The 1st and 2nd M (that’s me) got to spend 24 hours a day for over two weeks with the 3rd M.  We were impressed by the tremendous improvement of his skills since he started school three months ago. Even during the trip, it was amazing how many more words he picked up, too.

* He seems to be picking up the concept of counting and can count in Spanish to two.

* He understands colors, can match them and can say a few. At dinner, we would often pull out color swatches and make him match them. He even got various shades of green or orange correctly. We know he’s not color blind!

* At at pharmacy, once woman gave him some colorful cards for him to match. I thought they were two advanced for him, but he got them right 95% of the time! (Proud mom, here.) That was a frequent plane game on the trip. He even matched the harder versions where the bugs are the same, but the background is different.

* I also think that he might get the concept of a Map. At a minimum, he gets that you point at a map and say something. Then you point away. I’ll create a little map of the backyard this weekend and see if he can correlate it to the real backyard. At a minimum he gets abstract concepts.

* Speaking of abstract concepts, he gets pictures of things even if they don’t look remotely the same. We have a black and white paper tiger mask that we put on and growl behind. (We call it the Scottish Wildcat..a joke from a previous trip to Scotland.) The 3rd M, saw a orange and black stuffed animal on a car on top of someone’s hood and made the same Scottish Wildcat noise and sign! They don’t look remotely the same. I know the teachers have been going over animals with him at school, but I was impressed he gets the abstract matching concepts.

*  Words. Words and more words. His vocabulary mushroomed on the trip. Perhaps because it was a trip, we frequently said “Oh, look a car!” Or “Oh look the beach!” The 3rd M said to us, “Oh look a horse!” (and made up his own horse sign language symbol.) and “Oh look a train!” and showed us a sign, which turns out was the correct sign symbol. (He picked that one up a school.)

CLICK HERE FOR A VIDEO of him signing Happy Birthday and saying his new words!

The 3rd M is listening intently to everything we’re saying and speaking up! Most of the time, it’s this amazing little semi-monologue where he gabbers away and tells us about…well, we don’t know what, but he’s really animated!

More and more he’s repeating what we’re saying.  I’m amazed I got this one on video. We were creating a Happy Birthday video for Aunt Lynn and during the second take, he started saying “Happy Birthday”, but I didn’t catch it at first. (It was pretty clear, too.)

Go, 3rd M, go!

The 1st & 2nd Ms devise increasingly more complicated (and more dangerous?) activities to keep the 3rd M engaged. He’s a busy little bee and if we don’t want all the items in every drawer removed and then randomized throughout the house, we’ve got to keep him occupied. (So far, we’ve found chicken and crackers in with the kindling for the fireplace, his binkies in with the 2nd M’s makeup and little shoes underneath the bed.)

Our latest, devised in collaboration with 2nd & 3rd Ms is Stroller Racing and the Boat Box. See here:

We then progressed to Speed Boat Box Racing. You really need to be in repose for the aerodynamic nature of the sport. Luckily, the 3rd M doesn’t get too upset when the 2nd M bashes his head into a corner or a chair. Perhaps this sport should have a helmet?

Try to keep up…(It’s really fast!)

First he started out a step or three. Then we got to five+ with lots of stumbles and now we’re full on walking!

We really did walk a few steps here off camera. We swear!

Look at me! I’m really cruising now!