Speaking and Signing

Xander's school is so great about teaching him ASL signs for communication. Everything that I have read says that is much easier for kids to learn the signs that how to speak the words aloud. What a great thing to teach so kids can communicate earlier.

During his first year, I tried to teach Xander a few words like "more", "food", and "milk". I tried, tried, and tried without much success for many months and probably started way to early. I have no reason to believe that Xander would be any kind of early talker, but I plugged away anyhow. His school also worked on teaching signs as well. Finally, one of Xander's first words was "more" and he learned to sign and speak it at exactly the same time. This seems to be the general trend for all the signs that he learns. He learns the spoken word at exactly the same time as the sign.

Xander's vocal pronunciation is pretty bad compared to adults of course. While I, as his mommy, have all the time and interest in the world to figure out what he is trying to say vocally; not everyone has this kind of time. The signs that he knows especially come in handy at school where the teachers don't have has much time to figure his unique pronunciation with 5 other toddlers running around, and it's a lot noisier than our home.

So, I definitely think its a pretty good thing to try and use. I have to keep up with learning the signs. It's cool that Xander is already teaching me. Next thing you know, he'll be a teenager who "knows it all".

Spicy Kolaches

We bought kolaches for breakfast today from the Shipley's Donuts by our home. We ordered Big Earl Spicy for us (sausage, cheese, jalapeno) and non-spicy (no jalapeno) for Xander. When we got home, we realized that they were all spicy.

Of course, Xander insisted on having some. We tried to remove all the jalapeno and give him just the sausage. He loved it, for a while. Then he started crying and rubbing his tongue. A little milk helped, but then, he asked for more. How can something so good hurt so bad?

Toddler Hypnosis

Xander's recent artwork

Paint:



Marker:



Chalk:
The interesting thing about this one is that he asked to play with the chalk. I think he might have influenced him a little. The day prior to this art, I showed him how to draw "dots". That's about the extent of my art instruction capability.

Remember Alaska Socks?

Remember the Alaska Socks? Xander has 3 pairs of Alaska socks. They are all too small for his feet now. However, they turn out to be pretty decent for mittens. In Austin, we don't really have a need to have mittens. We had a freak snow storm this week, and I wanted to give Xander something for his hands. We were amazed that he kept these on the whole time that he played in the snow.

OMG...terrible twos...can we please skip this phase????

Today, Xander threw such a tantrum that he actually broke some blood vessels in his skin around his neck from crying so long and hard. The little guy screamed for 30 minutes in the car. Then, for about 15 minutes after we got home.

What started this tantrum? He wanted to play with my keys, but I needed them to drive us home. I took the keys away and then had to listen to 30 minutes of screaming interspersed with an occasional "key, key, key". No amount of talking to him about it did any good.

Once we were home, I gave him the keys, but he was already beyond the point of no return. It was a escalated to the point where he bit my pants. He has done this before where he bites some clothing. I guess I should be thankful that he is not going for me, but I still scolded him for biting anyway. Not that scolding a kid in the middle of a tantrum does any good.

After he did calm down (a stuffed monkey was involved), he was a perfect angel for the rest of the evening. Maybe he was just too tired to throw any more tantrums.

On the positive side, toddler screaming is thankfully very much different from infant crying. Even though it is 100 times louder, it is much easier to tune-out. It's not pleasant to listen to, but I no longer have a hormonal drive to respond to it.

Shoot, I've ruined him for LIFE!

Xander's not reading yet, but other kids his age are. Really? Holy shoot he's already falling behind!! OK, I joke, but seriously, there is a lot of pressure out there to teach babies to READ. Is he going to be a productive member of society if he can't read before pre-school?

Cleaning

For a while there, I thought it was cool that Xander liked to help clean. Give him a towel and he will clean the floor, windows. Great slave labor, right? Unfortunately, Xander loves cleaning so much that he has started to intentionally create messes to clean up.

This afternoon, he was drinking some milk from a cup. He spilled a few drops. He said "oh-oh" and then reached for the paper towels. I gave him a towel to clean up the mess, which he did.

Then, he asked for "mo muk peez" (more milk please), and I went to pour more milk. While I was pouring his glass, he starts pulling tons of paper towels off the roll. I hand him the glass of milk and take a way the towels. All of a sudden, he takes the whole glass of milk and intentionally (as in, looks straight at the cup) pours it on the floor, "oh-oh". Fortunately, we had a whole bunch of paper towels and dog tongues handy to clean it up.

Cleaning up is WAY too fun.

Dancing songs?

Xander particularly fond of any song that has a dance associated with it. Some of those that we sing:

"Ring Around the Rosie"
"If You're Happy and You Know It"
"I'm a Little Teapot"
"Five Little Monkeys"
"Little Bunny Foo Foo"
"Itsy Bitsy Spider"
"Patty Cake"
"Head and Shoulders, Knees, and Toes"

I'm looking for some more songs like these. Anyone have suggestions?

First friend?

So, I know everything I've read says that kids aren't really capable of having real friends at Xander's age. I understand that, but I have to believe that Xander has as much of a friend that he could possibly have.

The week before we went on vacation, Xander's teacher was telling me how Xander was being a trouble maker with one of his classmates, Augie. During naptime, he kept reaching out with his toes and saying "Augie, Augie, Augie..." trying to get Augie's attention.

While we were on vacation, Xander played with the hotel telephones pretending to call. I asked him if he was calling one of his friends from school and he said "Augie".

Then, this week, his teacher told me that Xander was behind the shed on the play yard during outdoor playtime. She knew he was back there because she saw Augie cracking up. They were playing peek-a-boo with each other.

They have recently learned to share Ms. Izzy, one kid on each leg, instead of jealously pushing each other away.

I hope these two continue to enjoy each other's company. They started school on the exact same day back in October 2008. They are both cute tall blondies although Augie is super-white blond.