Two-And-a-Half Years Old: A Portrait

Noah just recently turned 2.5 years old. It has been a while since we posted a what Noah can do/dislikes/likes/is like post. In part that is because we post major milestones as they show up but also because progress seems well more progressive. You don't really notice anything for a while and then suddenly realize he is playing completely independently in the playground, or is making complex grammatically correct intelligible sentences (the other morning he told me: "je veux rester ici pour finir mon caca" "I want to stay here so I can finish my caca" - he was taking advantage of his night diaper...). Independence and language I would say are the two biggest changes over the past six months. But here goes... progress we have noted in the last six months.

Noah CAN (Physical abilities in no particular order):

• Climb ladders, nets, and kiddie climbing walls  and  go down slides (even the steep tunnel ones) on his own;
• Concentrate on a task for a long period of time (for example, he will spend quite a while focusing on his letters and reading - asking for more when I inquire if he has had enough);
• Dress and undress himself (though he often still wants help to speed the process up and is not entirely efficient when removing his T-shirt sometimes getting lost in there);
• Play independently in a playground (climb around and entertain himself);
• Go to the potty on his own (take his clothes off, pee and put them back on though he still often likes me to watch him and/or help);
• Whine copiously when he is not happy with a situation;
• Wear underwear without accidents (he has not worn diapers for the last four months during the day except for occasional poops which he will now do in the toilet with some regularity - as to pee, he prefers to pee standing up outside in the bushes or in Chinese style squat toilets but at home he will pee sitting down either in his pot or on the toilet);
• Draw a circle, a cross, a straight line and an approximation of a boat, a snowman, a sun and a cloud!
• Blow bubbles in the water, glide underwater (as long as I am there to catch him on the other side), kick kick kick, jump into the water (when asked to);
• Play independently for a little while with his trains, his cars, his cards or other games;
• Throw a convincing crying fit for a peccadillo and stop it on command (he is usually pretty rational and will stop his crying when I tell him to first listen to me and then if he thinks crying is the best solution, keep crying);
• Jump up and down, jump forwards, jump off of coffee tables and other objects;
• Stand on one foot for 7 seconds (on either the left or the right foot);
• Ride a tricycle (I just found out about this ability the other day when he grabbed one of the school tricycles and started peddling around as we were heading home);
• Ride his scooter (he has gotten pretty good with the breaks now though on the steep hill by our building, he still likes the reassurance of having me next to him); and
• Ride his 2 wheel balance bike (he can "ride" around well and steer it and has let go and balanced for a few secs at a time).

 

A climbing Noah

Noah CAN ALSO (other abilities in no particular order):

• Sing the ABC song in English, French and... Spanish (he has a singing table that has a Spanish option and, of course, that's his favorite so he listens to the Spanish alphabet a lot and seems to have learned it!);
• Recognize and identify in English and French all the big (capital) and little (lower case) letters and read simple words like Papa, Mama, Dada, dodo, bobo, Lola, Papy, Noah (see the Lots of Letters post for more on reading), and more recently, moto, pipe, gigi;
• Make friends and meet people easily (he is pretty sociable and generally is not shy - just yesterday I heard him say "hello, my name is Noah" with a big smile to a woman at the playground he had never met before - he also tends to go towards younger kids and try to help them up the stairs or help them walk or slide - it's very cute and he is soooo gentle with them as long as they are willing to be helped if not... well he is still gentle but perhaps a bit more insitant than they would like);
• Be a very cheeky little monkey (Noah, don't touch that, it's dirty, Noah touches it with one finger with a silly grin on his face);
• Identify his left hand and his right hand in French (his left arm has some freckles on it and he has learned that in case of doubt, check for freckles);
• Recognize and name 11 colors in French (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, black, white, brown and grey) and 7 colors in English (black, white, brown and grey do not seem to have made it fully in English yet);
• Play and get excited about interactive games (like memory, orchard, simple card games, dominoes, bingo and just recently tic-tac-toe);
• Name at least 15 of his friends as well as recognize and identify (from pictures) his grandparents and aunts and uncles (and a 15 year old maman);
• Say please and thank you without prompting (with some exceptions of course);
• Translate from English to French and French to English (if I ask him in French - go ask Daddy for the book - he will go to Daddy and quite naturally translate my sentence into English for Daddy - same the opposite way. Also, if he says a word we don't really understand in one language, we ask him to say it in the other and he will translate it - or if we point to a picture and ask how would maman say this word, how would daddy say it - he will do that too);
• Recite 0-20 in French (though he sometimes skips 16) and 0-12 in English; count 10 objects (though sometimes he needs help not counting the same object twice and he can go farther if I point to the objects and he says the numbers); do simple additions in the context of his fingers (ex one finger and one finger are two fingers, two fingers and two fingers are four fingers, five fingers and five fingers are ten fingers); do simple subtractions when applied to subway stops (there are four subway stops and we have done one, how many more stops are there?)
• Put his Daddy or Maman to bed with stories, kisses, rabbit and all;
• Speak in full grammatical sentences (though he regularly "chooses" to take some liberty with grammar, he still has a problem with masculine/feminine in French - he uses "mon" instead of "ma" like "mon chaise" instead of "ma chaise" - I wonder if that is because he only hears me, a woman, speaking French and assumes that for him it should be masculine - also, he has made much progress with his diction but some of his words are still garbled - in particular, he has trouble with the "f", "l" and "r" sounds);
• Get strangers to give him food (because he looks so under-nourished right??? He really has the technique down - hover, smile, comment on the food, and sometimes even ask nicely but most of the time that last step is not even necessary!); 
• Spell out his full name in English and French (N-O-A-H  G-I-L...);
• Remember promises of food, activities or toys (Noah almost never forgets a promise for a future item and will remind me when the appropriate time comes that he should get his orange or car or that I promised to play cherries with him - even the next day);
• State his address and where he lives (5... ... in front of the Tiong Bahru MRT); and
• Sing many many songs in English and French (and a few in Chinese) (he will often break into song when walking or sliding or strollering or just hanging out). 

