It turns out that I've been forgetting to think of Isaac in child development terms -- he just is himself. This may sound healthy -- I'm not comparing him to a development checklist or to his peers -- but honestly it can be a problem. This is especially true since his language has gotten so sophisticated -- I find myself assuming that because he can speak, he understands everything and is more mature than he really is. But of course he's still only 26 months old, and he's gradually developing all the time.
So here are some things that are new with Isaac -- not "milestones," exactly, but new aspects of his life.
- Whenever anyone is cooking, he likes to push the dining room chairs into the kitchen so he can reach the countertops and sink. This worried me at first, but he's only fallen off a chair once, and he never tries to grab the knives. (He has been warned about them in the past, and he remembers it -- he continues to be a cautious child. He's also cautious around the stove, but we don't give him the opportunity to make a mistake there -- if something is on the cooktop, he has got to stay away.) He especially likes to run water in the sink and dump salt on the counter. He then likes to eat the salt.
- He hasn't yet become a picky eater -- or at least he eats the same things we do, and we're not picky eaters. If we cook something brand new, however, he's a little resistant to it, so I guess we should be sure to continue to broaden all of our horizons. One of his favorite dishes is pasta tossed with sauteed Swiss chard and garlic, topped with plenty of grated Parmesan cheese. He also loves spinach lasagna, yogurt, pickles, eggs, broccoli, sour cream, and anything sweet. He's not crazy about meat, but he'll eat it.
- His temperament is still quite agreeable -- usually he doesn't have trouble with transitions, he's at least willing to consider going along with what I suggest, and he doesn't freak out when he doesn't get what he wants. But when he's tired he shows signs of the Terrible Twos. Earlier today, for instance, he had this to say in response to my suggestions: "Not change the diaper and take a bath! Not do that! I don't want to do that!" However, he still doesn't throw many tantrums, which I think we've avoided because he can communicate so well. For example, knowing how he felt, I postponed the diaper and bath. Also, I figured it would work out better with another (perhaps sneakier!) approach if I just waited a little while.*
- The kid is totally into nursery rhymes, poems, and song lyrics. If you recite or sing something new to him, he'll stare intently into your face until you're done. Then he'll say, "Again." He's always enjoyed hearing nursery rhymes, but he's only recently gotten excited by the big nursery rhyme collection I bought him nearly a year ago -- he wants to hear them all, even the obscure (and frankly not very good) ones. He still memorizes things amazingly quickly, even when he doesn't know what the words mean. The other night he was singing "Camptown Races" by himself, and after he sung "Bet my money on the bobtail nag / Somebody bet on the bay," he paused. "Don't know what that means," he said.
- He likes to throw things on the floor. He's like a hurricane -- he goes through a room sweeping items off the tabletop, emptying the magazine rack, turning storage bins of toys upside down. This bugs me a lot! If he threw stuff on the floor and then played with it, it would be okay, but he just wants to toss it down and ignore it. He does it cheerfully, even joyfully, rather than as part of a tantrum, and he has never thrown anything breakable -- he'll leave a coffee cup safely on the table, for instance, even as he throws the items surrounding it. About a month ago I decided I was going to reduce the number of things he has available to throw, so I took away the two bins of play kitchen items -- play food, little plastic dishes, tiny metal pots and pans. But I also invented a new game to try to harness this energy -- I stack up eight or nine empty cardboard food containers, like cracker boxes and egg cartons, then let him whack down the tower with a mop handle. We'll see if it helps.
*I turned out to be wrong about the bath! I got him into the tub, but despite my best attempts at making it fun -- geysers, tea party, the Talking Clam -- he didn't want to sit down. So I gave him an quick and abbreviated scrub, then let him get out. I'm willing to force him to do the things that really matter, but this wasn't worth a battle.
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