Observations of my Toddler

I thought I’d write up a quick post on my observations of Jackson and his progression these last few months. Being a new father, I’m not sure who I should be comparing Jackson to. If he’s behind at his age, I guess I wouldn’t really know. I haven’t done that much extensive research on where he should be at this time in his life, but Lindsey I think has been doing a better job keeping track of that sort of thing. But as I am the one who has spent the most time with him over the course of a typical day it is my observation at least that he’s doing really well. I’m not just saying that because he’s my kid and I’m proud, but he really is starting to mature into quite a little adventurous guy when looking back on our videos from Ukraine. He’s close to 32 months old now and is just full of energy and has the willingness to try and experiment with new things daily. Just in the last few weeks his speaking has really picked up, and he’s starting to speak a lot more words. At times he’s finally started to put really simple phrases together like “All Done Papa” or “More Please Papa” He’s also quickly learning on his own Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! Lindsey and him were singing it yesterday and he almost nailed all of the words! He just seems really smart and even though his words are limited he understands almost everything I tell him from “Move your horsie away from the TV”, or “Go throw this in the trash”, to harder ones like “Let’s go wash your hands”. I guess those are simple ones. But really, he does almost everything I ask him and is not confused. It’s funny though, he probably knows how to do more adult things than kids that go to daycare. He’s all about putting his jacket and shoes away in their proper spot, etc. He loves to do the things he sees Lindsey and I do throughout the day.

Jackson is also recognizing things he sees from our learning time activity. For instance, there is a YouTube video we watch for the Alphabet and it uses phonics like singing “Eh Eh Elephant” for the letter E. While he was watching Sesame Street the other day he say some elephants and quickly pointed and said “Eh Eh Elephant!” Which was exciting, but I hope he doesn’t start emphasizing the first letter of every word he recognizes– his future teachers might think he’s stuttering! 🙂

I also notice throughout the day there are definitely things he’s interested in and things he’d rather do without. We don’t watch too much TV, but I find that he only likes the beginning of Sesame Street. The beginning of the program is much like the program I grew up loving when I was a kid. But after about 15 minutes it turns into this computer animated Abby Cadabby bit. Jackson (much like myself) finds this portion as well as Elmo’s World kind of lame. He quickly loses interest on watching when these segments come on and starts playing with his toys again. It’s not that he doesn’t like learning, but he’s definitely not interested in second class learning shows. The good ones like Blue’s Clues – he loves! He’ll sit still and interact with it during the entire show!

Speaking of things Jackson likes – I’m telling you this kid is going to be a star someday. He LOVES to sing and dance so much. His favorite TV show is American Idol. He sits down by the TV and is just in love with all of the singing. He sings the tune of the song (though not catching all of the words of coarse) and dances and claps to the beat of the song. It’s so funny!

Jackson is also quite smart and conniving at times. Lindsey pointed out once that one time when he was messing with something he knew he was not allowed to touch, when caught he quickly switched from messing with the item to singing The itsy bitsy spider in hopes Mama would forget what he was doing!

So, I think he’s doing well. He’s very loving and though he still likes to be held a lot by others who offer, he is more and more attached to us and doesn’t always run off to other people unless he knows them. All of my observations are not scientific by any means, but each day Jackson has continued to grow in his development and it’s very encouraging. I wont’ lie, I am one proud papa!