He loves this puzzle and plays with it at least once a day, sometimes twice. It is now a routine to take the puzzle apart and place it back into box before bedtime so we can do it again the next day. Some days we do this before nap time as well. Here is a video of Frank at work putting it together. It took a total of 12 minutes.
Eat, Pray, Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert
I guess no one else is still doing the book challenge this year but I like to keep track of the titles I read here so I can reference it if I want to recommend a book or find an author I liked.
I finally got this book that Eve already read and I liked it alot. It is my first none children’s book since Timmy was born. I’m quite surprised at the level of meditation she was able to achieve and wonder how much is real and how much is fiction. Regardless, it made me think alot about my life. Questioning who I am and what do I want to do and how to balance my own life. I liked the sit and smile meditation =)
Frank continues to expand his vocabulary. For the past month his favorite word continues to be no but another new favorite is MINE. Everything is no, mine.
Words in order of when he first said them are:
ball
meat
sorry
yoyi for yogurt as oppose to the original eiya
up up
down
ouwie (when he gets hurt)
tall (started with the book Tall)
tip toe (he walks on tippy toes)
on (tells mom to turn on the light)
ooh ooh (when he spills stuff or does something wrong)
zoo (we look forward to visiting the Oakland Zoo next week)
key (when mom goes get the mail, Frank needs to bring his keys too)
eye
mine
two and both (when given a choice, he often answers two, both, while holding out both pointer fingers)
nose (especially when we do the birday puzzle and he points to the fish’s nose)
knee (again the birday puzzle - octopus has his knee on the edge of one puzzle piece)
three (mommy will read three stories if he is good boy)
move and go (started when mom said it often cuz Frank would stand in the front and block the passage way when mom tries to push Timmy and stroller)
bone
pee yaa for pizza and ju for juice (new favorite food - when his neck had a pulled muscle from tumbling, acetaminophen was not going to make it better, ibuprofen wasn’t gonna make it better but pizza and juice was going to make it better and it did cuz dad put Tylenol in the juice heehee)
play
wheel (requests for wheel on the bus song at first. now points to wheels on his trucks and vehicles and says it)
five (requesting the song five little ducks went out to play is five dididi - his duck sound is like sound of little birds)
people (first time saying it in car while waiting to pick up dad at bart station. Frank points outside and says people, many many)
broo for broke (lots of things get broken so an important word)
read (asking mommy to read)
mommy go nani go (first multi-word sentence. mom was going to pick up the pizza and frank (aka nani) wants to go with mom)
bar choo choo go go gone (second multi-word sentence. Bart train going going gone (like freight train) as we watched the Bart train leave the station)
stop (now saying go stop go stop as he drives his ride-on toy)
in
rainbow
story
puppy and doggie
tree
shoe
green
Frank now knows many words and sounds and we often have extensive conversations. Here is how one went
He said “owl meow meow”
Mom said “oh the owl and the pussy cat went out to sea in a beautiful pea green boat”
He said “de-li de-li” while holding his arm and hand like playing a guitar
Mom said “The owl looked up to the stars above and sang to a small guitar”
He said “gobble gobble”
Mom said “And they were married the next day by the turkey who lives on the hill”
Then he made sounds that translates to chicken and ended our storytelling conversation as there are no chickens in this poem.
Another time Frank did something bad and dad wasn’t trying to discipline by taking him up to his room and explaining to him that was not acceptable. On the way up the stairs Frank pointed to the yellow butterfly wind-chime and said mommy birday (that was mom’s birthday present). And dad cracked a smile and Frank got away with going up to his room.
No more naps. Perhaps a demonstration of his need to be in control, Frank now refuses to nap. At first he hides in his room reading Franklin the Turtle stories. Then mom took those away and since we all know he is not napping he stopped being quiet and sneaky. He would be jumping on his bed, making a huge mess in his room with books and toys. Now we stopped forcing him to nap but he needs to spend quiet time since Timmy is napping. That only works for 30 minutes. He has fallen asleep in the car and will nap if mom can move him to his room without completely waking him. So much for thinking maybe he doesn’t need a nap anymore. He is sleeping really well at night so we’ll see how long before he naps regularly again.
Perhaps a reason for the resistance to napping started when he chewed up his thumb so bad that he could no longer suck on it. We all told him to let his thumb rest so he stopped sucking his thumb and maybe without this to calm him midday he can’t stay still enough to fall asleep. Anyways, he started to suck again after so long and now there are small tooth marks there once again. A new tooth has emerged and he hasn’t fussed noticeably so maybe that is related. We just don’t know. The new tooth is his left bottom molar. Only 3 left to complete his baby teeth.
Frank is getting really good at putting together his birthday puzzle from Great Aunt Ellen. At first the puzzle was put away in order so he just had to follow in order and each piece fit into the next. Then he started to pull ones out of the middle and that threw off the ordering. Each time we finish it we look at all the pictures and talks about it. The big fish with teeth, the turtle, the octopus, the sea horse (mommy sea horse and baby sea horse, the baby one is often referred to as nani), the purple sea urchin, the starfish (there are three), the green yellow fish that bunny likes to kiss, the nemo clown fish that is hiding, playing peek-a-boo, etc. Now we spread all the pieces out and Frank would just work the whole puzzle. We usually start with the corner that has the sea horses. He needs occasional help from mom as she says turn that one around, line up the edges, that one doesn’t go there, look for the piece with … on it. Just today he is picking out all three pieces of the big starfish before returning to the puzzle to put them all in.