LuCaspeRobin + Thomas ;-)

Picture of Casper, with the blueest eyes I've ever

Stories on Casper

Evolution in progress

16 March 2004

Our kids are, as the title of this little piece of litterature suggests, small "evolutions in progress". It is wonderful to see how nature goes about to develop our "little people" according to strict rules of progress and development. And then to witness that nature not always lets children develop at the same pace and reaching the same milestones at the same place in time. Those small differences are what makes nature so wonderful, so exciting, so grand - I'm completely in awe.

Casper is also continueing developing a lot of good and some not so good skills. One of the not so good skills is the fact that he's getting better and better at pretending to listen to what you say, and then when you're done saying your piece he just continues doing what you just told him not to do. He will look at you and say "yes, yes" as if he's understood, and then just go on regardless! Sometimes with a very big smile on his face, sometimes just looking at you and repeating what you just have said.

 

One thing that is easy to spot with Casper is when he's doing something that's not really allowed. How? He'll be very quiet in doing it. Usually Casper is very present when he's playing or doing something, but at times he can be so quiet, you'd hardly think he was there! And when you as a parent try to find out what he's doing, see what's up and then address him about it, he'll jump 7 feet in the air, turn around and look at you with a face of an angel: "What? What did I do? Am I doing something wrong then?" And then he'll repeat what you've said about not doing what he just did! All in all you could say that he's slowly growing an attitude.

Furthermore he's increasingly good at knowing and saying what is wrong and what is right, mostly concerning what others are doing! And he's quickly figured out what is big and what is small, what is much and what is little. Usually when presented with two almost similar sized objects, be it a toy or something to drink or eat, he will pick the larger of the objects. In biology this is what you call "Survival of the Fittest"!

But no bad without the good of course! Casper is very good at sharing and making sure that everyone gets his or her share. Be it food, drinks or toys. And cuddling with Robin is still his favourite pasttime. The other day he came home from the kindergarden and the first thing he said was:

"Hey, look, there's Robin! Hi Robin, how are you? Mummy, I wanna cuddle with Robin. But he's in his chair. Can you take Robin down? Put him on the ground!"

This is of course very well spoken for a kid aged two, but it came out very close to this! Speaking is also one of Caspers favourite pasttimes. He can speak like "Vøringefossen" - a mass of words and sentences about everything and nothing. It goes on forever, in two languages. Mostly in Dutch of course, but there pops out a Norwegian word or two every now and then. He understands most of what I say when I speak to him in Norwegian, sometimes he replies in the same language, or repeats some of the words I've used. It's still difficult to be strict about sticking to one language for myself, Dutch is closer to my daily tongue than Norwegian. But making a little effort before speaking and trying to be consequent when talking to Casper should be worth the work I put into it. Needless to say Marjolijn does her part as well, singing Norwegian songs with Casper as often as possible. We have CD's of Torbjørn Egner ("Hakkebakkeskogen", "Kardemomme By", etc.), Di Derre, Knutsen og Ludvigsen, Barnas Viser and many more, so there's enough to choose from. When the time comes to learn how to read and write, we'll try to learn both kids how to read and write Norwegian as well. It is a long shot, but worth trying!

Posted by Sebastiaan Naafs - van Dijk | top

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    ... on 28 March 2024 @ 14:55