Lately it seems Jonathan has made a quantum leap when it comes to his understanding. He can turn buttons in his toys (a maneuver that is more difficult) and is showing clear signs of a sense of humor. His understanding is also developing well and he learns more and more by imitation, creating some truly cute circumstances.
Jonathan likes to laugh, and he always enjoys it when mommy makes funny noises. Lately he has decided to contribute himself to the fun! He takes the spoon in his mouth and shakes his head, humming all the while and checking my reaction. He likes to take my glasses and tries t put them on his head. I put them on for him and he thinks it is really funny to have the strange iron contraption on his nose. Such little gestures make him laugh, and prove that he enjoys a good laugh. He recently proved distinctly that he has a sense of humor. He was standing at one end of the living room and I was at another, leaving from work. When Jonathan sees me pick up my keys and bag, he knows I am going away and he begins to whine his protest. As he started to whine I lowered myself on my knees and offered a last minute hug, before going to work and he seemed to accept the offer and stated running in my direction, laughing. But at the last minute, before he reached me he took a sharp turn and ran into his room, laughing all the while! This was the first proof of a sense of humor but also of the child's understanding of the simplest manipulation that children have in their arsenal – hug prevention.
Another day we were in the shopping mall together, Jonathan, my husband and I – and he came to me for a hug, and when his daddy asked for a hug he started running towards him, turning at he last minute. Laughing as he maneuvered around my husband and not into his arms. I could not help laughing and thus the by learned that his actions are pleasing, and he repeated them a few minutes later, much to my husbands chagrin.
Another new ability that proves better understanding is the ability to tell a story. Jonathan still does not talk clearly but rather he mumbles in a language that is completely his own. His”talk” has however recently developed in the sense that there is a lot more “music” to his language. He is clearly talking and telling a story and his mumbles truly sound like conversation. On top of it all, he has recently taken to turning the pages of books and telling himself a story. It is truly the cutest image! I was inspired by his actions and have started reading him a story for bedtime. We still do not hold the book together or tell the story together, but I hope the start I have now made will lead to sch fulfilling bedtime story telling. In the meantime, he even tells himself a good morning story, waiting until we take him out of bed and keeping himself busy by looking through the pages of a fabric book that hangs on the bed and talking to himself! In such moments I wish I could understand him! I do so wish to know what he is saying...
Jonathan seams to be truly musical (like his mommy who could sing before she could talk...really – ask my parents). After all his first clear word is from a song (the sneezing rabbit). He loves any toy that plays music and asks for particular tunes by imitating the way that I sing them. There is a song from on of his toys that I sing by creating a lot of L sounds, and he asks me to sing by imitating the blolololo sound that I make. He makes the toys play a tune and claps his hands as a sign for me that I must join the toy in song!
He imitates adults around him. He tries more and more to eat with a spoon, spilling his food and creating a mess much to my chagrin. I really hate cleaning it all up, but hey its a part of being a mom and not all is pleasurable, though the majority of it all is. He likes to close ans open the glass I use for his mashed food. Each time he succeeds in closing it properly he rewards himself with a cheer! Then I ask him to open it so I can continue to feed him, and he does. And So we eat: open the lid, mommy scoops some food and shovels it into my mouth. I coordinate two movements simultaneously – I.e. opening my mouth for the food and closing the glass again. Then mom asks me to open it, and I do... and it starts all over again.
Jonathan's developed understanding also allows him to show clear dissatisfaction and even clearly oppose certain actions. He is growing 4 teeth now together and that means his gums are red and they hurt! Brushing his teeth is thus not a pleasant action and he shakes his head vigorously each evening when I offer him the tooth brush during bath time. If when he was smaller, we were not sure why he shook his head at times, now it is clear that it is a movement to mean “no”!
Imitation shows itself in the strangest of actions. He likes my Labello lip gloss, and he has mastered opening and closing the tube o his hearts content. But that is no enough. He opens the tube and then rubs it to his lips – imitating his mommy. Then he closes it. (he still has not gotten to the part where he spins the tube to let the lip gloss out...but still he clearly wants to use the funny blue/white tube just like mommy does.
