July 18, 2011 - Posted by Molly - Comments Off
Morgan was stung by a wasp last night at the pool. She was playing in the kiddie pool and a bug was perched on top of her head. I went over and kind of waved it away (successfully). At this point I wasn’t sure it was a wasp. Then it landed in the water in front of her and before I could stop her, she reached out and wrapped her hand around it (she said later she was trying to get it out of the pool). And then screaming.
We gave her some Children’s Benadryl (which we always carry with us) and kept an eye on her. No allergic reaction. While that is reassuring apparently bee stings are a different venom, so we’ll still have to watch out for an allergy there.
We actually ended up staying at the pool, getting dinner and a frozen treat and playing some more.
July 17, 2011 - Posted by Molly - Comments Off
Morgan and I were reading a book about a baby hanging out in the womb (a womb with no view) before he or she is born and the baby is complaining about how it has nothing to do. So Morgan asks “How do babies get in mommies’ tummies? Do mommies eat them?” Seems like a reasonable guess, but in fact, no, that is not how babies get in mommies’ tummies.
July 5, 2011 - Posted by Molly - Comments Off
Morgan has developed both an fascination with and a fear of bears. Her eyes light up when she is doing the ‘going on a bear hunt’ bit with the ‘one wet shiny nose, two big googly eyes, and two big fuzzy ears.’ She clearly finds it highly entertaining. And she can pretty much do the whole thing herself.
On the flip side, she often asks one by one about each exterior door in the home, asking if they are locked. When I confirm that they are she is relieved and says ‘good, no bears can get in.’ We have told her no bears live around here. They live in caves which are very far from here. That doesn’t seem to help. Though Jim told her that the ‘no solicitors’ sign as we come in the neighborhood says ‘no solicitors and no bears.’ She has mentioned that several times.
July 5, 2011 - Posted by Molly - Comments Off
The AAP book we have lists some milestones that many children hit by the end of the 2nd year (i.e., their 3rd birthday).
Movement milestones: Climbs well; Walks up and down stairs, alternating feet; kicks ball; runs easily; pedals tricycle; bends over easily without falling. She hits all these except perhaps the walking down stairs while alternating feet. I’ve seen her do it before, but she doesn’t do it consistently.
Hand and finger skills: Makes vertical, horizontal, and circular strokes with pencil or crayon; turns book pages one at a time; builds a tower of six blocks; holds pencil in writing position; screws and unscrews jar lids, nuts, and bolts; turns rotating handles. She can do and has been able to do all of these things for quite a while. Among the more interesting tricks is her ability to reach up and turn the deadbolt, either letting herself out of the house or locking us on the outside of the house. And she is now able to write an M and an O when she signs her name. And she will then say “I’m going to do the RGAN different.” And then she makes a separate and distinct scribble for each of the four letters.
Language Milestones: Follows a 2 or 3 part command, such as ‘go to your room and bring back the teddy bear and the dog’; recognizes and identifies almost all common objects and pictures; understands most sentences; understands physical relationships (on, in, under); uses four and five word sentences; can say name, age, and sex; uses pronouns (I, you, me, we, they) and some plurals (cars, dogs, cats); Strangers can understand most of her words. She knocked all of these out of the park ages ago. She knows her last name as well as her first. She knows the name of the road we live on and the road prior to that. She knows the name of the city we live in. We pass 2 gas stations on the way home and she often says “When there is one gas station we say gas station. When there are two we say ‘gas stations [with an emphasis on the final s].’”
Cognitive Milestones: makes mechanical toys work; matches an object in her hand or room to a picture in a book; plays make-believe with dolls, animals, and people; sorts objects by shape and color; completes puzzles with three or four pieces; understands the concept of two. Again, she’s been doing all of this for a very long time.
Social milestones: Imitates adults and playmates; spontaneously shows affection for familiar playmates; can take turns in games; understands concepts of ‘mine’ and ‘his/hers.’ Again, she’s been doing all of this for a long time.
Emotional milestones: expresses affection openly; expresses a wide range of emotions; by age 3, separates easily from parents; objects to major changes in routine. She does all of this. She even recently has started telling me she loves me. She had dragged her feet on this for quite a while. In fact, when I would say “Mommy and Daddy love you” she’d smirk at me and say “I love Daddy.” Which oddly enough made me smile. I’m quite certain my mom thinks it serves me right in some way.
