Developmental Leaps

I'm so amazed at the little "person" our bubs is becoming. This week he has astounded me with his rapidly-increasing vocabulary, as well as the new ways he is enganing in and trying to control his world.

Words he said this week for the first time:

Done
More (mah)
Bubble (buh-ba)
Snow (no)
Banana (na)
Milk (ilchk)
Ball (bah)
Truck (uhck)
Bus (us)
Water (wah-uh)
Yuck (eh-uck!)
Bye (ba)
Eye
Nose (nus)


He's really into ducks these days and thinks all birds are ducks. He especially gets excited by Big Bird (from Sesame Street) for some reason and shouts "d-uck!" We don't bother to tell him that Big Bird is not a duck, as we're not really sure just what kind of bird he is anyways. He doesn't even watch Sesame Street, so I'm not sure why he loves him so much, but it is funny. We have cereal/fruit bars with Big Bird on the label and he likes to get into the cabinet and pull them out and bring them to me, shouting "d-uck! d-uck! qwak qwak!" He then has to eat one. :-)

Today he surprised us by showing that he makes a connection between pooping and getting his diaper changed. He made a poo and then ran over to where we keep his changing pad downstairs. He got it out of the drawer, laid it on the floor and then laid ontop of it without ANY prompting from us at all. Maybe a good sign for potty training in the future? :-)

He really follows direction pretty well for his age I think. Today at WalMart he wanted out of the cart, so daddy obliged. Against my warnings, Alan put him down and let him walk. I thought for sure he would be ALL over the place and taking things off shelves, etc., but instead he held Alan's hand and walked beside him for the most part. Eventually, he did decide to act like a toddler and wouldn't leave things alone, but he lasted a lot longer than I thought he would. He also is beginning to follow alongisde us when we are walking outside. He used to have no sense of distance or direction, but I can see it's developing now.

He is still really into action songs and finger plays. We go to Book Babies at the library on Thursdays and he just absorbs it all. Every time we sing a hello song while the leader holds a dog puppet and has it greet the kids. I sang that same song to Reshen yesterday and he said "uff! uff!" He made the connection to Book Babies and thought of the dog! So cute!

He really likes "Two Little Blackbirds" right now and always wants me to do it with him, especially when he's in the bathtub for some reason. He holds his hands behind his back and says "uh uh!" and stares at me until I do it (the blackbrids (your fingers )fly away and hide behind your back in the song).

He likes to mimic counting on fingers. I count and raise each finger as I go until I get to 5. He then looks at his own fingers and wiggles them around and says "do, do do!" in the same tone and cadence I use. He also points to objects in books and does the same thing, like he's counting them. I think he picks up a lot of what I do with Luke and Lucy (the 2 and 3 year olds I nanny for).

He likes to put objects away... like when he's done eating he "helps" me clean up by putting all his unwanted food back on his plate. He puts his toys back in their containers sometimes, and today put his changing pad back in the drawer. Of course, you'd never know he could do this by the looks of his play area... but I guess it's a start :-)

Tooth #8 has finally pushed through. It's his lower second right tooth if you want to know specifics. He also is getting his first molar. His upper right molar is just beginning to poke through (the front end is through the gum, but it looks like the rest still has a ways to go). Fun, fun. I'm blaming that on his screwy napping this week. I thought maybe he was finally transitioning to one nap per day, as he sometimes doesn't seem to want the morning one. So this week I didn't push the morning nap and sometimes waited until 12 to put him down. But then he would only sleep 30 minutes and wake crying and crabby! Let me tell you- 30 minutes is NOT long enough for either of us. He's also been waking a little bit at night and also waking early in the morning.... I'm hoping it's just teething and not his ears again/still. We just finished our last of the 2nd round of antibiotics. I'm SO hoping that killed it. We have his 15 month check-up on Thursday, so I will know for sure then. *crossing fingers*

This week he pointed out body parts- he pointed to the eye of Nemo (on his blankie) and said "eye!" He also points to mine if I ask him where it is. He also pointed to his own nose and said "nus." He's so obsessed with my hair, but doesn't say anything for it yet. He's always playing with it and pulling it (not so much fun) and messing it up. I'm trying to teach him to be soft. He's always been like that with my hair- I thought he would have grown out of it by now... he's kind of weird... :-)

He really likes to say "neh" (no) and shake his head these days. You can ask him about anything and he will shake his head no. One exceptionally tiring day this week I asked him, "Reshen, are you driving mama crazy?" He shook his head and said very matter-of-factly "neh, neh, na" Made me laugh. Now he knows it's funny and grins while he's doing it, even if you ask him "do you want to eat?" (which he always does). We're working on nodding the head and saying "yes" (which he did do today- yea!).

He's been so cute at bedtime lately. When I lay him down he scoots over to his baby bear and his ellie elephant and tucks one under each arm. I then cover him up with his fleece teddy blanket and he snuggles down. He's so sweet that it's almost hard to leave him in there :-) I said ALMOST... I do look very forward to 7pm when I can exist outside of being "mommy" for a few hours :-) That said, here I am at 8:30 typing away about my boy. I guess you never really do take a complete break from being mommy :-)