Numbers

I am one beaming, proud mother these days. Jackson has suddenly hit the I-can't-get-enough-numbers phase and the duh-duh-duh-daddy phase.

With numbers, Jackson used to count to 3, then 5, then struggle with 6 but whiz through 7-8-9. All last year, he could make it to 13 before the rest of the teens came out garbled up. Around Christmas, he found a dinosaur math app on the iPad with addition and subtraction quizzes. He is able to tap out the solutions with just an occasional mistake.
This last week, he's been hitting his stride with counting. He easily makes it to 19, then struggles a little because he really wants there to be a number called "eleventeen". Yesterday, we were working through it: me--20, 21 Jackson--22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, twenty ten me--that's 30...31 Jackson--32, 33, 34... We made it all the way to 100 this way with jack trying to make 3010, 4010, etc and me correcting him to the next series. There was a lot of enthusiastic cheering when we reached 100. I think a few more times together, and he won't need me anymore. My kindergarten self would count to 100 to pass the time during car rides or waiting in line. I remember going with my father to the gravel yard and counting to 100 over and over while we got a truckload of pea gravel. I'm thrilled that my boy enjoys numbers too.

Jackson is also sharing his knowledge with his "mini-me", Jonah. This is great, because Jonah copies everything his big brother does. Jonah will sometimes count on his own as high as 4, but mostly he has the counting rhythm down. Jack will show Jonah how to count, but gets really frustrated that Jonah mixes up numbers or repeats one number over and over. This has all been prompting me to think about how math (or anything really) is learned. One night when jack was really frustrated and yelling at jonah how to do it the right way, I was able to get Jack's attention and talk to him about how Jonah was learning.
I explained how Jonah was new to it, and didn't know how to say the words for all of the numbers yet, but that was OK. He was learning how there was a rhythm to counting: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7... and even if Jonah just said, "9-9-9-9", he was learning the rhythm. I pointed out the numbers I had heard Jonah say "1-2-3-4-6-9" and explained how he would learn more numbers, and that saying the numbers even in the wrong order was helping him learn to count. I must have explained the process really well, because it really sunk in. Jackson cheerfully went back to helping Jonah count penguins, and I shot this video. Yeah, I know the video isn't super polished (even by my standards). I really think it captures the process of learning though, and the elements of the learning process.

Jack has made big strides in reading also. He is attending Lebanon Elementary Preschool now. It's just 3 hours a day, but it's been great. I've had a difficult time getting jack to pay attention to letters at home (except for the alphabet song, which for a while last summer was the only lullaby he'd accept). His preschool has succeeded where I couldn't. He has learned to write most of the letters now, and spends a lot of time writing his name. He's writing his first and last name now. A few months ago, it was just Jackson, and the focus was on making all the letters appear somewhere on the page. If he forgot the "c", he was happy to add it at the end. He also drew a very wonky "s". Now he writes the letters in order, although he struggles with writing left to write. When he writes it right to left, he also inverts all the letters except for the J.
He will sometimes ask me what letters he needs to spell other names like jonah or Evie. I usually write the new names once for him so that he can copy. This last week, he's been working on adding the dodge to his name. He can write it forward or backward now, although sometimes he picks up the g at the end.

Tonight he hit a major reading milestone. We were having bedtime stories, and "Gossie" was up. I like Gossie, and it was a nightly repeat when Jackson turned two. We really haven't read it since, but I've started picking it up since Jonah is just shy of two now. Jackson doesn't remember all the words, but he has the plotline down. A few days ago, he was "reading" it by repeating the parts of the text he has memorized and adlibbing the rest of the plot.
Tonight, his technique was completely different. He used his finger to underline the words as he went through the story, saying much of it from memory and filling in much of the rest. Then (and this was really magical for me) he started sounding some written words out!! "They were wuh-wuh-wuh-walking. On suh-suh-someone else's eff-fuh-fuh-ē-eet." This was such a moment of pride for me,to see the lights suddenly go on like that about how reading works. Really joyful pride on my part. We high-fived and exchanged pounds with fireworks and I laid the praise on thick (not in the forced, yay-another-tiny-success way, but in the -You-are-a-super-genius-and-I-am-overwhelmed-by-it kind of way) and I kissed his smart little head. I don't know if they cover how to sound out words at school, but when he quizzes me at home on spelling words, I usually say, "Pants start with P, puh-puh-puh-pants."

