Art, music, drama

This week Elliott hosted a toddler art party. He wasn't really the greatest host or participant, but after the fact, the main product was fun to walk on. Seriously, it was a fun trial, and some of the other kids really got into it. Elliott dislikes the sensation of gooey stuff on his hands - whether coconut milk, or hummus or any kind of oil. So the finger paints didn't go over so well. As for the brushes intended to be used for tempera paint? He liked his dry so he could brush his head, which he also likes to do with a regular hair brush these days. Elliott was more interested in playing with the garden hose than in painting. After the party the hose was still fun, and the group painting became his royal walkway.

Elliott is in the 20th percentile on height and weight (about 23 lbs. and something like 30 inches), and he's probably in the same percentile for language but is starting to make some progress. His current "vocabulary" (or list of understood concepts?) includes:
-"hi" (hand wave and "eye")
-"bu-bye!" with hand wave whenever something is finished or being turned off
-more (sign and "mo" with expectant look on face and question mark in tone)
-sleep (sign of hand on face and "seep")
-kiss hand for good night
-banana (sign and "nanana")
-cheese (sign and "jeese")
-peas (sign and "dees")
-hat (sign and "at")
-milk/nursing (sign and maybe he said "nus" today?)
-flower (modified sign of sniffing with hand to mouth)
-fish (modified sign of smacking lips)
-cow ("moo")
-dog (modified sign of panting, and if he sees a real one he full out barks at it)
-"mama" or "mom" and "da" for daddy
-maybe he knows and is trying to do a modified sign for cereal (as in crispy rice)
-he might be trying to do the sign for tomato that I just introduced the other day
-I think he's tried to do a modified sign for berries with something that sounds kind of like berries but I wouldn't know how to spell it
-I think he also recognizes and can sometimes say something like "bubble" and "duck," among other things I can't think of right now. He certainly knows what the phone is and likes to talk in it.
-He seems to recognize facial body parts and I think is trying to say "eyes" and "ears." He has known "nose" for a while but doesn't say it.
-He definitely knows what shoes are.
-He points often and says "dees" (and sometimes "da") for lots of things. In fact, he pointed toward the bathroom as he was pooping, and if I'd paid attention he probably would have gone on the potty (as he has a few times - once or twice after putting the little insert seat on the regular seat himself.

He continues to be happy a lot but is also having more neediness for contact with mama. However, he did great playing the whole hour during my last at-home tutoring session yesterday, especially after I gave him some snacks. He has been pretty hungry lately but unfortunately has started throwing food from his high chair, which we hadn't seen for a few months. He also occasionally throws things. If I try to take away one thing (like a real phone) and give him vastly inferior fake phone, he will either accept his lot and move on or throw a tantrum and chuck the phone. He continues to accost other children without apology - hitting them in the face, pulling their shirt (or in one case pulling and then trying to push Joey over in the toddler wading pool), even grabbing a chub of toddler skin if there is toy ownership at issue. We're trying to figure out the best way to handle this. He's certainly not the only one engaging in this behavior, but he makes bigger, tougher kids cry, and that's not really cool!

Elliott loves books these days - his board books and also whatever books he can pull off our shelves. Of special interest are the books he finds in my tutoring bag - The Great Gatsby and Life of Pi (which has a raised tiger on the front). He is happy to sit and look through books a lot. He also enjoys playing with blocks and wooden puzzles. I left him with a neighbor the other day and he had a great time playing with trains and Legos. Unfortunately, the previous day when the neighbor's 7-month-old son was awake and I babysat for her, Elliott spent a few cute minutes babbling at the baby and waving hi as the little guy sat in my lap, but then Elliott started trying to hit him in the head. This went on for most of the rest of the time, along with Elliott trying to climb into the baby's bouncy seat and exersaucer. Fortunately the baby only cried a tiny bit during Elliott's more lengthy tantrums. He just wanted to be held and wouldn't even let me put him in the sling. But the baby couldn't sit on his own, so it was a challenging hour and a half. I'm glad things went more smoothly when Elliott was alone with Alyssa. In fact, when I came home he just waved and said "hi" and kept walking around her living room - didn't run up to me or cling or anything. I hope eventually he will get along with her younger son. He hasn't given her 3-year-old too much trouble, though he has grabbed the boy's shirt a few times.

We didn't take music class this summer but we keep the Music Together CDs, Putumayo CDs and the fun El Doble De Amigos playing, sometimes throwing in Baby's First Steps in Spanish or French. Elliott "sings" along with the first song on the Dreamland CD ("Naima," I think) - hits the right note and vowel, claps when people clap in the music, hits some of the MT tonal patterns, sings "bob bob bob" during Red, Red Robin, points to or grabs a banana during "All the Nations Love Banana" and sings "nanana," sort of did a "meow meow" thing along with a meowing singer on "Pussycat, Pussycat Where Have You Been?" I haven't done a lot of singing regular songs with motions/finger plays/signs, but this week I started doing signs while singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" during diaper changes, and he LOVES it. It's the first thing that's not food that he asked for "more" with me, though neighbor Alyssa said he did it for playing trains with her. I think he will like preschool for having more interaction with other adults and exposure to different toys. I have to decide what else to do this fall to help me keep him stimulated at the right level for him. I am not interested in pushing him to "learn" stuff, but he's clearly hungry for knowledge to name his world and for predictable rituals in which he can participate. The last two days he's started to put his hand to his face and say "seep" toward the end of lunch and to wave and say bye-bye to the windows, which we usually close (or draw curtains) before we take a nap.

That's all our big news this week!