Christmas 2008

My pix from the Hanukah and Christmas 2008 season and at The Allen's in Texas

New word round-up

This may be a little premature as I'm posting on 12/30 and there's still a full day of new words to come. Dante's been making awesome progress with his language skills, following is this months list of new words and phrases. The end of the month has brought the use of adjectives like big and little and combinations of words and numbers like two yellow cups and big tiger. It's exciting and exhilarating to hear Dante progressing so well and to be able to communicate with his so much better.
12/10 9am "Kelev" (dog in Hebrew)
6pm Bird
6:15 Heart
all at my house on my Wednesday
12/13 "Up" in the elevator at Citibank to go to the train show.
12/17 Butter (in his hi chair after lesson with jessica). Nut for pistachio also after lesson. Truck (during lesson)
12/20 'Tut' Strawberry in Hebrew looking at his picture book
12/21 - Down (to get down from his hichair at Christine's) - Yay! We were working on this one for a while
"I love you" Unbelievable but true before his nap that afternoon. Christine was saying it to him a bunch of times and suddenly out it came. It wasn't very clear but it was definitely the same pronunciation and and sylables.

12/25 "Open" (to get a cookies box open).

12/27 "Eat" (this morning when we got up to go have breakfast)

12/28 "Cereal"

12/29 "two yellow cups"
12/30 "big tiger, little tiger, animals (for a group of critters), nite nite dada"

Dante Sings Old MacDonald

Here's a glimpse into Dante's personality. He and I were singing Old MacDonald together and he put his own little song & dance and threw in a variety of unlikely farm animals (tiger, cheetah, zebra and others) into the mix.

Dante graduates Soccer Tikes!

12 sessions of soccer and its fun to see what progress Dante's made in how he well he understands the coach and the different games that we do in class compared with the way he related to everything at the beginning of the class. Here he is getting his certificate and medal from coach Eddie!

About a month ago I started reading "Goodnight Moon"to Dante before bed each night. It was a new book for me as well but one that seems to be on every child's shelf. It's fun to experience Dante's favorites: favorite stuffed animal (his white tiger), favorite color (yellow), favorite foods (Edamame, apple, banana, cheese and ice cream), favorite shape (circle), favorite songs (itsy bitsy spider and Old MacDonald) and the list goes on. Well, now it's his favorite book. He's learning tons of words, colors and showing interest in numbers from reading that book just before bed and letting the vibrant pictures soak into his tender mind.

End of Fall

Once again the seasons are changing in NYC. Fall is becoming Winter and the leaves are rapidly disappearing along with the hours of daylight. Despite the cold and chill, we are enjoying every last ounce of the season with soccer in Stuyvesant Town. Dante delights in kicking the ball through the cracking leaves. Of course, the beauty of rolling, throwing, tumbling and buying one another in the leaves, is that it's an activity only enjoyed a brief moment each year. And boy, there's nothing in this world more beautiful than a New England autumn.

Sorting Block Shapes

Dante's showing a keen interest in shapes, number and sizes. I got this clock of blocks with various shapes, like a rhombus, octagon, hexagon, diamonds, etc. He can put each on in the proper slot all by himself.

new words today - Kelev (dog , walking on the street), police (during his lesson), owl and bird (at BB's),

Kelev (dog , walking on the street), police (during his lesson), owl and bird (at BB's), Orange which he's been signing for a while (during his lesson looking at an orange car)

New words today - Straw, Bunnyrabbit, Papaya

He was calling a picture of a Papaya on a shampoo bottle a mango so we told him it was a Papaya and a minute later out it came.