Hop on Pop, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and Llama Llama Mad at Mama.
Art projects include hammering holes for brads (first time assisting Mom with scrapbooking), watercolors, connect the dots 1-15, color by letter, and stickers.
Month: May 2009
Four-Month Update: Smila-saurus
He smiles at everyone. Just give him a big smile and his cheeks wish contort into his goofy toothless grin.
He chews on his blankets, which he likes to pull up over his face. Mommy is investing in blankie toys and organic bibs.
His favorite thing is to look at people and listen to them talk. Austen’s animated speech is wonderful as long as she’s not to loud or tries to be scary.
He grabs toys and stuffs them into his mouth with a ravenous bite. He’ll even lung toward Dada’s nose and try to “eat” it.
Gage communicates well, telling you when he doesn’t like something with pouts or cries, but never overdoing it and whining persistently without a cause. He’ll pull his bottle toward his mouth when he wants more or push it away or make a complaining noise when he doesn’t. He’ll exclaim when you try to lie him on his back when he wants to sit up. He’ll pout and cry if Austen is too loud.
Gage can get pretty loud and cry angrily if you don’t guess what’s bothering him correctly. But overall, he cools down easily once you give him the food or the rest he needs.
Mr. Smiley Advances On
He’s a delicate soul, not sleeping well unless there’s complete peace and silence. It’s hard to be a little brother sometimes. But he’s doing great with milestones. He’s playing with toys, rolling over, reaching for toys, chewing on his blanket (he pulls it up over his chin like his Mommy does), staring at people and drawings and TV lights, and even trying to hold his bottle already. Reminds Mommy of Austen’s precociousness.
Young Artist
Austen is currently working on connect the dot drawings and color by letter drawings, although her favorite medium is plain white paper and crayons, markers or paint. Two of her teachers have recommended we sign her up for a special art class (including her Gymboree Art teacher). She painted Mommy’s toe nails on Mother’s Day — better than Mommy could have done it. What do you think about that, Auntie Heather?
Mommy is amazed by some of her recent drawings: A Mother’s Day card done at preschool and a bug drawing done at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.
It makes Mommy think of her grandfather, John Lloyd, who did sketches while on tour in Europe during WWII as a medic and painted pictures of his daughters, Judi, Janet and June.
Best Mother’s Day
Woke up to breakfast in bed of star and heart chocolate chip pancakes and milk in my Jane Austen mug. Gage in his swing. Austen eating pancakes at the desk next to my bed.
A Mother’s Day card scrapbook with drawings by Austen (and Dada). “What you do best …” was a picture of a Tetris screen; Dada always has to get in his digs.
Getting all dressed up to go out. Austen wears her blue silk from Chasing Fireflies. (Gets compliments all day long.)
Mommy drives to Queens (a first for me) to dropped Gage off for a day with Grandma Mindy.
Carmine’s in Times Square for Spudini, Rigatoni with Broccoli, Shrimp Cocktail and Chocolate Canolis. Mommy’s favorite restaurant, period.
The Little Mermaid on Broadways. Sebastion the Crab was the best (and had the best songs to sing)! Got Austen a pearl-colored shell purse (which she later filled with nail polish, sunglasses and hair clips).
Back to Queens for time with Gage, Grandma, Grandpa and Chacha. Keema Mattar with Poori. Drawings with oil pastel arts supplies. AUSTEN PAINTS MOMMY’S TOENAILS!!!!
Drive home in heavy traffic but Mommy and Daddy have time to chat.
A marvelous day.
-By Mom
Timid?
Austen often experiences a panicky shyness when she first meets adults, especially when they talk to her out of the blue. (In this sense she’s like her mom.) But then when she gets to know people, particularly her adult teachers, she’s excited by them, so thrilled at the prospect of seeing them that mommy can get her moving by reminding her who’s she’s going to see at class. (In this sense, she’s more like Grandma Judi, the people person.)
The initial shyness period can be painful and uncomfortable — sometimes the person thinks Austen doesn’t understand what they’re saying or doesn’t like them for some reason. Mommy tries to be the middle man but Austen often withdraws to herself and refuses to engage. This “warming up” period is followed by the wild and crazy period, when Austen is animated and a really exciting little person to have around. When she talks, her feelings are so sincere and joyful. Her laughter is contagious. She loves to remind people of things: “Remember! Remember when the scary monster was at the window. Boo!” Or she talks about something she’s recently seen or done. “We saw Dean and Timmy and … and we played on the merry go round and …” It’s very cute when she talks about Gage, laughing at the things he can do and making pronouncements about the things he’s not allowed to do, such as eat apples or play with “Big Girl” toys.
Austen’s always exciting and feisty.
Homonym
Austen discovers Mommy playing Tetris.
“I love it. I love your game. I played games in London.” (Austen played games on Dada’s Iphone while in London.)
Mommy loses. “I lost. I lost the game.”
“I’ll help you find it.”
Mommy smiles. “No, I mean I didn’t win.”
“Oh, Okay.”
Austen runs down stairs to eat some food with Grandmom. “Mommy said she lost the game.”
Standing Up
Holding on to Mommy’s hands, Gage used his legs to stand up — and got a big round of applause from Grandma, Grandpa, Chacha, Dada and Mommy.
Playing with Toys
Today Gage held his black-and-white stim book while staring at the pictures. He even flipped a page back and forth. Also, he played with his new silver rattle, trying to bring it to his mouth: he’s tasting everything these days, particularly his blankets.