Jonathan continues to learn by observation, imitating mommy in everything possible. Sometimes the result is almost girly, but hey! Mommy is after all, a girl! But Jonathan is boy enough, showing athletic tendencies by homing in on his climbing skills...
Jonathan likes mommy's hair clip. Such a wonderful piece of plastic! It opens and snaps shut, making a fun click noise. Mommy likes to tickle Jonathan with it too, what fun! The love of the clip was a sure way to imitating mommy's use of it, and so, one Saturday morning, Jonathan took the clip and tried to put it on his hair. Other such imitation learning include trying to put his shirt over his head (and also trying to put his ants over his head, after all both are his clothes...), putting mommy's shirt over his head with success and then getting annoyed at the long piece of fabric that seems stuck to his body. His love for removing fabrics and placing them on his had includes tearing his bedsheets off his bed in the kindergarten so he can cover his head with them - and so I made a special cover for his mattress with a zipper. This morning he also removed his sheets at home for the first time (putting blankets on his head and walking with it covering him is already a routine action, right along with emptying his fabric diaper drawer and the towels closet in the bathroom). His love for fabrics, hair clips and glasses (he loves to remove my glasses from my face and then try to put them back on) sometimes truly worries me as too girly, but this worry does not last long when one sees him running about!
Independence steps include repeated trials to drink out of a cup (a skill only practiced when he is in the bath tub, as mommy really cannot stand for liquid being freely poured around the house), trying to take the plate from mommy and to carry it alone to his little “table” in the kitchen, while pouring out half the contents on the way (the “table” - Jonathan has a stool that serves as his own eating corner in the kitchen) and blowing on his fried egg to cool it down (just like mommy does – did I mention he learns by observation?). He also likes to pick up food with a spoon. Despite his very limited success in this action there is always a little bit to lick off the spoon anyway – so he is rewarded, and so he tries again and again, smearing his clothes, face and hands – generally just making a big mess of himself and around himself. When Jonathan is finished with his food he spits it out, making a lot of extra noise in the process, so I will not miss his point! I AM DONE! Thank you! In this protest action he is a lot like me, because when I was a baby and finished my meal, I would just throw the plait away, along with the remaining contents. And my mother had to clean up (she quickly changed to plastic plates...).
Further advancements include climbing down and up the stairs alone standing up and using the fence on the staircase! YES! He can go up now as well, no more crawling up the stairs. Climbing chairs and standing up on them to reach things and climbing the living room table is also occurring already – and so our “grown up” stuff needs to rise even more (our life style keeps rising...). He also likes to throw himself on pillows – he either does that on mommy and daddy's big bed (big soft German cushions make the experience extra fun!) or in the living room, on his big cushion (actually a large cushion for animals that I brought for him and where he has often drank his bottle ever since he was born). He still cannot climb onto our bed, so he walks to our bedroom and asks with his hands to be picked up onto it, by “drumming” his hands on the bed. After he is up he stand up on the bed, plays with switching the light on and off and then eventually throws himself on the pillows. Despite the wild action he never falls off the bed and seams to know exactly where the edge is and how to get off. I rarely have to catch him to prevent a fall (unless he is to distracted having fun... then I do need to watch over him).
I wonder how soon he will learn to climb onto our bed! Even more worrying is how soon will he be able to climb out of his own bed! He is already trying it, lifting his knee... I guess this will determine when we will have to pass him onto a bigger boy's bed.
The only field n which he is making no advancement is getting rid of his running nose and coughs. He is just so full of snot! The doctor says this is just so until the age of 8 years! I do not get worried is he has no fever, or if he can breath at night. If he becomes “to full” I give him inhalation treatments, and then scream my lungs out to calm him down by clowning and entertaining through the treatment ( and then I need the inhalation...). Despite a running nose and in the last few days diarrhea, he is a happy active child! And definitely boyish and mischievous enough!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Purim
Jonathan was dressed up as a lion for the Israeli Purim holiday. He was very sweet and did not seam to mind being dressed up in a strange suit with an extra heavy lions head hood. But a 4th photo shooting session in the afternoon annoyed him well enough!
I guess I sympathize, after all he was chased with cameras the whole day. I dressed him up in the morning and then took some pictures (he was willing to let me photograph him without reaching out for my camera only when I let him have another camera in his hands – thank god we have a camera gone bad that is still interesting enough for him because he can turn it on and off and it makes sounds during the process, it even activates the flash! Wow!). Hey, he even let me scribble some whiskers on his face without protest. Soooooo cute!