The last weekend, we were at my parents' house and I went to the toilet. My husband who was looking for me, knocked on the door of the toilet to see if I was there and I answered the knock. Jonathan who watched this happen decided it would be nice to get mommy to talk to him from behind the door. And so he got up and knocked on the door too! Imitating the actions f my husband. My mother who was nearly said one could see the thinking process in the boys eyes. The thought and decision to get up and knock on the door so that mommy would answer him too.
The end of January is also the time of Jonathan's first sketch. Another action that shows a new understanding. One morning he decided to grab a pencil and scribble wit it on a peace of paper. Thus a few lines were created and a simple note to remind me of daily routines has been kept and placed in Jonathan photo album, for posterity.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Jonathan's First Words
Of all the incoherent mumbles that my almost 14 months old son produces the most intelligible is an imitation of a sneeze. Hence Jonathan’s new word is "Ap-chi"!
Jonathan was 10 month old when he started mumbling "mum um um" and I first thought it was food, then I thought it might mean mommy and now I think it means both. He uses a more coherent "IMMA" in a whining tone when wanting to complain that mommy is not being so nice... Everything else receives the title of "ABA" - which can be very frustrating for the Israeli mother, as "ABA" means daddy.
As B is a very easy sound and many babies, many say "ABA" first. There is a popular Internet joke being distributed by Israeli mothers that says: "We carry them for nine months, all the throwing up, and swollen feet. Then we nurse them and stay up at night and all they can say is "ABA" (daddy).
Jonathan’s variety of songs has also grown and for some time the tossing of his head backwards meant he wanted to hear the "sneeze" song (about a little rabbit who forgot to close the door and got a cold...sneeze, sneeze, sneeze...). Recently he has added a particular sound to the request for this song. He takes in air and then releases it between his teeth - thus creating his first coherent word of "Aah-tssss" - the closest a one year old can get to imitating a sneeze. This sound along with the sound of "O" (which is for light) count as his first words. "O" is always combined with switching on the light, or asking to be brought near enough to a light switch. "OR" in Hebrew is light.
Jonathan has really gotten clever in light switching. He manages to turn on the light in his room as I walk by the switch carrying him. Despite my movement (I do not stop for the switch on switch off game) he manages to turn the light on. At his grandparent's house there are some low light switches and Jonathan enjoys those extremely! If we bring him to out bed, he immediately targets the switch near it, easy to reach from the bed and we get a simulation of a Disco party!
His love of lights is only surpassed by his love of music - one day he will be a great party guy! Or maybe even a DJ - he sure shows promise... ha ha
Jonathan was 10 month old when he started mumbling "mum um um" and I first thought it was food, then I thought it might mean mommy and now I think it means both. He uses a more coherent "IMMA" in a whining tone when wanting to complain that mommy is not being so nice... Everything else receives the title of "ABA" - which can be very frustrating for the Israeli mother, as "ABA" means daddy.
As B is a very easy sound and many babies, many say "ABA" first. There is a popular Internet joke being distributed by Israeli mothers that says: "We carry them for nine months, all the throwing up, and swollen feet. Then we nurse them and stay up at night and all they can say is "ABA" (daddy).
Jonathan’s variety of songs has also grown and for some time the tossing of his head backwards meant he wanted to hear the "sneeze" song (about a little rabbit who forgot to close the door and got a cold...sneeze, sneeze, sneeze...). Recently he has added a particular sound to the request for this song. He takes in air and then releases it between his teeth - thus creating his first coherent word of "Aah-tssss" - the closest a one year old can get to imitating a sneeze. This sound along with the sound of "O" (which is for light) count as his first words. "O" is always combined with switching on the light, or asking to be brought near enough to a light switch. "OR" in Hebrew is light.
