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ailbheEmer
2 years 6 months
12kg approx
86cm high approx
Self-care at home
Emer can carry her own plate, bowl, cup, and cutlery from the kitchen to the table if someone fetches them down for her. She would like to pour her own cereal and milk but it's not reasonable yet; she helps us pour, or sometimes pours her own if the carton is almost empty, and mops up her own spills. She finds it quite tricky to stab her food with a fork and then cut it with a knife. She likes to cut things up with a tableknife but can't slice anything to her own satisfaction except banana, cooked carrot, and cooked potato. Other vegetables don't behave so well for her. She likes to pour her own drinks but prefers a cup with a lid, which an adult has to fix on for her.
She can use a knife, fork and spoon fairly well, and serves herself from the bowl or platter, using the utensils. She starts spreading her own spread and jam on bread but needs a grown-up or Linnea to help her finish.
She can put on her own top, loose trousers, cardigan, coat, and shoes. She needs help with socks, buttons, and zips. Usually she lets us dress her completely because it's faster and we're the ones who want her dressed anyway. She puts on her coat to go out sometimes, but needs help with the zip and her shoes.
She likes to sit on the toilet and has been known to pee in it but in general it's just a game. She enjoys shredding toilet paper and offers to help anyone she sees using the toilet to wipe themselves. She can wash her hands if someone else hands her the soap and, preferably, turns on the tap, though that's an adult preference not a child's necessity.
She's beginning to learn to brush her own teeth but still needs a grown-up to actually do it for her; she's just this week started brushing the different parts of her mouth. We need to work harder on this and I made a dentist appointment for her just today.
She doesn't have much hair but tries to brush it herself anyway.
Helping at home
She can carry plates of food carefully from the kitchen to the table most of the time. She helps Rob peel veg for dinner; she peels onions with her fingers if the skins are started for her, especially. She hands him the veg to peel if it's potatoes or carrots, and places the peeled ones in the pot. She puts things into the pots on request and stirs. She reminds Rob that all meals are better with carrots in them. She also helps put the peelings into the compost bin. She is totally unreliable with a raw egg. If the bits and pieces are put on the table for her, she can lay the places at the table beautifully.
She likes to help with DIY but doesn't really have the concentration. She enjoys sweeping up but isn't very good at it. Tidying toys into boxes is her forté, really. Mopped floors trouble her because they are slippery and treacherous. She loves loading and unloading the washing machine. She loves hanging laundry, and taking it off the drying rack and putting it back in the washing machine.
She likes to be helpful and will pick things up for people, carry messages from one room to another, wash backs in the bath, and comfort strange children in the street if she thinks they need it.
Playing at home
Emer likes being read to, by Linnea, me, or Rob. She also looks at books on her own. She loves the DS Lite and has forced her pencil-control to improve to make it work better, which I find funny. She loves drawing and playdough and complicated games with dolls - she ADORES dolls. Her dolls reenact difficult scenarios from her recent life; after we came home in the New Year they ALL were away from home and wanted to come home but not on a plane. It made me feel quite guilty. She's much more likely to breastfeed a doll than Linnea is. She also carries wholly imaginary babies around a lot.
Playing outside the home
She loves the playground, especially the slide and roundabout. Emer can jump, but not jump rope, though she tries. It's too long, and she drags it on the ground towards her rather than whipping it through the air. She climbs everything and anything as high as she can go; if it's slipper furniture we try to arrange that she has bare feet rather than socks and somewhere soft to land, but there's no way to slow her down. She scooters a bit and has an idea about pedalling but we haven't had the wheeled toys out much.
She swears she can walk in high heels.
She can't swim but loves trying. With a sausage-shaped float or armbands she's off on her own fairly confidently about half the time, and clinging to me like a limpet the other half.
Listening and talking
She listens like mad, very focussed, and tries to pay close attention to everything we say. She talks to us a lot but not as much to strangers. What she says is usually comprehensible to us but she has to stick with very simple things with strangers - some friends understand her very well. She's a little shy with total strangers most of the time, children as well as adults. Somewhere she has picked up the word "silly," as in "Not dat one, hilly!" and she uses that a lot. Also "No! Not in a minnit! NOW."
Reading and writing
She likes books and draws like mad, which is what we expect at this stage. As far as we know, she doesn't identify letters of the alphabet at all.
Drawing and making
Emer draws all the time. Her faces are barely identifiable and her people usually have some sort of limbs. She draws a lot of zig-zag lines and often draws something first and then decides what it is. Also, she likes to ask us to draw things for her. She makes unidentifiable things out of playdough and sometimes makes food, too. She loves painting as much as Linnea used to and likes to paint people she knows. Most of them are identifiable as human. Lately, she has been experimenting with splashes of colour which are deliberately not representational.
She can thread toddler beads on string, and make jigsaws. Strangers tend to be impressed with her jigsaw-puzzle skills.
