I recently sent a friend a very lengthy e-mail describing all Kian's latest interests and accomplishments. It then occurred to me that I had basically just written her a Joojeh Blog update, so I might as well post it. Here is the revised version, now with pictures.... enjoy!
Kian is a fiend for anything with buttons (blackberries, remote controls, keyboards, fans, ANYTHING), and if he gets into our bedroom he always goes straight to the laptop and starts pushing buttons. I fully expect to wake up one morning and find he has created his own facebook page and twitter account, and I'm so not ready for that. We have started watching Sesame Street in the mornings though, so now I've opened that Pandora's Box and he's become a big Elmo fan and sings "lala" when he sees elmo (from the elmo's world song)..... and so it begins!
Here he is watching Sesame Street:
His other thing lately has been his placemats. He has one that has shapes on it, and one with the alphabet, and he loves to point to the different shapes/letters and make us recite what they are. He is very strict about it actually. He acts like a miniature school master and gets mad if we don't pay attention and respond promptly! If you ask him to point to the diamond, circle, hexagon, etc. he knows all the shapes, although he doesn't like to say them. He's also working on his ABC's: he says different letter names, and soon may even know which are which! Some of the words he says are kitty, baby, water (wahwah), up, bed, ball, fire and fan (both come out as "fao"), sunset, sun, mountain, moon, star/s, tree, bia (Farsi for "come here"), agua, zapatos, este and gorilita (Spanish for Little Gorilla - a favorite book) - and of course he UNDERSTANDS so much more! He also knows how to bark like a dog, quack like a duck (or any bird, he's not a stickler) and make a sound like the wind. :)
He loves his books: they are his number one favorite toy, and he knows some by name ("weh-oh-weh-oh-weh" is Kianese for "Where Oh Where Is Barnaby Bear"). He even says something which sounds an awful lot like "read the book"! He also loves puzzles (taking them apart), blocks (taking them apart), balls and stuffed animals. He's not into coloring much yet, although he's starting to show a bit more interest.
Also new, he now spazzes out! he gets all wild and rocks out and dances like crazy (to music or not) and then runs around and falls on the ground and rolls around and squeals and giggles and wrestles with us. It's FUN, at least until he gets too worked up and it all goes south!
He gets mad sometimes now, too. He's very opinionated, and likes to be in charge, so its hard for him being little and not being able to express himself or make us do his bidding all the time. He gets really frustrated when things don't go how he wants them to - he's even hit us (gasp!) - but then we say we don't like that and tell him "love mommy/daddy, love" and then he strokes our face and gets all sweet. It's fascinating watching his emotional development take place. He has the full range of human emotion, but sometimes no idea what to do with it! He is a sweet boy though, and very loving. I love his kisses!
He's getting really tall these days. He was 35 inches tall at his 18 month check up, and 28.5 lbs. - and he's wearing size 8 shoes. He looks like a 2 or 3 year old - ha!
Last night his grandfather Massood and I took Kian to an open house at the nursery school where Naysan and I want to send him when he's old enough. It was so fun! Kian had a great time playing with the other kids and all the toys and exploring the classrooms. He likes to make friends with other kids by finding a toy or interesting object and giving it to them. :) In the picture on the right, Kian is making friends with little Kayman by giving him another crayon!
I really love this preschool. It's so creative and bright and just plain FUN - and it's only a block and a half from our doorstep. It's exciting to think of all the adventures that Kian has in store for him here (or wherever he goes). Looking at the faces of the other parents, I could tell they were feeling the same way. For all of us, these little people represent the best and brightest spot in our lives.
What a gift it is to us parents to be a part of their world!
