We're back! Well, actually, we are very very far away. But with all the new adventures afoot I knew I needed to update the site, so here we go:
MLO turned 18 months old on September 2nd. In the last few weeks he has begun to say 'no' and nod his head 'yes' in response to questions. He has started to string words together such as, "River... cold water... fish!" You may wonder where he got those particular words, seeing as we live on the central coast of California. It just so happens that Hubby has the type of job that lets him shove off and work from a home office for, say, three months every seven years. That being the case, we moved to Montana at the end of July. That's right, Montana. Big sky country, lakes, rivers, streams, mountains, grizzly bears, cougars, wolves, black bears, beavers in our pond, bats in the washing machine and moose in the road. Us being us, we did it in style. We are living fifteen minutes out a dirt road off of the only paved road in this particular valley. We are about an hour and a half from a hospital, and half an hour from the nearest physician. Most days we are literally miles from any other human and the eighty year old rough hewn log cabin we are living in has been broken into by bears twice in its lifetime. Roughin it? You bet your ass!
So MLO has a whole new vocabulary to match his new world: "Boom! Thunder" (that applies to thunder and gunfire....), "Doe! Buck!", "Dada rod" (don't be gross, daddy fly fishes!), "Lake, river, creek" and "Pond" all have "Cold water" and "Fish" and we explore them on the "Boat" together. "Rock, stick, pine cone" and "Log" are his new favorite toys which he throws with relish into his new Tonka dump truck or in the case of the log, balances on and practices his jumping. The Tonka is a mild manifestation of MLO's newest and most potent love. MLO can now identify excavators, skid steers, loaders, dump trucks, bull dozers and backhoes... he's obsessed. To fuel this love of big machinery we watch the "Twenty Trucks" videos on You Tube. CHECK IT OUT.
We all love them, but for such different reasons. I have never heard a man sing so passionately about excavators. It brings tears (from fits of laughter) to my eyes. MLO sits transfixed on my lap, absorbing every word. I think those videos have taught him more about trucks than the myriad truck board books he reads every day.
Speaking of videos, MLO has also started to watch the "Baby's First Word Stories" video series by So Smart. I relented on the whole TV thing when I realized that he had the patience to sit and watch a few minutes at a time. When you think about it, TV is an incredibly potent teaching tool. It combines images with corresponding sounds and allows for repetition so that the kiddo can start to integrate words with objects in context. He has really picked up on the vocabulary introduced in the videos. I do limit his TV time to 30 minutes a day, as I don't want TV to overshadow play. He has gone from watching 5 minutes at a time to demanding more when I turn it off after 30. The videos have engaging but gentle music, cute relate-able characters and simple story lines. Each episode finishes with a review of the words learned. We have the "Pets", "Get Dressed", "House" and "We Go" DVDs and there are several stories on each. MLO loves them all, and now asks for Edward, Dee Dee, Larry and Iggy when he gets up in the morning.
MLO is now awake and demanding that we go outside, so I will leave you with those wild images and movie recommendations with more descriptions of outdoor toddler living to follow.
Cheers from MT!
MLO turned 18 months old on September 2nd. In the last few weeks he has begun to say 'no' and nod his head 'yes' in response to questions. He has started to string words together such as, "River... cold water... fish!" You may wonder where he got those particular words, seeing as we live on the central coast of California. It just so happens that Hubby has the type of job that lets him shove off and work from a home office for, say, three months every seven years. That being the case, we moved to Montana at the end of July. That's right, Montana. Big sky country, lakes, rivers, streams, mountains, grizzly bears, cougars, wolves, black bears, beavers in our pond, bats in the washing machine and moose in the road. Us being us, we did it in style. We are living fifteen minutes out a dirt road off of the only paved road in this particular valley. We are about an hour and a half from a hospital, and half an hour from the nearest physician. Most days we are literally miles from any other human and the eighty year old rough hewn log cabin we are living in has been broken into by bears twice in its lifetime. Roughin it? You bet your ass!
So MLO has a whole new vocabulary to match his new world: "Boom! Thunder" (that applies to thunder and gunfire....), "Doe! Buck!", "Dada rod" (don't be gross, daddy fly fishes!), "Lake, river, creek" and "Pond" all have "Cold water" and "Fish" and we explore them on the "Boat" together. "Rock, stick, pine cone" and "Log" are his new favorite toys which he throws with relish into his new Tonka dump truck or in the case of the log, balances on and practices his jumping. The Tonka is a mild manifestation of MLO's newest and most potent love. MLO can now identify excavators, skid steers, loaders, dump trucks, bull dozers and backhoes... he's obsessed. To fuel this love of big machinery we watch the "Twenty Trucks" videos on You Tube. CHECK IT OUT.
We all love them, but for such different reasons. I have never heard a man sing so passionately about excavators. It brings tears (from fits of laughter) to my eyes. MLO sits transfixed on my lap, absorbing every word. I think those videos have taught him more about trucks than the myriad truck board books he reads every day.
Speaking of videos, MLO has also started to watch the "Baby's First Word Stories" video series by So Smart. I relented on the whole TV thing when I realized that he had the patience to sit and watch a few minutes at a time. When you think about it, TV is an incredibly potent teaching tool. It combines images with corresponding sounds and allows for repetition so that the kiddo can start to integrate words with objects in context. He has really picked up on the vocabulary introduced in the videos. I do limit his TV time to 30 minutes a day, as I don't want TV to overshadow play. He has gone from watching 5 minutes at a time to demanding more when I turn it off after 30. The videos have engaging but gentle music, cute relate-able characters and simple story lines. Each episode finishes with a review of the words learned. We have the "Pets", "Get Dressed", "House" and "We Go" DVDs and there are several stories on each. MLO loves them all, and now asks for Edward, Dee Dee, Larry and Iggy when he gets up in the morning.
MLO is now awake and demanding that we go outside, so I will leave you with those wild images and movie recommendations with more descriptions of outdoor toddler living to follow.
Cheers from MT!
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| A view from our yard |
I can't believe my little love bug is such a little boy now! I can't wait to see him when you got back! Tell him his Aunt Sissy loves him! Have you thought about the Dude's videos? THERE GOES A FIRETRUCK!
ReplyDeleteYou are going to flip your head when you see him. He's so different! I don't know if I want him watching those videos... you know he pronounces "truck", "cock"? I can just hear it now, "THERE GOES A FIRECOCK!"
ReplyDelete