Then I brought him to the kindergarten dressed and the care takers said that the photographer will only come at ten and the toddlers get their breakfast first(at 1 year and 3 months, Jonathan is no longer a baby – as he walks he is definitely a toddler). So we took the costume off. The make up remained.
At 10 the care takers dressed him up and the photographer chased him around with a camera the second time that day. This time to keep him busy, then gave him a clown doll! The results were very cute, even though the make up got ruined bu then.
After his afternoon nap, the care takers decided to take some more pictures with the digital camera that they have in the kindergarten (parents get an album at the end of each year – very nice idea I think). They renewed the make up for this purpose. So by now this was the third photo shooting and the second time his face was drawn upon.
In the afternoon I picked him up and he was make up free and in normal clothes. Still I felt I had not gotten enough pictures with my cute lion and so I dressed him up again (4th time he had to put that ridiculous costume on), drew the whiskers again – this time under protest and therefore with not so nice results (3rd make up session) and drew some on my face too, and tried to take pictures again (4th photo shooting session). By now, he had had enough and was not so cooperative. The “gone bad” camera helped a little, but there was no getting him to smile and he expressed his protest in absolutely refusing to be held close for a cute photograph. We got some nice ones anyway and then freed him at last from the costume and wiped his face clean for the last time that day. At the end of the day, after a nice scrambles egg supper and a bath he just “dropped dead” in bed. Sleeping immediately – it had indeed been a a hard day!
(Makes you understand why actors and models are paid well for their work – its not only talent and looks, its also some pretty hard work! Posing all day!).
I guess I sympathize, after all he was chased with cameras the whole day. I dressed him up in the morning and then took some pictures (he was willing to let me photograph him without reaching out for my camera only when I let him have another camera in his hands – thank god we have a camera gone bad that is still interesting enough for him because he can turn it on and off and it makes sounds during the process, it even activates the flash! Wow!). Hey, he even let me scribble some whiskers on his face without protest. Soooooo cute!
Then I brought him to the kindergarten dressed and the care takers said that the photographer will only come at ten and the toddlers get their breakfast first(at 1 year and 3 months, Jonathan is no longer a baby – as he walks he is definitely a toddler). So we took the costume off. The make up remained.
At 10 the care takers dressed him up and the photographer chased him around with a camera the second time that day. This time to keep him busy, then gave him a clown doll! The results were very cute, even though the make up got ruined bu then.
After his afternoon nap, the care takers decided to take some more pictures with the digital camera that they have in the kindergarten (parents get an album at the end of each year – very nice idea I think). They renewed the make up for this purpose. So by now this was the third photo shooting and the second time his face was drawn upon.
In the afternoon I picked him up and he was make up free and in normal clothes. Still I felt I had not gotten enough pictures with my cute lion and so I dressed him up again (4th time he had to put that ridiculous costume on), drew the whiskers again – this time under protest and therefore with not so nice results (3rd make up session) and drew some on my face too, and tried to take pictures again (4th photo shooting session). By now, he had had enough and was not so cooperative. The “gone bad” camera helped a little, but there was no getting him to smile and he expressed his protest in absolutely refusing to be held close for a cute photograph. We got some nice ones anyway and then freed him at last from the costume and wiped his face clean for the last time that day. At the end of the day, after a nice scrambles egg supper and a bath he just “dropped dead” in bed. Sleeping immediately – it had indeed been a a hard day!
(Makes you understand why actors and models are paid well for their work – its not only talent and looks, its also some pretty hard work! Posing all day!).
When a baby develops a personality
It is fascinating to watch Jonathan and see in his doings how his brain works. And sometimes I get to watch a quantum leap – as his thoughts are put together into action. A mother does not always get to see her baby's first steps, especially a working mom misses a lot of steps forward, so when I do get to behold an advancement, the pleasure is all the greater. My baby is now a walking toddler, with wishes and opinions – and I even understand some of his thought trails. As he develops a personality, all that remains for me to do is dote on him, facinated.