School has also been working on the concept of patterns, and jack is incorporating it into daily life. He gets really excited to find patterns. A few days ago, he found a pattern on a background wallpaper border in a picture book, duck-ball-duck-ball. I just noticed a duplo block tower with 8 dot red blocks stacked on side by side 4 dot green and blue blocks, stacked on 8 dot red blocks. Kind of a big deal for a kid who a year ago would still only use one color block at a time.

Have I gushed enough?! I can't help it. I'm really excited about all of the new, sudden progress my boy has made. I'm also fascinated by how the learning process works. It's amazing to see it unfold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbytGWG50-U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39yz8VL-Fsg

"The Mother of all Curse Words" --blog post #200

A few weeks ago, I was buckling the kids in the car. Jackson picked up some card, then said, "this is a pain in the f-ing a-." I said, "what did you say?" and he repeated his previous statement. His statement was so random, so deliberate, and said in such a way that I knew he was trying the new words out, testing my parenting, and aware that he said something that just maybe was outside his current boundaries--something that I as a parent couldn't just let slide and hope it would go away. I took a deep breathe, snapped Jonah's buckle, and started my quickly conceived speech about that not being a nice thing to say. I was told, "well, Daddy thinks it's a nice thing to say" 
So great, he ratted his daddy out.  Of course he had learned this from daddy. I don't use this kind of language in front of my child and even if it had come from me, I leave the f- out of this particular phrase.  Then there's the dilema of how to punish him. My stern lecture would only go so far, time out was insufficient and uninforcible since  I clearly wasn't going back inside for 3 minutes on the stair. I couldn't see any other recourse besides the threat of soap.
I told him again that it wasn't a nice thing to say, not for little boys and not for mommy or daddy either. I told him those were dirty words and the only solution was to clean his mouth up by washing it with soap (trying to convince myself that it was a real connection and very reasonable punishment). I told him if mommy or daddy said it to remind us that it wasn't a nice thing to say and we would be in trouble too. Then I got in the car myself, hoped my speech was impressionative, and wondered how to break the news to my husband in a way that would serve to put him on notice as well.
A few days later, Jackson was bouncing around the house, and told me he might "fall and break his f-ing head." I repeated my speech and again listened to his arguement that daddy thought it was a nice thing to say. I repeated my speech with emphasis on the soap. 30 minutes later, Jack was jumping on the bed chanting about falling and "breaking his f-ing head". 
I put Jonah down and let out a deep sigh of disbelief. Disbelief of what I was hearing from my 3 1/2 year old, disbelief that I was really going to have to get the soap out, disbelief that my husband hadn't tempered his own language. Visions of that scene from "The Christmas Story" flashed through my mind as I picked up my sweet baby boy and carried him into the bathroom, his fate sealed. I gave him a longer speech. He was unphased. I showed him a bar of soap, then had to explain just what it was since we use a body wash with the kids and liquid soap at the sink. I had to hold him down to attempt to put it in his mouth. He grimmaced, and I touched the tiniest bit to his tooth. He ran away complaining, but did not repeat his chant. I took the next opportunity to again chastise my husband.  Jason has since been moping around, wearing his 'worst father in the world' medallion.
Those of you who know my Jackson know he loves to play with my iTouch. He calls it "mine game". If I take it to work, I come home hearing "mom, do you know where mine game is?" in the most pleading little voice. I have it loaded up with toddler aps. He plays them all, but mostly he plays Pocket God. I recognize that torturing pygmies is a little mature of a theme. I'm a little embarrassed that when we visited Utah, he showed everyone as he said, "see the zombies eat the kidneys brains and that makes more zombies". I rationalize that playing Pocket God is good for him because he has to take multi-sequenced steps to a given reaction, it's bigger than just cause and effect.
 He also uses the YouTube ap to watch videos of his own giggling self, muppets singing 'Ma Nama Na', or Donald Duck shorts. He saved a video of someone playing a Roger Rabbit video game to the YouTube favorites. I saw him watching it a couple times, and it was boring so I tuned it out after a few seconds. Normally I let him use the iTouch on his own. He likes to play it when he's "boring" because I'm cooking or taking care of Jonah or whatever.  A few nights ago, he was sitting next to me playing with the iTouch. He turned on the Roger Rabbit video. About 3 seconds beyond the point I'd been tuning out, the narrator said, "This right here is a pain in the f-ing a-". I think a "fall and break my f-ing head" might've been in the upcoming dialogue. Instead of waiting to listen for that, I snatched the itouch from Jackson's protesting fingers and erased the link from the memory.
Jason is relieved that he's no longer the worst parent in the world. He handed that title to me for letting my sweet little boy have unsupervised access to the Internet. YouTube. What was I thinking?! It could've been much worse, right?! So now we're both on notice, paying a little more attention to our language and to our little parrot's viewing habits. This parenting thing is gonna be a long looong road, sigh.  