Counting and manipulating numbers
Emer counts up to three, and can identify lots, one, and none.
Sleep
Emer usually falls asleep on my lap about nineish and gets carried up to bed. She wakes again at midnight and again at six, and finally about eight. Lately, since she had a bad cold, she's been awake far more often at night, in my bed, and occasionally napping in the late afternoon. Keeping her awake through that period just means she stays up until 11 or later, getting nastier and crankier and more and more restless, so we've dropped that "solution" for now.
Social
Emer likes other people but is a little wary of new people, new places, and being left alone with strangers. She's a little shyer and more defensive than Linnea but usually does ok. She doesn't mind asking an established friendly grown-up to help her negotiate a compromise with her age-peers and younger children, and argues her own corner with older ones or children she knows well.
She doesn't exactly have friends, yet, so much as people she likes or admires. Most of her favourite people are three to six years old.
People often remark on how cheerful and smiley she is - in fact, when we went to the market once when she wasn't very well, people were astonished and amazed that she wasn't smiling and went to some lengths to cheer her up. People used to remark on how nice and happy Linnea was too but nothing like to this extent. They also compliment her behaviour on buses and in cafes and things, mainly because she's not screaming or throwing things, I think.
Formal manners
Emer knows about "Please" and "Thank you," and "You're welcome." The only one she uses reliably is "Thank you" but she does use that a lot, in a very sincere way. If I say "Ask nicely!" she says "Pease mammy can I hab a..." in a rapid, quiet, monotone, like a chant, so I've been trying to avoid that, but even that form-over-feeling chant is less irritating than being hit in the leg while she shouts BREAD BREAD BREAD so sometimes I fall into the trap. She's not great with introducing herself but strangers hardly ever tell her who they are, either, so that's ok. She likes to help people. If she asks for a treat and I give her one for everyone else as well she's highly likely to share them out properly.
She says "Sorry" both sincerely and insincerely, and sometimes refuses to. She's definitely developing a grasp of what it means.
Other stuff people notice about toddlers
She knows some shapes and quite a lot of colours. She uses I, me, mine, and my correctly most of the time. She is a little confused by the gendered pronouns but coming to grips with them. She knows the difference between "you" and "me" and uses them appropriately. She can identify most of the body parts in our family but isn't yet very interested in words for the genitalia. She likes building, tractors, dolls, and pink. She can throw but not catch very well. She loves cuddles and kisses.
2 years 6 months
12kg approx
86cm high approx
Self-care at home
Emer can carry her own plate, bowl, cup, and cutlery from the kitchen to the table if someone fetches them down for her. She would like to pour her own cereal and milk but it's not reasonable yet; she helps us pour, or sometimes pours her own if the carton is almost empty, and mops up her own spills. She finds it quite tricky to stab her food with a fork and then cut it with a knife. She likes to cut things up with a tableknife but can't slice anything to her own satisfaction except banana, cooked carrot, and cooked potato. Other vegetables don't behave so well for her. She likes to pour her own drinks but prefers a cup with a lid, which an adult has to fix on for her.
She can use a knife, fork and spoon fairly well, and serves herself from the bowl or platter, using the utensils. She starts spreading her own spread and jam on bread but needs a grown-up or Linnea to help her finish.
She can put on her own top, loose trousers, cardigan, coat, and shoes. She needs help with socks, buttons, and zips. Usually she lets us dress her completely because it's faster and we're the ones who want her dressed anyway. She puts on her coat to go out sometimes, but needs help with the zip and her shoes.
She likes to sit on the toilet and has been known to pee in it but in general it's just a game. She enjoys shredding toilet paper and offers to help anyone she sees using the toilet to wipe themselves. She can wash her hands if someone else hands her the soap and, preferably, turns on the tap, though that's an adult preference not a child's necessity.
She's beginning to learn to brush her own teeth but still needs a grown-up to actually do it for her; she's just this week started brushing the different parts of her mouth. We need to work harder on this and I made a dentist appointment for her just today.
She doesn't have much hair but tries to brush it herself anyway.
Helping at home
She can carry plates of food carefully from the kitchen to the table most of the time. She helps Rob peel veg for dinner; she peels onions with her fingers if the skins are started for her, especially. She hands him the veg to peel if it's potatoes or carrots, and places the peeled ones in the pot. She puts things into the pots on request and stirs. She reminds Rob that all meals are better with carrots in them. She also helps put the peelings into the compost bin. She is totally unreliable with a raw egg. If the bits and pieces are put on the table for her, she can lay the places at the table beautifully.
She likes to help with DIY but doesn't really have the concentration. She enjoys sweeping up but isn't very good at it. Tidying toys into boxes is her forté, really. Mopped floors trouble her because they are slippery and treacherous. She loves loading and unloading the washing machine. She loves hanging laundry, and taking it off the drying rack and putting it back in the washing machine.
She likes to be helpful and will pick things up for people, carry messages from one room to another, wash backs in the bath, and comfort strange children in the street if she thinks they need it.