First steps are always delightful, as Jonathan began to walk more securely, we decided it was time for shoes. We took him shopping and brought him some nice sports shoes with Velcro strips. They are too big for him, because we were thinking a bit long term, but still they are not so big and he uses them now with pleasure. The first time I put them on for him he got up and walked in extra bog steps, looking at his feet and clearly questioning the addition his body just received. After a little while I let him g out and down the stair with the shoes. He seamed not to understand why his feet had gotten longer and continued to be clumsy and he struggled his way down the stairs. Jonathan is however a flexible and easy going type and by the time he was down the stairs he accepted the new strange things covering his feet and started walking faster with them. A few more days and he was a sure on his feet with shoes as without. He still sometimes struggles with the fact that the shoes make his feet longer, especially when going down the stairs and not managing to place his feet next to one another as he would wish, but he manages well enough.
Jonathan never really liked to go down the stairs like all babies do, that is bottom first. He skipped that stage and went straight to the phase of going down the stairway standing. At first he did this holding my hands, all my efforts to show him the railings were fruitless for a while, then one day he accepted my suggestion that he hold the railings near the stairs, and not me and every day he became surer in his steps down the stairs, clearly enjoying his independence. So much that I began to fear he will be too sure climbing down stairs that do not have a railing. But children are resilient, and Jonathan is no different. In our apartment house the railing is perfect for him, but near the post and also at my parents' house there is no rail. Having notices this problem, Jonathan simply went down the stairs without the rials bottom first – showing me that he can solve problems as they occur.
A nice thinking connection presented itself wen Jonathan used a wall and not a rail to go down the stairs in his kindergarten. The next quantum leap regarding stair climbing happened yesterday. Jonathan was going downstairs holding onto the rial as always, when he decided suddenly to change direction and for the first time he started climbing up the stair using the rail (until then he crawled up the stairs on his hands and knees). He tried a few stairs and then returned to going down, following me. He repeated this also later in the day and I expect that soon he will no longer crawl up the stairs at all.
Jonathan is getting bolder and has now started climbing the stairs placing his foot and not his knee on the higher stair. This climbing action also present itself when he tries to climb the sofa. He raises his knee high up and tries to place his foot on the sofa. With this tactic he has already managed to climb our living room table – pushing himself up, lying on his tummy and raising his knee high up and placing it on the table and crawling up. His father left him in the living room playing with the emote control as always and when he came back a moment later the boy was sitting ON the table!
Jonathan is also developing his expression skills and his able to express his wished better. He had however decided to call me “aba” which means daddy in Hebrew. There is a joke in Internet in Israel that goes like this. We mothers carry our babies for 9 months, loose sleep in their first few month of life, (mothers sleep less than fathers) breast feed them and put ourselves second to our children etc. Etc. and yet their first word is usually “aba” and all they keep saying is “'aba” - daddy. I think this would also work for other languages – daddy in English or pap in German and French. The sounds of B, P and D are easier that M – so babies say daddy long before hey say mommy. My frustration at being called “aba” is however greater, as it is clear that Jonathan can say the sound of M. he uses “mam mam” for food. Lately he also uses “na na” for food,and I believe this comes or the word banana – he gets lot of banana served because its healthy and easy to manage – the two guidelines for every mom – easy and still not bad for your kid. Fruit serve for me as sweet treats for Jonathan, and bananas and strawberry are his favorites.
He uses his body in his communication efforts. Pointing to things that interest him, lifting his arms to ask to be picked up and throwing himself on the floor in a tantrum when he is not pleased (usually when I forbid him to use the computer...or when I decide to put him back in his stroller after allowing his to roam). Jonathan is a curious baby and always reaching out to touch things and discover them. He will also offer me an object once he is finished researching it. Or he might just throw it on the floor if he losses interest. He claps his hands to congratulate himself on his achievements, looking at me and asking for my approval as well, I immediately comply and clap hands too! (This happens especially in the bath tub – Jonathan has leaned to put in the water stopper and then he looks up and claps – proud of his achievement – and proud he can be, it takes some motoric fineness to get that stopper in place).
He can also be very opinionated – Jonathan reacts with a small laugh when he sees his bottle, signaling that he would like to have it, even before reaching with his hands for it. He wails his complaint when I put a diaper on him – he clearly likes his freedom – he would prefer some wind between his legs..fresh air – just like he loves to freely walk all over the house or run forward in the street or a shopping mall. Pitty he is not potty trained yet – I am sure he would be more comfortable and I would save heaps of money on diapers... but the time will come soon enough.
