Dear Gabriel,
You are talking up a storm these days. It seems like you never stop. You point out things you see while we're driving in the car, you summarize things that you just did, and you tell us what you want us to do. You ask for help, but we're still working on getting you to verbalize what you want help with. You will tell me you want to go to the kitchen, but you won't tell me what you want from the kitchen.
We're also working on verbalizing your feelings when you get really upset. You are so quick to total frustration. I think your feelings overwhelm you and the part that could tell us what is wrong shuts down. We've had trouble working on this because you can flip the switch back to happy in a heartbeat, too. There isn't much time to help you work through the frustration and figure out how to express what is going on. But we'll keep working on it.
Lately you've been building lots of block towers and castles and playing with the train set. Sometimes you pull out the boxes of blocks and then make us wait because they're not ready yet. Then you path your hand and look around a bit before you suddenly declare that they are ready. I don't know if you're mimicking behavior of someone else or if you have just found another way to gain control. You love to have control. You also love to do puzzles. You are rocking the 9-piece puzzles and like to do larger puzzles together. At Christmas, you got a small xylophone for bathtub play and you love to bang on that thing while I sing Jingle Bells.
You've started singing along with many of the songs I sing to you. It's funny to hear how you process the song and sing the "words." Your favorites seem to be the ABCs and Bah Bah Black Sheep. At bedtime, you ask me to sing these two songs in different voices. Sometimes you want me to stick my tongue out while I sing so that all the sounds are funny. Sometimes you want me to do each syllable in a staccato fashion. One time you wanted me to kind of croak(?) the words out, and other times you tell me we have to whisper.
I see your imagination starting to develop. You have conversations with monkey and sometimes monkey and sheep have conversations. Lately you'll say hi to something (monkey, sheep, mommy, my shoulder) and then say "How are you today?" It's pretty adorable.
You are still as independent and strong-willed as you have ever been, but you are sweet and happy and pretty easy to work with. You really are a lot of fun at this age. It's amazing to watch as you continue to develop your personality.
Love,
Mama
