Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Squirrels should eat slowly, too
Peter likes to feed squirrels on the window sill next to our kitchen table. So, we get to do a lot of great close up squirrel watching. Man man chi (eat slowly) is something that my mom often says to Joel, and that's what Joel had to say to a squirrel who was eating squash seeds the other day.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Tofu that grows on trees
One fun thing that we've been pantomiming is collecting food from trees and eating it. We have some wallpaper in our entryway with a tree pattern on it. Here's a picture from when Joel was a newborn that has the wallpaper in it:
We started out by picking berries off the trees. After picking a few berries and eating them, Joel suggested that we also pick tofu off the trees. We already suspected that tofu was a big favorite with Joel, and this confirmed it for me.
Writing this has made me realize that before all the recent pantomiming we've just discovered we can do, we already were pantomiming taking baths with laundry baskets. The first time I did this was with a doll. After doing all the things that I could think of that Joel did in the bath, Joel made me realize that I'd left out an important activity. He put the doll's face down to the level of the pretend water to pantomime having it drink the bath water. No bath is complete without drinking bath water for Joel!
We started out by picking berries off the trees. After picking a few berries and eating them, Joel suggested that we also pick tofu off the trees. We already suspected that tofu was a big favorite with Joel, and this confirmed it for me.
Writing this has made me realize that before all the recent pantomiming we've just discovered we can do, we already were pantomiming taking baths with laundry baskets. The first time I did this was with a doll. After doing all the things that I could think of that Joel did in the bath, Joel made me realize that I'd left out an important activity. He put the doll's face down to the level of the pretend water to pantomime having it drink the bath water. No bath is complete without drinking bath water for Joel!
Water! Water! So much!
We woke up the other day to find snow on the ground for the first time this season. Joel responded by pointing out the window excitedly and saying "Water! Water! Hao duo! (So much!)" He also pointed to different spots and counted 1, 2, 3, as he often does after saying hao duo.
How on earth did he know that snow was made of water?!?!?
We went outside to play with it. I was excited to make snowballs for him, but then realized that he didn't necessarily think that much of it. So, we have a ball to play with now, that's not that impressive to him. It reminds me of being excited to take him to a petting farm because I had been so impressed when I visited a farm as an adult with how similar the way my uncle imitates them is to the real sound. Well, we've been making that sound while pointing to pictures of roosters ever since Joel was born. So, he again wasn't at all impressed like I was hoping he would be. Of course, that's what he expected to hear when he saw one in person, no big deal.
There was just enough snow to make a little teeny snowman for him, that was maybe 6 inches tall. Up until that point, I hadn't been sure whether he'd been saying snowman or shang mian (on top). But once I made the snowman, he yelled "Snowman!" and ran over and smashed it, so I knew that the sound he'd been making was indeed snowman.
Before the day was done, there was no more snow. But, Joel was still talking about making snowmen. So, I pantomimed making one, which we then did over and over again because he found it so engaging.
This has opened up a whole new world for us of pantomiming doing things instead of actually doing them. Which is fabulous, because it even satisfies his desire to look at things on my computer. I just make a laptop out of my hands (one for the screen, and one for the keyboard), and I point out imaginary pictures of things that he likes to see.
I've been anticipating the challenges of having a two year old with much trepidation. Maybe this new world of pantomiming might make this all seem less terrifying to me. I sure hope so...although, often the new tricks only work while they're still novel...
How on earth did he know that snow was made of water?!?!?
We went outside to play with it. I was excited to make snowballs for him, but then realized that he didn't necessarily think that much of it. So, we have a ball to play with now, that's not that impressive to him. It reminds me of being excited to take him to a petting farm because I had been so impressed when I visited a farm as an adult with how similar the way my uncle imitates them is to the real sound. Well, we've been making that sound while pointing to pictures of roosters ever since Joel was born. So, he again wasn't at all impressed like I was hoping he would be. Of course, that's what he expected to hear when he saw one in person, no big deal.
There was just enough snow to make a little teeny snowman for him, that was maybe 6 inches tall. Up until that point, I hadn't been sure whether he'd been saying snowman or shang mian (on top). But once I made the snowman, he yelled "Snowman!" and ran over and smashed it, so I knew that the sound he'd been making was indeed snowman.
Before the day was done, there was no more snow. But, Joel was still talking about making snowmen. So, I pantomimed making one, which we then did over and over again because he found it so engaging.
