We celebrated Master Z’s second birthday last week. Photos to come but it’s definitely time for some snippets about Master Z, right now.
- He sings the ABC song daily. It’s like his comfort song. He is experimenting with fast and slow versions. He’s also experimenting with versions where he doesn’t close his mouth for any of the song…resulting in a very interesting version! He sings it when he wakes up and often as we close the door at night after our goodnight lullabies. He’ll amuse himself singing it in the car. In the stroller. In cafes. At playgrounds. It is a constant companion.
- The ABC song shares airtime with counting. At first, it was one to 10. Then the teen numbers got added in. Last weekend he nutted out the patterns and can now happily count to 60, with a couple of prompts – give him the new decade, say “40”, and off he’ll go with “41, 42, 43, 44” etc. He can also confidently read the numbers one to 10, and read higher numbers with prompting. He does shift around the direction in which he reads, so he may see 26 and say “6, 2” or “2, 6” or “26”.
- He is able to read his first book, “Bear and Boat”. He reads the numbers and says the subject – “One boat, Two butterflies” etc. Just adorable and amazing to watch. He is so proud of himself. Of course, I realise that it is him half memorising the book but it is the precursor to actual reading, and thus extremely exciting.
- He loves songs, both listening and singing. He wants us to make up songs for everything. Everything. “Bath song please” “Dry song please” “Massage song please” “All done song please” Nappy song please” “Wipe song please”. There is no end and if we don’t remember the song that we sang the day before, there are tears. To avoid the tears, R came up with a tune and we just make easy, one-phrase songs to the same tune. There are some very silly songs being sung in our house, but Master Z loves it and we have a lot of fun.
- He *loves* kicking a ball. Any time that he sees children in a park kicking a ball, he will run over saying “Have kick! Have kick!”. Generally all the children that he has encountered have been very kind and welcoming and accommodating of this little two year old barging in on their game.
- He is becoming even more snuggly and affectionate, if that’s even possible. He is very attached to all his cot friends. He now sleeps and plays with: Lucky (the cat), Big Nutbrown Hare, Froggy, Lilly Pilly, Taggie, Snuggle Book, Daddy Lion, Baby Lion, Ducky and Nawwww (so named because we “nawwww”ed when he was snuggling this particular teddy and Master Z decided that was the teddy’s name). Downstairs in his play tent he has Scout, Sleeping Scout, Goosey and Peter Rabbit who has been purloined from Mummy’s bedside table. Peter Rabbit is Mummy’s special soft toy and thus extremely snuggleable and desirable. He will often cradle Peter Rabbit in his arms and feed him the carrot attached to PR’s paw.
- He is starting to identify colours more accurately.
- In the mornings he copies his daddy: When R washes his face after shaving, Master Z washes his face too, saying “Just like Daddy”. When R dries his face, Master Z does too. When R brushes his teeth, Master Z grabs a toothbrush and asks for toothpaste too. Sometimes he’ll want Daddy’s toothbrush as well as the toothpaste. It is just too cute. I love watching it.
- He is thinking more and coming up with his own conclusions. Two recent examples: R’s office has a little desk fan in it, which Master Z loves to play with. It’s always the first thing he’ll go to when visiting Daddy at work. The other morning when he was saying goodbye to R he said “Daddy go work. Daddy go work and play with fan!” Clearly he thinks that’s what Daddy does when he goes to work! Then just yesterday he said to me, out of the blue, “Grandma n Grandad go back Point Lonsdale n see Leo n Cassie n …” He couldn’t remember their third cat’s name, but he was right that Grandma and Grandad had gone back to Point Lonsdale, and clearly he has decided that you go back home to see cats. That’s what we do – we go back home to feed and see the cats, so that must be what Grandma and Grandad do too!
- He is starting to test what things he can change and influence. The other day when I told him it was nap time, he said “Take iPad bed.” He wasn’t playing with it at the time, has never had the iPad in bed but had clearly decided that it might be worthwhile just asking….the answer was no and a chuckle, of course!
Note: Tonight, rather than asking for “One more song please” at bedtime, he asked for “More counting please” and proceeded to count, completely unprompted, to 40. He is so into counting that extra time counting trumped an extra lullaby!