That he is clever and a thinking child is also clear in the way he communicates a warning to me. If he is no longer hungry he will show me this by turning his head away, or playing with his food (if he is hungry he eats – no fooling around) and if I insist to try to feed some more (which like any “polish” mom I usually do – just to make sure he has had enough and does not want more) he spits it out. As he grows older, the spitting action becomes more of a protest and is hence more dramatic and a lot more dirty. Jonathan is a social easter, always coming to share when others eat. Today at a family dinner he even sat nicely on a plastic “growup” chair, clearly enjoying the food and the company and remaining sweetlyin his place for quite a while.
He was sick in the last two days and cranky. Since Jonathan is never cranky – I knew instantly that he is sick. (we have tenant at the moment and he says Jonathan is amazing because you never hear him cry – and once he heard him cry two days ago- our tenant asked immediately is Jonathan is sick). Did I mention that he warns me when something is wrong? Jonathan knew he was going to throw up, so he shook his head refusing to swallow medicine (he never refuses oral medicine unless he is about to throw up). Then he starts to cry and then to cough – giving me ample time to understand that he is about to throw up. I learned to understand these signs and this way was ready with a fabric diaper when he eventually did throw up – this way, only the diaper and my clothes got hit – not the chair I was sitting in holding Jonathan and not the floor – minimal damage! Its really sweet that he tries to communicate that something is wrong, and that he always does it in the same manner – so that eventually even I got the message.
He has his own language and the tones he uses are varied. Just listening to his language you can see that he is picking up the tones from adults. Jonathan is showing sensitivity to sound also in the fact that he clearly enjoys music. When my brother in law plays the piano at my parents' house, the boy sits on the carpet listening, truly fascinated. Music generating toys are Jonathan favorites and he loves it when I sing to him – either fun songs (with hand movements) during the day or calming lullaby songs at night are always welcome. He discovers his mouth again and again, making new sounds – today it was sticking his tongue out and spitting, making a sound like a motorcycle. I truly think he enjoys the sounds he produces and the process of producing them too. I enjoy watching him do it and reward him by repeating his sounds, and so today we were quite a motorcycle band for a while...PrrrPrrr Prrr Prrrrrrrrr
First steps are always delightful, as Jonathan began to walk more securely, we decided it was time for shoes. We took him shopping and brought him some nice sports shoes with Velcro strips. They are too big for him, because we were thinking a bit long term, but still they are not so big and he uses them now with pleasure. The first time I put them on for him he got up and walked in extra bog steps, looking at his feet and clearly questioning the addition his body just received. After a little while I let him g out and down the stair with the shoes. He seamed not to understand why his feet had gotten longer and continued to be clumsy and he struggled his way down the stairs. Jonathan is however a flexible and easy going type and by the time he was down the stairs he accepted the new strange things covering his feet and started walking faster with them. A few more days and he was a sure on his feet with shoes as without. He still sometimes struggles with the fact that the shoes make his feet longer, especially when going down the stairs and not managing to place his feet next to one another as he would wish, but he manages well enough.
Jonathan never really liked to go down the stairs like all babies do, that is bottom first. He skipped that stage and went straight to the phase of going down the stairway standing. At first he did this holding my hands, all my efforts to show him the railings were fruitless for a while, then one day he accepted my suggestion that he hold the railings near the stairs, and not me and every day he became surer in his steps down the stairs, clearly enjoying his independence. So much that I began to fear he will be too sure climbing down stairs that do not have a railing. But children are resilient, and Jonathan is no different. In our apartment house the railing is perfect for him, but near the post and also at my parents' house there is no rail. Having notices this problem, Jonathan simply went down the stairs without the rials bottom first – showing me that he can solve problems as they occur.
A nice thinking connection presented itself wen Jonathan used a wall and not a rail to go down the stairs in his kindergarten. The next quantum leap regarding stair climbing happened yesterday. Jonathan was going downstairs holding onto the rial as always, when he decided suddenly to change direction and for the first time he started climbing up the stair using the rail (until then he crawled up the stairs on his hands and knees). He tried a few stairs and then returned to going down, following me. He repeated this also later in the day and I expect that soon he will no longer crawl up the stairs at all.
Jonathan is getting bolder and has now started climbing the stairs placing his foot and not his knee on the higher stair. This climbing action also present itself when he tries to climb the sofa. He raises his knee high up and tries to place his foot on the sofa. With this tactic he has already managed to climb our living room table – pushing himself up, lying on his tummy and raising his knee high up and placing it on the table and crawling up. His father left him in the living room playing with the emote control as always and when he came back a moment later the boy was sitting ON the table!