This has opened up a whole new world for us of pantomiming doing things instead of actually doing them. Which is fabulous, because it even satisfies his desire to look at things on my computer. I just make a laptop out of my hands (one for the screen, and one for the keyboard), and I point out imaginary pictures of things that he likes to see.
I've been anticipating the challenges of having a two year old with much trepidation. Maybe this new world of pantomiming might make this all seem less terrifying to me. I sure hope so...although, often the new tricks only work while they're still novel...
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Joel's a climber, that's for sure!
As if there were any doubt that Joel was a climber, what he had to say yesterday made it absolutely clear.
My mother reported that when he was watching a squirrel outside our window, he said "Squirrel climbing tree" and then said "Joel" indicating that Joel also wanted to climb trees. He then climbed up onto the back of our couch.
Later, he also climbed a chair onto the very narrow ledge of our light wall and announced that he wanted to walk the length of it. We've definitely got a fearless thrill-seeker on our hands...and one that we really need to watch out with, because he's also taken a keen interest in head diving off of our furniture!
My mother reported that when he was watching a squirrel outside our window, he said "Squirrel climbing tree" and then said "Joel" indicating that Joel also wanted to climb trees. He then climbed up onto the back of our couch.
Later, he also climbed a chair onto the very narrow ledge of our light wall and announced that he wanted to walk the length of it. We've definitely got a fearless thrill-seeker on our hands...and one that we really need to watch out with, because he's also taken a keen interest in head diving off of our furniture!
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Fun stuff
The other members of our household have been up to some fun stuff, too.
"A Book of Sounds" and "What Did You Find?" kids' books: I found myself inspired to create some kids' books...which led me to a website where you can not only easily create books but also record sounds for each page. (Update: Sadly, this website for creating books, Tikatok, is no more. They closed without much explanation.) Click here to see "A Book of Sounds" to see what having the ability to add sound led me to come up with. Being able to add sound also facilitated some great interactions at a family gathering recently...so I was able to capture lots of great audio...that I'm still in the process of organizing into a book... Fortunately, for the first book I completed, I kept things simple and was inspired by knowing the pictures would be easy to generate...otherwise I'd probably still only be in the process of creating books rather than having two books that are already shareable... This first book is called "What Did You Find?" and you can see it by clicking here.
"Patient zero" blog post: Click here to read about the self-experimentation with "patient zero" that Peter has been doing with inserting DNA into his skin cells. At least two other people have expressed eagerness in being "patient one" after all has gone well with patient zero.
"Fun at camp" video: "Camp" is our euphemism for the place we board Quartz when we travel...at least it's a cage-free environment where he gets to play with other dogs. Click here to see a video of Quartz playing with a dog named Puzzle. The person who filmed the video said that the dogs usually stop playing whenever she gets the camera out, but this time she managed to get quite a bit of good footage.
"A Book of Sounds" and "What Did You Find?" kids' books: I found myself inspired to create some kids' books...which led me to a website where you can not only easily create books but also record sounds for each page. (Update: Sadly, this website for creating books, Tikatok, is no more. They closed without much explanation.) Click here to see "A Book of Sounds" to see what having the ability to add sound led me to come up with. Being able to add sound also facilitated some great interactions at a family gathering recently...so I was able to capture lots of great audio...that I'm still in the process of organizing into a book... Fortunately, for the first book I completed, I kept things simple and was inspired by knowing the pictures would be easy to generate...otherwise I'd probably still only be in the process of creating books rather than having two books that are already shareable... This first book is called "What Did You Find?" and you can see it by clicking here.
"Patient zero" blog post: Click here to read about the self-experimentation with "patient zero" that Peter has been doing with inserting DNA into his skin cells. At least two other people have expressed eagerness in being "patient one" after all has gone well with patient zero.
"Fun at camp" video: "Camp" is our euphemism for the place we board Quartz when we travel...at least it's a cage-free environment where he gets to play with other dogs. Click here to see a video of Quartz playing with a dog named Puzzle. The person who filmed the video said that the dogs usually stop playing whenever she gets the camera out, but this time she managed to get quite a bit of good footage.
So that's why my nose runs...
when I am out in the cold...and especially when I come in from the cold.
Recently read in a book a similar explanation as the one you can read here in the Wikipedia entry on mucus. But, it didn't have the part about the mucus thickening and then thawing before the cilia start working again that the Wikipedia entry has.
Recently read in a book a similar explanation as the one you can read here in the Wikipedia entry on mucus. But, it didn't have the part about the mucus thickening and then thawing before the cilia start working again that the Wikipedia entry has.
