked to identify pictures, saying, "Cookie" for a picture of a cookie, "Bear" for a bear, and "Cow" for a horse. Okay, he needs some work. 
• When asked which child in the picture had the most, pointing to a boy and saying, "He's got a lot of M & M's." (The stacks in front of the pictured kids were little, round, colored balls. Kind of like...)

I honestly was so moved--and, frankly, overwhelmed--by what S did and said at the interview, I had tears in my eyes. There's nothing quite so humbling as realizing there's no possible way your self-perceived brilliance could have turned out like this in your kid. Truly, only God can create minds like this.

Of course, that also means He creates... well, potty-training doesn't last forever. And I guess I'll take with it what comes.

After all, S will only be two at the end of April.

"Take my picture, too, Mommy." And here's my thumb. 

Quiet Thursday Happenings

So as C sleeps this early afternoon on this frigid, frigid Thursday (looks like winter's finally arrived in Minnesota!), I took a picture of her. Because who can resist this?

"And the Packers score their seventh touchdown!" Yes, Honey, only in your dreams.

Then P saw me taking a picture of her, and he said, "Take a picture of ME, Mommy!" So I took several because he had to practice not moving and actually looking at the camera.

 

Notice the sparkly white teeth here! P visited the dentist this morning with Papa, who also got his teeth cleaned. No cavities for the Olson's! Even more impressively, P sat and had his teeth cleaned without Mommy or Daddy sitting next to him, and when he was finished before Papa, upon being asked by the lovely dentist office staff if he wanted to watch a movie, he said, "No, thank you. I'll just play with the blocks." Sigh. Awesome kid moment.

Then,as if he hadn't already made his parents really, really proud, he floored us in what we call Letter Lessons (you can read about the beginning of this process here).  We started double consonants at the ends of words last week, so I wrote a few words on the whiteboard as part of his review. The first one was "mess." I didn't 1) remind him to look at the letters from left to right, 2) prompt him to sound out each letter one at a time, or 3) repeat the sounds of those letters to help him blend them all together, and P read the word all by himself! "Mmm--eeeehhh--sssss. Mess. MESS!" It was MIND-BLOWING! He can recognize letters and identify them and figure out what they say together. He can make meaning by himself! Suffice it to say this was one of those moments that make me want to home-school FOREVER!

Anyway, then P read a number of other words--today we started "ck" at the end of words--one of them being "rock." And as soon as he read it, he looked at me and said, "Like Little Rock, Arkansas?" Great-Grandma Elsea, who was born there, would be very proud.

And not to be unfair here, I thought I should take a picture of S, too. Here he was as I found him.

I love our little guy! He's talking like crazy and running and getting into things (like dumping two 100-piece puzzles all over the kitchen floor this morning) and telling me lots of things like, "Nice to meet you, Mommy." "What's that?"--that one constantly, sounding like a foghorn "Wat's DAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?"-- "No cry, Clara. Pacifier, Mommy"--even when Clara is sleeping or not crying. I like to think he's just very protective and comforting to his baby sister. And at times in the afternoon like this, I am really glad that, like when S plays, he plays hard, when our big little S sleeps, he sleeps hard. I did move the blanket to get this shot of his face.

Life. Is. Good.

Now I've got to go switch out my Christmas dishes from the hutch, just in time for another holiday coming soon! See future posts for details.

First Sentence

After breakfast this morning, S handed Papa his empty milk cup and immediately said to him, "Milk done."

This is the first time he's spoken two words together (babbling doesn't count).

We were very excited.

These milestones come at the most unpredictable times.

What you see is an empty milk glass. What we heard was the world changing. Again.

How To Teach a Two-Year-Old to Read

Tangible Items Needed:

Wooden alphabet puzzle (or another tactile alphabet appealing to toddlers)

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading

Magnetic dry erase board with marker and eraser

Magnetic letters (capital and lower case)

Blank note cards (to make letter cards and word cards)

Markers

Bob Books, Set 1 (optional)

Intangible Items Needed:

10-15 minutes of daily lesson time

Patience

Enthusiasm

An excited, precocious* toddler**
 
*"Precocious" defined loosely. Definitive characteristics of a precocious child: he breathes, eats, sleeps, bathrooms without extensive adult assistance. He seems excited about life, i.e. running laps around the living room, jumping on the bed, watching leaves blow on trees, listening to stories.

**A toddler is, by definition, a tangible creation. Yet I didn't want to get into some existential discussion of the differences between body and soul, so the toddler falls here under intangible. Because--let's face it--he's a lot harder to define and explain than, say, a marker. 

