Sam's space

From: Jodi Keall
Sent: Sunday, 28 June 2009 8:54 PM

Jasmine is, to quote Sam, a delightful little thing.

It is amazing to see her grow and learn new things every day. It feels like she can say something new each day and has now started to copy words that we say. Some new additions to her vocab are: more (one of her favourite words, especially when it comes to baby cinos!), up, down, nana (banana), door, knock knock, dark, duck, bath, towel, bed. Jasmine has also learnt to vary her voice tone for questions, ie. da da? As opposed to da da!!

At day care the carers tell us that Jasmine is very quiet yet attentive and listens well and points and interacts. To quote “she is the most intelligent of the children”!! They didn’t need to tell me that! Another thing they say is that the babies (toys) are very well looked after when Jasmine is at day care – she puts them in the highchairs to feed, she dresses them, puts them to bed, and carries them everywhere. Actually, when I arrived to pick Jasmine up this week she was helping a carer rock the bouncer of a real baby that needed to get to sleep.

Jasmine has a new toy kitchen and has spent this weekend cooking lots of things in the oven and making drinks for us. Sam has spent a lot of the weekend sitting with her as she pats the ground and says “down” which means she is commanding him to play kitchens with her!

Jasmine continues her love of books. Kathy, her nanny, has a constant supply of Manly library books on loan for her. I feel like we must have half of the library’s childrens book section at our house! Her favourite book at the moment is The tiger who came to tea (thanks to Vicki and Mark). She can’t say tiger but that doesn’t matter as she can mimick the sound of a tiger instead ... although since Jasmine has not yet mastered the “r” sounds, it is “wwaa”.

Photos attached are: Jasmine enjoying her Tiger book, with her tiger; loving her cousin Evie; a surprise visit from Uncle Will.

Jasmine is developing into a toddler, complete with tanties, which come on as suddenly as they go! She is starting to say some words ... she very clearly says mama and dada (her favourite words) with other words in her vocabulary as yeah, no, two, buh (for button) , bath, bed, soooz (shoes), towel, bye, zip, ta, pa.

Jasmine is fixated with things that she can open and close, click together, pull apart and put together, zip up and down, screw and unscrew. The house has a myriad of these things for Jasmine to explore! The bathroom seems to be a particular favourite ... open the cupboards, get into all my makeup and bottles, open them all and apply them to herself or teddy (she thankfully has passed the put-everything-straight-in-the-mouth phase!). Sometimes she even helps me getting ready by rubbing moisturiser into my legs while I do my makeup!

Jasmine’s bedtime routine includes a cup of warm milk while watching In the Night Garden (think Telly Tubbies). Rather than just staring at a bunch of life-size puppet-like characters doing strange things, Jasmine now understands the humour behind their actions and has laugh-out-loud periods which is hilarious to watch! She also points out certain things to the characters when the character misses something ... you can’t get anything past our Jasmine!

Jasmine is a very tidy toddler. She remembers where everything belongs and makes sure that it all goes back in its right place. Well, most of the time ... I did find a mascara in my clothes draw this week and Sam did find his keys in the wardrobe (which was a pretty good to put himself in Jasmine’s shoes to try and think where she may have hidden them!).

The photos attached are ... bathtime, with Grandma, with Uncle Will.   

Already 17 months old now Jasmine is a walking, not-quite-talking, determined little miss!

Jasmine’s main words are yeah, no, mama and dada. Our conversations with Jasmine revolve around asking her questions that require a yes or no answer which works quite effectively. Jasmine knows exactly what she wants and is not shy in letting you know it! Jasmine also likes waking up in the morning and calling our names ... I am not sure she realises how much of a guilt trip that is when you think about pretending not to hear her just to catch an extra few minutes in bed! And at 6am all the extra minutes count!

Jasmine has made good friends with Jessica and Alissa who live next door. They are 6 and 3 respectively. Jasmine loves the attention they give her and often looks for them out the back (through the hole in the fence) or going out the front and pointing at their front door.

Some of the latest things that Jasmine likes to do are:

·         Push her toy pram (with teddy in it) everywhere and anywhere. Nadia the nanny indulged Jasmine and let her push it around Manly corso and surrounds. Now of course Jasmine expects that from us! If only we had three hours to spend walking from one end of the corso to the other!

·         Another pram thing ... it is useful for learning about gravity ... Jasmine lets go of it at the top of the hill to see what happens!

·         Thanks to “dada”, Jasmine likes to ride her tricycle down the side of the house which is a gentle slope but no so gentle that Jasmine cannot gather a fair amount of speed (quite dangerous if you have not learnt the concept of brakes yet!).  

·         Tell us what noises different animals make ... dog, cat, fish, tiger, crocodile, bird, bee ....

·         Playing hide and seek ... “boo” is another word in her limited vocabulary!

·         Blowing bubbles in the bath – not letting the occasional inhaling of water stop her!

·         We would not go so far as to say that Jasmine likes to “draw” but she certainly likes to play with crayons and paper (and occasionally taste test a crayon or two!)

Photos attached are: Jasmine enjoying a warm outdoor shower, learning to ride, the pram is never far away!

... is “no”!

Jasmine is babbling a lot but not making too much sense until she says “no”! The first time she said it I almost did a double-take as it was such a surreal thing to hear. Imagine spending the last 15 months talking to and asking questions of this little person whom you have become accustomed to not receiving a response and then one day when you say “Jasmine, do you want to go for a bath”, she turns around and says “no”. It’s so much fun to hear her speak that we end up asking lots more questions in the hope she answers “no” again!  I am sure that will wear off!

Jasmine had a sleep over at nanny and pa’s on the weekend . She is very happy to sleep in a different bed, as long as she has teddy, puppy and Roger (the dog) with her! It is a win-win as we are happy to have a sleep-in the next day!

Jasmine continues to imitate us ... she likes to wear our shoes and does a good job of not falling over whilst shuffling along in them (see photo attached). Jasmine helps us get ready for work in the mornings by finding the moisturiser (or any bottle) and pretending to rub moisturiser into our legs. She also likes to feed teddy and offer teddy a cup of water, just as we do for Jasmine.

This week’s snaps are ... Jasmine in my Birkenstocks, Jasmine listening intently to Godfrey reading a story, Jasmine and mummy.

Jodi