I was just showing Jackson how to play Here Is the Church and Here Is the Steeple, Open the Doors and See All the People...




He said, "Uh, Mommy...Do they run away in cars?"

We had Jonah's 4 month appointment yesterday.  He measured 26.5 inches long and 18 pounds, 1 ounce.  That makes his 90% for weight and 86% for height, or in other words, the little one.  He's been sitting up more.  He can sit for a couple of minutes now, but you have to be nearby because he could tumble over at any moment.    He hadn't rolled over since his first month of life.  I guess he got too chunky and couldn't do it anymore.  Yesterday, he was playing super baby and did roll.  I think it was an accident, because he looked really surprised.  I think he'll get the idea and start rolling again very soon.

Here Be Dragons

Jackson apparently had a nightmare last night.  He dreamed that dragons came out of my [pregnant] belly and grabbed him.  Jason slept with him most of the night.  He called me at 6am complaining of the cold and told me that 'Daddy found the dragon and the mouse' before he dropped back off to sleep.

When I got home today, he told me some stuff about dragons and about how they aren't real.  But at bedtime, he was distraught about the idea of sleeping in his new room.  He insisted the light stay on and I stay with him.   Fortunately he was exhausted and blinky and went to sleep easily.  I'm afraid tomorrow won't be so easy.

Closing Remarks

I'm sure you're all dying to see Christmas pictures. I have every intention of posted them promptly. For now, please accept Jackson's closing remarks from Christmas Day. This is after Jackson's was put to bed. He was at the gate to his room, calling for more attention.

Mom!
Mom!
Mommy!
Jason!
Jason!
Mommy!
Jason!

(Jason and I are down the hall, cracking up! Jason, "He's 2 1/2 and already I'm getting the first name treatment.")

What is that laughing about?!
RIGHT NOW!

A few days ago, I'd come across something annoying that Jason had done. Can't recall what now. Anyway, I mumbled, "Grrr, Jason". Jack heard me and asked who Jason was. So I explained how Daddy's other name is Jason, and Mommy's other name is Sheree. He gave me a funny look. Later he tried telling me that his other name was Jason. A few days later, he checked with his Daddy and was told that indeed, his Daddy did have another name, which was Jason. Guess he decided to try it out last night.

Lead Levels

Tuesday was Jack's birthday (Yeah--happy birthday, boy!) I'll post about that event, and the subsequent, incessant, cutting and pounding (thanks, Mom) later. For now, a few lines about what's been eating at me--that is the trip to the pediatrician. I could complain about the shortage of HIB vaccine or Jack's mysterious spreading rash which the doctor proclaimed was "contact dermatitis" (my ass). Or I could say how weird it is that Jack's head size didn't change at all, and sometimes increases or even decreases in size depending on who the nurse is. I could also rave about how well Jackson takes his pricks, staring stoically and in silence at the nurse. These topics are all of passing interest.

The thing that's eating at me is the lead test, taken by capillary. By way of background, it has been determined that there is no safe level of lead. The Dept of Health gets involved when the level is > 10 micrograms/deciliter, serious action with chelation and home remediation starts at around 50 micrograms/deciliter. Jackson's lead levels were below these thresholds at 5 micrograms/deciliter. By official lead accounting, its normal and nothing to be alarmed about. Except that the level should be nothing, zip, zero, undetectable. There are studies that show a linear relationship between even low lead levels of lead and IQ impact. 10 micrograms/deciliter has an impact of -7 IQ points. (There go the "trivial" few IQ points I pumped so much precious, time consuming, stressful breast milk to give my child.)

Historically speaking, lead levels of kids my age (born 1976-1980) had a mean value of 15 micrograms/deciliter. After lead paint was banned in 1978, the levels have gone down, and today's kids have a mean value of 2.7 micrograms/deciliter. Jackson's level is twice that.

