Daddy. Zzzz.

I'm not sure if it's just his age, or the fact that I've been able to spend so much time with him this week, but I swear Drew is going through a growth spurt. Not a physical one, but a mental one. Earlier this week we were sitting on the couch "talking" and I couldn't get over how grown up he seems all of a sudden. I can't even explain exactly what it was that made me feel that way, but it was like it hit me that he's not a baby, and he really is on the verge of being a talking little boy.

Some observations:

He's starting to put words together. He has discovered Elmo on YouTube (yes, thanks to Mommy and Daddy :-/) and now he climbs in our laps and says "Elmo. Watch. Watch Elmo." He's also a fan of "eat _____" (fill in the blank with is current food obsession). He makes observations like "Lucy eatin." I also swear he has been saying "I want it!" which I really don't know where he learned (I mean, I don't imagine Jason or I saying that very often).

Along the same lines he seems to be discovering how to make a pronoun possessive. If he sees a picture of Jason he says "Daddy", but if he sees Jason's watch he says "Daddy. Zzzz". It's kind of funny because he pauses, then adds the s sound. When it comes to "Mommy's" stuff, he seems to be a little swifter with the s.

His vocabulary in general is skyrocketing and his favorite thing to do is label things. "Twee. Cwoud. Tah. Bow." (That would be tree, cloud, car, and ball). I'm shocked at his memory and how quickly he seems to pick up on new words. Just last night I taught him what a monkey says (oo oo ah ah). We've been doing a lot of animal sounds, but that was a new one. This morning he woke up, pointed to the monkey on his shirt and said "montey. Oo ah," with a huge grin.

While he was eating the other day he randomly started counting. "One, two, fwee, foh...". That's as far as he got, but seeing as we haven't actively tried to teach him to count I was rather impressed.

Drew found a picture of Jason on a Costco card. First he said "Daddy", then "head" (because all you can see is the head). Then he started naming other features- nose, eyes, lips. I said, "good, now where are YOUR lips?" I was actually testing to see if he'd get it because our game usually goes something like "good, those are Daddy's lips, where are Drew's lips?". Well, without missing a beat, Drew touched his own lips. Then I tried again and said "where are MY lips?" (instead of "Mommy's lips"). Again, he pointed right to my lips. We continued to play this game and he continued to get it right, even as I varied the order. I was surprised that, even though Jason and I too often refer to ourselves as "Mommy" and "Daddy" (as in I often say something like "Mommy's going to cook you an egg"), Drew's still picking up on I, you, etc.

My biggest surprise came yesterday. He was eating celery and hummus in the living room (which means he was licking hummus off of celery). Every ten seconds or so (seriously) he would shout "nummus! Pweeze!" (the "please" impressed me quite a bit, but that's not all). I would reload his celery and bring it back to him. Finally, tired of going back and forth, I said "that's it. Hummus is all done." It didn't even occur to me until a good 5 minutes later that he never asked for more! He listened, he understood, and he accepted it! Wow!

But that's still not all! After he had sufficiently finished licking the last of the hummus and nibbling the celery he came wandering into the kitchen where I was cleaning. I said "where's your celery [knowing it was on the couch]? Can you go get it and put it in the trashcan?" He walked right into the living room, got the celery, then
walked right back to the kitchen and put it in the trash. He's following directions! Obviously, this is behavior I should expect, but seeing as he hasn't even been able to comprehend instructions yet, this was a pretty exciting step (because it means I CAN start expecting him to listen and DO what I ask him to do).

In general he seems to get "conversation". He sits in my lap and "talks" to me, then looks right up in my face and smiles as he listens to my response. He's starting to understand humor and playing pretend. As I've said a million times before, it is such a privilege to watch him grow and change and I will never get over how fascinating, marvelous, and miraculous it all is. I thank God every day for the opportunity to raise and nurture this child.

Monday Minute: Little Mr. Chatterbox

Remember those books? The Mr. Men and Little Miss books? My parents always called me Little Miss Chatterbox because I liked to talk. A lot. (Still do!)

Apparently Drew has my genes in that respect. After dinner tonight the boy would NOT shut up. He talked on and on and on... never even pausing to wait for an "uh huh..." or a "is that right?". I was out of breath just listening to him!



I swear I fed the boy nothing more than tacos and cherries for dinner. No chocolate. No candy. And no coffee! He seriously went on like this for more than 20 minutes (and is still babbling in bed about "buttons" as this post is being written).



Jason and I just got a good laugh out of it, and enjoyed letting him express himself... even if we could hardly understand a word of what he said!

Chip off the ol' block?

