He's advanced for his age

Eyes back to normal, it's time to brag about Jonathan's latest doings.

We got him some lovely wooden puzzles a while ago. I hauled out the one graded "3 and up" because it was a transportation theme. Jonathan's puzzles to date have not had interlocking pieces. Instead, you press the shapes into their precut nests on the base board. But this was a true puzzle with twelve pieces. At first, Jonathan tried to smush random pieces together. He'd quickly get frustrated when the train or the optator would not appear, and ask for "help? Help?" He spent about a week watching me put it together again and again and again. Eventually, he started reaching for pieces. I'd explain basic puzzle strategy to him: "See, there's a bit of the schoolbus. And this piece has another bit of schoolbus. So we LIFT and then we LOCK."

Now, two weeks later, he can whip that whole thing together in a minute flat. He holds up a piece, tests it, says "No. . . no. . . yes!" After he's done, he looks at the completed vignette for all of two seconds, then overturns it, breaks up the pieces and starts again. When he's truly done for the day, he'll say "Cookie!" and shove the pieces in his mouth like Cookie Monster, complete with "Arrrum rumrum."

Jonathan's developed a more discerning palate as well. I don't stress too much about the foods he rejects or accepts. He gets to eat what's on his plate, and if he doesn't like it, well, there's always the next meal. All I ask is that he not throw the offending items on the floor. Jonathan showed remarkable ability to remove every last offending shred of arugula from his pizza the other night. He'd tease out the green leaf from the cheese, announce "Don't like it!" and put it in the designated dumping zone of his high chair tray. The sauce, cheese, and crust, on the other hand, were pronounced "Delicious." It's my new favorite word of his.

When things are delicious, they disappear pretty fast. We took Jonathan to the playground yesterday, while it's still so warm out. He swang on the swings and then headed over to the big kid's climbing gym, where he scaled a curved ladder and came down the big slides. Afterwards, we went to Ragazzi's for dinner. They brought out a kid's pizza about twelve inches around. Jonathan ate the entire thing and then scarfed a good third of Chris's linguine - he just loved the clam sauce. I took him for a little walk around the restaurant while Chris paid the bill. The hostess filled a balloon with helium and bent down to tie it on his wrist. Fascinated by her cleavage, he asked "What's dat?" and stuck his hand down her shirt.

We need to find a new Italian restaurant.