New Skills

[dbg pd to 16.11]

Sophia and Jacob have been consistently gaining new skills. Although some of these abilities may not appropriately be called "skills" (e.g. sophia's new ability to scream in an octave and at a volume level seemingly impossible without a dial that goes to 11), some of these are genuinely amazing. And of course, the are amazing in the sense of "if my child didn't eventually obtain these skills, we would be very worried and take them to a doctor" but still, you must admit, our children are brilliant and talented beyond any expectation.

A quick note: these talents have been accumulating over the course of a few weeks, and some some of them may be out of order.

First, we begin with Sophia, who has slowly and deliberately learned to write her name. Yes, that's right, she's merely three years old and she can write her name. Of course, it takes a bit of looking to verify that is in fact her name and not just another set of random squiggles, but the video shows a clear intentionality. The thing that makes us giggle the most is that when she finishes a letter and isn't quite sure how to stop, she will sometimes continue whatever action or gesture was last made. So an "h", which ends with a little up-side-down curve, turns into "hnnnn" (wish I had a photographic example here) - she just keeps going around and around.

Here is some photographic evidence. You can watch her create these in the video after.

Here, the "s" is light, the "P" is backwards, and the "a" is pretty squiggly, but it is a start.

Here, it looks like it is written backwards, but that last "s"-like thing is actually a leftover from an earlier attempt. See the video here:

Her people are getting more complex too, with full bodies and faces with all the features (including cheeks)

Here she signed a card. She has taken to signing her own name on birthday cards to her friends, which is, I think, very very cool.

Jacob has some new skills that are coming along quite well. The first is that he is able to throw things in a basic way. It's one of those things, where creatures develop different ways of doing things as the solutions present themselves. Convergent Evolution, I think it is called. In any case, some of us would throw by picking up an object and moving our hand and letting go. Sophia does this. The object ends up in an unpredictable location (often near or on the dog) and so we have the rule that only small soft things can be thrown. This of course is a great opportunity for a lesson in the intersection of sets - some things are soft but not small, and some things are small but not soft.

But back to Jacob and throwing. Jacob has managed to combine a "shaking" action with grasping an object to create a kind of throwing action. Not sure how he originally came up with it, but it is quite funny to watch:

You'll notice, first, his hair - we are still experimenting with different ways to make it not look like he has a palm tree on the top of his head. I mean we're talking cowlick city here. but you'll also notice that each throw takes a considerable preparation - he must first taste the object, then grasp it in both hands, then sort of shake it back and forth (while hyperventilating) until it eventually is released and flies gracefully for about a foot. Amazing stuff.

We have more skills on the way, but I will post them another time.