Shapes, Shapes Everywhere!

I am delighted to report that Christian is now saying "shape," with the emphasis on "p" at the end!

Christian's Granny and Grandpa got him this nifty clock for Christmas and he just loves taking the shapes out and putting them in again. And he's learned three new shapes: pentagon, hexagon and octagon. He loves to say them - with each syllable very specifically pronounced. He carries around the three "gons" everywhere (hmmm ... where is hex (6) and octo (8)).

Christian is figure out the prefixes, too. He tells us, "Pen-ta-gon, five sides!!"

There is an old abandoned racetrack along I-10 and along the roofline there are some decorative features that I hadn't really notice before. As we drove by the other day, Christian happily proclaimed, "Triangle!!" I looked, not to sure what he was seeing ... and then it occured to me, he was looking at the abandoned building we've seen dozens of times in passing. Sure enough, the decorative features are triangles.

Today we took a walk and he saw the back side of a stop sign and yelled out, "Oc-to-gon!" I praised him for recognizing the shape, and I looked around to see what other shapes I could point out to him.

On the sidewalk below, the lines formed part of a triangle, and I pointed the triangle out to him ... and he was excited, "Triangle!"

Then, on his own, he looked at the next section of sidewalk and said, "Square!!"

"Yes, honey, that is a square!!"

Christian kept looking as if on a treasure hunt ... and saw a section of sidewalk that was curved inward to form a 1/2 circle and he said, "Circle!!!"

Well, I've got to tell you that by this time, I was just floored! My two year old was finding shapes everywhere he looked. And how many two year olds do you know who can recognize "pentagon," "hexagon" and "octogon" ??

Then we came across another sign and I pointed out that it was a rectangle. He giggled, walked up to it, checked it out and said, "Rectangle!!!"

What a joy to watch this precious little boy discover new things ... and to see shapes everywhere and get as excited as he does when he sees them.

He's been doing that with words, letters and numbers, too. But that is another blog post ...

Soon!

Wordless Wednesday - January 29, 2010

Christian's First Trip to the Dentist

Today we took Christian to his first visit to the dentist. Some books say a child should see a dentist when their teeth start coming in ... other books say by the time they are one. Our pediatrician recommended we hold off until Christian turns three, because Christian gets really upset when he's handled by somebody "medical."

We chose a pediatric dentist who is nearby and runs nice ads in the local paper. Just look at this adorable waiting room. It is decorated in jungle island theme with a huge tree inside that holds colorful monkeys, butterflies, birds, etc. It also has a little arcade, which really impressed Jonathan ("I was legendary at Galactica!") and also a little coffee bar (which really impressed Jonathan, too).

Alas, it was a difficult exam - Christian was very, very upset as the hygienist cleaned his teeth. The hygienist handled it well and had the patience of Job. The exam seemed to last forever, but he made it through and was in a good mood by the time we left.

The main reason we took Christian to the dentist is because there just isn't enough room in his mouth for all of his teeth and I was becoming increasingly concerned about the situation (if you know me, then you know I have an obsession with teeth).

The X-rays revealed Christina has TWO extra teeth. He should have just 20, and he has 22. The obvious solution is to remove two teeth - but why torture a two year old with that procedure?

I asked the dentist if maybe Christian's mouth would grow big enough to accommodate the teeth - and the answer was no. In the X-ray, the future adult teeth are visible and we briefly discussed that Christian will likely one day need orthodontics.

The current concern is that because his mouth is so crowded, it will be tricky to clean his teeth well. The good thing is that we don't typically give Christian sweets, and he doesn't drink juice - just milk and water. But, we were told to be careful with raisins and dried fruit, as they are sticky and tend to stay in between the teeth where it's hard for us to reach.

So we'll take him to the dentist every six months for a cleaning and have the situation with his extra teeth re-evaluated.