By: Revanche

My kid and notes from Year 2.3

June 14, 2017

Skills

Complete sentences and abstract thought 

JuggerBaby normally skips words ze can’t pronounce or doesn’t think are relevant. This makes for conversations more akin to translating pantomime and Choose Your Own Adventure than communication. It gets even fuzzier when ze slips into a play-pretend mode in the middle of a normal conversation. At dinner we might be talking about people ze knows, the food’s characteristics, and then suddenly we’ll be pretending to drink tea, or cooking. I’m sure JuggerBaby wonders why we’re mentally slow and why it takes us 5 minutes to catch up to zir imaginings.

As usual, the norm abruptly changed this month.

Out of the blue, ze started telling us “I like this!” Who taught zir that concept?? But munching down on some pastry, ze will cheerfully pipe up: mama, I like this!

And the next day: mama, I need water, please!

And then: no more stah-berries? No more boo-berries? Onee peach right now?

It seems like ze is grasping the more abstract concepts that we don’t always have exactly what ze wants, when ze wants it. That led me to thinking of how I don’t remember ever complaining of hunger as a young child. Though I certainly skipped meals with unhealthy regularity in the early days of this blog to save money, I will never forget to be grateful that my child has enough to eat.

Fruit according to JuggerBaby and language shifts

Stah-berry – strawberry
Boo-berry – blueberry
Peesch – peach
Backberries- blackberries

JuggerBaby’s taking liberties with the English language again. Suddenly everything comes with an “y” at the end of it:

Noy = no
Oh noy! = oh no!
Boy = bowl
appy ertay oo-oo = happy birthday to you
moy = more

Toddler portion sizes

Speaking of eating, it seems that JuggerBaby is finally eating about the recommended toddler portion sizes for a meal. From the point ze started eating solid food til about 2-3 weeks ago, ze has eaten 2-3 times the recommended-by-pediatricians amount, and has suddenly switched to a much lower gear and eats far far less. At first I was a bit worried but ze wasn’t starving, just self regulating. A few times it was really because playing during dinnertime was more entertaining than eating, but waking up two hours early and STAAAARVING seems to have taught zir a lesson in eating when the eating’s good.

Counting

Ze can count up to ten, but ze hasn’t made the connection between the numbers and the idea that they are used in a specific way. Ze used to count all the items on the dinner table, this is how I know ze knows 1-10, but ask zir to count at any random time and ze will cheerfully do so: one-two, one-two, one-TWO!

…. that’s six.

Reading comprehension

Ze is on a huge mimicking kick right now. Clearly both we and zir teachers are doing the same things when we read. Normally, when I read simpler stories to zir, I try to engage zir by asking what things are on the page. It’s backfired. Now ze insists on holding the book up and points at every illustration quizzing us: wat izzit?

Now I encourage zir to act out parts of the story instead. See me next month when ze turns me into zir very own thespian to direct.

Household chores

The industrious little helper monkey I always joked about has arrived! JuggerBaby now insists on peeling oranges for me, and vacuuming, obsessed to the point of falling to the ground crying when I hooked up a new attachment to the vacuum and didn’t give zir first dibs.

Too like a mischievous monkey, though. You can never turn your back on zir without possibly being leapt on. You might be unable to lift your left leg for reasons of 30 pounds of child suddenly latching onto it, or having that same child dart around you cackling and racing to shut the door in your face.

Helper monkeys may be more work than help.

It’s also really strange to see how zir empathy works, or doesn’t. Ze thinks nothing of slapping you across the face, clawing at you like a angry cat, pinning down a limb and trying to bite the belugas out of it. Not a drop of remorse to be found, and if you were caught by surprise and yell “ow!” ze laughs like a homocidal sociopath.

At the same time, I’ve explained that some games are too rough because my hands hurt and each time I decline to hold hands and play a rough game, ze gently holds that injured hand, asks “mama ow?”, pets it, kisses it and gently hugs me. Or ze will get wildly enthused about something, grab my painful hand, and even before I can wince, ze catches zirself and says “oh no! Mama ow!”

Even stranger, it might have been a few days since my hands were that dire, but ze will remember and scold me for playing with that hand, patting it and reminding me that it hurts.

It’s hard to reconcile the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde flip flops.

Sweet sleeper

We always have our ups and downs but I cherish those nights when we have a peaceful dinner, quiet bathtime, go through a pile of books and then ze settles in for sleep. I’m not sure how it’ll work when we open up the crib so ze isn’t trapped anymore but ze usually has several good nights in a row settling in without a fight for a long night of sleep. The irony is I can’t thoroughly enjoy the peace because of my own recalcitrant body, but I appreciate the ability to lay down starting at 8 or 9 and stay put!

Precious #parenting moments

  • JuggerBaby kissed me on the nose and then head butted me twice. That sums up our relationship pretty well.
  • My two freaking year old just told me “I do me, mama, you do you.”
  • JuggerBaby grabs my hand and shakes it: nice to meetchu!
  • JuggerBaby hovering a piece of an orange rind near zir mouth: “ahh? ahhh?” Joke’s on you, kid.

Read past JuggerBaby updates

:: What helper animal would you pick? What’s your favorite summer fruit?

7 Responses to “My kid and notes from Year 2.3”

  1. Lol, thanks for sharing. Your two year old is pretty advanced for saying stuff like that. My 1.5 year old can’t even say “daddy” yet (or any iteration of that for that matter). Can say “mommy” though all day long. Actually, that’s all he says. He points to himself and says “umma” (which is “mommy” in korean). Odd.
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    • Revanche says:

      There’s a really huge difference in skills for kids at 1.5 and 2! For us, and it’s part of the reason I blog updates monthly still, we would see massive changes from month to month. At 1.5 months, ze wasn’t speaking much either, and was calling zir dad “mama” as well 😀

      Our 2 year old also speaks much less clearly than zir classmates at daycare who are amazingly articulate already, so you’ll see that it varies greatly between individual kids. Is your son speaking or hearing both English and Korean? Our pediatrician agreed that multi-lingual households can expect kids to start speaking later because they’re learning more than one language at the same time.

  2. Your exercise story reminds me of my kiddo when she was younger. I was trying to get into Yoga when she was about the same age as JuggerBaby, and she decided any pose that wasn’t standing was an excuse to jump on top of me. Nothing like trying to go into Downward Facing Dog when a toddler jumps on your back.

    And I still can’t get across the “eat now or you’ll be hungry later” idea, particularly at breakfast. Yesterday, she drank two sips of juice and had 3 mouthfuls of dry cereal. Today, 1/3 of a piece of toast. I make a point to send big lunches to school right now.
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    • Revanche says:

      Did you know that baby yoga was a thing? Used to be JB would do the same as Little Bit. Now ze hears “yoga” and runs to get the mat and goes into modified yoga poses! It’s pretty cute.

      Oh goodness, yes, the “eat now or…” idea is really tough. I don’t know how to get across the idea of “later” to a kid who thinks later is in 1.2 seconds!

  3. Mrs. BITA says:

    Such a fun update. Toddlers are the best. They change so much nearly day to day, and are a constant source of amusement.

    Toddler BITA has empathy, perhaps more than is useful. She was listening to a song called “Do you want to build a snowman?” and suddenly she looks at me says “She is lonely. She is sad.” and then her face just crumpled and she climbed into my lap and say “It made my crying come”. Oh dear.

  4. […] love with these JuggerBaby Roundups not only because I love this child but that ze reminds me SO MUCH of Baby Bun in many ways. Mine […]

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