Little J 14 months

Summer is such a wonderful time to be 1!  Little J is taking full advantage of the beautiful weather and exploring and experiencing the world around him with tremendous enthusiasm and joy.

 

Every Day Life

He loves to be one of the big kids and just jumps right in to join in the action.

Little J adores the water just like his sister.

Checking out the baby piglets at the petting zoo.

 

Practical Life

 Little J is at the age where he is understanding so much and is able to follow simple directions.  He likes to take books out of the book basket for me to read and then will return them.  Now that he can walk confidently and can carry things at the same time we have started "putting things back"  We will start to put the stacking boxes back into each other and I can ask him to go and find the missing ones in the kitchen. 

We keep his shoes on a shelf in his bedroom and if I tell him we are going out and ask him to get his shoes he will get them and bring them to the living room and start trying to put them on.

 

Little J likes to help to unload the dishwasher and will pull out the plates and cutlery from the bottom drawer and hand them to you.  He also enjoys pulling the clean diapers out of the bag and handing them to me as well as the laundry.

This guy is a born cleaner.  If he sees a sponge or cloth he will get to work wiping.  He is also obsessed with the broom and will sweep the deck and kitchen any chance he gets.

He is using the watering can to water the bushes and flower pots on the deck as well.

 

We've come to the conclusion that Little J has a shoe fetish : )  Any shoes he sees he will try on and if successful will try to walk around in them.  He also loves to dress himself.

 

On the shelf-activities

 

I have introduced a mat to Little J.  I have two activities that are on a higher shelf which we do on a mat now.  He cannot access these himself and we have been so busy that we haven't done them much but I think this is the way we will go with the mat until Sweetpea returns.

Putting pieces of spaghetti into a sugar container.  I like this activity because it not only works on fine motor control but also has a great control of error.  If he is not very gentle the stick will break.  Little J enjoys putting in one stick and then taking it out again until it breaks small enough to drop into the container.

Lacing chopsticks.  I wasn't sure if I was going to be too early in introducing this one but he got it right away.  

Brings me back. It seems like yesterday that L was doing the same activity.

 

Little J has always enjoyed this activity but he surprised me today when has showed me he was able to put the pieces back on the right pegs.  So he can either sort by color or shape now.  I'm guessing a bit of both.  This has inspired me to add more sorting activities to the shelves.

 

Language

 

Little J has always been super vocal and loves the sound of his own voice no matter how loud! He is a great communicator and can now say several words:

mama, dada, door, uma(for Granny), ya, eye, keys, doll(for ball), da(for bath),clo(for clock),dog,go(for goat) DO DO DO!!! for bird with a vigorous pointy finger and car.

However the most amazing word that has totally opened up his little word is more!  He has realised he can ask for more and also point to things he wants and say more to get them.  Yes he has also realised that this word can be totally abused!

Car rides are also hilarious as our conversation every time we get in the car goes like this

LJ: mama

Me: Yes LJ

LJ: car

ME: yes there's a car

LJ: mam

Me: yes

LJ: car

This goes on for most of the journey unless he sees a dog, deer or bird.