We got a little note the other day from the day care center saying that as of today, Alex will be starting in Class #2 at day care. This means new teachers, a larger class, and most interestingly, time on the potty every day. Our little boy is growing up!
Lately, Alex is really into his wooden puzzles. You know the kind, with the peg handles on the pieces and the picture underneath under the shapes to help you out? He loves them. He has a rack that holds several, and they get progressively harder. We started with the animals, which have the biggest pegs. He can do that one lickety split, and loves to finish it and then turn the base over and start all over again. We do the annimal sounds as we go, and he newest favorite animal goes "cocka-dooooooo!" The car one has smaller pegs, and that one is also pretty easy for him now.
Last night, he asked for the alphabet puzzle, in lieu of a bedtime story. Well, he didn't ask for the alphabet per se, but he rejected annimals and cars, but eagerly snatched the alphabet one when I offered it. It's the hardest yet, because it has so many pieces, and he doesn't know the alphabet quite yet. But the pictures underneath the letters are of things that start with that letter, and so when he picks up the B, for example, I say "That's a B, buh, buh, B stands for Ball!" and then he scans for the appropriate picture and gets the letter in place. With that type of guidance, he can do the whole thing! Although I do wish they hadn't done a "Jet" for J, as he looks at that picture and shouts "airplane!"
It is just amazing to see how each time he does it, he gets the pieces in faster and lines them up quicker. You can just see him learning!
Alex's top two fang teeth have just b-a-r-e-l-y popped through his gums. Poor little guy has been just miserable the past few nights, and I know teething is the culpret. I can also feel 2 year molars hard under the surface back there, especially on the bottom left, but those bumps have been there for a while and don't seem to be making progress.
Teething sucks. In hindsight, I am really glad it took a good long while for his first teeth to come in!
Alex has started to read to himself. He is starting to know what words go with what pages on his favorite books and will say them along with me, or even just page through the book and say them to himself.
Favorites are Mr. Brown Can Moo (he'll make the appropriate sounds on sight) and Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb (in which he will do the dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum and drum on his legs, and also strum and pick an apple on the right pages).
The past few nights, Alex has decided he wants to "read" his I-Spy book at bedtime. Its technically a little too old for him, but he is nonetheless surprising me with his ability to pick out known objects from a very crowded field. I would say "I spy a duckie!" and he would scan intently the whole page until he got excited to find the "duckie! duckie! duckie, Mommy!" After two days he can really hone in on many objects in the pictures, including things that I was showing him for the first time, like "ine ones" (pine cones), and things he already knew, like orsie! foggie! cow! ball! sungasses! car! tuck!
It seems like he is picking up several new words a day. Neat-o!
In case anyone was wondering, Alex does not want to wear overalls. He does not like them one bit. I bought a new pair about two weeks ago and have tried tp put them on him twice. Both times, he kicked, he screamed, he said No Mommy, no no! And scratched at them. I gave up.
Not sure when he got so opinionated about clothes, but there it is.