Dear Sam,
Well, it’s not quite month 25 yet, but this is certainly the latest I’ve been for a while. It’s going to be hard not to talk about where you are now, but to restrict it to where you were then. Even though then and now are only a few weeks apart!
I guess let’s start with linguistic development. Impressive as usual. You have a large nursery rhyme book that you enjoy. And it’s not just that you enjoy the pictures, or enjoy when Mom or I read it to you, but you now read it to yourself. OK, you still don’t actually read it, but you recite it to yourself. You love the ones toward the beginning, especially “Hickory, Dickory, Dock”, or as you say it [Higgy Diggy Dock]. But the sheer number of them that you know reasonably well astounds us. Your other favorite is “Pop goes the weasel” or as you call it [ah ahwouna cobba bens] (all around the cobbler’s bench.) I have no doubt that that’s one of your favorites because sometimes, I’ll set you on my knee, and bounce you mildly all through the rhyme until we get to the POP at which point I lift you high into the air.
You’ve engaged songs and stories more thoroughly in general this month. You still enjoy dancing. When you put your bears or dolls to bed, you sometimes sing them some of the little French song that your mom made up for you.
Samantha, Samantha
Fais do do, fais do do,
demain tu nous verras, demain tu nous verras
nous t’aimons, nous t’aimons
You also have started to sing along with the French songs that your mom sings to you while you bathe together. Your mom used to call me when it was time to get you out of the bath, dry you off and take you to our room for a clean diaper, lotion and pajamas. But you’ve taken that over too. Your mom used to call out “Hey Babe..” to get my attention as I’d be elsewhere in the house doing post-dinner clean-up. And so now you call out “Hey Babe!” One weekend we were out shopping (I don’t remember if we were in a hardware store or a grocery store now) and you wanted my attention so you called out “Hey Babe.”
You can recite more about your environment too. You know not just your parents’ genders and our familiar names (Mommy and Daddy), but our real names too. Curiously, I think this learning came about from your mom’s concerns regarding our roughhousing, or my tossing you about, because you first repeated my name in threes: “AC AC AC” But you can now produce [AC] and [Keh-lin] on demand when we ask “What’s Daddy’s name?” or “What’s Mommy’s name?” Sometimes, you wouldn’t get there right away, and you’d say “man” or “woman”, but you’d usually get there eventually.
You still love books. You really enjoy story time at the Kensington library with Mom. In fact, mom says you’re “the only toddler to sit quietly on her parent’s lap and pay attention.” You and I have also been enjoying library books. For the most part, we’ve been “reading” different I spy books wherein we look for specific items mentioned in riddles or poems on the bottom of the page. Not all of your books are visual ones as you like the audio renditions from Lit 2 Go — specifically the Beatrix Potter stories. This month’s favorite is “The Tale of Piggling Bland" You call it [Pigging Band] as you have trouble with blended consonants.
Your memory still impresses us as you’ll talk to us about events or things from our San Diego trip like the “black car” that we rented while we were down there, or “other people’s rooms” at the hotel. Unfortunately, you also remember your fall on one of the ladders on a play structure at a playground this month, and so you’ve become more hesitant at playgrounds.
You’ve gotten far better at independent play not always needing Mom or me to pay constant attention to you, but you still very much like your rituals. When you sit on the couch with mom to read, you want your care bears to sit on the couch too. When you have milk with me in the evenings, you gotta have your SIGGRAPH bracelets on. You still enjoy “sorting” and “organizing”. I put those in quotes because after you’ve sorted or organized something, it’s as if a hurricane has come through and strewn things all over the house.
Perhaps the neatest change this month is your departure from simply “No.” You now say “Yeah” and “Maybe” and even “Probably” [Pahbee]. Also neat to see is your fascination with contrasts of light and dark. You notice when it’s dark outside saying, “Sun went to [winna] bed.” You really enjoy shadow play whether it’s when my big shadow “eats” yours or even just chasing your shadow down the sidewalk. You and I have even gone outside a couple of times near the end of the day to “look at dark.”
Once again, it’s been amazing to see and reflect upon your growth. I look forward to many more shades of gray with you as you make finer and finer distinctions. Pahbee.
Love,
Dad