At this point, BB is developing more and more personality, imagination, interests, physical abilities, and his ability to communicate has exploded. Our routine of going to the library and other children's programs came to a sudden halt the week of St. Patrick's Day due to COVID-19, but we've been making the most of all of the extra family quality time. Some days are rough but there have been plenty of experiences that make up for it like being forced to be creative with sensory boxes (filled with flour, dry rice and lentils, or Chex cereal for BB to scoop and play around with), creating car tunnels and tubes out of paper, having dance parties to songs like "Animals in Action," and SO much time outside exploring.
BB's favorite outdoor activities are hitting trees with sticks, kicking around and collecting rocks, stomping pine cones, climbing up on tree stumps and jumping off, pointing at sewers and saying "Batman" (because in one of his books, Batman jumps through a manhole), playing football with Da Da, flying a kite, visiting the ducks at Noelridge, and playing with action figures on a blanket on the grass.
We definitely miss going out and about and it's unfortunate that BB's not getting more socialization with other kids, but we're grateful to be healthy and safe. He does have a pen pal named Ezra (another toddler friend we met at the library), I've been in touch with his mom while all of this has been happening and they send each other drawings and little cutesy letters. The hardest thing to explain to BB has been why he can't go on the playground at the park, but we tell him it will be open again someday. We had some "front porch" photos taken for free to document this strange time in history.
Milestones:
- I've always felt like BB's imagination blossomed at a very young age, but we're really starting to see more of its expression now. BB LOVES playing with action figures and play sets. Like his Da Da, he goes through phases and went from loving Star Wars to Scooby-Doo to WWE in the past few months. He still has an affinity for each of these franchises but he's definitely had periods of intense focus on each one. Our floor is covered with a play set "town" and when he's in the mood, he'll play by himself there for 15-30 minutes at a time, but nowadays (understandably since he doesn't get much social interaction due to the pandemic), he prefers Leif or me to play one of the characters. Often times, the characters are either in a wrestling match, finding a werewolf, or looking for "boo-boos" or ghosts to solve a mystery, but it's usually a combination of the three. While playing by himself, it's amazing to see him create dialogue and story arcs, seeming to understand the basic art of conversation, inflection, and storytelling without even knowing all of the words to fill it all in.
- It's hard to count every single word he can say, but it's probably in the 50-100 word-range. Some of these words include juice, power, kick, play, help, wolf, high tree, why, Bumblebee, Yoda, more, run, bath, cloud, and duck. He also strings some words together like "no way," "oh no," "puppy power," I do," "home run, "mail man," and "all done." He basically understands everything I say and still surprises me with his ability to eavesdrop. For example, I was telling Leif about wanting really chocolaty ice cream when BB was doing his own thing, and while Leif and BB were at the store getting it, BB insisted on getting me a whole bottle of chocolate syrup and kept yelling "Ma Ma! Ma Ma!"
- BB has quite a bit of dexterity and can maneuver his action figures with ease. His gross motor skills are also pretty good, such as running, somersaults, climbing, and jumping. He has a t-ball set but requests that I throw the ball instead and he hits it sometimes. I'm trying to teach him the basics of running around the bases and strikes and he's sort of beginning to understand the concepts. He's still good at shooting hoops but it hasn't been as big of an interest for him lately, he prefers other contact sports like football and wrestling, but it may just be the fun of getting (gently) tackled to the ground by us. He eats with spoons and forks proficiently as long as the food is easy to stab or sticky enough to stay on the spoon if it tips. He's also very good with an open cup.
- I'd say his favorite activities right now are playing with action figures, going outside, luxurious long spa baths with the faucet running so he can fill up cups of water, helping me unload the dishwasher and making Da Da's coffee (BB makes it STRONG), playing video games, watching Scooby-Doo and Power Rangers, reading books (Elmo, the Little Mermaid, Star Wars, Scooby-Doo, Pete the Cat, animals, and big trucks are popular themes), drawing (and getting marker all over himself), playing board games (at least for a little bit of time, we have a few toddler-oriented ones), and squirting a spray bottle filled with water.
- He knows a few colors, his body parts, and generally has a freakishly good memory for details. For instance, while on a walk, we went to a rock-filled area and he remembered that weeks prior we had seen an airplane while standing in that spot and pointed to the sky looking for it.
- His eating habits have improved a lot, but he definitely has a strong preference for spaghetti, ravioli, most fruit, green beans, broccoli, banana oatmeal, cottage cheese, yogurt, chocolate, Triscuits, honey roasted cashews, rice krispy treats, and apple sauce. I still introduce plenty of foods and he tries them sometimes or acclimates to them over time. Earlier today when we were reading a book about a pickle, he asked for one and liked it. He also stole my turkey stick and ate half of it.
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