Jonathan is also developing his expression skills and his able to express his wished better. He had however decided to call me “aba” which means daddy in Hebrew. There is a joke in Internet in Israel that goes like this. We mothers carry our babies for 9 months, loose sleep in their first few month of life, (mothers sleep less than fathers) breast feed them and put ourselves second to our children etc. Etc. and yet their first word is usually “aba” and all they keep saying is “'aba” - daddy. I think this would also work for other languages – daddy in English or pap in German and French. The sounds of B, P and D are easier that M – so babies say daddy long before hey say mommy. My frustration at being called “aba” is however greater, as it is clear that Jonathan can say the sound of M. he uses “mam mam” for food. Lately he also uses “na na” for food,and I believe this comes or the word banana – he gets lot of banana served because its healthy and easy to manage – the two guidelines for every mom – easy and still not bad for your kid. Fruit serve for me as sweet treats for Jonathan, and bananas and strawberry are his favorites.
He uses his body in his communication efforts. Pointing to things that interest him, lifting his arms to ask to be picked up and throwing himself on the floor in a tantrum when he is not pleased (usually when I forbid him to use the computer...or when I decide to put him back in his stroller after allowing his to roam). Jonathan is a curious baby and always reaching out to touch things and discover them. He will also offer me an object once he is finished researching it. Or he might just throw it on the floor if he losses interest. He claps his hands to congratulate himself on his achievements, looking at me and asking for my approval as well, I immediately comply and clap hands too! (This happens especially in the bath tub – Jonathan has leaned to put in the water stopper and then he looks up and claps – proud of his achievement – and proud he can be, it takes some motoric fineness to get that stopper in place).
He can also be very opinionated – Jonathan reacts with a small laugh when he sees his bottle, signaling that he would like to have it, even before reaching with his hands for it. He wails his complaint when I put a diaper on him – he clearly likes his freedom – he would prefer some wind between his legs..fresh air – just like he loves to freely walk all over the house or run forward in the street or a shopping mall. Pitty he is not potty trained yet – I am sure he would be more comfortable and I would save heaps of money on diapers... but the time will come soon enough.
That he is clever and a thinking child is also clear in the way he communicates a warning to me. If he is no longer hungry he will show me this by turning his head away, or playing with his food (if he is hungry he eats – no fooling around) and if I insist to try to feed some more (which like any “polish” mom I usually do – just to make sure he has had enough and does not want more) he spits it out. As he grows older, the spitting action becomes more of a protest and is hence more dramatic and a lot more dirty. Jonathan is a social easter, always coming to share when others eat. Today at a family dinner he even sat nicely on a plastic “growup” chair, clearly enjoying the food and the company and remaining sweetlyin his place for quite a while.
He was sick in the last two days and cranky. Since Jonathan is never cranky – I knew instantly that he is sick. (we have tenant at the moment and he says Jonathan is amazing because you never hear him cry – and once he heard him cry two days ago- our tenant asked immediately is Jonathan is sick). Did I mention that he warns me when something is wrong? Jonathan knew he was going to throw up, so he shook his head refusing to swallow medicine (he never refuses oral medicine unless he is about to throw up). Then he starts to cry and then to cough – giving me ample time to understand that he is about to throw up. I learned to understand these signs and this way was ready with a fabric diaper when he eventually did throw up – this way, only the diaper and my clothes got hit – not the chair I was sitting in holding Jonathan and not the floor – minimal damage! Its really sweet that he tries to communicate that something is wrong, and that he always does it in the same manner – so that eventually even I got the message.
He has his own language and the tones he uses are varied. Just listening to his language you can see that he is picking up the tones from adults. Jonathan is showing sensitivity to sound also in the fact that he clearly enjoys music. When my brother in law plays the piano at my parents' house, the boy sits on the carpet listening, truly fascinated. Music generating toys are Jonathan favorites and he loves it when I sing to him – either fun songs (with hand movements) during the day or calming lullaby songs at night are always welcome. He discovers his mouth again and again, making new sounds – today it was sticking his tongue out and spitting, making a sound like a motorcycle. I truly think he enjoys the sounds he produces and the process of producing them too. I enjoy watching him do it and reward him by repeating his sounds, and so today we were quite a motorcycle band for a while...PrrrPrrr Prrr Prrrrrrrrr
Friday, March 6, 2009
Bed Bottle Holder, Cool Tip
A bottle holder – anyone can make it, and if the baby learns o use it its a really cool thing to have.