Jason's mom was in town this last week and we got to enjoy a few evenings with her over dinner and drinks. She lives out-of-state (always has since I've been with Jason) so I don't often get much time to chit chat with her. Seems that perhaps was a good thing because maybe I never would have married Jason if I had. NOT because I don't like Cathy (I love her!), but because of the stories she's been telling me about him! I'm pretty sure the thought of having children with this man would have had me running.... seems he was quite a handful! From chewing apart his crib (oh wait...), to smashing eggs from the refrigerator when her back was momentarily turned, to running his baby walker down the stairs... and laughing. She has repeated to us numerous times that he was "horrible!". Thankfully, she says, he mellowed out quite a bit. (I agree!)

With all that, I started thinking that my little mischievous pumpkin may have a bit of his dad in him (I think he knows his name as "DwoooOOOoo", with the "did you really just do that!?" tone). But really, he is quite a sweetheart. Here are just a few examples:

When we put up a tiny Christmas tree at our lake house to celebrate an early Christmas with my  parents and sister, Drew, of course, wanted to touch badly. After saying a firm, but quiet, "no" (apparently with a finger wag, according to Jason, which must have done the trick) Drew pouted then burst into tears. But, from then on, he simply looked and pointed at the tree without touching. When we pulled out the big tree at our house he never once tried to touch it. He will point to it and say "wow!" but he stays just out of reach.

A good boy gets to hold his special ornament

One of Drew's favorite phrases is "bessoo!" which means "bless you!". Jason has horrible allergies. Year round. So the phrase is pretty much a constant in our house. A week or so ago I was changing Drew's diaper upstairs when Jason sneezed downstairs. Drew shouted "bessoo!" (and of course Jason shouted back "thank you!")

Drew has also learned to say "san soo" ("thank you", though it can be confused with "bless you"). At first he loved handing me things and saying "san soo" knowing that I was about to say it. The other day, though, Jason handed him his sippy cup and Drew said "san soo!". Awwww!!

He loves bedtime and asks to go "night night". Last night we were late coming home from church and it was past his bedtime. He angrily screamed "nye nye!" the whole way home then laughed when we brought him upstairs to get ready for bed.

Just being a sweetie (and making sure B.A. Laura buys him
anything he wants!)

We stick to a bedtime routine every night- brush teeth, change diaper and put on PJs, get "deedee" (blankie), read a book, then say a prayer. When we get finished with our book I say, "now it's time to say our prayers" and he clasps his hands together. Makes. My. Heart. Melt! (And always makes me say an extra word of thanks to the Big Man).

Because of a cough, the doctor put Drew on an inhaler for a few weeks. The first little bit was rough trying to get him to sit still so we could give him the medicine. He kicked, screamed, thrashed, and cried (and made me feel like an evil monster). Suddenly, the other day, he sat perfectly still the whole time. I have no clue why but I smiled and excitedly said "good boy!". Ever since he sits still and takes it, then when he's finished, before I even get a chance to, he says "boo boy!" (good boy) and, once again, makes my heart melt. "Yes, VERY good boy!"

Drew Dictionary

I'm having fun watching Drew pick up new words every day. He's like a little parrot who repeats almost everything we say (time for someone.... [cough cough] Jason [cough cough] to start doing a little Spring cleaning in the vocabulary department).

He also loves to act like he's having full blown conversations. He'll look at you very seriously, and say, "abba chee wa wa bubabuba", then he pauses and waits for a response. Each day the language seems to change. One day it sounds like Chinese. Another like Spanish.

Drew having a "conversation" with Grandma on the phone

Do Jason and I do this when we talk on the phone?

I've been told that at school, during nap time, he'll lay down for a minute, then pop up and start babbling. The teacher will say "shhhh.... lie down" and he'll do that for a minute, then pop back up again to continue telling whatever story he imagines he's telling. Gee.... nonstop talking, I wonder who he gets THAT from? 0:-)

His most understandable words are Mommy (not just Mama!), Daddy, and hi, but if you listen carefully, you might also hear...

Afaf= dog
Apuh (more of just "ap" with an airy sound at the end)= apple (or any round food? He used it to refer to his peas the other night)
Awa= water (you'd think I had taught him the Spanish word "agua"!)
Deedee= blankie?
Ditty= kitty
Nanana= banana
Nye nye= night night
Ooee= Lucy
Teef= teeth
Uh oh= "I'm about to throw something on the floor"

Baby language

I know I've mentioned things like "Drew signed 'eat'" or "Drew said he wanted more" a few times in this blog without really explaining what that means.

Jason and I have been teaching Drew a little bit of baby sign language. Nothing monumental. Just a few little words to help ward off toddler temper tantrums.

