Stuff n' Clutter
Other than that being the best 'chex mix' recipe ever....
So, I had the surgery last Monday. It went well (or so they told me). Friends and family have rallied around us to help deal with the monkey that seems to have wormed its way into our household. Liam ran 'Da-doom' ragged. (otherwise known as Goompa) And my father loved every minute of it ;-)
I'm now on my own, still tender, not carrying Liam or driving anywhere. I can't decide whether I"m enjoying how Liam and I are interacting differently or whether I'm going to go completely bonkers not being able to either carry him or leave the house.
Ayyam-i-Ha is coming up and I am super excited about it. Not that I've decorated ... sigh. We'll see whether that happens this year. But my family is getting together for it, thus, awesomeness.
I discovered that Liam knows how to count to 10 today. I was counting something, got to 6, and Liam said, "seven". I looked at him, slightly dumbfounded, and stammered, "eight?" He shouted, "nine!" And then we said 'ten' together. Wah? That just blew me away. He'll occasionally do that with the alphabet, if there's a long enough pause after just about any letter, he'll fill in the blank. I totally don't keep up with what is "age appropriate" blah, blah, blah, so his learning just tends to leave me a bit breathless. He's big, huge, gigantically into puzzles right now, too. Rae, those puzzles you got him? EATS THEM UP. They are constantly spread all over the living room. If he needs to calm himself and isn't permitted Elmo? "Puzzles!" He's also trying to learn how to use chopsticks which is cute right up until the point at which he gets so frustrated he throws them.
Comments
Whatever you do, stop thinking "age appropriate" and just let him develop at his own dynamic rate. He is a very smart young man. I never try to fool him. Just outfox him. He still gets things quickly. You may not notice but he listens very intently to all that is said. His vocabulary is bigger than you expect. You should be showing him shapes and helping him with word concepts and three dimensional thinking. These are some of the greatest gifts Mommy and I ever gave you guys. It is also why we carry on six conversations at the dinner table at once. I am a huge fan of outcome based education. Show him formulae and tell these will help him discover truths about life through math. He will grow up thinking math is a form of art or is art itself. Sound familiar to anybody out there? The other thing to start early is telling him you will enjoy him as a teenager because you will begin to talk to each other more as equals rather than parent and child. Sound familiar?
Ooh, I'm done now....sleep well Johnboy!
Posted by: papa | February 19, 2009 8:16 AM
I'm so glad to hear these stories. It sounds like you don't worry about where he 'should' be developmentally- but he's a smarty pie! mmmm pie. . .
See you soon:)
Posted by: rae | February 20, 2009 4:10 AM
Oh, I loved this post :) I'm glad your surgery went well, and I sooooo wish I could see you guys right now!
Posted by: Lindsay | February 20, 2009 9:17 PM
Hi Lindsay! Yes, sadly Ohio doesn't offer many reasons to visit ;-( Do you Skype/Fring/iChat? We do - and we've got video, so even if you don'thave video, we can still show off Liam! Heeheehee
FYI: I got a rash on my belly. Turns out that I am allergic to the coating on sutures (Vicryl). So, until they dissolve inside of me: itchy belly! But nothing more serious than that.
Posted by: Mara | February 20, 2009 10:34 PM
Maybe I'll bring Set and the Rubix cube to play with Liam and introduce him to shape and pattern.
Posted by: Mendon | February 24, 2009 4:27 AM