Shameless Mommy Brag

"Sera-kee-tops"

Alex's nursery is in dino theme. One of his favorite films is an installment of The Land Before Time. We get him all sorts of dino themed toys, books and activities. We do a lot of dino chat. While playing with his dinosaur cut-out figures, he was amazing me by matching up the cut-outs with their images on the back of the box. Like I usually do, I took out the species represented in the film he calls "Flap, Flap", (the Land Before Time movie we have.)

Me: "Look this looks like Little Foot."
Him: "L'ilfoot"
Him: (grabbing pterodactyl) Petrie!!!! (character's name)
Me: And this is...
Him: "Sera-kee-tops!"
"Sera", a character from the film, is a Triceratops. He must have remembered the name of the species from the previous times I've gone over them.

That's my mommy brag. He's trying to say "triceratops". Sorry for the shamelessness of it all. This one just blew me away.

Lynne

Hi, I'm Lynne. I'll be Your Server Today.

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Are you ready to order? No, not a new job. At least not a paid one. Alex has taken to barking orders to me. Today at breakfast, I served him apples, he said "'No! 'Nanas!" Then he demanded his Laurie Berkner song "We are the dinosaurs". When I went to put on the CD, he said "NO! Mama! Boom, boom! Dinosaur!" Which meant he wanted me to sing it. Then after I did, he wanted Laurie's version. But the CD wasn't good enough. He wanted the DVD. At lunch, he saw me in the kitchen and demanded "Chee-cheese!", so I made him grilled cheese, but when he saw me place my glass of water down, he picked up his sippy, shook it back and forth and barked "NO! Shake! Shake!", meaning that he wanted a fruit shake. Good thing I'd already been preparing one for myself. He doesn't DRINK them, mind you. He just likes having one in his hand. He drinks his water with lunch. Then later on this evening, when I was watching one of my shows, he stormed over and said "JACK! JACK!". He'd seen the menu screen, which also has the choice for the VOD selections, of which "Jack's Big Music Show" is one. Finally at dinner, after I'd made a veggie dish for both of us (me - veggie pasta, him - rice), he pushed the bowl away and demanded "CanCAKES! Cancakes!". So, yes, at 7:00 PM, I was soon beating together pancake batter. The griddle couldn't get hot soon enough for him, so he preceded to howl "NO! Cancakes! Cancakes!" every time I dared step out of the kitchen. Additionally, several times during the day, he wanted me to hold the console we were playing with. His scribble pad, a sound and noise console, the console to his V-Tech Baby game - you name it. I got "NO!" if I placed it down on the ground or on his table to play with it. Oh man. Now it begins, I guess.

Confession Time

And lastly, Lynne confesses she LIVES for Alex's naps these days, although she's not in PJs, she still doesn't go out, but she doesn't drink anymore - 'cuz she's old like that.

Lynne

Berkner on the Brain

I'm trying to do my homework, but I have a song running through my head.

We are the dinosaurs!
Marching, marching.
We are the dinosaurs!
Whaddya you think of that?

My only point in this post is to spread the pain. I won't be the only one out there with Laurie Berkner earworms.

You can thank me later.

OMG Libbi. She must be like a rock star to them.

I have one DVD of hers and Alex sat there transfixed until he became familiar with the songs. Now, asks me to sing certain songs.

Thanks Nicole! "We Are the Dinosaurs" is finally out of my head!
In my black boots. In my black boots.
I stomp around in my black boots.
LOL to your husband's crush. Alex has a bigger crush on her, I think. As long as she's singing "Moon, Moon, Moon", he's hers.


I LOVE "The Cat Came Back".

I think it's a traditional song and she does a version of it.

Ol' Mr. Johnson had some troubles of his own.
He had a yellow cat that wouldn't leave his home.
He tried and he tried to give the cat away
He gave it to a man going far, far away....

But the cat came back
The very next day
Oh the cat came back
He thought it was a goner
Oh the cat came back.
It just couldn't stay away, away, away.


Bad audio here. You'll have to turn up your volume.

Dr. Evil

Alex isn't much of a whiner like most toddlers are. Alex's whining was worse when he was an infant. That seemed like it was non-stop for months. Now his whining isn't really in high gear like it was then, but he's getting really MEAN. He pushes me pretty hard these days if I'm in his way. He laughs at me with this weird snicker if I correct him sometimes. Like, seriously, he might as well bust out with 'Bwwah-ah-hah-ha!' and rub his hands together. He'll do things that seem spiteful, like deliberately dumping a dish's contents just to see my reaction. Thing is, I don't react strongly yet except in surprise. Please don't tell me that this is all to see if I'll react more strongly than I have been.

Oh no, no, no.

January 19, 2009

Duck 4

This is a video of one of Alex's new favorite songs. 'Duck 4', sung by Leon Thomas.� I had to share it because it's just that cute and it's a touching version of 'The Ugly Duckling'.

Duck 4

I'm now on the hunt to see if Leon Thomas had a successful career as a child performer and had a CD of his own at that time. It appears he had the audacity to grow up and forge a teenaged career since this episode of 'Jack's Big Music Show' was taped. I may have to just buy the show episode. Sigh.