Here is a useful tip I gt off a colleague at work who is also a mom: Make a bottle holder for your child's bed using an old pair of jeans. The legs go under the mattress and the waist is tied to the bed/pen. The pockets serve as cells for the bottles, and should be big enough to enable your child to also return the empty bottle to the holder (rather than throwing it out of the bed in protest of the fat that you again left him alone in the dark so he could do this strange thing called “sleep”). This also prevents milk from a full bottle from dropping on the mattress. Now all that remains is to tech your little treasure to actually use the new contraption... Hoping that the youth will learn to take his nightly drink form the holder (in which mommy placed a bottle at an earlier and normal hour) rather than calling at 3 am for me to make it and bring it to him is a bit too much, isn't it?
Here is a useful tip I gt off a colleague at work who is also a mom: Make a bottle holder for your child's bed using an old pair of jeans. The legs go under the mattress and the waist is tied to the bed/pen. The pockets serve as cells for the bottles, and should be big enough to enable your child to also return the empty bottle to the holder (rather than throwing it out of the bed in protest of the fat that you again left him alone in the dark so he could do this strange thing called “sleep”). This also prevents milk from a full bottle from dropping on the mattress. Now all that remains is to tech your little treasure to actually use the new contraption... Hoping that the youth will learn to take his nightly drink form the holder (in which mommy placed a bottle at an earlier and normal hour) rather than calling at 3 am for me to make it and bring it to him is a bit too much, isn't it?
Learning by Watching Mommy Doing
Its been a while since I last wrote and Jonathan is making some progress. He now not only imitates what he has seen many times, but also what he hears (or what he thinks he hears) and sometimes even makes the quantum leap of imitating immediately something he has seen for the first time.
I may have already mentioned some of the below new accomplishments of Jonathan's, but hey, a proud mom is supposed to repeat the achievements of her off spring, no? After all, even if Jonathan isn't there, I am usually thinking about him... I sometimes wonder if this is not going a bit too far, but I have become a mother heart and sole!
When I blow his nose he has taken to making a noise with his mouth (blowing between closed lips) thus imitating the noise of nose blowing. It is obvious that he is trying to help. What is not clear is if he is really imitating a noise he has heard many times in connection with nose blowing, or he is trying to prevent the paper tissue of entering his mouth (this has happened before and made him spit the paper out). A further step in the nose blowing saga however occurred this morning, when he took the handkerchief from my hand, held it to his nose and blew with his mouth. Then he returned the paper to me.
Another clever reaction related to his nose is that he blows air out of his nostrils whenever he sees the nose pump near his nose. The nose pump is a simple contraption meant to help a mother pump out extra slime out of the baby's nose, its really just a rubber container that one presses to remove the air, then put the edge in the baby's nose and let go, the container fills with air and pulls the slime out o f the nose. Now that Jonathan blows air through his nostrils when he sees the pump, I rarely have to actually pump.
Progress also in the field of language – whenever he gives someone anything he always says “ta”. I am not sure what the origin of this sound is. It could be the end of the word “TODA” which means thank you in Hebrew and is that natural reaction Jonathan gets whenever he gives someone something, or is it the German “DA” which means “there” when we give him something.
He likes to sit on a small stool that we have at home or wonders to the kitchen in the kindergarten and sits nicely at a small table there and then waits, saying “mam mam” hoping to get some fruit, He also stays and eats sitting on the stool, until he is no longer hungry ad thus he looses interest, or just starts playing with his food.
One can understand why he comes to the table for food, the care takers at the day care center always have their breakfast at the small table in the kitchen, his stool at home is also in the kitchen – the source of food. Today he made the quantum leap of imitating something h saw me do only once. I was drinking a yogurt from a bottle that is comes in and then Jonathan just took the bottle and drank the last drops, just like second nature. I know drinking something dairy from a bottle is no news for Jonathan, but the package was different and it was nice to see him just follow my actions and also be rewarded not only by my encouraging words but also but the sweet drink itself.
More progress in the field of food, Jonathan now feeds me when he is close o ending his meal. He opens his mouth, hands me the food and says “ham” and then shoves it into my mouth, pretty much like I used to do when he was smaller.
He also likes to open my Labello and then lick it, trying to imitate the way I put on the lip balsam. Then he delights in closing the tube. Actually this is a nice piece of delicate mechanic abilities Johnathan is showing. Sometimes, when he does not get the tube closed or he tries to push a lid to close a box but missing its right place, he pushes it further, trying to use more force and then, so cute, he also seams to push his voice, holding his breath and crying out, in the attempt to prompt himself to more force. His voice is also the expression of his frustration at the lack of success to complete the task.
Lately he showed me once more how a computer and television is second nature to him. It has been a while since he started pointing the remote control towards the TV and sometimes even changing channels successfully, but just last week he simply took the computer mouse in his hand, holding it correctly with the first try and clicking on it naturally. This week, this new skill has developed further, he has understood that the mouse controls the computer and he can change the pictures on the screen with it, so he just stands on the floor near the computer table and reaches for the mouse. No need to ask mommy to sit on her lap to get to the computer and its delightfully changing screen. Definitely a newer more sophisticated generation...
I may have already mentioned some of the below new accomplishments of Jonathan's, but hey, a proud mom is supposed to repeat the achievements of her off spring, no? After all, even if Jonathan isn't there, I am usually thinking about him... I sometimes wonder if this is not going a bit too far, but I have become a mother heart and sole!
When I blow his nose he has taken to making a noise with his mouth (blowing between closed lips) thus imitating the noise of nose blowing. It is obvious that he is trying to help. What is not clear is if he is really imitating a noise he has heard many times in connection with nose blowing, or he is trying to prevent the paper tissue of entering his mouth (this has happened before and made him spit the paper out). A further step in the nose blowing saga however occurred this morning, when he took the handkerchief from my hand, held it to his nose and blew with his mouth. Then he returned the paper to me.
Another clever reaction related to his nose is that he blows air out of his nostrils whenever he sees the nose pump near his nose. The nose pump is a simple contraption meant to help a mother pump out extra slime out of the baby's nose, its really just a rubber container that one presses to remove the air, then put the edge in the baby's nose and let go, the container fills with air and pulls the slime out o f the nose. Now that Jonathan blows air through his nostrils when he sees the pump, I rarely have to actually pump.
Progress also in the field of language – whenever he gives someone anything he always says “ta”. I am not sure what the origin of this sound is. It could be the end of the word “TODA” which means thank you in Hebrew and is that natural reaction Jonathan gets whenever he gives someone something, or is it the German “DA” which means “there” when we give him something.
He likes to sit on a small stool that we have at home or wonders to the kitchen in the kindergarten and sits nicely at a small table there and then waits, saying “mam mam” hoping to get some fruit, He also stays and eats sitting on the stool, until he is no longer hungry ad thus he looses interest, or just starts playing with his food.
One can understand why he comes to the table for food, the care takers at the day care center always have their breakfast at the small table in the kitchen, his stool at home is also in the kitchen – the source of food. Today he made the quantum leap of imitating something h saw me do only once. I was drinking a yogurt from a bottle that is comes in and then Jonathan just took the bottle and drank the last drops, just like second nature. I know drinking something dairy from a bottle is no news for Jonathan, but the package was different and it was nice to see him just follow my actions and also be rewarded not only by my encouraging words but also but the sweet drink itself.
More progress in the field of food, Jonathan now feeds me when he is close o ending his meal. He opens his mouth, hands me the food and says “ham” and then shoves it into my mouth, pretty much like I used to do when he was smaller.
He also likes to open my Labello and then lick it, trying to imitate the way I put on the lip balsam. Then he delights in closing the tube. Actually this is a nice piece of delicate mechanic abilities Johnathan is showing. Sometimes, when he does not get the tube closed or he tries to push a lid to close a box but missing its right place, he pushes it further, trying to use more force and then, so cute, he also seams to push his voice, holding his breath and crying out, in the attempt to prompt himself to more force. His voice is also the expression of his frustration at the lack of success to complete the task.
Lately he showed me once more how a computer and television is second nature to him. It has been a while since he started pointing the remote control towards the TV and sometimes even changing channels successfully, but just last week he simply took the computer mouse in his hand, holding it correctly with the first try and clicking on it naturally. This week, this new skill has developed further, he has understood that the mouse controls the computer and he can change the pictures on the screen with it, so he just stands on the floor near the computer table and reaches for the mouse. No need to ask mommy to sit on her lap to get to the computer and its delightfully changing screen. Definitely a newer more sophisticated generation...
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