We live in a brand new house (see previous post), with clean well water running through new lead free pipes. We don't use brightly colored foreign stoneware (as far as it can be avoided). We don't have antique tin toys or let Jackson play with the ammunition. So, where is the contamination coming from? I've been through latest list of lead based toy recalls. Nothing we own is on the list, but there are certainly similar items. It could be anything. Is it the painted spots on his bath toys? The zippers on his pants? The vinyl housed flashing light of his spider man jacket? How about his toy boxes? Or new froggy boots that he's worn all day every day since Easter? Maybe a contaminant in his daily multivitamin. Is it our dishes? They're purchased in a US big box store and light in color (typically reds are more likely to be lead based glazes). We only have 1 vinyl mini blind in the house, but that could be the source.

Point is, there is no way of knowing where the lead is coming from. This is a consequence of globalization and failure to enforce regulations. Even buying all of our consumer goods from reputable US made sources (as if that were possible) wouldn't guarantee safety, since they could just as easily get a batch of contaminated raw materials to work with.

In our home, we go through considerable effort to avoid contaminations. We buy US goods where practical, spend extra on local-ish free range meats and organic vegetables, produce our own eggs, limit high sugar content foods (corn syrup has a 20% contamination with mercury rate, by the way), eschew manufactured food items (like those pedialyte drinks they're pushing these days). We built a new house rather than remodel an old one that might be contaminated.
Despite these efforts, we're powerless against things like heavy metal contamination or food poisoning.

http://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/PDF/rr/rr5608.pdf

Cheese and paperclips

Jason is getting some stuff ready for eBay. There's a cast iron wok that I thought we had no use for, but apparently it makes a great toddler seat. I told Jackson I was going to take his picture. He put on his best Cheshire grin and said, "Cheee-eese".


I have a jar of paperclips. It's a mixed jar collected over the years--different sizes and colors. Jackson has been playing with it this week. He's been carrying around clips on a little saucer and moving them around. Yesterday, I noticed that all the clips on the saucer are metallic, and all of the clips in the bottom of the storage container are colored and plastic coated.

This is big news!!! First, its a milestone to sort things. Sorting blocks by shape is expected--toymakers go to some effort and expense to market shape sorters. However, this is a bigger milestone. First, there's no marketing involved. It's more a matter of covert sneaking off with the paperclips when no one was looking. Second, there was no prompt. No, "See this is a blue triangle with 3 sides--let's put it in the blue triangle hole with 3 sides. Oh no, it doesn't fit in the orange circle hole, try again." Jackson found the clips himself, made them into a toy, segregated them by type, and plays with them one pile at a time.

For me, its an even bigger milestone. One that signals that my boy is just like me--that's every parent's dream, right. See, sorting is my particular brand of O.C.D. I'm not a neat freak in anyone's imagination (sorry, Mom), but I do like the items on the shelf to be orderly. I like my closet arranged by season and color. I like my books and spices alphabetical (I let a few of these go in the name of having a career and family).

If I'm really really lucky, this is a signal that my child will be analytical. A sign that he'll think twice before making a decision. Maybe he'll even be a technical person with a slant toward the scientific. A mother can dream, right?

1, 2, 3

I've turned into all of our Mothers. How? I count--1 [pause] 2 [pause] 3 [pause].
It works. I say "I'm going to count" and my sweet boy, who's been ignoring my requests to put down the toilet paper for 5 minutes, interprets "Mama means business, now." He'll actually stop what he's doing on the number 1. So I cheer, but I think I have a responsibility to continue counting. He's gotta learn the numbers, and its not really counting if I stop at 1.

Down syndrome is one of the most common genetic condition, with an incidence of 1 per 733 live births. It results when a person has an extra copy of the 21st chromosome, hense trisomy 21. Consequences of the addition are mild to moderate cognitive delays and distinctive physical features including short stature, low muscle town, and an upward eye slant. People with Down's syndrome suffer high rates of congenital heart defects, thyroid conditions, respiratory problems, hearing impairment, childhood leukemia, and altzheimers. As these conditions have become more treatable, the average lifespan for a person with T21 has increased from 25 years in 1983 to 60 years today.
More information can be found at the National Down's Syndrome Society website, http://www.ndss.org/