Mr. Chatty
We like watching Braden play by himself, as he’ll often talk, sing or attempt to read. Regarding the last point, he loves spelling the letters of words he sees, whether they’re on signs, the TV, books … you name it. Usually he says “Braden” at the end of spelling a word, after we previously taught him what his name looked like.
Braden has just about learned the alphabet song. It’s so cute when he sings along to his alphabet game device (or without it). Even if he messes up the “now I know my ABCs …” portion, he’ll always end the song correctly on “me” (and hitting the right note).
In terms of speaking, Braden is getting much better at communicating in either two- or three-word sentences as he learns the meaning of more and more words. For example, he says “are you?” quite often when he’s looking for something or someone, as in “daddy are you?” or “blanket are you?”
He’s also very quick to repeat words he hears, so we have to be careful with our langauge. He usually repeats the last two words of a sentence he hears, then puts them into a question form. We may say something like, “Braden, it’s time to eat dinner.” He’ll reply, “eat dinner?”
As Braden’s vocabulary continues to grow, it’s funny what he calls certain things. For example, Brian was trying to explain what syrup was, but eventually he told Braden it was “waffle juice,” and now that’s what Braden calls it.
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Braden can count to 10 in both English and Mandarin. Sometimes he switches back and forth if he forgets a number.
In terms of understanding both languages, he’s definitely getting more fluent. He also know his Chinese name is Jie (though he’s affectionately called Jie Jie by Brian’s family).
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Braden likes to do things himself. For instance, he may want to go down the stairs without our assistance. Often he’ll either shoo us away and/or say “Braden do it.”
That independence extends to the morning, when Braden prefers to pick out his clothes and take off his own pajamas. Too bad he’s not potty trained yet, or we’d be set!
When he’s in our downstairs area, he likes to pretend he’s exercising. He’ll pick up the medicine ball, or he’ll lift the shake weight up and down.
His fine-motor skills also have improved. He can do things like turn on Brian’s iPod Touch, swipe it to unlock it, then run the Video app to watch “Wiggles.” He can also use his wrench and screwdriver from his toy workshop.