Ryden and changes

He says alligator when he means elevator. He used to say ABC when he saw an SUV. He giggles a lot. He only speaks Japanese when I prompt him, but obeys when I tell him to do something (in Japanese). He randomly gives out kisses and hugs and does it with meaning. We found out somebody taught him how to say f--k and dammit. He shared his new words with my whole family at christmas dinner. We got a long laugh out of that. He is still obsessed with cars, trucks, anything with an engine and or wheels. He is very expressive with his face. He talks non-stop it seems and it is accompanied by these various lifts of the eyebrows or smirks. He can entertain himself for a very long time. This is wonderful! He is taking soccer club (Kickers) on saturdays with Dylan. Now we find Ryden practicing his kicking with all sorts of things in the house.

Kidspace Childcare: Dollhouse

Ryden has shown a lot of interest in our dollhouse and the little people inside. He enjoys taking them to the bathroo, putting them on the potty and in the bath tub. When one of his peers tries to join him he says, " No. My house." At the age of two peers can overcrowd one another. (I didn't bother to ask him to share because we have a total of three doll houses and I could tell he just wanted some alone time, what we call 'solitary play') Ryden played with the doll house and the little people for at least fifteen minutes. He wasn't verbal. He sat quietly playing scenes out in his head and making the little dolls do whatever it is he wanted them to do.

Kidspace Childcare: Basketball and painting

Ryden is enjoying the basketball hoop. He loves shooting from a distance whereas his friends come right up to the rim. Ryden also likes the new activity table with a combined pounding bench and shape sorter.

Last week when we took out the watercolor paints Ryden used all of the colors and spread his paint all over the paper. It looked as though he was trying to fill the paper with a rainbow of color rather than painting in one spot.

Outdoor Adventures
Ryden spends a large amount of time in the cars. Ryden likes to push all the buttons to see what they do. He touches all the imaginary buttons, turns the knobs and whatnot. He has very fine motor skills. Once he is done inspecting the car Ryden drives around spinning the wheel whilst moving his feet very quickly.

Kidspace Childcare: My Car

Ryden had a great day considering he's been gone for awhile. He showed his peers his toy car from home, making sure they knew who it belonged to, "My Car."

Outdoor Adventures
Ryden enjoyed riding around in the blue and red car. The steering wheel has many sound effects horns, water, the sound of gas being pumped and an alarm system. He played in that car for the majority of the time. He then walked over to the sandbox. He looked around and saw the sandbox was quite empty. Ryden searched for a shovel and started shoveling woodchips into the sandbox.

In the Classroom
I placed some tulips on the table. Ryden picked one up and put it up to his nose mmm! I asked him if it smelled good. He didn't answer me, instead he put the tulip up to my nose. Ryden then pulled the petals off and carried them in one hand. He walked over to the couch and placed them in his lap. Ryden spread the petals over both of his legs. The petals seemed to be placed randomly. (I wondered if he was trying to make a flower shape).

Kidspace Childcare: Shoko's Kitchen

In the Classroom
Ryden took some interest in the kitchen area. He found sticky rice and a pot sticker in the sink. He put both of them up to his mouth and said, 'Mmmm!' After he pretended to eat his food. He immediately looked around for two cups. Ryden gave Payton Habel one and said, 'cheers'. They said it back and forth to each other before they decided to drinnk up.

Shoko's Kitchen
Every morning after we come in from outside, we visit the kitchen. Shoko shows us one of the things we will have for lunch today. For example Shoko will show us a fruit, type of meat or vegetable. The Willows (Kidspace toddlers) will say what color they think it is and what it is. Shoko showed us a pineapple. The Willows got to feel how prickly or bumpy it was.

Kidspace Childcare: A Huggable Mood

Ryden was in a huggable mood this week! He kept running up to his peers giving them big hugs and rubbing their backs. As he was giving out hugs he would say to his peers, 'come here', 'come on'. Very comforting.
Ryden also enjoyed interacting with the older kids (Apple room, 6 months older), chasing each other on the playground, running while pushing push cars and screaming as loud as they could.
I think Ryden really enjoyed 'playing week', trying new and different things and ways with all the kids (Willows and Apples). Ryden especially liked the basketball hoop in the 'core'. He and Dylan Hampden took turns trying to get balls in the basket.

