Linnaeus 21.0

I recently had a conversation with some other moms on telling people the age of our kids. We reminisced about the days when we counted it in days, then weeks. I'm trying to figure out when exactly I'll stop saying Sprout's age in months. Soon, I think. As of today, Sprout is 639 days old, or 91 weeks, or 21 months. In case you're wondering, no, I didn't calculate that myself, I used this site.

After the morning session at the Mount Pleasant Family Centre

A milestone we hit this week, or possibly a bit sooner, was that Sprout's really started getting into role-playing & pretend play. This is part of the reason I decided to get him the play kitchen & set it up now, rather than waiting to give it to him for his birthday. We put it in our kitchen so he has something to do in there when we're finishing a meal after he's already done or when we're trying to cook. So far it seems to be working. He's not just cooking either--along with preparing food & feeding it to his doll, he's also given dolly a bath in the sink.

Another thing we picked up at Ikea was a bed rail for when Sprout is ready to take the front off his crib & turn it into a toddler bed. So far, he's never really tried to get out of his crib on his own. He tries to get in all the time, oddly, but he's never put serious effort into climbing out. I'm not in a hurry to have him in a bed, but nonetheless, I want to be prepared for the day that he does escape, so we can switch his crib to a bed immediately. Until he figures out how to escape the crib, I think we'll keep him in there. It's handy for getting a shower when I'm alone with Sprout. I have a procedure for this: I make sure Sprout sees me collecting his favourite toys & books of the moment & putting them into his crib. Inevitably, he'll ask to go in. I'll lift him in & he'll usually play happily while I shower.

I think Sprout's starting to grasp numbers & colours. He definitely knows the word for them & can consistently recite numbers in order up to four, but it's hard to tell if he really gets counting. Predictably, the first colour he learned was his favourite: orange. He continues to be a little parrot, repeating the last word of our sentences all the time. Some of my favourites this week have been relak (relax) & contek (context). His 'word of the day' habit continues as well--he seems to get enamoured of a particular word for a little while & then repeats it incessantly. This is to be distinguished from his repetition of things he wants: Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball! or, Outside! Outside! Outside! Outside! Outside! A selection of words of the day from this week: lay-lay (ukulele), bokoli (broccoli), hum-mut (helmet). Another adorable verbal habit he's picked up this week is the use of 'um'. "What do you want for breakfast, Sprout?" "Um... banana." The cute, it's killing me!

His favourite toy this week has to be his ball, or any ball really. When we go to the drop-in toddler gym, the first thing he always goes for is the nearest ball. He picks it up & walks around with it. He's also been pointing out basketball hoops in parks as we walk by: bakit bao! bakit bao! His soccer ball is also very important to him. It was in the front yard for a few days & every time we went in & out of the house, he'd say, bao bao bao bao bao bao bao, then get fairly distressed & say goodbye to it if we didn't play with it.

Reading continues to be a favourite activity. It's not always easy to get him to come have a bath or get his diaper changed, but if you call him to his room for a story, he'll come running. He especially likes books with actions that go along with the story. At the moment he loves the end part of Ten Little Fingers, where he gets kissed on the nose three times. Interactive songs are becoming his most-requested tunes too. 'Slippery Fish' is hilarious. He's learned it at the Mount Pleasant Family Centre & he will do the 'oh no' part of it in falsetto, putting his hands on either side of his face. Here's a bilingual version sung by Charlotte Diamond if you're wondering what I'm talking about: