An Over Due L Progres Update

 Warning: the purpose of this post is for documentation and Grandparents. (There are a couple bonus pictures at the bottom. I will try to get some more posted in the next few days)

Cognitively:
I would have to say that L, at 2 & 3/4, is strongest at spacial concepts, numbers, and creating pattern associates.

-A couple months after turning two  Linnea picked up the concept of left and right. One day while driving I told her that I was sitting on the left and she was sitting on the right. She then informed me that Costco (our destination) was also going to be on the right. For about the next month she only knew left and right in the car (I think she was using our positioning as clues), but then all of a sudden she had it down-pat. I was even more surprised recently when she was facing me and told me to turn my head right, so I turned it towards her right. She then explained, "No Mom, that's my right! Turn to your right!" How in the world she figured that out I will never know.

-She knows how to get back to our house as well as how to get to most of her friends homes, her favorite parks, and stores.

-If there is one thing L does without even thinking it is she  find patterns in EVERYTHING. She is constantly telling us what things match and why. She has the memory card game down to a quick science. Joe tried challenging her by getting her a Disney Princess memory card game that only uses four of the princess but doing different things. For example there might be a picture of Bell in the market that has a matching picture, but also another pair in the deck with picture of Belle looking in a mirror. We thought she might get confused and just trying matching the Bell's together, but nope L understood immediately.

- This week I got her an activity sticker game book from her favorite store, Costco. One of the activities was a pattern sequence fill in the blank game, e.g., dog, bear, bird, goat, ______, dog, bear,______,goat, dog, bear, bird, goat. It was all pictures and you are suppose to use the correct sticker to put in the blank spot. Linnea LOVED it and got all of them right.

-Another activity in the book uses your stickers to re-create the scene above. Although not perfect she gets her recreation pretty close, like her bird might be in the tree whereas the picture bird was more next to the tree.

-Every once in awhile she will surprise us by doing small number additions in her head.

-Linnea does not like to count for the sake of counting. I really don't know how far she can count. She has pointed correctly to numbers like 36. But will only count if there is something to count (and she gets bored with counting somewhere in the mid 20's). Since it is all for fun I just leave it when she leaves it.  However, if she sees things that are similar she always states how many there are, "Three horses right there." "Two purple slides, one yellow slide." I think she may like facts.

-Verbally: L's annunciations are becoming much clearer and her sentences are getting pretty complex. She  is not the strongest verbal communicator of her friends. However, she can always convey what she wants and be understood-her annunciation is what you would expect from someone her age. Nonetheless she talks constantly and has a wide vocabulary.

-She is starting to pick up reading. She is doing it mostly by memorizing word formations. She is finding this way to be extremely frustrating because she can't read words she doesn't know and she gets confused when there are lots of words on a page. Thanks to the PBS show "Super Why" she knows the sounds of most of the letters, and has started trying that method. However, since her annunciation of sounds isn't the best and combined with her language being English she is getting frustrated here too.  At least two to three times a day she asks us to teach her to read, and cries out "I can't read! I need to read!". It is really sad.

I have always been against pushing kids to learn to read before they are five, so other than reading to her a lot and letter identification I haven't been much help. Joe recently pointed out that it is a parents job to help kids pursue the things they are interested in, so with a bit of hesitation I ordered her the surprisingly cheap "Bob Books". Actually I only ordered her the first set (I think there is like 8 books in a set,  and for $6 for the set on Amazon it is great deal). A few people have recommended "The Bob Books" for Linnea and from what I can gather their aim is to teach kids sound formation patterns. For example the first book only has 4 letters in the whole book. On their website they have a "Is your child ready to read" check list and L is doing every single thing on it. And moreover, I like the idea that they are just books that I read to her when she wants me to read them. That is not much different than what we are doing now, and if the books help her create that connection for reading all the better for her. Can you tell I feel really conflicted about this?

Socially:


-(Sniff, sniff) L loves doing activities that require me not being there. She can't wait for Sunday school each week, and once I tried picking her up early so she could come back for the worship music and was told, "Go away, Mom. I am still playing with my new friends."  She loves her Tuesday morning MOPS like class, and her ballet class too. She so badly wants to go to school everyday of the week, and talks about how she needs help getting older so she can go to school whenever we pass an elementary school. I probably should of put her in pre-school this year. I just always thought 2.5 was a bit young for pre-school. A friend of ours has her daughter in an open enrollment pre-school that has an open spot and I keep wavering on putting her in it once or twice a week.

