Toddler Talk

Now that we have a new digital camera, I'll be uploading clips of Jonah to Google Video. This one shows some great talking.



At 21 months, Jonah's speech is amazing. A few days ago, for example, he told Michele "Daddy car dirty has bird poo". And yes, he was right. He continues to repeat pretty much anything we say, but he's clearly doing more than mimicking. A few other interesting developmental tidbits:

- He can say his numbers one through nine. He understands the meaning of "two" and "four" (he usually gets either two or four cookies with dinner), but he doesn't understand counting yet. As an example, while he knows that "three" comes after "two", he doesn't get that when you start with two cards and add one more you would call this "three".

- Jonah has a few letters that he still has trouble saying. "Like" is "wike". "Snake" is "thnake". "Bath" is "baff".

- We think he has just started gaining consciousness of dreams. He told Michele last week, "Good night, firefly. See you later." We've traced this to the Dragon Tales cartoon he sometimes watches on PBS. However, he has now told us that he's seen Firefly at night. Last night, he was afraid to go to sleep because of the firefly. I explained what dreams were and told him that sometimes we have to be brave, but in the end he wouldn’t go to sleep until we plugged in a brighter night light. I remember wanting a night light when I was scared to go to sleep as a kid. I guess it works for Jonah, too.

Pacifier

President's Day weekend was a triumph of child adaptability. Michele and I have been discussing for over a year whether and how to remove the semi-permanently glued pacifier from Jonah's face. Before this past weekend, a "pa-fa-ah" was in his mouth at all times except for meals, baths, and leaving the house (although we sometimes made exceptions to the latter).

We've gone back and forth on pulling the plug --

Pros:
- We didn't like him talking with it in his mouth.
- We were irked by his dependence on it.
- We rarely see other kids using them.
- The doctor said we should.

Cons:
- Risk of Jonah needing years of therapy after we brutally remove his self-soothing device.
- We're strong, independent parents. Who cares that we're irked, that other kids don't use them, or that the doctor said we should take it away?

We reasoned, at times, that he'd give it up when he's ready. This was pure, wimpy, rationalization. In the end, we decided that it'll only get harder as time goes on. So, we took the plunge.

How? On Saturday morning, before we took him out of his crib, we first explained the plan to him. We then told him that he had to put his pacifier in a special place of his choosing -- this ended up being a plastic cup with a picture of a cat on it -- if he wanted us to take him out of his crib. It was a total, yet unintentional, bad cop-good cop between Michele and I (I got to be the good cop for once). When he finally handed it to me to put in the cup, it was one of the bravest things I've seen him do. The three of us danced around yelling "Bravo"!

Waking hours brought three pacifier-related temper tantrums, complete with tears and kicking around on the floor. As agreed, we gave it back to him in his crib for naps and night time.

Sunday and Monday were easier. The morning bravo dances helped. He made fewer, less fervent requests throughout the days.

On Tuesday morning I got a voicemail from Michele. Jonah woke up, handed her his pacifier, and said "put pa-fa-ah in kitty cup".

Kids are awesome!

Manamana

Jonah and I frequently scan Google Video and YouTube for cool clips. We started out with movie trailers ("Cars", "Happy Feet") and moved to animation videos. Today we found this one from Sesame Street. It's as old as I am, but Jonah laughs at it. As I write this, we've watched it about six times in a row:

Google Video: Manamana
Jonah: "Again, again."
Google Video: Manamana
Jonah: "Again, again."
etc.

Toddler Hanukkah

Well, it's the night before Christmas. More importantly, it's the day after the last day of Hanukkah. This was Jonah's first Hanukkah in which he was really aware. Some highlights:

- When I came home from work on the first night, he was already saying "ha-kah" and associating it with the menorah, dreidels, and his First Hanukkah Book.
- After I read the first transliterated blessing, he signed "more".
- By the third night, he knew what came after candles -- presents! (See some great examples to the right.)
- We didn't get to our traditional dinner until the last night. Jonah gobbled up the brisket (from my dad's famous recipe) and the "ha-ha" (challah), but didn't go for the latkes.

We don't celebrate many holidays in our household, only Thanksgiving and Hanukkah. Michele and I have been pretty consistent about Hanukkah for the past few years, despite the fact that I have minimal Judaism in my upbringing and Michele grew up with Christianity and Catholicism. Michele and I talk frequently about how to be more Jewish, including joining a temple, sending Jonah to Jewish day care or preschool. I think a lot about why this is so important to me and I've come up with two things.

First, most of my life I wanted to learn more about Judaism. I only went to Hebrew school for a year and I was barely bar-mitvah'd. Including religion in my life with any more regularity than eight nights every twelve months is a bit scary. I'm skeptical of religions in general, and most of my childhood experiences with Jewish community left a bad taste in my mouth. But I am curious, and I feel like I have a chance to learn the things that I didn't when I was a kid.

