Saturday, August 2, 2008

The obssesion grows!!!


Kai amazes me every day. Between the many sets of magnetic plastic letters, foam stamps, foam bathtub letters, flash cards, cookie cutter sets, stencils, puzzles and so on, on any given day, we have over 500 letters floating around our house.
His obsession with the alphabet started just after his 2nd birthday. I thought it was cool and shocking that a 2 year old could spot out all of the alphabet letters wither they were upper case or lower case, but thought the obsession would surely fade and he would start to play with trains and trucks and action figures and whatever else little boys play with. But, to our surprise and amazement, it has not. Kai is now 3 and a half and his alphabet obsession has not only NOT faded but it has grown and grown and he adds new dimensions to his obsession every day.
He has played with his A,B,C's as if they were his pets. He takes a handful with him to eat meals and make sure they all "fill up their tummies". He puts them all to bed by tucking them in and singing them the ABC song(of course). They have time outs by being shoved into the couch cushions. A handful always has to come with us to run errands. He even figured out a way to take them on the trampoline with him so that they could have some fun too, but without them falling off the edge and getting hurt (because they get hurt and need band aids sometimes, too). So he but them all in a wipey box and jumped with the box.
He plays birthday party with me by shoving some of his abc's into a box and says "Mommy, I have a present for you", and then I would open the box and act so surprised every single time, as he would take out each and every one and say, "I got you a D and a baby e and a F and a Q and so on and so on, making sure each and every one got his OR her turn in the spot light (because, according to Kai, some are boys and some are girls).
He plays "action figures" with them and has P fight with X. Or just plays with them as if they were little friends and has them talk and jump and play with each other.
He loves to make alphabet soup in the play kitchen by putting a bunch of them in a bowl and feeding them to everyone.
He will sit at my desk with the keyboard and goes through the alphabet from a-z and finds them on the keyboard.
He plays puppy with me where he "fetches" the letters all throughout the house and will bring them to me in his mouth. Once I have enough I have to throw them so that he can run and get them and bring them back to me like a little puppy playing fetch.
He lays out his letters in a long row and "builds words". Then once he has built a word he will wave his hand over the long word and say what he has spelt while sounding out each letter.
During prayers he thanks his Heavenly Father for mommy and daddy and abc's.
We sing a song to our kids while tucking them in and every night. For about the past year it has been the same request from Kai. we ask, "what song do you want, Kai?" and EVERY single night he requests non other than, A,B,C song....... EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!!!!!


Kai's newest obsession is his love of the vowels. A friend of mine here who knew of Kai's "love" of the alphabet told me about a the leap frog series that helps kids prepare for reading. She said her son learned how to read the summer before he went to kindergarten largely due to these videos. So I thought they would be great to get, especially since Maya will be going to kindergarten. So I bought the whole group (now sold at Costco :) ) There is a song in one of them that talks about the vowels. It is a fun song and Maya and Kai love to sing it all the time. SO, now Kai's new dimension to his obsession with the alphabet is the vowels. He will gather a huge pile of letters and sit there and sort through them and separate the "comspiments" (as he calls them) from the vowels. While we are driving around, Kai is constantly spotting and calling out, look mom, an E, look mom a S.....Now he calls out when he spots a vowel or a "comspiment".
Here is a video that shows just a touch of how edible he is with his new found love of the vowels. He is so, so, SO Chewy.

5 comments:

Jen and Kent said...

I LOVE Kai so much!!! I am not quite sure why that blog made me teary eyed but it did. I miss you guys terribly!!!!

mycattripoli said...

hello carrie pabst! what an adorable new 'blessing'! i didn't know anything about her! so fun to check your blog out- we are in tacoma! i will have to look at the map and see where the heck tualition is...

Shauna said...

I feel like Kai is amazing! He's so smart Carrie and I love how he made a spot for the "I" at the beginning of his row. He is chewy and so so so cute. Maya Bell Fawn was having a good domestic day too. I've always loved her hair.

Thanks for the glimpse into your daily life, it was fun.

Michelle said...

Amazing! What a little smartie!! How cute!

Shonda said...

okay, now I'm totally excited to meet you! I've loved taking a peek at your blog. cute pics...cute family! Glad you landed in our ward!

See you soon.

Shonda
http://shoeboxofphotographs.wordpress.com