Bay Area Trip

Ryden and I had a fantastic time visiting the Finalys and the Noslers. Beth was a great help in arranging for us to stay at the Maihlo's house on George Ranch. Wow. We were spoiled. It was so comfortable. The guest bedroom had everything. The house had everything we needed including a crib and toys for Ryden to play with.

Ryden grew up a lot while hanging out with Scott and Faiths kids; Maddie, Gavin, Shaina and Alyssa. They were all so well behaved. They got a kick out of Ryden's Japanese and they even picked up some words themselves so they could speak with Ryden. And he was so wiped out at the end of the day, he slept well.

When we met up with Faith, Scott and the kids down in Monterey, we went to the aquarium and afterwards went to a restaurant for lunch. Ryden for the first time fell asleep right there in the restaurant on Beth's shoulder. She carefully put him down on the sofa bench and slept a good amount. It was perfect. Then Scott carried him out to the car which was about a quarter mile away!

We got to stay at the new Tuckaway cottage in Carmel. It is beautiful and a bit bigger than the previous place. Ryden enjoyed playing on the beach, feeling the sand and letting waves roll onto his feet.

Kidspace Childcare: Tracks

Outdoor Adventures
I drew a railroad track with chalk on the asphalt today. Ryden immediately grabbed a car (push car) at one point and pushed it along the track, 'choo-choo' as he rode along the track and up the hill. A few minutes later Ryden grabbed a lawn mower and pushed it along the tracks. Ryden was so excited to run his vehicles along the track.

Kidspace Childcare: update

Storyboards, "green" and make-believe
(by Pauline)
Ryden enjoys storyboard more than he used to. He especially likes the Fish song (AKA color song). He recognized the color green. He called out "green" as I held the fishup and asked what color fishy do you see? Ryden was also wearing a green shirt that day. As I changed his diaper he kept pulling on the sleeve of hisshirt repeatedly saying, "green, green". I repeated, "green shirt". He replied, "yeah."

I brought out our small white table and placed plates and cups around the table. I also brought over a big bowl of various food (plastic) Ryden and Payton kept hitting their cups into each other saying, "cheers". Then they pretended to drink. They also shared a plate taking turns placing different foods on them, making eye contact, pretending to take bites of their food, randomly calling out what foods they recognized. Rice, apple, tomato, banana.

Shit

Ryden is going through a very cute stage. He babbles constantly. He also likes to whisper. Very cute. Unfortunately he has also learned to appropriately use the word, "shit" ;-(. He was playing with chapstick the other day and he dropped it by accident and said very clearly but quietly, "shit". Not loud or anything, but he knows. In fact the tone in which he says it, reminds me of, well, me. shit! I mean shucks! It's funny but I try to put on a serious face and say, "shucks" as if I were correcting his pronunciation.

Heppi

Ryden is changing so much so quickly. One funny thing I am noticing is that some of his English is sounding like Japanese English. He learned the words 'empty' and 'full' from an NHK TV show and he pronounces 'full' like, "hool". Also when he is happy, he says, "heppi". It is pretty hilarious, but hopefully he'll get the pronunciation down correctly eventually.


He has a cheesy cheshire cat smile when he's really happy, showing his teeth.

He got along well with the Finaly family during our stay in Sonoma. Tim put him to bed twice or more without a fuss. Dad (or "papi") played a lot with him and he received a lot of love. Maggie also watched him a fair amount.

In Menlo Park, Tristan (Zander's cousin's kid) played with him and showed him how to climb furniture, throw things and to slide on the floor...lovely.

Sometimes now Ryden tells us "unko (poop)" when he has just filled his diapers. A good thing to know when you are just about to buckle up on the airplane.