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Saturday, September 6th, 2008
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11:44 am - differentiation [mom]
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I've been making a point lately of differentiating between objects and people for Tovar. For example, "there's a person driving a car" as opposed to "a car is driving." Or, restating his statement: "the toy is sad because it is broken." To: "The girl is sad because her toy is broken."
I'd like to break things down for him enough so that he has a good understanding about the separate pieces before putting them together. The difference between object and person seems like a nice concrete way for a child to be able to separate concepts. Using the extra words to clarify their separation seems an easy way to implement this understanding, and has already gotten pretty automatic for me to model.
I've found that a common problem adults have is lumping concepts, and therefore getting frustrated, because they don't realizing that they can change one without the other(s).
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| Sunday, August 24th, 2008
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7:45 pm - Spriong! Cheers!
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6:34 pm - Wait, he's making our jokes now
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Shannon: I love Tovar's curls. Especially when he runs.
Tovar: (pulling on a curl) Sproing!
Patri: What?!?! Did he just say Sproing?!
Tovar: I Sproinged it! I sproinged my curl! I sproinged one!
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Not only is he making our jokes, he is verbing humorously. I think he's leveled again. He's making complete sentences, putting together puzzles, and operating at a generally more abstract level.
Kids have so many levels...and each new one is so much fun!
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9:36 am - Mix of mom & dad
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Tovar & I go into the living room, where we see 2 chairs set up facing each other, presumably for mom's coaching business.
Tovar: Let's sit on the chairs! I'll sit on this chair, and you sit on that chair, and we'll talk!
Dad: Uh..ok. (sits) What shall we talk about?
Tovar: Umm....let's talk about seasteading!
Dad: (laughing) Ok, let's talk about seasteading. I like to talk about seasteading!
Tovar: I like to talk about seasteading too!
Dad: So...what do you have to say?
Tovar: Dada talk about seasteading!
And I did!
current music: Night on Bald Mountain - Berlioz, Dukas, Mussorgsky
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| Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
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8:48 pm - {Dad} Mindfulness for kids
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Tovar: Can I have some lotion?
Me: No, this is special cream for my ouchy shoulder.
(Tovar throws tantrum and starts screaming and crying about how he wants some lotion)
Me: Why are you crying about the lotion when you could be doing something fun? You could read a book, or jump off the cube, or go get some cars...
Tovar: Go get some cars!
And he did!
current music: Every Single Soul Is A Poem - Spearhead
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| Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
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12:04 pm - Morning Ferberization
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Tovar's morning schedule is highly variable - he'll be up for the morning anywhere from 7am to 8:30am in the summer. And he has often been waking up 6am-7am asking for his binky lately. I want to start getting up at a regular time, not just waking up when Tovar does on the 3.5 days/week I have him. With his irregular schedule, that means I'd have to get up at 7am.
So we're considering doing a morning Ferberization: teaching him that Mom & Dad sleep until 8am, and if he wakes up before 8am, he is on his own. I have tried to explain to him that when he wakes up, instead of screaming until someone comes, he can climb out of bed and play, but so far it hasn't worked. This would be a more consistent, disciplined approach. (Thanks to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) madduckdes for the idea). It would go something like this:
Get an analog clock (maybe a 24-hour one if we can find it, and cut off the minute hand). Color the area from midnight to 8am red. Then from 8am to noon green. Explain to Tovar that red is sleeping time, when Tovar and Mommy and Daddy are all sleeping. If he wakes up, and the hand is in the red area, then we are asleep and can't help him. He needs to find his own binky and/or entertain himself by getting out of bed and playing with his toys. Once the hand hits the green area, we will wake up and come get him, and he can yell if he wants us. Also do something to make his binky's easier to find, like attach a cup to his crib bars.
On the first few mornings, whoever has him keeps an ear out. When he screams before 8am, we go in and gently remind him to look at the clock, and that it is in the red area. Red means mommy & daddy are sleeping, and Tovar needs to take care of himself. After a few mornings, we put in earplugs and close our doors so we can't hear him, and whoever has him sets their alarm for 8am.
Has anyone else tried this? Or have comments on whether they think it will work? We don't want to pointlessly traumatize him, but given that he learned how to go to sleep on his own (despite fierce resistance), it seems like he can learn to be own his own a little in the mornings. And it would be a big benefit to us.
current music: Interplanetary Travel - DJ Markitos
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11:56 am - Tovar story
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Towards the end of our parent/teacher meeting in preparation for Tovar moving up to the next classroom, Tovar is bored and drawing and the following conversation ensued.
D: "What's that you're drawing?"
