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
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