January 18, 2009

Speed Reader

Now that Alex has become so verbal with new words and sentences coming out every day, I'm getting worried about the time we spend 'reading'.

Alex never lets me get through a book we're reading together. He turns the pages to the pictures he wants to see and talk about. So, I've just been doing that ever since he first showed an ability to handle books and turn pages. Since I could never get a story out this way, I took to reading to him at lunch time. That way he was in the high chair and I could hold the book and read it to him. For months now, he hasn't cared for that. He wants to hold the book and turn the pages himself.

When he was just about a year, he would take my finger and point to pictures as if to ask what they were. Then, I'd also explain what was going on in the illustration and point out other things. He got hooked on this, so we spent a LOT of time in his non-fiction picture books. It went on from there. Now he wants to have 'conversations' (his version) about certain pages if they contain images he really likes, even if it's a storybook. So, now, in 'reading' time, we could spend the entire time on two pages of a 10-20 page book.

Here's the thing, though. Is this considered 'reading' to your child? Is this the kind of reading development educators are aiming for?? We're not really 'reading' much at all unless I can find some way to hold the book a million miles from him AND on the rare occasion that he won't get upset. Now I'm worried that I actually haven't been reading the stories to him enough.

Thanks all. And thank you to the teachers and those of you who told me what you heard from teachers. I was hoping to get opinions from people who were either experienced in teaching reading or who specifically studied the developmental process of reading. When I went along with how he wanted to do it, I was thinking that I had to make sure this was fun to him. And, now, it definitely is one of his favorite things to do. Even if I'm not playing with him directly, he'll go to his bookshelf on his own and sit down with several of them.


Of course, this made reading to him at bedtime NOT the thing to do. Like Mary describes with Taylor, it became a fun game to him instead of sleep inducing. I might as well have started singing nursery rhyme games to him. I wound up confining reading time to play time. The only time Alex gets read to at bedtime is on nights he has trouble sleeping and Dan will go in and read one of the C.S. Lewis books to him. Novel form, very few illustrations, paperback - nothing for Alex to look at. He just hears Dan's voice for a while. It almost seemed counterproductive, as if we had to keep books from him at night, because they're too exciting on their own.

From what I'm reading in your responses, it seems like that is the goal at this age. Books are a big source of fun to him.

Oh Yay!

January 16, 2009

Be Good to Bugs

Is anyone familiar with this book series? Did it originally come in young reader novel form or in toddler/board book form? And has anyone come across a vendor for the CD of songs from the television show? The CD is called "Songs for Little Bugs", I believe.

I would watch this show on VOD when Alex would be playing with something else. I think it's a really good series. Eventually Alex came to like it through it's really pretty theme song. So, now I'd like to get the books. I think he'd get a kick out of seeing the characters in print.

Thanks!
Lynne

The Winter Cuties (Alexisms)

Alex does so many things that are adorable to me, I can't even whittle them down well.

- He says hugs anything he really likes, declaring 'Hug!'. A stuffed animal, us, a book, an image in a book, his boots, his sippy cup.

-He loves music and love to sing along with his favorite songs. But the funniest has to be the classical music pieces that he likes. I would get him to sit still for face wiping and hair combing by 'humming' the overture to the Barber of Seville. (If you don't recognize the name, trust me, you know it.) My humming was like, 'Do-do-do'. Now, Alex demands that piece whenever we do any kind of grooming of him by stopping us and saying 'Do-do-do-do-do!' We need to hum the Barber of Seville for him.

- Whenever he's really hungry, he'll ASK for me to cook dinner. 'Din-din-din! Mama. Din-din-din.'

- He rushes through books just so he can close the cover and say "Eh End." ("The End")


-He'll request other songs from me by singing the first word like "Heaaaad" for "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" or "Rowrowrow" for Row, Row, Row Your Boat. He'll keep on doing it until I start singing the song.

-He FINALLY asks for help on a toy that has a difficulty to it. "He-ep. Mama. He-ep". He used to get frustrated and cry.

- He likes to test our knowledge of pictures in his picture book. Now he points to items he already knows and asks US "What's this?" He'll keep on asking until we answer. When he wants to know what a new picture is, he just points to it without saying anything.

- I have no idea where he got this from. If he's done singing or dancing to some music, he'll stop and say "Thank you, thank you!" while taking a bow. I guess we're supposed to be applauding.


Soooo many more. He cracks me up every day.

January 9, 2009

Yo Fi-i-ive! No Jive!

Alex lurrrrves the number 5. He has a 'Best of Elmo' DVD that includes Elmo doing some seriously 80s dance number about '5'. It has to be one of Alex's favorite songs of all time.

'Yo, fi-i-ive!'

Alex can count to five. I've also heard him count backwards from three, but I'm not sure if he understands fully what he's doing there. He's able to recognize numerals up to 10, but not count that far, yet.

But 5? He's totally on board with 5.

January 2, 2009