Directions:

1. First, start reading to the child at birth (or shortly thereafter. Like within the first week). One story before bed. One story at naptime(s). One story at 10:37. One story at whenever-you-trip-over-the-stuffed-bear-due-to-sleep-deprivation. Etcetera. Optional, but highly recommended as you wade through the post-partum fog--it'll snap you out of it, I promise!: Read The Well-Trained Mind.  



2. Stock the child's room, living room, kitchen, bathroom with books. Lots of books. Quality books, preferably older ones. Caldecott medal winners, Mother Goose, Beatrix Potter, A Child's Garden Book of Verse, Dr. Seuss. Encourage the child to read all the time. It helps if you limit TV. To less than half an hour a day (preferably none). And stock up on tape. Enthusiasm can be destructive (purposeful or unintentional).

3. Around the child's second birthday, get an wooden alphabet puzzle or some other tactile alphabet for the child to explore. Our P learned the alphabet in three weeks--because he kept bugging us to do his "letter puzzle" twenty times a day (one thing a parent can never say "no" to!). All kids are different, yada, yada, yada--I know all kids are not like P. Just remember that brain synapses are about 1000 times more numerous in the first three years of life than at any other time, so memorization is not only a novelty (re: FUN!) for little kids, it's highly possible.

4. With markers and cards, make letter cards. We made two sets; the first was for fun, making sure P knew both capital and lower case letters. ...

5. The second letter card set followed the directions from The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, which is an awesome resource for any parent to use. It contains phonetics lessons broken down in very small pieces, with dialogue for the parent/teacher. It also contains additional materials to use, like a dry-erase board and magnetic letters. With the letter lessons, we sometimes combined two at once; we sometimes now take three days for one lesson. We might stop for a month or two if P's not picking up on putting letters together to read words. But he's reading sat, bat, cat, hat, bed, Ted, Nan (words found in The Bob Books)... and he'll be three in June.

YOUR KID CAN DO IT, TOO.

Where does he get this?

P: "I'm so happy."
Papa: "Why are you so happy?"
P: "Because of my feelings."

"Mess? What mess? I'm contemplating my emotional state."

P's Expanding Vocabulary

Actually.
As in, "I'm going to read books. Actually, I'm going to play with my cars."

Sorts.
As in (when giving Uncle Brian a tour of his room) "I have all sorts of toys."

Disappointed.
As in, "Mommy, you'll be disappointed in me. I pooped my pants."

Ducky, Dirty, Rockets, Wrenches... and Jesus

I realized in the last few days that one of the most common questions I get about P from family and friends is about his language development. Wait, that sounds way too technical--really, most people are just asking, "So what's P saying these days?" You can see a few of his latest words above (he articulates the first two with excellent diction--the way he practically spits out the name "Doc" from the Cars flick so clearly--a movie and an obsession fit for another post. The last two are understandable but also toddler-garbled, making for adorable moments. He's so proud of himself!).

P "babbles" a lot, too, which basically means he's practicing speaking in sentences. Sometimes we actually understand him, like tonight at dinner when he identified some cake for dessert and said quite distinctly, "I do [eat] cake." "I do" seems to be a preface to pretty much everything he says. It's been incredible to see and hear his comprehension and articulation in the last two months--some weeks we've noticed a new word or words every day! He obviously understands far more than he can say, which means he can follow directions excellently AND throw frustration fits when he can't say what he means.

Along with the language explosion, P made big strides today when he took his first nap on his "big boy" bed! We received his twin mattress set yesterday and made it up with his cute-as-pie sports-themed Crayola bed-in-a-bag. He loved it immediately! What he didn't love today was learning--after about twenty confrontations with Daddy and Mommy (I'll let you imagine what those entailed)--that nap time still means staying in bed (you know, the way he had to when he had bars around the mattress). He kept getting up and trying to play (with toys that were put away) and reading books. Finally he gave up and slept for about an hour and a half! AND he didn't fall off the bed! We anticipate a few more days of adjustment to nap time and then we'll go for nights. Wish us luck!

I won't posts in the next few days as we head into the end of Holy Week. What a great time of the church year--our favorite by far! J and I and P hope you enjoy a blessed Easter as we celebrate our redemption through the death and resurrection of Jesus (or, as P says, "Tsussus." Kind of like "Cheez-Its.") Who knew Matthias Grunewald's gory painting of Christ's crucifixion and processed cheese could be connected -- kind of like us sinners and God.