7/17/98, Friday - More Vacation Highlights, An
Awrnery Christopher
At one of the hotels we had put Christopher to bed.
We brought a collapsable playpen he slept in. The
kids were pretty wound up after a long day of
travelling and Christopher wouldn't go to sleep right
away. He kept popping up above the playpen rails and
giggling. Nicole would then giggle as well. It was a
live game of pop-goes-the-weasil.
Christopher has been getting pretty awrnery
lately. We don't let him have a pacifier (aka Binky)
except when he sleeps. He also sleeps with a cloth
diaper he calls "blankey". Now he likes to
tease Mommy by going and getting binky and blankey
and parading up to her with a smile and a glint of
naughtiness in his eyes.
In the speaking category, Christopher continues to
improve. He is getting very good at naming objects.
For example yesterday he pointed to some coins and
said "money". Also, I was
dressing him in his pajamas and he said "snaps"
as I snapped his shirt closed.
7/15/98, Wednesday - Vacation, Counting
Last week we went to the Grandparents for vacation.
Christopher immediately fell in love with the
neighbor's dogs and cats. I can still hear him
yelling "Toto", one of the dog's names. His
favorite seemed to be one of their cats. It was very
patient with Christopher and he was pretty gentle
with her. One time, though, Christopher went to give
her a hug and misjudged, slambing his forehead into
the cement driveway. As usual, it only phased him for
a minute or two.
Christopher has been talking more and more. One of
his favorite computer games teaches numbers and
counting. This week I heard him counting with the
program. Saying most of the numbers between one and
ten.
6/29/98, Monday
Christopher now likes to feed us his food. He'll come
toward us with food held out saying "Ahhh"
to get us to open our mouths. Pretty cute.
The other day we were at a friends and it was late
and Christopher was very tired. I picked him up and
told he we had to go home and go to bed. He put his
head down on my shoulder and started pretending to
snore. What a ham
6/24/98, Wednesday - Glossary of Words
Christopher continues to learn to talk at
lightning speeds. He has been repeating much of what
we say lately. And now it's easy to ask him questions
and get understandable answers. Some words do,
however, need a little translating. Here's a small
glossary:
"Huh" - Yes
(as in Uh Huh)
"Ahh Eee" -
Away (as in "take this thing away from me")
"Tee-Tah" - Tortilla
"Chee Tee-Tah"
- Cheese Tortilla
"Hep" -
Help
"Ow-Tide" -
Outside
"Bug" -
Bug
"Aay Eee Oh..."
- I see words/letters on this -
or- I want to play the Dr. Suess
ABC computer game.
The other day we were getting out of the minivan.
I opened Christopher's door and he yelled
"Boo!" and started to giggle. It was really
cute. Also, last night after falling asleep in his
crib he started giggling and laughing in his sleep.
We have no idea what was so funny, but it was fun
hearing him.
6/16/98, Tuesday - Writing letters,
counting, talking and summersaults
Christopher has been very busy this week. First of
all, he's really become interested in letters. While
coloring the other day he drew a circle and said
"Ohh". Then he drew another and
again said "Ohh". Last night he was
sitting on my lap and coloring. He took my hand, put
his pencil in it, pointed to his paper and said
"Aa, Eee, Ohh" wanting me to draw
letters for him. He then sort of traced
over them and drew around them.
Christopher left us speechless the other day.
Nicole was counting "1-2-3-4-5". When
Nicole said "5", Christopher yelled out
"Six" and even held up six fingers.
We couldn't believe it. For a while now he's
understood two. We'd hand him one color and he'd say
"Two" wanting one for his other hand
as well. We had no idea he knew that six came after
five, much less how many fingers to hold up.
Christopher's verbal skills are improving all the
while as well. I still do a double-take when I hand
him something and he says, clear as a bell, "Thanks".
He's also very good at "Please" and
"Pizza" (his favorite food).
He also likes making animal noises like "Grrrr",
"Mooo", "Whooo",
etc. If he wants to be funny, we'll ask him
what, say, a chicken says and he'll say "Grrr" and
then smile really big.
This boy is fascinated with everything mechanical.
He's especially interested in the latches of his high
chair and car seat. The other day we had the car seat
out sitting on the kitchen floor. He played with it
for a long time. Finally I heard him kind of
wimpering. When I looked he had latched the seat belt
and locked one of his legs into the seat and couldn't
get out.
Now on to other motor skills. Christopher
loves to wrestle on the bed. He can now do
summersaults there, which really surprised me.
6/8/98, Monday - Christopher's
Amazing Phrase!
We went to a restaurant Friday night and the kids
each got a helium balloon. We brought them home and
the kids were playing with them. Christopher kept
letting go of his and it would float up to the
kitchen ceiling. The last time he let go, it hit some
sharp texture and popped very loudly. Christopher
didn't make a sound. He just looked stunned. But
later he started talking about the balloon. Here's
what he said to Mom.
"Balloon pop. Color blue. Surprize."
Really, he said it just like that. He kept running
around then saying "Balloon, pop." Each day
after that he would recall the balloon popping
incident. Out of the blue he'd start talking about
his blue balloon that popped.
The Water Surprise:
We just put in some new landscaping
and it's been very hot, so
I've been watering it more with a
hose. The other day, the kids and I
were outside watering.
Nicole was helping hold the hose.
Christopher was playing elsewhere in
the yard. All of a sudden, the
water started shooting very hard
out of the hose. Nicole and I jumped
back. Looking over at the valve, there was
Christopher twisting away.
6/1/98, Monday - Eating
by himself
Christopher now loves to eat by himself. In
fact, he insists. Yesterday he was eating
his cereal with two spoons, and doing quite
well. When he got near the bottom, he
pointed to an empty place in the
bowl and said "More". I
also found out he can say the name of
Nicole's best friend Rachel. He calls her "Taytel". He
has also been using Nicole's
name more.
Christopher has really discovered the
computer. He likes the Arther and Little
Critter programs. The "Just Me
and My Dad" program has fish in it, which
he really likes as well.
