I like it

Thought I would list a few of Tani's current phrases here. The top one is "I like it!" which he says for foods and activities he enjoys. He says this one the most. Today he said "no touch ears" when Mommy Malka was trying to examine a slight rash behind his ear. He can repeat many words right after he hears them and understands quite a bit.

Fun at April Hill Way

Tani and Mommy Neysa spent the day at Georgia, Marc, Emma and Colette's today. We both had a lot of fun. When we arrived, Emma was practicing piano and Tani went over to investigate. Tani pressed the high keys and then walked around the piano bench to press the low keys. He did this several times and Emma was very patient with him, pausing her practicing to let him scramble on to the bench to play some more. After a little while we all went down to the basement. Emma and Colette have a play kitchen identical to his - he thought this was great! He rode a rocking horse and examined a Barbie suitcase - mostly interested in pulling the handle up and down. But his favorite item was a "High School Musical" mat that played music when one stepped in the left corner of the mat. Lights signaled where to step on the mat to match the choreography of the dance that went with the music. But Tani just liked the music and did his own dance. We had to bring the mat upstairs to get him to go up for lunch. After lunch we all went outside. Colette had a device that would shoot a plastic ring about 25 ft or so in front of her. Tani liked this and would go retrieve the ring for her (well most of the time). He then became interested in Emma and Colette's scooters. Emma helped him ride hers up and down the driveway but he wanted more. So Mommy Neysa helped him stay balanced up and down the driveway again. But he still wanted more so Georgia guided him up and down the driveway several times riding the scooter with him - Tani would shout out "more go go!" Mommy Neysa had to run to keep up with them and Tani would exclaim "Mommy running!". Boy did he have fun! Then Georgia and Colette went to yoga and Marc came home from canvasing for Obama. Marc helped Tani play Emma's violin - move the bow across the strings and pluck a tune. Tani was very interested and enjoyed this activity. Tani and Mommy Neysa also romped around in their back yard. Tani chased the cat, played on the swing set, and tried to go into the stream behind their house. By the time we left Tani could say their names: Emma, 'Lette, George, and Marc". Overall a fun day but next time Mommy Neysa needs to take Tani home earlier for a nap.

Soap

Tani loves soap so I thought I'd write a little about this subject. Tonight during his bath Mommy Malka let him hold the bottle of Johnson's baby wash. He was so happy exclaiming "Tani's soap" and "Tani's bottle of soap!". He likes to open and close it and to try to pour some on his hand. He often ends up pouring out quite a bit so it can be frustrating to let him play with it. Washing hands has been a favorite activity for a few months now. He likes to climb on the step stool in the bathroom to reach the sink and hand pump soap dispenser. He can't reach the handle to turn on the water so I do it and he runs his hands one at a time under the water - but he mainly wants to hold the soap and push the pump on the soap container. I usually let him get two squirts of soap out before moving the soap out of reach. He usually exclaims "more soap" but he moves on. I love helping him wash his hands at daycare as he can reach the sink by himself. It's a bit hard though as they have removed the faucet handles because the toddlers would try to turn on the water throughout the day. There is an automatic soap dispenser so he can put his hand under and the foam lands in his palm.

Cars, trucks

Melissa's congregation co-sponsored a showing of the powerful and moving film "Praying with Lior" at the Allentown JCC. She arranged for baby-sitting so I was able to attend the film and listen to part of the discussion with a local family with a special needs child and one of the producers. But then 6 pm arrived and babysitting was over before the program completed, so I took Tani a few blocks down to a pizza place. OK, it took a while to get to the car. Tani first got a drink of water from the fountain, then he wanted a couple of stickers from the friendly lady at the front desk, and then he zipped and unzipped the jacket of a nice man who was picking up his friends at the front entrance. Then we were off for pizza. We got two slices and sat down at tables in the take out area to eat them. The tables are next to a bar and several televisions are on - at this time the Steelers and Giants were playing. Tani seemed mildly interested in the football game while eating his pizza, but when a Toyota commercial came on with cars zooming around his face lit up. When the commercial was over and it switched to a yellow pages ad he shouted "more cars!".

