Fox update
Dec. 20th, 2018 10:52 pmAt two months past two, Fox is a very happy kid and doing really well.
They're ~26 pounds and have gone from being Very Tall to being bang on average for their age, though I have forgotten what that height actually is. Their hair will now kind of consent to be tied back for reasonable intervals of time, now that it's basically waist-length; it was really too fine even at shoulder-length. Some day I am going to braid it and see if that lasts all day, but I don't see them wanting to hold still for that anytime soon.
They're doing well both at fine motor and gross motor things-- can keep up with me easily as I walk, run quickly in circles without falling down, walk backward, carry two-liter bottles up flights of stairs. They're working on the Velcro of their shoes and on making the marks they intend with crayons and markers.
Big jump in imagination recently. Suddenly they really get narrative, and we spend a lot of time going over sequential events like what we did yesterday, or last week, or what x person did at the supermarket. Sometimes these conversations repeat verbatim two or three times before being deemed sufficient. They also like being told stories now, and you no longer need a book with supporting pictures to keep their interest. I think they're starting to get the distinction between real and imaginary, but am not entirely sure. They have occasional nightmares now, and consequently have spent a while afraid of dragons, for which Ruth got them a sparkly magic wand to wave and shout things like "Hence, dragons! Begone!". It seems to be working.
Book-wise, they have started liking more complicated narratives than they did. Current favorites include Madeline and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. That last they'll read to us, which involves them turning the pages, pointing at the pictures, and reciting what they remember of the book-- sometimes this resembles what's written on the page, and sometimes not. They continue very fond of a photobook from the Louvre, which they like to have flipped open at random and then we read the text about the art and try to explain as much as we can about what the art is and what it depicts and where it comes from and so on. And they continue very fond of poetry, especially 'Jabberwocky', which they'll have their plushies act out, and the toddler redaction of A Midsummer Night's Dream that![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nineweaving got them. I had thought it would be at least another five years before the wandering-around-the-house-randomly-spouting-Shakespeare phase, but I was wrong.
I think the most notable word I've heard them say lately is 'pomegranate', and the sentences I've taken notice of include "Mama said, [Fox], go back to bed" (indirect discourse!) and "We're out of almond milk." We were, too, and I hadn't known about it. They can almost pronounce their mom's last name, which if you know anything about our last names around here you will understand to be a significant achievement.
They have been on an airplane now, and though they did not like it they spent ninety percent of the time not actively melting down, so I think it worked out okay. In general they melt down only when dramatically tired or overstimulated, which I am glad of; I think it is a factory-built-in temperament setting and not one we had anything to do with. I'd say they don't really have tantrums about stuff they want so much as that we get into endless arguments about whatever it is-- the phase where one has to keep repeating 'no' every thirty seconds indefinitely, to show that one still means it. We really don't say no to them very often, though, mostly only about things that are actively dangerous or destructive, so we do really mean it when we say it, which I try to remind myself of when I think I sound like a broken record. Also we can now have the sort of conversation which goes 'I want x' 'no, because y' 'oh okay that makes sense', which I honestly appreciate.
We watch a lot of Peppa Pig, and they are extremely into trucks and more moderately into dinosaurs. I don't think they know more about dinosaurs than I do yet, but they absolutely know more about trucks. The lovely thing about the formal turning of their car seat around to face front on their second birthday is that now if I see a backhoe or an ambulance or something and tell them to look, they are facing the right way such that they usually get to see it, when before it was scattershot.
I can't prove that they're reading yet, though there are several things that would make more sense if they can, but they can definitely recognize more than half the alphabet, and have for reasons I do not understand decided that the letter P should not be used on signs. The problem with this is that of course parking lots frequently have signs which are just large Ps, and Fox regards these both in sorrow and in anger.
I think that about sums it up.
They're ~26 pounds and have gone from being Very Tall to being bang on average for their age, though I have forgotten what that height actually is. Their hair will now kind of consent to be tied back for reasonable intervals of time, now that it's basically waist-length; it was really too fine even at shoulder-length. Some day I am going to braid it and see if that lasts all day, but I don't see them wanting to hold still for that anytime soon.
They're doing well both at fine motor and gross motor things-- can keep up with me easily as I walk, run quickly in circles without falling down, walk backward, carry two-liter bottles up flights of stairs. They're working on the Velcro of their shoes and on making the marks they intend with crayons and markers.
Big jump in imagination recently. Suddenly they really get narrative, and we spend a lot of time going over sequential events like what we did yesterday, or last week, or what x person did at the supermarket. Sometimes these conversations repeat verbatim two or three times before being deemed sufficient. They also like being told stories now, and you no longer need a book with supporting pictures to keep their interest. I think they're starting to get the distinction between real and imaginary, but am not entirely sure. They have occasional nightmares now, and consequently have spent a while afraid of dragons, for which Ruth got them a sparkly magic wand to wave and shout things like "Hence, dragons! Begone!". It seems to be working.
Book-wise, they have started liking more complicated narratives than they did. Current favorites include Madeline and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. That last they'll read to us, which involves them turning the pages, pointing at the pictures, and reciting what they remember of the book-- sometimes this resembles what's written on the page, and sometimes not. They continue very fond of a photobook from the Louvre, which they like to have flipped open at random and then we read the text about the art and try to explain as much as we can about what the art is and what it depicts and where it comes from and so on. And they continue very fond of poetry, especially 'Jabberwocky', which they'll have their plushies act out, and the toddler redaction of A Midsummer Night's Dream that
nineweaving got them. I had thought it would be at least another five years before the wandering-around-the-house-randomly-spouting-Shakespeare phase, but I was wrong. I think the most notable word I've heard them say lately is 'pomegranate', and the sentences I've taken notice of include "Mama said, [Fox], go back to bed" (indirect discourse!) and "We're out of almond milk." We were, too, and I hadn't known about it. They can almost pronounce their mom's last name, which if you know anything about our last names around here you will understand to be a significant achievement.
They have been on an airplane now, and though they did not like it they spent ninety percent of the time not actively melting down, so I think it worked out okay. In general they melt down only when dramatically tired or overstimulated, which I am glad of; I think it is a factory-built-in temperament setting and not one we had anything to do with. I'd say they don't really have tantrums about stuff they want so much as that we get into endless arguments about whatever it is-- the phase where one has to keep repeating 'no' every thirty seconds indefinitely, to show that one still means it. We really don't say no to them very often, though, mostly only about things that are actively dangerous or destructive, so we do really mean it when we say it, which I try to remind myself of when I think I sound like a broken record. Also we can now have the sort of conversation which goes 'I want x' 'no, because y' 'oh okay that makes sense', which I honestly appreciate.
We watch a lot of Peppa Pig, and they are extremely into trucks and more moderately into dinosaurs. I don't think they know more about dinosaurs than I do yet, but they absolutely know more about trucks. The lovely thing about the formal turning of their car seat around to face front on their second birthday is that now if I see a backhoe or an ambulance or something and tell them to look, they are facing the right way such that they usually get to see it, when before it was scattershot.
I can't prove that they're reading yet, though there are several things that would make more sense if they can, but they can definitely recognize more than half the alphabet, and have for reasons I do not understand decided that the letter P should not be used on signs. The problem with this is that of course parking lots frequently have signs which are just large Ps, and Fox regards these both in sorrow and in anger.
I think that about sums it up.
