Archives for May 2004

Shape Sorter

I took Katherine’s wooden shape sorter puzzle out of the closet this past weekend. We’ve played with it on and off. Tonight, I encouraged her to put the pieces back, and we played with the puzzle three times. The first time, I took the pieces out and she took a few minutes to finish trying a couple of the pieces in different places. The second time, she pulled the pieces out herself, flinging them to the side – she then did the puzzle a bit faster. The third time, she was very sure of herself, putting each piece exactly where it belonged. The hardest part was the diamond, where she had to rotate it to make it fit.

Packing Herself

We’re planning to take Katherine to Canada, and so we started to pack tonight. I pulled out the biggest suitcase we have, and put it in her room. I started to pull out items and put them next to the suitcase. I turned around and found Katherine sitting in the suitcase with all her belongings in too. She loved watching me fill the other zippered side of the case and she tugged at the zipper as I piled more stuff in it. After we finished packing for the night, we read her books. I told her that if she wanted to take her silky blanket that she should put it on her suitcase. She stood up, toddled over to the suitcase and put the blanket on the suitcase. She then lifted Lambey as if to say “should I put Lambey on the suitcase too?” I reassured her that Lambey didn’t need to be packed, because it would travel with us in the car. She lifted her zebra, as if to say “I want to bring him too” and then put it on the suitcase.

Lambey

For those of you familiar with Lambey, you’re probably well aware that we’ve been trying to find a Lambey backup for months. We’ve looked in every single toy store in the area. I called the manufacturer (Amela) but they asked for a SKU number to reorder. No web reseller carries Lambey; even after we searched every possible key word. We even considered putting a picture of Lambey on eBay to see if anyone had one we could buy (can you say desperation?). There only seemed to be only one Lambey supplier in Seattle, but the gift shop was under renovation – expected to reopen next month. We’ve had our fingers crossed that we never lose Lambey, and Lambey never leaves the house.

This past weekend we found a store that carries Amela. We couldn’t believe our luck. Steve was trying out a new mountain bike; Katherine and I walked around the shopping mall and into a gift shop. On a whim, we looked at the stuffed toy section, and I was overjoyed to find several Amela toys. It turns out that an order of Lambeys is on their way next month and we’re on the call list when they arrive. In the interim, we got another Amela toy – this time an elephant also with long legs and very soft plush. Steve thinks we should buy 3-4 Lambeys “just in case.” 🙂 The store owner explained that Amela is a premium brand and so not a lot of stores carry it – as we well know!!

Katherine loves apples – especially dried apples. We buy a brand called “Just Apples” which is essentially dried green apples – no preservatives or sweeteners added. It’s cut up into little strips and Katherine eats them by the handful. Well, tonight we went to Larrys to get some staples. Katherine as usual pushed the little shopping cart and was having a blast. She was beaming from ear to ear, adding lemons and limes to the cart. I was pushing the big cart, and occasionally I’d hear “ahhhh” with Katherine and Steve following behind. I spent some time cruising thru the frozen food section, and passed by the Just Fruit display. Katherine followed and stopped abruptly. She stared, said “abble”, selected a carton of Just Apples and put it carefully in her cart. Upon further thought, she picked it up and carried it to the big cart – just to make sure that we purchased it! Given her first success, she returned to the display and selected dried raspberries. Then, we explained that we not only have 2 cartons of apples, but also a full carton on dried berries.

Katherine had her 18 month check up today (pix forthcoming). She’s now 33″ tall in the 85% and only 21 lbs. 5 oz in 10%. In other words, she is tall and skinny – very much like Steve. Katherine, Patty and I had a great visit. We arrived, the nurse ushered us to the room, and we stripped Katherine down. She sat on the scale and then had her height measured. Dr. Claudson stopped by and we chatted for a few minutes – he pronounced her as looking just fine – and then we were on our way. Katherine loved picking up her Nemo sticker on the way out, and best of all, no shots!

Wagon Mechanic

Tonight, Katherine re-discovered a wagon of wooden toys that she received for her first birthday. It includes wooden blocks, pegs, screws/nuts, and tools like a wrench, hammer. Before her final bedtime book time reading, she sped by her wagon and picked up a wooden peg almost like an afterthought. She then started to fiddle with it and a round hole in the side of the wagon. She then went into practice mode and spent the next 20 minutes pushing and pulling the peg into different holes. I could see her learning. When she first started, her approach was to jam the peg and yank it out staggering backwards from the effort. Then, she learned that she could use a twisting motion to get the peg in/out without too much difficulty. I also demonstrated how to use the wrench to unscrew another peg. She was intrigued and kept bringing the wrench to the screws and making a sweeping motion with the wrench. I think she’ll be spending more time with her wooden toys tomorrow. 🙂

Katherine’s vocabulary is accelerating. She now repeats words that we use. I was pointing to the pix on the fridge, naming family members, and I think I heard her say “paw-paw.” I also asked her tonight if she wanted to go to the zoo this weekend. A few seconds later, I heard a quiet “zhoo.” She regularly refers to her stuffed animal friends as her “babees” and her milk as “mo mo.” She’ll take a book and push it back to me “mhore” for an encore reading or push her plate to me “mhore” for more watermelon or tofu.

Choices

No seems to be the default answer to just about any question, unless she really wants something. We’ve been trying to present Katherine with choices – whether it be clothes, food, toys. She really seems able to consider her choices. For instance, I’ve started to prop up her favorite books at bedtime against her wooden rocking horse. I then ask her to pick a book. She will sit, suck her thumb, ponder and then point in the general direction of a book.

She’s very observant. I ask her now to pick objects out in her dino book – for instance, I asked her tonight what she saw on the cover of her dino book. Unprompted, she stuck her finger on a very small train and said “choo choo.” She also will point to the dogs on each page and saw “wuf.” There’s also two mirror pages of dino drawings as you open and close the dino book. We ask Katherine about the drawings, and she will pick out matching pictures or find dino drawings with books or bubbles.

Two nights ago, I took Katherine for a walk in her jogger. We walked past a nearby house with a dappled grey horse, perhaps 100 yards away. Katherine peered out of her jogger, and I asked her what she saw…..”mooo.” The horse then raised its head and she blew raspberries to signify horse!

Singing Songs

Katherine really enjoys certain songs now, especially those with hand movements and that have to do with “boobles” or bubbles. We sing the “all the fish are swimming in the water” song and she wiggles her hands around. Also, she loves the song where we sing about tiny tim the turtle who drinks water, eats soap and has bubbles in its throat. When Katherine wants us to sing this song, she grabs our throat and nods vigorously when I ask her if she wants me to sing. 🙂