Advanced Toddlers & Preschoolers

I'm Kellie with AT'er Felix who is 2 years old. Felix has been here in the US since May when we adopted him from Ethiopia. It's hard to tell exactly how advanced he is in some respects since he is just learning English, but he's constantly impressing us.

He has some great motor skills - gets himself dressed from head to toe, can button his own buttons and tries to change his own diaper (which can be messy!). He definitely speaks more (in English) at this point than our American-born older son did at this age, and he's only been in the US for 5 months!

It's so much fun to watch him learn!

I'm Julie & my AP'er is Luciana. Luciana's been a chatterbox ever since I can remember! Literally, she just doesn't stop talking, singing, humming, etc, etc!! Her first words were mama & papa & at 9 months she said "ba-na-na". When she was about 11 months old she was saying tons of words & was saying words faster than I could teach her the sign for. We speak in Spanish & Portugues at home & took a trip to Brazil when she was around this age & she just became a talking maniac - I guess she enjoyed hearing the rest of the world speaking her language! She's always been a big singer & she's been singing since at least 18 months.

Nothing else really stands out except that she's a pretty quick learner - knew her basic colors by 16 months, & her basic shapes pretty early on too. She just won't show me she knows something until she has perfected it. She's been this way with pretty much everything. At 3 3/4 she knows all of her letter (upper & lower), their sounds, & what letters most words begin with. She speaks mainly Portuguese (and some Spanish) but has somehow managed to learn all of this in English - that's Starfall for you! And as if it wasn't enough to have to hear her chatting & whining away in Portuguese, now I have to hear her in English, too!! ;)

Lucy's also got a HUGE imagination & just loves to pretend play (has been for a long time now) with her animals (nope, no Princess-loving little girl over here). She's also been into drawing lately & is getting pretty good at it.

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HA! I know that feeling. She sounds like Felix. The boy just never stops talking. I don't even think he realizes it sometimes. We had this conversation the other day:

Felix: Mom?
Me: Yes?
Felix: Mom?
Me: Yes Felix?
Felix: Mom?
Me: YES?
Felix: Mom?
Me: Felix! What?
Felix: I don't know mom.

ARGH! :@)

 

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Wow, Kellie, I think it is quite amazing that he's adjusted so well with his new life here in the U.S., ESPECIALLY after having lived in an orphanage for most of his short life! Its truly amazing how resilient these little one's could be. I'm sure he & your daughter can also appreciate living in a loving & nurturing environment :-)

As far as the talking goes, yep it just NEVER ends! And she wants to interact with us ALL.DAY.LONG. too, from morning 'till night :p She's been into this type of thing lately, example:

One day after having licked a jawbreaker & thrown it in a public garbage can Lucy asks me to tell her what the garbage said after she  threw the jawbreaker in. Then I had to come up with a story about how te garbage reacted when she threw this jawbreaker inside of it. It can't just be a simple little story, either. I really have to be dramatic about it. And this goes the same for everything else - what did the other toys say when I took this one home? What did the pig say when I brought him home? And I not only have to tell her the story but I have to repeat it a gazillion times...and G forbid that I leave something out :o) It can be pretty darn exhausting!! lol

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