Jonathan has really gotten clever in light switching. He manages to turn on the light in his room as I walk by the switch carrying him. Despite my movement (I do not stop for the switch on switch off game) he manages to turn the light on. At his grandparent's house there are some low light switches and Jonathan enjoys those extremely! If we bring him to out bed, he immediately targets the switch near it, easy to reach from the bed and we get a simulation of a Disco party!
His love of lights is only surpassed by his love of music - one day he will be a great party guy! Or maybe even a DJ - he sure shows promise... ha ha
Friday, January 2, 2009
Learning by Doing
All the books say babies learn by imitation. This is why a mother needs to repeat silly things such as “ a dog goes woof woof!” a hundred times and not stop smiling while she is at it...Jonathan is a living proof that this time the books got it right!
All babies at the age of a year are the proud owners of a toy that is composed of a pole and rings. I spin the rings for Jonathan and he delights in the movement. Then he tries to do it to, imitating me and placing the ring “standing” on the floor, but not quite getting the twist of things (no pun intended) he can't get it to turn. In this case it is clear he is imitating my actions but the result does not follow through. Disappointed he turns to the ever lasting solution of throwing! Thus the ring flies across the room and as it lands it spins nicely, and Jonathan has once again solved a problem!
But why am I writing about this today? Because recently he started imitating me also vocally! I go”hu hu hu hu hu hu” and he joins me with a similar sound. As soon as I discovered that he imitates the sound, I put some sense into it by saying that a monkey goes “hu hu hu”. I also go bblblblblblb with my tongue against my lisps and he clearly sticks out is tongue to create an L sound on his lips to.
Sometimes I imitate him. He uses his hand, tapping it on his mouth and making sounds to create an effect that is close to an Indian call from really old western movies. As soon as I saw that I began imitating him and I joined him in a call across the prairy! As he discovered that my lips can also create the wonderful sound he started tapping my mouth with his hand and all I has to do is say aahhhh.
Jonathan is a very social baby, he likes to join people in their activities. As he now can walk pretty well, he follows me around the house, aways clearly seeking my company. When I sit near him, he can play alone and keep himself busy, knowing I am near by. I do not have to always participate in the game, its the general company/ presence that counts. Also when I eat he comes to share in the activity. The ladies in his kindergarten have also experienced his habit of coming up for pickings. He will usually share their lunch despite the fact that he has already gotten his portion of baby food. The result is that last week, when the ladies of the kindergarten order sushi fro fun, Jonathan has his first taste of Wassabi! Although it was to , he kept eating it. At th same time he kept holding his tongue out of his mouth and blowing, clearly showing his care takers that the food was spicy. They tried to stop giving him the food but he kept demanding his share, and so it continued – the boy was eating, enjoying their company and blowing his mouth cool at the same time. I found this an amusing story, especially since it is so typical of Jonathan not to give up on sharing anything!
In fact he is so stubborn that usually the other kids in the kindergarten give up on toys because they cannot fight Jonathan off. Another day when I came to pick him up from kindergarten, I let another boy play with my mobile phone (no worries, the keys are locked so no expensive calls to far away lands were made...). Jonathan decided he wanted to play with it too and thus the two boys started a wrestling match. The other boy uncharacteristically decided to stay and fight it out for quite a while, so I had the great fun of watching two 1 year olds fight over a mobile phone. After a while the other boy tried a distracting maneuver on Jonathan by tossing the phone away, to try to shake him off, and then making a a run for the electronic devise. The only problem is Jonathan did not even notice this, he just kept wrestling, as if the phone had lost its meaning and now the game was climbing all over the other child.
There was no clear winner that day! When the other boys mother turned up she simply gave her son her mobile and thus the struggle was over.
A visit to the children's station this week showed us that Jonathan is still growing steadily and gaining weight and height despite the repeated tummy viruses he (and mommy) has been getting. Winter is the worst in Israel in terms of children getting sick and viruses simply moving from one kid to the next. Parents need to stay off work with sick children only to catch he virus themselves. The nurse said Jonathan is not getting enough exercise is eating with his hands, but honestly he just does not seam to want to do so lately. He used to try to touch all his foods and now he likes being fed, like a little king. I admit that I do not always give him all the possibilities to mess up his food and that meal times for us are functional and not so much a playing and learning experience.