A couple of days ago the garbage truck came to pick up the trash in our apartment complex when Tani and I were in the parking lot. It's one of these big trucks that can lift a dumpster up and flip the contents over into it's large truck bed, replace the dumpster, and move on to the next one without the driver having to get out of the truck. Tani watched with fascination. He waved "hi" to the truck driver with awe and enthusiasm. When the truck left our area, he grabbed my hand and ran after the truck which was heading to the dumpster across the street. There he watched the truck empty two more dumpsters of trash. I think he would followed that truck around the entire complex.

One more story that Melissa told me. She and her friend Heather who was visiting from Wellfleet took Tani to Trexler Park which is a couple of miles from our house. Tani loves dogs but dogs aren't allowed in our apartment complex. Lots of people walk their dogs at Trexler Park so it's a good place for Tani to interact with dogs. Since the summer he has shown great interest in walking other people's dogs and does so whenever he has the chance. Apparently he met a very nice doggie at the park, but there was also a little boy who had a fabulous truck and he allowed Tani to play with it. Tani had to give the truck back and was so upset that he didn't even want to walk this great doggie, which he normally would have loved to do.

The picture attached to this post was taken about a month ago at Trexler park. There's a little stream near the path and Tani wanted to go down to it. And then he walked in and Mommy Malka went with him. They both had a good time!

It's been a while

We haven't posted an entry in a long time. Tani has grown so much. He started walking at 15.5 months and has been saying words. His first word was "Mommy" and then came "hi", "no", and "cookie". Soon after came "yes" (or "yeah"), "car" and "ball". Now he can often repeat a word such as "door", "duck", "key". He also now knows the ASL signs for milk, more, hungry, car, and done. He loves cars - he likes to play with toy cars and explore real ones, including sitting in the drivers seat, playing with the steering wheel and other buttons, and trying to put the key in the ignition (he's getting close). We can now sometimes have little conversations with him and he understands although he often gets frustrated that he can't communicate what he wants. But he often can and is a very happy guy. He says "hi" and "bye bye" to people now - he can really make them smile. This photo is of Tani at 15 mos.

Weekend in DC

This past week Tani had a number of milestones. He starting crawling forward on his hands and knees - a few weeks before he was getting around on his belly. Also Tani's 4th tooth came through! He was having difficult nights during the week - we think from the teething pain. On Thursday night we drove down to DC to see Grandma Susan and Grandpa Morris. Tani slept on the drive down and was suprised and delighted to see Grandma Susan when he woke up. Grandpa Morris made a wonderful Shabbat dinner the next night and Tani enjoyed chicken and sweet potatoes. On Saturday Tani picked up Cheerios and was able to feed himself. Eating is an even more enjoyable activity now and Cheerios have risen to the top of his favorite food list - Tani can feed himself peas too but they're a little harder to manage and he sometimes needs help from his mommies if he wants the majority of them to end up in his mouth. We took walks with Tani to the Washington Mall. The solar decathalon was taking place - very inspiring to see college students designing and building homes that run just on solar power. We had a wonderful visit and were sad to leave Sunday morning.

Sleep

We've been working on helping Tani to sleep better over the past 6 weeks, starting in earnest on August 24, with the help of Dr. Weisbluth's book and the support of our pediatrician. Tani had been waking up every 1-2 hours all night and Mommy Melissa was exhausted and it was only three weeks before High Holidays. In fact, she was waking up every hour or two even if Tani hadn't woken up. We had read multiple books and talked to family, friends, and colleauges about the best ways to help babies sleep through the night. We thought we'd never let him cry but realized that might be the best solution for all (ok, sometimes the generation that came before us is right!). Mommy Melissa made him special pajamas with the Hebrew names of the angels on them to protect him. We put him to bed ~7 pm after a bath, book, and songs - he had previously been going to bed at 9 pm. Mommy Neysa thought he'd cry all night if we didn't go to soothe him. Tani's mommies prayed for him to sleep and for God to be with him. He did cry for 45 minutes but then fell asleep and slept for four hours (that's what we remember anyway). Mommy Melissa did nurse him then and when he was finished put him back to sleep and he fell asleep quickly. We can't remember if he slept until 6 am or woke at 4 am, but whatever it was this was a great improvement - he slept much better and was happier during the day and Mommy Melissa was able to get better sleep herself. We are also more conscious of helping Tani get his morning and afternoon naps. When we wakes from his naps he is ready to explore the world. When he's tired he gets frustrated easily. Melissa wrote her Rosh Hashanah sermon about overcoming fear and experiencing awe, inspired by our experiences helping Tani to fall asleep.