June 9, 2011 - Posted by Molly - Comments Off
The little girl next door has been taking some tennis lessons recently (she’s 5). Morgan saw her on the way to her lesson the other day and piped up with ‘when I get bigger Mimi is going to teach me tennis!’
I had heard nothing of this, but I’m quite sure it is true. I’m quite sure her Mimi promised to teach her tennis. And Morgan is already excited.
May 15, 2011 - Posted by Molly - Comments Off
I forgot to follow up on Morgan’s transition to the preschool room. Before the transition we had a meeting with both the preschool and the Toddler Two lead teachers. Not surprisingly to us, Morgan had taken on a serious leadership role in the Two’s room, to the point that they were calling her the 5th teacher. She was extremely helpful with everything. She’d help set the table for snack, she’d help clean up, pretty much anything she was capable of doing, she wanted to help. And she was also apparently very good with the younger kids, trying to guide them as to what they were supposed to be doing, etc. Hopefully she was pulling this off without being too bossy.
Of course, when she got the preschool room, everything was turned upside down. So it took her a little while to get acclimated to the system. But I know that she’s helped put out snack at least once. And there has been another transition behind her now, so she is no longer the youngest in the room. So she has someone to mentor (so to speak), which I think she enjoys. And apparently she’s been loving all the additional Montessori work available to her in the preschool room. There have been a couple of mornings where she has said she doesn’t want to go to school, but she never ever wants to leave in the evening. So, all in all, it went pretty well. She’s been a little extra pushy/bossy at home, which Jim and I let slide for a while. But we are back to cracking down on that.
In other news, spring is finally here in full form. For Morgan that means a minute spent inside is a minute wasted. We are constantly outside. Which is nice at this time of year. August, less so. But mid-May…nice.
May 3, 2011 - Posted by Molly - Comments Off
Jim and I were out of town for a few days late last week. We returned on Sunday. As Jim was leaving the house Monday night to go to the grocery, Morgan was quite upset. So I was talking to her about the facts that her daddy would be back soon (with pears and apples!) and that he loved her very much. And this is pretty much how the conversation went.
Me: Daddy will be back soon Morgan. And guess what…he loves you very much!
Morgan (through the tears): And Mommy loves me?
Me: Of course sweetie! Mommy loves you very much too!
And now we start to enter a bit of a round…
Morgan: I love Mommy and Daddy.
Me: And Daddy loves Morgan and Mommy. And do you know who Mommy loves? Morgan and Daddy!
Morgan (after thinking for a moment): I love Caroline.
Caroline is her cousin. The one she had a fabulous time playing with on Saturday while we were out of town. And the one who has made her way into the whole routine. It was very sweet.
March 25, 2011 - Posted by Molly - Comments Off
We were riding home from work/school in the car the other day and Morgan was eating some Kix (a recent favorite). She pipes up from the backseat…
“I’m going to save these for later.”
and she puts them away.
I had no idea kids her age were even remotely capable of such a thing.
Note from Jim — I think it was even slightly more complex than that, I think she said, “I’m going to stop eating these so I have some tomorrow”.
March 21, 2011 - Posted by Molly - Comments Off
Both the title of a book and a general truth. I would say that as of last Wednesday, we are officially done with diapers. She is still wearing one at night (I always put it on her long after she is asleep), though I suspect we’ll be done with that soon too.
We should have some more photos soon. We took a trip to the toy store this weekend and loaded up on all sorts of outdoor gear (scooter, t-ball, hula hoops, etc.). It made for many a photo op over the weekend.
And she is getting ready to transition to the preschool room next week. This is her last full week in the Two’s room. Which…wow.
March 18, 2011 - Posted by Molly - Comments Off
Morgan and I were talking on Thursday morning. We were doing a pretty normal day of the week routine.
Me: Morgan, do you know what day it is?
Morgan: Umm…No. What day is it?
Me: It’s Thursday. You know what? It is also St. Patrick’s Day.
Morgan (looking down at her PJs): Oh! (pause) I’m not wearing green!
Me: It’s okay. Your slippers are green and we’ll find you a green shirt to wear today.
Morgan: Oh. Okay.