Playing at home
Emer likes being read to, by Linnea, me, or Rob. She also looks at books on her own. She loves the DS Lite and has forced her pencil-control to improve to make it work better, which I find funny. She loves drawing and playdough and complicated games with dolls - she ADORES dolls. Her dolls reenact difficult scenarios from her recent life; after we came home in the New Year they ALL were away from home and wanted to come home but not on a plane. It made me feel quite guilty. She's much more likely to breastfeed a doll than Linnea is. She also carries wholly imaginary babies around a lot.
Playing outside the home
She loves the playground, especially the slide and roundabout. Emer can jump, but not jump rope, though she tries. It's too long, and she drags it on the ground towards her rather than whipping it through the air. She climbs everything and anything as high as she can go; if it's slipper furniture we try to arrange that she has bare feet rather than socks and somewhere soft to land, but there's no way to slow her down. She scooters a bit and has an idea about pedalling but we haven't had the wheeled toys out much.
She swears she can walk in high heels.
She can't swim but loves trying. With a sausage-shaped float or armbands she's off on her own fairly confidently about half the time, and clinging to me like a limpet the other half.
Listening and talking
She listens like mad, very focussed, and tries to pay close attention to everything we say. She talks to us a lot but not as much to strangers. What she says is usually comprehensible to us but she has to stick with very simple things with strangers - some friends understand her very well. She's a little shy with total strangers most of the time, children as well as adults. Somewhere she has picked up the word "silly," as in "Not dat one, hilly!" and she uses that a lot. Also "No! Not in a minnit! NOW."
Reading and writing
She likes books and draws like mad, which is what we expect at this stage. As far as we know, she doesn't identify letters of the alphabet at all.
Drawing and making
Emer draws all the time. Her faces are barely identifiable and her people usually have some sort of limbs. She draws a lot of zig-zag lines and often draws something first and then decides what it is. Also, she likes to ask us to draw things for her. She makes unidentifiable things out of playdough and sometimes makes food, too. She loves painting as much as Linnea used to and likes to paint people she knows. Most of them are identifiable as human. Lately, she has been experimenting with splashes of colour which are deliberately not representational.
She can thread toddler beads on string, and make jigsaws. Strangers tend to be impressed with her jigsaw-puzzle skills.
Counting and manipulating numbers
Emer counts up to three, and can identify lots, one, and none.
Sleep
Emer usually falls asleep on my lap about nineish and gets carried up to bed. She wakes again at midnight and again at six, and finally about eight. Lately, since she had a bad cold, she's been awake far more often at night, in my bed, and occasionally napping in the late afternoon. Keeping her awake through that period just means she stays up until 11 or later, getting nastier and crankier and more and more restless, so we've dropped that "solution" for now.
Social
Emer likes other people but is a little wary of new people, new places, and being left alone with strangers. She's a little shyer and more defensive than Linnea but usually does ok. She doesn't mind asking an established friendly grown-up to help her negotiate a compromise with her age-peers and younger children, and argues her own corner with older ones or children she knows well.
She doesn't exactly have friends, yet, so much as people she likes or admires. Most of her favourite people are three to six years old.
People often remark on how cheerful and smiley she is - in fact, when we went to the market once when she wasn't very well, people were astonished and amazed that she wasn't smiling and went to some lengths to cheer her up. People used to remark on how nice and happy Linnea was too but nothing like to this extent. They also compliment her behaviour on buses and in cafes and things, mainly because she's not screaming or throwing things, I think.
Formal manners
Emer knows about "Please" and "Thank you," and "You're welcome." The only one she uses reliably is "Thank you" but she does use that a lot, in a very sincere way. If I say "Ask nicely!" she says "Pease mammy can I hab a..." in a rapid, quiet, monotone, like a chant, so I've been trying to avoid that, but even that form-over-feeling chant is less irritating than being hit in the leg while she shouts BREAD BREAD BREAD so sometimes I fall into the trap. She's not great with introducing herself but strangers hardly ever tell her who they are, either, so that's ok. She likes to help people. If she asks for a treat and I give her one for everyone else as well she's highly likely to share them out properly.
She says "Sorry" both sincerely and insincerely, and sometimes refuses to. She's definitely developing a grasp of what it means.
Other stuff people notice about toddlers
She knows some shapes and quite a lot of colours. She uses I, me, mine, and my correctly most of the time. She is a little confused by the gendered pronouns but coming to grips with them. She knows the difference between "you" and "me" and uses them appropriately. She can identify most of the body parts in our family but isn't yet very interested in words for the genitalia. She likes building, tractors, dolls, and pink. She can throw but not catch very well. She loves cuddles and kisses.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-09 09:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-10 01:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-10 02:01 pm (UTC)I am now frantically trying ot stifle giggles at work. Oh dear.
Thank you for writing this - it's really interesting even though I've never met them.