Joachim entry

Joachim is a chatterbox at home, but mute in public. We had his hearing tested back when he was two and not talking at all, but his hearing and comprehension were great, in fact the technician said he was her first child in his age group that had the attention span to complete the assessment. She said she was able to collect a lot of information from him for their study. I think he just gets shy when he's on the spot.

We're part of a great free preschool home school program and every month we check out a different themed Tupperware full of motor skill, thinking skill and reading skill activities designed for play. There's also a craft and a sheet of activity suggestions for me. For example we got a stencil and first he colors it in, next time he traces is and cuts it out to make a puzzle and lastly he does a crayon rubbing of it.

Our first box had lincoln logs, puzzles, horseshoe game, he made a tipi and so on. Yesterday we exchanged boxes and the teacher asked if he wanted the camping or the dinosaur box. I know from other moms that the camping box contains the fixings for s'mores so it took some self control not to answer for him. He looked down and mouthed dinosaur. As we were leaving someone else asked him his name and he held up three fingers. It was all good for my humility.

Last week Mhari and her mom stopped for lunch on their way from Seattle to Taos. It was such a wonderful surprise for me and even more delightful was how much Joachim loved Jane. He talked to her from when she walked in the door to the moment they left. Later that day Joachim told me he was shy of Mhari (who he's met several times) but that Mhari's mom was his friend and he'd like her to come over again. I don't know if it was her warm British accent or her bright smile, but I don't think she realizes her place of honor in Joachim's world.

Last night Joachim said "Hey" to my mom and she responded, "Hay is for horses" and without stopping to think he said, "Yes, but we are using it to mean, 'hi'". He is very articulate.

The other night Ben was sleeping on the couch to get away from baby and me and in the middle of the night Joachim came in to snuggle because he thought it was morning. Since Ben was in the living room I let Joachim stay. After holding him a little while I rolled away and he said, "No Daddy, hold me longer" I didn't even get credit for sleeping with him! A few minutes later he was laughing in his sleep. He laughed hard in a building laughter and I thought it would sure be nice to have his dreams.

He's had only one bad dream that I know of, it consisted of a bat in the laundry room. Apparently I got out a chainsaw and cut it up and cooked it in the oven. Who knows?

So Joachim's interest in Dinosaurs is probably from our visit to the Dino museum last week. It left a bigger impression on him than I thought. Although, who could forget a giant robotic dinosaur eating the head off of another dino complete with entrails (see video in next post). Needless to say, a lot of our pretend play with the large plastic dinosaurs from the box has included eating each other.