Accomplishments and Phases

From October 2008

I don't think i've given a proper update in awhile about the various stages the boys are in. Silas is 19 months now and Henry is around 3.5 years old. Let's do Silas first.

His funny bone seems to be developing more and more. He has a quick temper and can be loud and irritable when frustrated, but he's just as likely to crack up or do something silly and wait for your reaction-- then crack up. He started this trend during the visit to Oklahoma when he purposely "missed" his seat and fell down-- laughing the whole time. I think he's legitimately ticklish because when you try to trim his toenails he laughs and then squirms uncomfortably while he's laughing.

Speaking of nail trimming. Hallelujah! My least favorite chore seems to have turned a corner. Henry has been very good about having his nails cut for a long time now and will tell you when they need to be done. Until recently trimming Silas' nails was just awful. It didn't matter what you had to distract him he was squirming and screaming and mad and doing nothing to help speed the process along. He doesn't have a bluebird on his shoulder yet, but he generally sits somewhat patiently and just watches as i speedily make my way through all his fingers. This, and sitting in the bath, are pretty huge in my book-- forget about first steps, to me *these* are the real parenting milestones.

Silas' favorite activity at home is pushing his shopping cart back and forth in the house. He enjoys it immensely and if someone else, a visiting friend or say his brother, decides to take the cart for a push, he generally shrieks and then just watches until the unsuspecting shopper abandons the cart for an instant. He throws down whatever he's doing and runs with arms outstretched, toddling back and forth, to recover control.

Henry is getting very good at puzzles. Several of the large floor puzzles he got for Christmas last year (approx. 25 pieces) he can now put together either by himself or with a little support from an adult. He's somewhat obsessed with his letters and can now recognize all of his letters (at least all capital letters and most of the lowercase letters). He can write many of them from memory now and is completely adept at tracing-- stays right on the dotted line. One of his favorite activities is his "homework" which basically means any type of letter or number work.

We're still working on cutting, but he can now move the mouse where he wants and click the correct button. We actually find that we have to actively limit the amount of "screen time" he gets now between his old tivod favorites (Dora and Curious George) and his new computer faves (www.pbskids.org). During the week he's limited to one of either for a total of 30 minutes. On the weekends we've been letting him do closer to an hour spread over the day.

His language continues to develop apace. Recently he's been putting his final understanding on subtle words like "definitely," "similar," and "delicate."