I didn’t manage to write this up last year, but I realized that it is nice to have an annual snapshot of what the kids are like, so I am writing up the Whiting kid puzzle solution again this year.
We have two children. Jesse is 5 and can mostly manage to communicate everything important. Jacob is 2 and can be a bit more of a challenge to understand.
Major points, in rough order of importance:
Potty training - both children are potty trained to an age-appropriate degree. Jesse needs help finding the bathroom (and finding his way back - please do not lead him to a bathroom and then walk away while he is inside). Jacob needs a fair bit of help and probably should be sent to one of us if he needs to use the bathroom. Jesse will mostly tell someone if he needs to use the bathroom, but if he is dancing around like a five year old that needs to pee, it is probably worth asking him about it. Jacob needs to be asked from time to time, but we will make sure to do that.
Food - Both children are unpredictably picky eaters with no known allergies. We mostly don’t worry about what they eat. If you want to offer them food, you can. If you eat in front of them and don’t offer them some, they might cry/whine at you. If this will be a problem, please either eat somewhere else or ask us to distract/move them while you eat. Please try to not show them where the Mystery Hunt snacks are being stored, as they may stand there eating all the snacks or asking for them for the remainder of the weekend once they know where they are.
Talking - Jesse loves to ask people questions. If you would like to spend some time explaining your thesis, research, job, or anything else to him, he will listen (especially if it is related to space, trains, or engines). Jesse’s speech is pretty clear now and I can’t think of any major phonetic problems that he still has (he may still be missing l’s and r’s in some words). Jacob has a limited vocabulary and a large number of mispronunciations. One of his most common phonetic shifts is randomly swapping p’s, t’s, and k’s (for example, he pronounces blanket as blancake and water as walker or walk-o) - you can treat this as a puzzle. He often speaks very quickly, slurring his words together and dropping syllables. His most common phrases are: thank-you, oh, light on/light off, I do it, daddy/mama do it, aah (which means I want, for example “aah pasta” means he wants pasta), where’s __ (often daddy, Jesse, mama, cat, or podka), carry you, and sit on lap.
Things You should not do around our children - We are fairly laid-back parents. You do not need to restrict your vocabulary around our children. You should not do things that would be dangerous for them to do without clearly telling them that it is dangerous, because they might try to imitate you. If you laugh at something that one of them does, they are both likely to do it repeatedly until they are told to stop.
Discipline - If our children are causing a problem, we will take care of it as soon as we are aware of the situation. If you see them doing something they shouldn’t, feel free to tell them to stop, and please also let us know (we’ll be doing our best to pay attention, but can’t always have eyeballs on them at all times). Jesse will probably listen to you (Jacob may not understand what you want him to stop).
Playing - Both boys love to play with trains and rocket ships. Jesse also likes to draw rocket ships, constellations, and sometimes the solar system. As mentioned above, Jesse likes it when people are willing to explain things to him. We will bring some toys for them to play with. You can play with their toys, just make sure not to lose or break them. Also remember that they are possessive about their toys and may cry if you are playing with what they want to play with.
Reading - Both boys like to have people read books to them. Neither one is very picky about what these books are. I once read several pages of a calculus book to Jesse, just to see how long it would take him to get bored (he lasted longer than I wanted to read a math book out loud).
Puzzles - It is unlikely that either of our boys will be able to solve any of the puzzles faster than the grownups. If there is some puzzle that has clear instructions but is not interesting enough for anyone to want to work on it, Jesse might be willing to.