-Linnea LOVES her friends. Her favorite friends are Eva, Ella, Aubrey, Connor, Skyler, and Claire (who sadly just moved to Denver). I am pretty sure baby Ashlynn will be on this list soon, as it does appear L's besties are all the kids we see the most.

-Surprisingly, L is actually pretty good at sharing. There are moments when she is really reluctant, but even then once she does it she really likes to keep sharing.

-L  loves  her special time with both Joe and I. And honestly we love doing stuff with her. Other than going out to the movies there is really nothing that we don't love sharing with her. Recently we even took her to a museum which she loved and was extremely good at not touching, yelling or running.

-As social as Linnea is she is actually really good at playing by her self. She as an extremely active imagination which can keep her occupied for hours. Two hours to be exact as she has a two hour quite time (or nap depending on what she wants to do) everyday in her room. We can hear her signing, making up stories and games, playing with her toys, and just being completely content with herself. We have found that a two hour time to unwind does the same for her as a nap. The only real difference is she goes to bed a little earlier on no nap days. She never complains about quite time, and she never tries to leave her room, and she honestly is really happy.

Rather Random:
-If I had to say one activity that L loves more than all the rest I would probably choose dance. Linnea really loves to dance. She watches youtube videos of ballets all the time to learn new moves, she looks forward to her weekly ballet class, practices her ballet class moves constantly, and pretty much dances any chance she gets. Sometimes this even means while pushing her little shopping cart at Trader Joe's. This makes me really happy as one of things I hate the most is dancing. I have always wanted to like it but I almost have a phobia of doing it.

-L loves all things mechanical/automotive. She is obsessed with cars (plays with her little people garage all the time, tells us she is at work when playing with it), trains (wants to ride on every train she sees. If we had more room in our house we would probably get her a train table as she LOVES playing with them), airplanes (she has recently started asking to go on plane ride and I think building a remote control plane with Dad may becoming in a couple years), and boats (she cannot see water without expressing her need for her own boat. . Our friend Eric helped this desire by very nicely taking  her on a few special boat roads).


-She also loves dump trucks and sand.

-And with that said the girl will only wear what she calls "Princess Clothes". I.e., dresses, skirts, and tutus-the more tulle, and the more pink the better. She is extremely particular about picking out her outfits and for the most part has gotten pretty good at coordinating them. I have found it to be a battle not worth fighting, at least most days it is not. L really likes aesthetics and I think her clothing is an expression of that.

-She is a shoe girl-enough said.

-L is a princess girl. 

-She loves pretending to be a doctor to her dolls and stuff animals. Poor kid doesn't even have a real doctors kit (bad parents is my guess) so she uses an old thermometer that she swiped,  a string for a stethoscope, and stickers for bandaids. L has probably one of the best pediatricians ever, and  absolutely adores Dr. Smart. She talks a lot about wanting to be a doctor just like Dr. Smart so that she can make babies feel better. She also says she wants to build airplanes, purple airplanes to be exact.

- She loves to bake, but still won't eat a cookie or baked goods for the life of her. However, there isn't a piece of fruit she has ever turned down. (She also dislikes crackers, peanut butter, cereal and sandwiches, you know all normal kid food).

-She loves producing art. She has really good fine motor control and has been attempting to make recognizable forms. However, she will get really frustrated that it doesn't look like what she wants and then says she can't do it. We are working on understanding that sometimes things are hard at first but it is only by practicing that you will be able to do it. Hmmm, I wonder who's kid she is......

-She is obsessed with Dora the Explorer. Since she only gets to watch the commercial free netflix version we are only through season 4.  The thing we like about Dora is the show spurs Linnea's imagination to no end. Also, as far as positive messages-racial sensitivity, a strong, kind female lead who solves problems-you can't beat it. Plus L is picking up some Spanish as well as an obsession for maps and backpacks.

Building a castle for Dora (I assisted)

Helping make granola-nope she doesn't like it.

Her first shared bath with good friend Ella.