Second, being Jewish is the only "minority" thing about me. I still remember how I felt in second grade when most of the class drew Christmas trees and the other Jewish kid and me were stuck with menorahs. Today, the little girl next door asked me if my Christmas presents were wrapped. I felt the same twinge I always do at being mistaken for someone who celebrates Christmas -- pride, some self-conscious indignation, a little embarrassment. Thirty years ago, if someone had asked me if I wanted my son to go through the menorah/Christmas tree dance I would have said no. But I really want Jonah to have the experience of being a minority, even if it is only in a small piece of his life that he only thinks about for a few weeks in December.

18 Months Old

Jonah turned 18 months old on Sunday. Thursday was Thanksgiving, and Michele and I know that we have much to be thankful for.

Here are the stats. Jonah is 33 1/2" tall and he weighs 23 lbs., 10 oz. That keeps him in string bean range, at 83rd and 20th percentile for height and weight, respectively. For anyone keeping track, he has doubled in length and tripled in mass since birth. Tall and thin is in, despite a food rampage over the past week. The photo here is from the night after Thanksgiving, where Jonah discovered the wondrous combination of ketchup and cranberry sauce. I just kept thinking, "brains, more brains".

I learned some interesting things at his 18-month "well baby" checkup. First, there is nothing wrong with harnessing Jonah's love for everbody's favorite tomatoey condiment to get him to eat his vegetables. In fact, Michele just informed me that tomorrow's lunch will include ketchup with brocolli -- a tasty treat that even Ronald Reagan would be proud to serve in school lunches.

Second, a flu vaccine needle looks really big and scary next to my 33 1/2 inch baby. Jonah was one brave dude, taking three shots in the thighs today. What must be going through his mind when he's pinned down by mom and dad on cold doctor's office butcher paper -- even before the first poke? Then after the first...and after the second...and after the third? The emotional scars of childhood!

Lastly, it really is important to wean your kid from his pacifier. Michele and I have had a love-hate affair with the "na-na's". Before he was born, we decided we didn't want to get him hooked. A nurse convinced us otherwise with a stern look as he wailed and wailed the first night of his life. I plead only partial guilt, since we were both sleepless and clueless. Anyways, our pediatrician convinced me today that the longer we wait, the harder it will get. Perhaps it's just been a fantasy that one day Jonah is just going to leave his pacifier on the floor somewhere and never turn back -- as one day he will leave home, parents strewn on the floor, and never turn back.

Sick Kid

Jonah is sick. He's had a cold for the past three or four days. No fever, just a very runny nose and a cough. I'm pretty sure that his illness is more distressing to Michele and me than it is to him.

In fact, he's usually in a good mood when he's sick -- and he's not even old enough to get to stay home from school. Unlike his mom and I, who worry about how long we're going to be sick, how it's going to impact us at work, whether it is going to prevent us from running marathons, and the like, he is just unfazed emotionally. I'm not saying that there are no added stresses. Jonah is clearly upset by coughing fits and mom continually wiping gobs of mucous from his nose. But those things are transient. When they're over, they're over. It's not clear to me whether he lacks the foresight to know that the booger wipings are going to keep coming or whether he's just better at not resenting short-term pain than I am. In any case, I admire his resilience.

Despite his illness, he is talking and thinking ferociously. He finally seems to understand that animal types ("dg", a perfect "cat") are different from animal noises ("fff", "mee-ah"). In addition to Goodnight Moon and Happy Baby Things that Go, he has plunked down in our laps with an atlas and with Thich Nhat Hanh's Teachings on Love. He now says "pk" (park), "pack" (pack -- we're in the process of moving), "tuk" (truck), "Peet" (as in Peet's Coffee, where he and mom go), and coolest of all, "me" (the real self-reference) -- all in context.

So, as bummed as I am to see my child sick, I am overjoyed with him and how he changes every day.

Speaking in Consonants

At about 17 1/2 months, Jonah has had two big changes in his talking. First, he has started saying words that have two consonants instead of just one. The last few months, we've heard babbles of "baa" (bar, bath), "ffff" (fish, hoof), "sss" (star, snake), "moo" (moo, moon), and more.

Last week he came up with "tck", which means "tickle". Jonah and I have a daily routine when I come home from work and go to the bedroom to change my clothes. I throw him on the bed and tickle him. He tickles my belly button. He also started saying "cck" (cookie) and "dt" (dessert). Jonah gets five Sesame Street alphabet cookies after dinner every night -- if he eats enough beans, tofu, or "me" (meat) -- and asks for it.

The other great change in Jonah's talking is that he has started parroting Michele and me. He is willing to tackle any word that we ask him to (tonight he tried "fishing pole"), and a lot of the time he will say new words without prompting.

Jonah still has a long way to go before he is doing Hamlet, although he's not too far from "to be or not to be."