The truth is I hate the mess and I am probably depriving my kid of some really fun chances to stick his hands into his food. I just can't help it. For the same reason I also serve him food in jars if its grounded (he still eats grounded meat and fruit in addition to more solid versions such as scrambles eggs, potato puree and bananas) He does however like to close and open the jar of fruit when eating from it. So he opens the jar, I spoon out the food and he opens his mouth, taking the portion while simultaneously closing the jar again. Then I ask him to open it, he does and the process is repeated. His motoric abilities (grobe like walking and delicate like pressing a specific button or grabbing with his hands) are improving every day.
You may have noticed that I no longer make an entry to the blog every week. Well I decided that now that Jonathan is one year old and the first definition of the blog has been filled, I will continue to write only when there is something to write about and not on a weekly basis. It is also now the end of 2008, so I wish us all a great new year and to Jonathan a year of growth, adventure and discovery, as well as more learning by doing.
All babies at the age of a year are the proud owners of a toy that is composed of a pole and rings. I spin the rings for Jonathan and he delights in the movement. Then he tries to do it to, imitating me and placing the ring “standing” on the floor, but not quite getting the twist of things (no pun intended) he can't get it to turn. In this case it is clear he is imitating my actions but the result does not follow through. Disappointed he turns to the ever lasting solution of throwing! Thus the ring flies across the room and as it lands it spins nicely, and Jonathan has once again solved a problem!
But why am I writing about this today? Because recently he started imitating me also vocally! I go”hu hu hu hu hu hu” and he joins me with a similar sound. As soon as I discovered that he imitates the sound, I put some sense into it by saying that a monkey goes “hu hu hu”. I also go bblblblblblb with my tongue against my lisps and he clearly sticks out is tongue to create an L sound on his lips to.
Sometimes I imitate him. He uses his hand, tapping it on his mouth and making sounds to create an effect that is close to an Indian call from really old western movies. As soon as I saw that I began imitating him and I joined him in a call across the prairy! As he discovered that my lips can also create the wonderful sound he started tapping my mouth with his hand and all I has to do is say aahhhh.
Jonathan is a very social baby, he likes to join people in their activities. As he now can walk pretty well, he follows me around the house, aways clearly seeking my company. When I sit near him, he can play alone and keep himself busy, knowing I am near by. I do not have to always participate in the game, its the general company/ presence that counts. Also when I eat he comes to share in the activity. The ladies in his kindergarten have also experienced his habit of coming up for pickings. He will usually share their lunch despite the fact that he has already gotten his portion of baby food. The result is that last week, when the ladies of the kindergarten order sushi fro fun, Jonathan has his first taste of Wassabi! Although it was to , he kept eating it. At th same time he kept holding his tongue out of his mouth and blowing, clearly showing his care takers that the food was spicy. They tried to stop giving him the food but he kept demanding his share, and so it continued – the boy was eating, enjoying their company and blowing his mouth cool at the same time. I found this an amusing story, especially since it is so typical of Jonathan not to give up on sharing anything!
In fact he is so stubborn that usually the other kids in the kindergarten give up on toys because they cannot fight Jonathan off. Another day when I came to pick him up from kindergarten, I let another boy play with my mobile phone (no worries, the keys are locked so no expensive calls to far away lands were made...). Jonathan decided he wanted to play with it too and thus the two boys started a wrestling match. The other boy uncharacteristically decided to stay and fight it out for quite a while, so I had the great fun of watching two 1 year olds fight over a mobile phone. After a while the other boy tried a distracting maneuver on Jonathan by tossing the phone away, to try to shake him off, and then making a a run for the electronic devise. The only problem is Jonathan did not even notice this, he just kept wrestling, as if the phone had lost its meaning and now the game was climbing all over the other child.
There was no clear winner that day! When the other boys mother turned up she simply gave her son her mobile and thus the struggle was over.
A visit to the children's station this week showed us that Jonathan is still growing steadily and gaining weight and height despite the repeated tummy viruses he (and mommy) has been getting. Winter is the worst in Israel in terms of children getting sick and viruses simply moving from one kid to the next. Parents need to stay off work with sick children only to catch he virus themselves. The nurse said Jonathan is not getting enough exercise is eating with his hands, but honestly he just does not seam to want to do so lately. He used to try to touch all his foods and now he likes being fed, like a little king. I admit that I do not always give him all the possibilities to mess up his food and that meal times for us are functional and not so much a playing and learning experience.
The truth is I hate the mess and I am probably depriving my kid of some really fun chances to stick his hands into his food. I just can't help it. For the same reason I also serve him food in jars if its grounded (he still eats grounded meat and fruit in addition to more solid versions such as scrambles eggs, potato puree and bananas) He does however like to close and open the jar of fruit when eating from it. So he opens the jar, I spoon out the food and he opens his mouth, taking the portion while simultaneously closing the jar again. Then I ask him to open it, he does and the process is repeated. His motoric abilities (grobe like walking and delicate like pressing a specific button or grabbing with his hands) are improving every day.
You may have noticed that I no longer make an entry to the blog every week. Well I decided that now that Jonathan is one year old and the first definition of the blog has been filled, I will continue to write only when there is something to write about and not on a weekly basis. It is also now the end of 2008, so I wish us all a great new year and to Jonathan a year of growth, adventure and discovery, as well as more learning by doing.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
The Mom Song
This you tube video has been brought to my notice by friends who reacted to my growth chart image.
Its called the mom song and I do believe it summarizes the general experience of mummying...
Look enjoy and remember that I have hardly started (my first born is only one year old).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMhuAtyFCrw
The subtitles are a big help! It is truly hard to summarize a mothers task in just 2 minutes and 55 seconds.
Its called the mom song and I do believe it summarizes the general experience of mummying...
Look enjoy and remember that I have hardly started (my first born is only one year old).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMhuAtyFCrw
The subtitles are a big help! It is truly hard to summarize a mothers task in just 2 minutes and 55 seconds.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Jonathan's first year growth chart
If there was one good thing I got off the breast feeding instructor in the hospital in which Jonathan was born, its the idea to compile a growth chart for Jonathan in his first year, using a water bottle!
The idea is to take an object and compare your baby to it once a month - and see how the baby grows. The object I chose was a 1.5 liter water bottle, standard and handy. The result is above - 12 images - 12 growth moments in Jonathan's first year! The first picture was taken on Dec. 4, 2007 when Jonathan was but a week old and the last one was taken on Nov. 29, 2008 a day after Jonathan's first birthday!
Back to the breast feeding instructor, I went to hear a lecture about breast feeding because I wanted to learn how to do it right with my first new born baby - What I got was unfortunately an hour of opinionated content about how formula is bad for you, the baby should sleep with the parents in the same room - starting with the hospital bed and so on...
At the end of the lecture I felt bad because I wanted to rest after my cesarean surgery and left Jonathan in the nursery with the nurses for the night, rather than have him by me...but I also got the great idea of the first year growth chart!
The story goes that 20 years ago when the instructor has her children, and she was breast feeding her baby, she has no reference to a good growth rate. The charts provided then (and probably also now) are based on babies that eat formula (or mixed - mother milk and formula). According to the instructor, babies who breast feed grow in a different rate, basically much slower than formula babies - So as she did not have a good reference chart and she wanted to make sure her baby was growing nicely, she decided to compare the baby to an object (she too chose a bottle) and thus she could see that it was indeed growing - gaining weight and becoming taller.
By the way, the instructor assured us that breast feeding babies eventually they catch up, and according to her breast feeding is not only the best food for your baby but the only option! So no worries.
As Jonathan's first year is now over I felt it was appropriate to show my faithful readers the picture of the bottle chart, I am sure you will excuse a proud mother for showing off!The only two question that remain are: if I will continue this, and if so, at what frequency. (Maybe once a year until the age of 20? then his hand will be almost as large as the bottle...ha ha).