Noah standing on one foot 

Noah DISLIKES (also in no particular order):

• Drinking his milk in the wrong glass or getting the wrong milk (soy or cow or powder);
• Not having his gouter when he wakes up from his nap;
• Not getting his way  (for example, not getting to wear the clothes, shoes he wants to wear);
• When we open the doors and press the buttons in the elevator for him;
• When his friends are away on vacation;
• When we don't pay enough attention to him;
• Not being given the phone when his grandparents or aunts and uncles call; and
• Changing his diaper (which luckily does not happen very often).

Noah disliking the fact that we took his milk away because he was

 purposely spilling it all over the place and refusing to ask for it back nicely

Noah LIKES (in no particular order): 

• Daddy coming home at night;
• Figuring out how things work, especially doors and locks but also cameras and retractable pens (he will spend long periods of time trying to figure out how an unfamiliar lock or door works and take apart a pen and try to put it back together again (usually with little success));
• Trains and planes both toy ones and real ones (he loves watching planes take-off and land on youtube and playing with his toy trains...);
• Food ( he loves garlic and chickpeas and still likes spicy food though one of his favorite dishes these days is the Singapore national dish of chicken rice and of course he still loves fruit but he has also discovered chocolate which he would never turn down) and going to restaurants with Daddy and Maman (he is generally very well behaved at restaurants happily munching away at his spicy curries or japanese ginger);
• Cooking (both watching daddy cook and actively helping);
• Snowy the snowman (a recent present from Charmie, Snowy is now one of his favorite plush toys, Snowy now sleeps with and takes gouter with Noah and watches Noah drink his milk);
• His playdates and friends (when a friend is away on vacation he repeatedly asks for him/her and is all sad when I tell him they are away for now; he also gets very excited about his various playdates and asks about them);
• Wearing his uniform to school, his home comfy clothes at home and his normal clothes outside or when friends are over (though sometimes he is a bit reluctant to change out of his home clothes for visitors); 
• Petting and snuggling against Lhasa, telling Lhasa off when she is trying to munch on the plants;
• Drawing, painting and doing crafts;
• Playing "Bip" (a card matching game), "cherries" and "new cherries" (variations on the orchard  game with a dice and fruit to pick), bisous, dodo (another card game where you try to put a little girl/boy to bed and receive kisses, hugs, tickles... along the way), memory and dominoes;
• Going to Ya Kun Kaya for some egg and kaya toast on the weekend;
• Drawing letters on the iPad;
• Peeing while standing up either outside behind bushes or in the Chinese style squat toilets (very useful for that purpose);
• Watching his stories on Sunday mornings (GG and Grandpa gave Noah these scholastic dvds in which famous kids' books are read and animated);
• Pressing the button in the elevator;
• His bike and scooter (he even accepts to wear his helmet without much of a fuss anymore);
• His camera and taking pictures of everything and nothing, reviewing old pics/videos we took of him and going through our old picture albums and finding young mommy and daddy;
• Looking up places on his world map;
• Talking on the phone (his aptitude is not quite at the level of his excitement);
• Cuddling (especially when he wakes up from his nap);
• Letters (identifying letters, playing with letters (ex letter bingo, letter puzzles) and reading combinations of letters);
• Explaining things to people (if I tell him what we will be doing this afternoon, he will turn to Charmie or his Dad and explain to them (in English) what we the plans are or he will explain what he is currently doing or about to do to us but also sometimes to bystanders);
• Numbers (identifying numbers, counting items, "there are three crayons", "there are four cars"..., counting down stops in the subway, Maman: We started with five stops and have done one stop, how many stops are left. Noah: "four", learning his 20s, 30s, 40s... instead of picking the songs he wants to sing from the song book by flipping through the pages and choosing based on the drawings he recognizes, he chooses by looking  at the table of contents and picking out the page numbers thus slowly learning the higher numbers);
• His books and reading them with us (some of his favorites these days are the Emilie books, Fonce Petit Train, Chicka Chicka 1,2,3, and How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight);
• Singing and "playing" the piano (yesterday he sat at our friends piano tapping out some notes while singing along happy birthday Mamie; his favorite songs to sing are, according to him, Bumblebee, London Bridge is falling down, Row Row Row Your Boat, Wheels on the Bus and Fait Dodo, Pirouette Cacahouette, Un Crocrodile, Promenons-nous dans les Bois);
• Listening to audio books while flipping though the pages of the book; and
• Jumping (on the floor, off of the coffee table or bed...).

Noah's January craft window for Chinese New Year (he colored 

the dragons and put the ribbons on and made the good luck oranges 

(with some help)

   

Overall, Noah is a lot of fun (especially when he is not whining or playing cheeky monkey!). He has his crazy active moments but is usually very poised and concentrated on whatever he is doing. He is cuddly and loving but also increasingly independent. He is curious about the world and interested in learning (curiously, though he keenly observes the world and tests it, he rarely asks why or what questions - perhaps because we jump the gun and explain away a lot). He is rapidly becoming a wonderful little chatterbox. He is often cautious at first (more so than some of his peers) but once he gains confidence he is intrepid (often more so than the same peers). He is gentle and (mostly) generous (even when it comes to sharing his favorite foods). He loves people and being around people. He is almost always on his best behavior when around others and seems to show real empathy when other children are hurt or sad. He is (in my very unbiased opinion!) an endearing little boy who is joyful and excited about life, his friends and his activities.

A joyous Noah