Educating Tigger
Bugs watches me use the laptop. A lot.
Last Wednesday, I discovered something new about Bugs and his little stuffed companions.
I was home sick with a nasty cold (and not, as others may suggest, suffering from the man flu) that I had picked up from The Boy. I decided to take the opportunity to watch some video tutorials on how to use Photoshop that came with the program when I bought it at the start of the year.
Elijah kept hanging around me on the lounge and was getting impatient that I wasn't paying enough attention. First he started trying to tap the keys. Then Tigger started tapping at the keys. When I (a little grumpily) suggested that he stop doing that, he suddenly thrust Tigger in front of the laptop while I watched and listened to the video. He had obviously decided that if whatever I was watching was
this important, perhaps Tigger should start paying some attention to it too.
Since then, Tigger has often joined me when I'm watching video on the laptop. I guess Tiggers like learning.
Labels: intelligence, monkey business, photos
Pegs are useful things
Elijah has mastered the use of pegs. Of course, this means he's just a little over-enthusiastic about helping us hang clothes (in this case, football jerseys) on the airer inside.
Labels: helping, photos
No cuddles with Daddy
Bugs was in trouble (again) yesterday, this time for throwing a toy catalogue* around because he was frustrated. His punishment for throwing things is he gets sent to his room for a time-out. Sometimes we have to use the old "I'm going to count to three....." trick but he almost always goes when he is told.
Yesterday it didn't go quite to plan. He threw his catalogue and I told him to go to his room using my best "you're in trouble" voice. Instead of turning away and crankily going to his room, Elijah piped up in a trembling voice "Cuddles wif Daddy?".
I tried to be firm but caved and said "One cuddle but then you go straight to your room!" After his cuddle I told him to go to his room and he tried the same routine. The only answer from me was "No cuddles. Go. To. Your. Room." His bottom lip dropped as he turned away and said in a cracking voice "No cuddles wif Daddy."
As my heart melted I noticed Mummy was watching (and sighing at the disgraceful soft touch of a man she married). Elijah was summarily dismissed to his room by the much harder hearted half of the marriage.
Tricksy little creature. He knew exactly what he was doing. Damn near worked, too.
* The toy catalogue seems to serve as a newspaper substitute. He likes to sit on the kitchen floor and flick through the pages while occasionally proclaiming proudly "Elijah reading paper".
Labels: intelligence, tantrums, verbal skills
I'll tell you who sank the boat!
You may recall that Elijah
responded to Who Sank the Boat? with great interest when we first began reading it to him a year ago. He now knows it well enough that he can read it to himself.
If you didn't know any better, you would think he
was reading it, as he is word-perfect. But the tell-tale sign for us is that his eyes don't always focus on the words as he's reciting. What is interesting though, is that he uses the pictures as a visual prompt. If he skips a page, he doesn't say what comes next in the story, he says the words that appear on that page. In fact, more often than not, he now says, "Oops! Skipped a page!" and goes back to where he should be.
No matter how independent he gets, he still loves having it (and other books) read to him.
Labels: intelligence, photos, reading
Curiosity killed the cat
Let's hope it doesn't kill the Bugalugs.
I got out of the shower the other morning to see this:
Elijah was sitting in the middle of the floor, gently taking everything out of the apparently child-proofed cupboards and stacking it all neatly on the floor.
I asked him what he was doing. He looked at me with very innocent eyes and said, "Elijah want standing in the cupboard."
Labels: baby proofing, destructobaby, photos
Musical... pianos?
I had to get some sheet music the other day and the music shop has their sheet music section adjoining their piano section. Elijah decided that it was much more interesting to stay in the piano section than tag along with Mummy in the sheet music section. While I browsed, he kept himself amused and out of trouble, climbing up onto a piano stool, playing the piano, then getting down and choosing another piano to play. I think he tested every piano in the entire shop.
The staff were quite taken with him. The sheet music saleslady asked me when I was planning on starting to teach him to play. I said I hadn't actually planned a start date, but that when he had enough of an attention span to sit at the piano and do what I say, then I'd consider it. For now, he's just happy to experiment.
Labels: monkey business, music, out and about
Music to his ears
I was listening to one of my new
Sarah Slean CDs the other day. Elijah raced in to the room, stopped for a moment, cocked his head, listened and said, "Thas a guitar music!" Indeed it was: an acoustic guitar in that instance.
Tonight, I had another CD on and I asked Elijah what kind of music was playing. "Thas a pwano music." Right again. Later he said, "Thas a lady singing." Correct again! Then he put two and two together: "Thas a lady singing, pwaying pwano."
There's nothing in the parenting books about the development of children's aural identification skills, so I don't know whether this is normal or not. I'm guessing though, that most two-year-olds probably haven't come into contact with these instruments, let alone can tell what they are just by listening.
Labels: intelligence, music