Hands on
What fun! A place where Joel can play with water where we don't have to be holding him up to the height of the sink! The preschool gallery at the Hands-On Museum had lots of great kid-sized, kid-friendly stuff for Joel to play with.
He seemed quite taken with alternating between dunking and splashing his hands in the water and running his wet hands through his hair.
Here is a picture of the new Engineers on a Roll exhibit that they now have in the preschool gallery.
By looking at this picture you'll see that Joel is not the only one who found this to be a "mouth on" exhibit as well as a hands on exhibit.
This is where Joel was grabbing balls as they came down the track and putting them in his mouth before putting them back into circulation in the assembly line-like exhibit. Perhaps this made it more likely that stomach flu was one of the things we brought home with us from the Hands-On Museum (and that perhaps more other people also brought home with them because Joel was doing this...sorry!!!). :(
When we first started going to a toddler playgroup, catching more things did make me reconsider whether or not I wanted to keep going to the playgroup...but I decided just to go anyway...and then added two classes to the things we regularly go to, too...
This was our first experience with stomach flu, though...which caused me to seek out sites like HealthMap...seems like sites like these will be much more useful if people post more data to it...so I'm planning on contributing mine... But, do I really want to be checking it a lot and deciding whether to go to the Hands-On Museum or not based on it...
Saturday, February 11, 2012
95th percentile in height
and 90th percentile in weight and head circumference are the stats that our pediatrician gave us on Wednesday for Joel's dimensions.
Joel just demonstrated what he is now able to do with his 32 inch height. He just opened his bedroom door and escaped! We're in trouble now...
Joel just demonstrated what he is now able to do with his 32 inch height. He just opened his bedroom door and escaped! We're in trouble now...
Friday, February 10, 2012
Joel's First Year (video slideshow)
Thank you to Uncle Michael and Aunt Kaiann, for not only maintaining the galleries of photos and videos of Joel and friends (http://joel.wulfenfoo.org) for a whole year now, but also for putting together a real treat for us with the awesome twenty minute video slideshow they made to celebrate his first birthday!!!
Click here to download the video slideshow...the downloaded file will need to be unzipped after you download it...it's filename is JoelYear1.mp4.zip.
Birthday candle
Like I said, he likes pointing at lights. :)
We've been having a lot of fun with "birthday season." Joel had lots of people sing birthday songs to him on Monday. Peter made pumpkin muffins on Tuesday (one of which is pictured above). My parents took Joel to the botanical gardens on Thursday, and a trip to the hands-on museum is next on our list. Good thing he had his birthday now so that it caused us to think of these great places to take him, especially in the wintertime. We'll be frequenting such places much more often!
Monday, February 6, 2012
One year old
Today is Joel's first birthday. We'll be taking him to the botanical gardens soon to celebrate.
Lots of exciting things have been starting to happen in the last few months. Joel started to walk just before Thanksgiving, and he started pointing just before New Year's...lights have been one of his favorite things to point at. His first words were "No, no, no"...he pronounces it more like "Nah, nah, nah"and there's a corresponding hand waving that goes with these words...he often says it while waving at Quartz's dog bowls...in imitation of what we do to tell him not to touch the bowls or the contents of the bowls. (Peter's first words were also used in a dog-related context...in his case it involved a dog that barked a lot who was often told to "Shut up!") Other words he now says are the Chinese words for light 燈 (deng1) and doggie 狗狗 (gou3 gou3), uh-oh, down, and mum mum mum...which is used to talk about eating. He also crows like a rooster (urr-ur-urr-ur-urrrhhhh), and he waves goodbye and to passersby.
Lots of exciting things have been starting to happen in the last few months. Joel started to walk just before Thanksgiving, and he started pointing just before New Year's...lights have been one of his favorite things to point at. His first words were "No, no, no"...he pronounces it more like "Nah, nah, nah"and there's a corresponding hand waving that goes with these words...he often says it while waving at Quartz's dog bowls...in imitation of what we do to tell him not to touch the bowls or the contents of the bowls. (Peter's first words were also used in a dog-related context...in his case it involved a dog that barked a lot who was often told to "Shut up!") Other words he now says are the Chinese words for light 燈 (deng1) and doggie 狗狗 (gou3 gou3), uh-oh, down, and mum mum mum...which is used to talk about eating. He also crows like a rooster (urr-ur-urr-ur-urrrhhhh), and he waves goodbye and to passersby.
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