Tovar: "This is a guy!"
Dad: "What kind of guy?"
T: "He is sad."
D: "Aww...Why is he sad?"
T: "He is sad about of talking"
D: "About not enough talking, or too much?"
T: "About too much talking!"
Teacher: "Ok, then, I guess we're about done here!"
(We all understood that Tovar was using the "guy" as a proxy for his feelings, and cracked up.)
current music: Interplanetary Travel - DJ Markitos
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| Sunday, August 3rd, 2008
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9:49 pm - Yeah, I guess that does get said around here
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Tovar, to his car: "What are you trying to do? Stupid machine!"
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| Thursday, July 31st, 2008
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2:40 pm - Tovar is a god
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browascension sent me a page from the Runequest Slayers rulebook, which contains this entry:
It reads "Tovar: Worshipped by the people of Corvalla, Tovar is seen as both mighty warrior and patron of sailors. In Morlan City he is known as Padin the Bold, the mythical founder of the city and conqueror of the wyrm Daligoth".
Now when people ask where his name comes from, we can say "He's the god who conquered the wyrm Daligoth", as if it makes everything crystal clear, and then savor their incomprehension :).
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| Sunday, July 27th, 2008
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7:37 pm - He took the cue a bit literally
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I hugged Shannon from behind, and Tovar said "You're hugging mama!" He's recently learned the word "married", so I said: "Hey Tovar, who am I married to?"
To help him, and sneakily impress Mom, I pointed to her head where she couldn't see me pointing. It worked a little too well, as Tovar responded "You're married to Mama's head!"
current music: Lothlorien - Enya
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| Sunday, July 20th, 2008
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7:24 pm - Trigger thumb
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Tovar seems to have trigger thumb :(. It stuck today a couple times and he popped it back, and then it stuck this evening and took awhile to straighten. It is mildly painful to him when it happens.
We splinted it straight so it can rest. From the internet it doesn't sound like there is much to be done for a mild case except hope he grows out of it. (For severe cases, like if the thumb stays locked much of the time, they do surgery).
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| Friday, July 18th, 2008
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8:08 pm - Cute wedding pics
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| Sunday, July 13th, 2008
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8:42 pm - Cute Wedding Videos of Tovar and Sofia! [mom]
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We went to Miriam and Walter's wedding today. The kids were incredibly cute. Its a shame Sofia lives so far away, they were immediately best of pals :)
Videos:
Tovar and Sofia fall on their tochuses:
Sofia and Tovar groove to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun:"
Patri twirls the toddlers:
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| Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
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1:20 pm - All I want to do is Scream [mom]
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Tovar had an amusing temper tantrum today:
I tried to stop off at Aaron Brothers on our way home from the gym. Then was not sure if I actually wanted to go in. I asked Tovar, "What do you think, Aaron Brothers or somewhere else?" Tovar said "somewhere else." Then he started throwing this huge tantrum "I don't want to go somewhere else!!!" And he also didn't want to go to Aaron brothers, didn't want to go home, and didn't want to answer the question "What do you want?" He just screamed the whole car ride home. Eventually he admitted that he was indeed hungry.
In general we've found that about 90% of Tovar's bad moods are related to hunger.
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| Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
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12:20 am - news [mom]
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beth_leonard said this last week, and I've found myself so amused by it and repeating it so much that it just has to go in the baby journal.
There's good news, there's bad news, and there's toddler news.
Sooo true. Some trees are taller than other trees.
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| Monday, June 2nd, 2008
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8:42 pm - I've got Owies! [mom]
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Tovar got an owie on his finger and I offered to kiss it. Afterward, he told me he had an owie on his leg, and asked me to kiss it. I acquiesced. Then he told me he had an owie on the other leg, and I told him I didn't believe him.
Then... he intentionally kicked his foot into my desk leg, in order to create owies for me to kiss.
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| Thursday, May 29th, 2008
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10:30 pm - Family
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| Friday, May 2nd, 2008
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9:43 pm - More Teenage Antics from our 2yr Old [mom]
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10:31 am - Uh oh. [mom]
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This morning when I asked Tovar to come to me so that I could get him dressed for school, he skirted over to the far side of the room and smiled at me. I repeated, "please come over here so I can put on your clothes for school." He grinned and said "I don't think so."
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| Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
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4:42 pm - Where is -> What is
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Not long after "Where is?," Tovar has changed his interrogations to "What is?"
He has also been experimenting with how to relate to Patri and I. He's been calling us by our first names, sometimes calling me "Mommy Shannon." New for this week, he has started referring to us as "my mommy" and "my daddy."
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