The idea is to take an object and compare your baby to it once a month - and see how the baby grows. The object I chose was a 1.5 liter water bottle, standard and handy. The result is above - 12 images - 12 growth moments in Jonathan's first year! The first picture was taken on Dec. 4, 2007 when Jonathan was but a week old and the last one was taken on Nov. 29, 2008 a day after Jonathan's first birthday!
Back to the breast feeding instructor, I went to hear a lecture about breast feeding because I wanted to learn how to do it right with my first new born baby - What I got was unfortunately an hour of opinionated content about how formula is bad for you, the baby should sleep with the parents in the same room - starting with the hospital bed and so on...
At the end of the lecture I felt bad because I wanted to rest after my cesarean surgery and left Jonathan in the nursery with the nurses for the night, rather than have him by me...but I also got the great idea of the first year growth chart!
The story goes that 20 years ago when the instructor has her children, and she was breast feeding her baby, she has no reference to a good growth rate. The charts provided then (and probably also now) are based on babies that eat formula (or mixed - mother milk and formula). According to the instructor, babies who breast feed grow in a different rate, basically much slower than formula babies - So as she did not have a good reference chart and she wanted to make sure her baby was growing nicely, she decided to compare the baby to an object (she too chose a bottle) and thus she could see that it was indeed growing - gaining weight and becoming taller.
By the way, the instructor assured us that breast feeding babies eventually they catch up, and according to her breast feeding is not only the best food for your baby but the only option! So no worries.
As Jonathan's first year is now over I felt it was appropriate to show my faithful readers the picture of the bottle chart, I am sure you will excuse a proud mother for showing off!The only two question that remain are: if I will continue this, and if so, at what frequency. (Maybe once a year until the age of 20? then his hand will be almost as large as the bottle...ha ha).
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
More Great Moments
On December 8th Jonathan walked the distance of his room towards mommy! He even fell in the middle, got up all alone, balanced and walked again to reach mommy!
In fact you probably would be walking a lot more now (you show the tendency towards it and the confidence too, including standing up all alone – not pulling yourself up) if it were not for the fact that it is unfortunately winter and you must wear socks! Thus you tend to slip more, and your “how to walk” learning process is being slowed down by the weather.
In fact you probably would be walking a lot more now (you show the tendency towards it and the confidence too, including standing up all alone – not pulling yourself up) if it were not for the fact that it is unfortunately winter and you must wear socks! Thus you tend to slip more, and your “how to walk” learning process is being slowed down by the weather.
Major achievements as your first year comes to a close (more great moments):
November 17th at 17:45 Jonathan really walked for the first time!
Your first 3 steps!
Towards your 1st birthday (don't remember the exact date) you started cooperating to a certain song by putting your hands on your head and clapping (corresponding to the words – clap clap your hands,we will drive to Jerusalem, one two three, hands on your head – it rhymes in Hebrew...) You even ask for the song by repeating its movements in advance.
Clapping your hands is a request that mommy sing something!
You have learned that mommy claps to music, so you play some music on your boom box and then turn clapping towards mommy to make sure she is clapping along with you.
Generally you are more and more frustrated as it becomes obvious that your head works faster than you body, and you can't always get what you want. This also unfortunately means that you whine (your complaint) more often...
Your first 3 steps!
Towards your 1st birthday (don't remember the exact date) you started cooperating to a certain song by putting your hands on your head and clapping (corresponding to the words – clap clap your hands,we will drive to Jerusalem, one two three, hands on your head – it rhymes in Hebrew...) You even ask for the song by repeating its movements in advance.
Clapping your hands is a request that mommy sing something!
You have learned that mommy claps to music, so you play some music on your boom box and then turn clapping towards mommy to make sure she is clapping along with you.
Generally you are more and more frustrated as it becomes obvious that your head works faster than you body, and you can't always get what you want. This also unfortunately means that you whine (your complaint) more often...
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