His Play

Isaac and his beloved "choo-choo twacks."

The day has finally come when Isaac will play by himself for short spurts of time. It's not for very long, but having spent the last two years tending to his every need--which included sitting next to or beneath him while he played--I relish the ten minute intervals he gives me. Peace. Quiet. Well, sometimes it's quiet. Wait, why am I taking photos of him during these precious fleeting minutes?!

And this isn't the only change. There have been quite a few small shifts in Isaac's behavior lately, including the ability to focus longer on one single task. We're moving away from board books now and on to longer children's stories, and he almost always sits through the entire story without losing interest. He also takes his time forming sentences, and he will patiently repeat himself (over and over again) when Ben and I can't understand what he is saying. He's shifted from the painstaking effort to make words come out of his mouth to reflection about what he wants to say, and then speaks more clearly. I am flabbergasted by his vocabulary and language development. And so, so proud.

On the other hand, he is challenging us with his behavior in new ways, too. Now he pretty much refuses or ignores me when I ask him to do anything. Put on my jacket? Nope. I'd rather run away from you, thank you. Pick up that fork I threw? No, thank you. Apologize for hitting? Uh-uh, I'd rather go to timeout.

Challenging. And I know this is just the beginning.

The kid is as smart as a whip, I tell you. He shocked Ben and I when he identified a lot of the shapes on his Sesame Street placemat (Thanks, daycare!), including "oct-gon." And he counts. COUNTS! In true Isaac style, he didn't start counting with one, two, three, but "eight, nine, ten, leven." Identifying colors is lost on Isaac, thus far; everything is green or glue. But we aren't really trying to teach him colors--or shapes, or counting, for that matter. I'm happy he is learning them, but I won't worry if he doesn't learn them all for awhile longer. Imaginary play, discovery, cooking, reading, healthy eating, and regular sleep--these things are what concern me the most.