DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES

A quick post on some milestones...

First, Keenan. Last Friday, in front of a dozen watchful parents, he walked down three steps, face forward, no hand rails. We were at Vanessa's school, waiting for class to be let out. Keenan did it a few times, enjoying the applause perhaps. I wish I had videoed. Then on Monday, after seeing the big (5 year old) boys jumping of he steps, he "jumped" off the bottom step. He stuck the landing. A few times. He was very pleased with himself.

Also this week, I caught him animating his toys - rolling a truck along an imaginary road and later, making a dinosaur walk along and growl.

He runs.

Of course his Big Thing is dance. I say, "Wanna dance?" and Bam! he's bustin' some moves.

He's starting to sing a little. We think he's on pitch, too. Music comes from both sides of his family tree, so we shouldn't be surprized.

Keenan's speech is, well, let's just say Hemingway would be impressed. Here's the list:

Mama = Mama, feed me, I'm tired (so hold me already)

Ball = ball

Bath = Bath, ocean, all standing or running water, really

Duck = duck, all creatures that fly

Dog = dog, all creatures with four legs

Dad = Daddio, all men

Max = Max

I did it = I did it

Mind you, save or pronouncing both m's in Mama, no ending consonants are actually uttered.

I guess the other notable thing is that Keenan understands everything we are saying now. He's got comprehension. I can say, go over there and sit on the box and off he goes. Love this!

Now, on to Vanessa. Daddio noted that she is oddly aware of other people's perspectives. After some investigation, we both believe she is into concrete operations.

Both she and Keenan love books. Crazy for books. Van is now reading them out loud to herself - ok, she cannot read, she's doing more of a play-by-play commentary as she flips through each page - and is nearly willing to entertain her brother this way. I've been reading Anne of Green Gables a chapter at a time before bed. Vanessa read the title of one chapter, Marilla is Surprised or something like that, and I about dropped over. Of course she wasn't really reading it, she just remembered. That memory! I wish I had a 3 year old's memory.

She's working on rhyming words right now.

At school they wanted to know if she could recognize her printed name, since they have it on her cubby. She can, which kind of surprized us. We tried to trick her, but she picked her name out from these:

Vanessa Holland Hoyt

Vanessa Hallager Hob

Vanessa Hattio Huyerman

Her teacher of a year and half commented recently that Vanessa'a art work has "taken off." I'm not exactly sure what Miss Carmen meant by that, but we sure are seeing some changes at home. One night after dinner, she drew these, in order:

Daddio, Mama,

Vanessers, Keen-wah.

I admit, it helps to have the artist handy to interpret... concentric circles for eyes, straight line for the mouth, circles for cheeks, parents have circles for noses and ears and, well, a few other things.

The next day, to build upon the face drawing, I asked Vanessa to draw a self portrait. She drew this, which is typical of her age and is called a "tadpole" person:

Then I asked her, "Can you draw a picture of yourself with your whole body?"

She said, "Yes, but I can only draw skinny arms and legs and a skinny neck."

I said, "OK."



She and I sat across the kitchen table and she drew this. Now, it's not so easy to see what she drew, I know, but it was fascinating to watch her draw. She drew a circle at the bottom of her paper, then gave it hair, eyes, mouth, etc. upside down so I could see it right-side up from my perch across the table. Then she gave it a very thick, dark neck. Not sure why. She said, "This is you." Then she drew another circle and said, "This is your belly, and... this is me inside your belly."

That's when she gave attention to drawing herself in utero for the self portrait. She gave herself arms and fingers and legs and monkey toes, then did the same for my body. Then, at the end, she drew the thick line at the bottom of her paper, saying, "This is the roof."

I took a video of the second half of the drawing. I couldn't believe she could draw upside down. My gosh, I didn't know she could draw anything but scribbles. I know lots of kids at this age do, but we just hadn't seen Vanessa draw.

Then she drew one more of both of us. My head is in the upper left corner and I am lying on the floor, holding her as a tiny baby on my legs. She is covered in a blanket (black). She gave me a round body, no neck, and stick arms and legs, which are cradling her. She drew a red floor, then gave me aqua pyjammas, since aqua is my favorite color. I love this picture!

Aside from these opi, she is bettering her skills at coloring inside the lines in coloring books. Some of the crayons melt and bend from the heat of her grip and the pressure of her strokes. You don't have to color so hard, I suggest. "I like strong colors," she counters. Indeed.

One day she said to me, "When I was a tiny baby in your belly I couldn't wait to draw. I was waiting to come out to draw. For practice, I would draw on my hand." Okay.