Ethan is really into activity workbooks.
It started with stickers. I would give him a sheet of stickers, and he would carefully remove each one and put them on a blank sheet of paper. That evolved him into doing sticker-by-number workbooks. They are kind of paint-by-number, but instead of a brush and paints, you use stickers. Now Ethan doesn’t know his letters well enough to match the sticker in the coordinating space marked by letters, so he goes by shape, which works well enough most of the time.
At the same time, he got into coloring books, and now his favorite is activity workbooks that have coloring and some sticker work in them. For example, one page might have fruit that is half colored in, so he has to choose the right color and fill in the flute, and another page has stickers that coordinate clothing for different weather that he has to match with what is on the page.
Ethan isn’t very good at pacing himself, so he will want to finish a workbook as soon as possible, even if he means that he sits down for an hour working on it. It’s a struggle to find the right workbook level for him, but he’s really into them.
Every time I get him a new one, he says, “Wow, I always wanted this. Thank you SO MUCH! It’s my favorite!!!”
Luca is really into language.
In the past couple of weeks, he has learned how to say goodbye, mama and dada. His baby sign language is getting more solid, and he’s using it now without prompting. Luca’s goodbye is the sweetest and most gentle “but-bye.” For a wave, he just holds his hand up and opens and closes it. Earlier today, he was asking for “mama,” and a couple of days ago, he said “dada” to me.
The baby sign language he uses now is “more” and “all done.” The cute thing about these signs is that while they are functional, they feel like a fun game for Lucas. For example, he will sign for more rice even though he has plenty on his tray because he likes the attention and the positive feeling of knowing that he’s understood. “All-done” isn’t quite there yet. Sometimes when he makes that sign, and I start taking his food away, he gets upset. We are pretty good at interpreting his grunts and groans, but it’s nice not to have to guess and feel more connected to Lucas through language.
Ollie is really into stories.
Ollie makes these elaborate “traps” out of blocks and then asks me to watch. He gives me a couple of options, and then he proceeds to show me how a character represented by a small block is making it through the trap as other blocks fall around the character. The demonstration of his trap and the accompanying story can last as along as five minutes. One of his favorite podcasts is “Circle Round,” which retells stories from cultures worldwide. Sometimes weeks after he hears one of these stories, he will ask me about it and want to talk about it. I usually don’t remember the story as well as he does, so I listen while he talks and shares.
One of Ollie’s favorite activities is reading time with Diana. Currently, Diana is reading the Animorphs series to him. It’s wonderful to see how enthusiastic he is about this book and that Diana gets to share these stories with Ollie.
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