Assessment 2017--Baymax

It's easiest to start with the youngest.

So . . . Baymax.

Baymax is just shy of 2 1/2.  He's a lot like my other birth children--off the charts on social-emotional-cognitive skill development and on the slower end of physical skill development.

He speaks in 2-4 word sentences, and his diction is quite clear for his age.

He carries on conversations.  Pixie reported this week that she and he talked together for about 10 minutes about the family.  She asked him who was in our family, and he answered, "Yots of peoples!"  Then he went on to describe how we live in a big house and how Daddy goes to work and comes home and how we all have mouths and so forth and so on.  He can name all 14 of us and whether we are boys or girls.  He thinks it is hilarious if we try to call someone by the wrong gender.

He can hold a pencil and scissors correctly, and he can cause serious damage with both because he knows how to use them.

He cannot dress himself, but he does put on random shoes he finds around the house, and he pretends to be the person to whom the shoes actually belong.

He loves to help.  He has a strong sense of needing to contribute in valuable ways to the household.

Daddy is the center of his universe.  If Daddy does it, then Baymax needs to do it, too.  On Sundays, he is happiest when he and Daddy are both wearing pants with zippers and shirts with buttons and ties.

He believes that if someone goes somewhere, he should go, too.  His saddest moments are when he must be left behind.  And going somewhere is tons cooler in "Daddy's yittle car" than going to the same place in "Mommy's big van."

Potty training just recently became an idea to think about because Pixie convinced him how awesome it is to sit on the toilet before bath time.  That's the only time he goes, but he is now very aware of when he is going in his diaper, and he's begun to narrate his toileting actions. :)  Potty humor is high on his list of funny stuff.  He's probably still some months away from real potty training, but I find this preliminary stage quite entertaining.

Books figure largely in his world, and he's begun to bring a story to bed each day.  He participates actively in the reading--asking questions, exclaiming or groaning at tense parts (i.e.  when the monkeys take the peddler's caps), and predicting what will happen next.  He prefers "yots of books" over "yittle bit of books."

He jumps and climbs, kicks and throws balls, builds and imagines.

Bugs are cool.

So are snails.

He is still a long way from needing formal school, but he's getting very close to demanding to be a part of school.  The upcoming school year may include lots of writing/drawing/creating efforts on his part simply because he wants to be big, too.

He is fabulously good at being 2 1/2.