Social Skills

Jonathan is giving good reason to write a lot of entires lately – well , what can I do when he is just being his adorable self! Today, two incidents have shown me that Jonathan's social skills are developing and his awareness as well as his good intentions are developing toward the ones he loves, namely his mommy and his family.

The first incident was Jonathan showing that he truly cares about his mommy, and that he is also learning from me too. He invited me to stand up “on one leg” with him this morning.
Its a sort of a game, and today we played together for the first time. The aim of the game is to stand on one leg, try to keep balance as long as its amusing for Jonathan and then fall spectacularly on the floor – the bigger the show the more fun it is for my sunny son. As we were standing together on one leg, Jonathan told me to be careful, and then we both fell down, landing on the carpet, laughing. This repeated itself three times until I decided to end the game because of the arrival of guests. This game was especially heart warming because not only did Jonathan invite me to share in his fun, he also looked out for me and told me to be careful during the game.

I was so proud of him! For a two year old (OK, 27 months) I think this is also showing a responsibility level that is very encouraging. Together with the fact that Jonathan knows by now to stop before a road, I am starting to see the fruit of some hard lessons I am trying to teach him and messages I have been drilling to him almost from birth are finally sinking in.

I have seen him stand on one leg before and always told him to be careful so he would not fall when he did this. I have already stood on one leg for my son's amusement (pretending to loose balance of course, with lots of ohhhh's, and ahhhhggg's! Much to my son's content).But this is the first time we are standing on one leg together, balancing together and falling down together amid shouts of laughter from us both. Boy! Did we have fun!.

The second incident involves my niece. My sister and her husband left their little daughter who is about 6 months old with me for a few hours this morning. Jonathan was very ambivalent to his little cousin at first (great improvement to a few months ago when she first entered his life and he was jealous every time I held my niece in my arms) but then he began to show more interest. He stroked her head more than one time, even without me instructing him to do it. Once I gave him the idea, he chose to express his affection spontaneously a few times. The height of his interest in his young guest was when he offered to sit his niece in his toy stroller. The offer was a natural reaction to the fact that the baby was wining a bit, besides if the baby is in the stroller it means that she is no longer in my arms – another advantage for Jonathan of course. (But I really think he had no agenda, because he did not immediately take her place in my arms when they became free).

Jonathan has a pink stroller he borrowed from another cousin. He loves to drive it around our apartment and also be driven in it. This is why I know the toy could hold my niece in safety and so I cooperated with Jonathan and accepted his offer to sit the baby in the stroller (after he repeated it a second time). As the little girl seamed to like it, I allowed Jonathan to rock the stroller to and fro, and we sang a lullaby together. Curiously enough, the baby calmed down in the stroller. After a while, however, Jonathan decided enough is enough and ordered that the baby be removed from his stroller. After he repeated this wish twice and also because the stroller is not really a good place for a real baby, it is after all just a toy meant for dolls (the regular passenger is an Erny from Sesame Street doll), I removed the baby from the stroller and Jonathan was allowed to have his toy to himself again. The baby was however not so pleased an it took me quite a while to calm her down again.

She finally fell asleep in my arms and then Jonathan sat on the other side and leaned into me on the other side and we all sat down on the couch and cuddled together (watching a children's DVD). It was really one of the best moments of my life! Squashed between my sweet boy and his cute cousin I felt almost complete. There is really nothing more pure and pleasurable that the touch of children – who give their love to you free of all restraint (even if unintentionally as babies). Although Jonathan was probably a bit frustrated at times that I had relatively little time for him this morning, he seamed to enjoy the presence of his cousin to some extent – a good sign for what it might be like when he gets a sibling...