Research has shown that long before a child's mouth is capable of producing the sounds of speech, they are, in fact, able to communicate. We already know this- they cry when they want something, they hold up their arms to be picked up, they point to something they want, they smile when they're happy, they even wave "bye bye" and blow kisses. The ability to talk is actually quite a complicated skill involving complex movements of the mouth and tongue. We know it takes years for children to learn to fully produce the sounds of their native language (have you heard a 5 year old who still can't say Rs properly? That's normal!). But moving arms and hands, even copying somewhat complex motions, is a skill that babies are able to do, thus allowing them a form of communication.

This is where the "baby sign language" movement developed- teach babies that are capable of communicating to "talk" before they can actually talk.

But that's not what Jason and I are interested in. We really just want to help Drew communicate some of the things he wants or needs. One of the reasons that toddlers throw tantrums is because it can be very difficult to communicate what they want. Can you imagine being thirsty and not being able to get a drink yourself or ask anyone for one?

One of the questions you might have (because I wondered this, too) is, "but won't that delay speech? If a baby can sign what he wants, why would he ever learn to say the word?".

Again, turning to research, I found that many studies have shown that babies who first learned to sign were actually more verbal and had a larger vocabulary than children who did not sign. Scientists believe a large reason for this is because parents have the tendency to say the words as they are signing them, thus "labeling" more every day objects and exposing their children to more language.

In our own experience I have found this to be very true. Even without doing it consciously, Jason and I often say the word we are signing. It just comes naturally. And when Drew signs a word we inevitably say the word that he is signing as well. And sure enough, Drew has been picking up on those words. He now often says "eee!" when he signs "eat".

So what words does Drew know? He can sign "eat" and "more" very well. He intermittently signs "juice" (though uses the sign for any liquid, so it kind of just means "drink") and "all done". We're currently trying to teach "sleep" as well. I'd like to teach him a few fun words, like "cat" and "dog", but we are trying to keep it simple right now.

The process has been very interesting. First off, he picked up on the signs in less than 2 days! We did not use any videos, or go to any classes, we simply started using signs around the house. We started with just "eat" and "drink". Every time we said the word "eat" we would sign it. When we put Drew in his high chair we would say, "are you ready to eat?" while doing the sign. Then, as we put food on his tray, we would say "eat your chicken!" and do the sign. I was absolutely shocked when I swore he was signing "eat" while changing his diaper only a day or two after we started using the signs. I told Jason about it and he didn't believe Drew had picked it up that quickly, until he saw it himself! Any time he used a sign, we were sure to give him what he requested as soon as possible so he connected using the sign with getting something he wanted. Once he gets the hang of a sign we don't necessarily rush to give him what he wants anymore (he does have to learn that he can't demand and get every single thing he wants- like more more MORE cheerios).

Also, the signs usually start out a little "off". For example, "eat" involves tapping all of your fingertips on your mouth. Drew first signed "eat" by tapping his palm on his mouth, like he was yawning. It only took a few more tries, though, before he signed it "perfectly". It's kind of like babbling- babies don't say the words correctly the first time, they have to try it out a few times until they get it right.

And Drew has kind of developed his own meanings for words. As mentioned above, he signs "juice" to mean "drink". We started out with a sign for drink that he never picked up on. Then I started trying to do signs for the individual drinks- water, milk, and juice. Though he rarely drinks juice, he picked up that sign quickly and will do it when he drops his cup- even if it's full of milk or water. Also "more" has been an interesting one. Jason and I have tried to interpret what Drew has come to use it as- sometimes we think he uses it simply as "eat", other times he seems to use it to say "I want what you have".

Here is a video of him signing "more" and me not quite understanding what it is he wants...

I think he just wanted something else to eat (you can hear him kind of make his "eat" sound).

It definitely takes consistency to get him to use the signs. If we stop doing them, he does, too.

Basically, our intent is not to create a "genius child" who can communicate in full sentences by 18 months, but really just to take away some of the guessing game as to what Drew wants or needs. In fact, that's really where it started- he seemed to do certain motions repeatedly or desperately babble, and I started saying to him, "I don't know what you want!" and thought "wouldn't it be nice if we came up with a mutual way of communicating?"

Besides the signs, Drew is talking a good bit these days, too. He says hi, meow, arf arf, kitty, Lucy, uh oh, Daddy, yum, that, and eat. Of course, these words would probably only be recognizable to Jason and I, but they're definitely there. And he still has yet to say Mommy, but we're working on it.

If you're interested in baby sign language there is a ton of information on the web. You can do videos, or a class, but I don't see a need, especially if you just want to keep it basic. We used the internet to find some signs that we wanted to use- most baby sign language sites use American Sign Language. To me this made sense because it's something that he may actually be able to use one day in the future.I have, however, found ourselves making up a few signs here and there (I made up our sign for "juice" on the spot). This seems to be a great site with lots of information as well as little videos showing you how to do the signs.

Happy communicating!