Jasmine van Zoest

(Jasmine reading a Finding Nemo storybook.)

Jasmine woke up one morning and told Papa she needed to "pee." So Papa took Jasmine to the bathroom where she took off her diaper and sat on her potty. At first, there wasn't anything there. So she looked at Papa wondering, now what? So Papa said, you can pee now and Papa is right here with you. With Papa encouraging words, Jasmine sat on her potty a little while longer. Then she got up, and there was pee in her little potty. She was so proud of herself (as we are too).

We have always known that Jasmine knew when she needed to do both. Although she doesn't always manage to successfully go to her potty or ask for it. She still prefers the comfort of her diaper. So if she doesn't have a diaper on, she'll put one on herself before she actually needs it.

Jasmine is behaving much more mature these days. She truly is an individual. At 19 months, Jasmine can put a couple jigsaw puzzle pieces together. She has much better hand and eye coordination. She has also learned to draw farm animals, and other objects. Although the most accurate of her drawings is a circle and a loop.

There are so many things she is doing nowadays. It is difficult keep an accurate record of her development. For instance, I no longer know the actual word count of her vocabulary as it seems very extensive. She seems to exceed the expectation of knowing 50 words at her age. She also likes to communicate using both words and gestures. She has been saying, "Mama come come" with her arms extended towards me. She likes asking the neighborhood dogs and cats to come over to her as well. She knows all the names of the children and adults at the daycare as well as the name of all her dolls. She knows the name of most animals and the sounds they make. All of the books on her shelves she has read through and knows each page by heart.

Jasmine has been showing us that she is becoming more loving and cooperative towards people. If we cough or sneeze, she would say, "bless you." Then she'll walk over and pad our back, asking us if we are doing "okay." She also is very gentle with animals as well.

Our home is surrounded by a natural reserve community. We often see many wild animals such ducks and swans. Jasmine is very fond of the swans. She often calls to them or lures them towards her with the leftover bread. She enjoys watching them eat and she wants a closer view of them. Luckily, these swans are not too aggressive although Mama keeps, as a pre-caution, a distance from them. And Jasmine seems to heed Mama's advice. She has a good understanding of consequences and knows that certain things just are not safe for her. Such as opening the glass cabinet and getting a glass cup on her own. Actually, she only grabs the plastic cups within the cabinet. Similarly when Tony, Charles, and Rachel were at our home Jasmine warns Mama about Charles' nonchalantness. She was afraid he would break the glass cups on the coffee table.

This is all Mama wants to highlight for your 19 months development, although you have shown other advancements as well which I did not include in this blog.

Finally, in this series, the pictures captures Jasmine reading a story book from the Pixar "Finding Nemo" movie. Once she is done reading them, she places them back into the box and then puts it away on her bookshelf. Jasmine is cleaning after herself (at least attempts to anyway).

(The flash on the camera hurts her eyes so she does not like the camera anymore.)

At 20 months old, Jasmine can have small conversation with her composing three word sentences. She has figured out the meaning of the words and how to use them. She is quick in correcting her grammatical structures and is getting much better at putting words together. For instance when we drop by her Papa's office, Jasmine walks up to Papa and says to him, "Papa go home!". (I did not coach her or tell her to say that to her Papa. As a matter of fact, I have not use that sentence before. She composed it on her own.) Just as when her room is messy and the floor is dirty, she tell Mama, "mama... oh mess [or dirty ] clean". Similarly during breakfast, Jasmine looked outside the living room window and talked about the cows and the sheep. She talked about the sounds, of them being outside and eating grass. Then when Papa asked her what sounds does a cow make Jasmine said, "Moo". So then Papa asked her what sounds does a sheep makes, and Jasmine said, "Maaa". Papa went through a list of animals such as lions, horse, donkey, mouse, etc and cat. Then lastly he asked, "What sound does Mama make?" Jasmine looked at Mama for a moment, a little uncertain as to how she should respond to her Papa... But she did give him his answer, "Cheese!" That is a pretty creative answer, kuddos to you Jasmine.

She is also a big help these days. When we arrived home with groceries that I cannot hold all by myself, Jasmine will help by holding a small bag for me. She also helps clean up the house more often now. At laundry time, Mama gives Jasmine clean dry clothes and asked her to put it on Mama's bed. Without pointing or guiding her to the bedroom, Jasmine takes the clothes and walks away with it. My initial thought was that Jasmine probably just left it on the floor, and I will need to pick it up afterwards. Unbeknown to me, Jasmine had placed the clean clothes on the bed as instructed. She was also very careful as to not allow any to fall off the bed. Her Papa sat and witness it without having to intervene.

I wonder if she would feel as enthused to be doing her own laundry later. Somehow, I find that doubtful.

This series contains images from her putting on clothes she received from Laoye. She has been deciding what to wear from top to bottom. Insofar, she does a much better job at matching than her Papa and I. Within this series there also are pictures from Kobus' birthday party -- he turned 3 on 19th of September -- Jasmine at the park with Papa, and Jasmine's first long walk near home.

In my last post, I mentioned that Jasmine can draw farm animals. I would like to clarify that she does not draw any coherent images of animals. She draws squiggly lines and says it is a particular animal. Although she truly can draw circles and loops (because loops are just continuous circles).