A Year and a Third
Sixteen months, and I feel like I should say something about “my, how the time has flown,” but honestly, it’s hard to really honestly remember a time when you were not the center of everything–if not you you, the at least the idea of you. I will say that I still can’t believe how lucky I am that you’re in my world. Every day that I wake up and you’re there–even if I’m waking up at 3am with your stomach flu!–is the best day ever, the best day yet.
Any worries we once had about your slowness to speak have been assuaged and then some. You talk. You love to talk. And between the words you can say, the words you can sign, and your delight when we ask you questions you can answer with a nod or a head shake, you’re communicating quite nicely these days given how few sounds you’re actually enunciating clearly.
Da-da; Mama; Bampa (grandpa); Ahnna (you’re trying SO hard to say Alie!); Ne-Ne; dog; car; duck; truck; van; tow truck; on; off; roller; arrow; knee; arm; elbow; eyes; hat; bun (bunny); book; burrrrrr (burrito); bean; blue; green; brown; black; bum; dada dada (which you’ve decided means popcorn. Papa-corn?); hot; tea; beh buh (belly button); pen; baaaa (bath); clock; more; done; down; up; bow; Hen; pea; crayon.
I’m sure there are more and I’m just not thinking of them. Obviously you’re still not really doing S,L,W, or any long vowels at all (ooooh, ohhhh, eeeeee, iiiiiii) I’m assuming that once you figure out which combination of breath and tongue movements create the sounds you want that you will be unstoppable. In the meantime I’m enjoying your creativity. Clacking your tongue means “helicopter”, apparently, and your animal sounds are getting impressively realistic and loud.
And your receptive language skills are downright impressive. You know your colors and shapes and body parts and animals, you can follow quite complicated instructions, and you’re clever about signing to clarify things you don’t quite understand. Watching you process the world is incredibly fascinating. There are days when it feels like I’m watching lightbulbs go off over your head all day long.
And you’re developing quite the sense of humor. Besides thinking that ‘pukey’ is the funniest word in the English language, you’ve also learned that it can be fun to play the clown. When you inadvertently sat down on the floor instead of the stairstep you were aiming for and I–just as accidentally–laughed at the look of surprise on your face, you repeated the action five or six times, just to make me laugh.
If you had your way I would do everything with you, be your constant companion and accomplice in petty, grape-stealing crime. And it’s tempting to do just that, even as I know that you have to learn to do some things on your own (like fall asleep! Dear lord, you have to learn to fall asleep on your own!) But this time right now is so sweet, so precious, especially since I know it won’t last forever no matter what I do.
So I let you take my hand and lead me away from my coffee and my unread paper. You show me the place our Christmas tree was. You remind me that you love grapes and Bunny and Daddy and me. You hug me as hard as you can around my legs, trapping me in your embrace, unable to walk away, to get on with the cleaning or the writing or the cooking that I thought I really needed to do. And I realize that, actually, there’s nothing in the world I’d rather be doing, nothing that’s more important than this.
I love you more than Christmas trees, little boy. More than grapes and hot wheel cars. More than clocks that light up. More than cardboard tubes for rolling marbles. I love you more than Bunny. I love you more than anything.
So sweet! Happy 16 months Henry!!
He seems like such fun!
Would you mind telling me which constellation turtle he has? There are two, and we are thinking of getting one for our less than stellar sleeper.
Susan Reply:
January 20th, 2012 at 9:10 am
Hey there–the turtle was a gift, but I’m pretty sure it’s the most common one. It’s blue with a blue plastic shell. There are four buttons, three together and one a little apart, also blue. I think it might also come in a greeny orange(for realism?!) sorry I can’t be more help til I’m back home and can look to see if there’s a brand name on it.
Susan Reply:
January 22nd, 2012 at 8:50 pm
It’s the Cloud-B one!
Happy Birthday Month Henry!!!!!
Any advice on what youv’e done to help him skyrocket his receptive etc skills much appreciated. It’s interesting that he signs and talks, when I was looking into baby signing I was afraid that teaching him that would make him talk later, but he never learned signed and still doesn’t really talk. 0 for 2, lol
Susan Reply:
January 22nd, 2012 at 9:03 pm
Hey Aisha, I’m sorry, but I have no advice at all–he’s been weirdly interested in communicating since he was teeny, even though his spoken skills have lagged a bit (a LOT compared to his early-speaking sisters!) His favorite books are ones he can point to things that he knows. His favorite games are ones where we ask him to find things — colors, shapes, cars — that he can point to. I do make a point of trying to narrate his day, ‘that’s the Blue Car you’re picking up. Can you find me a red car?’, but I can’t really take any credit for it. Oh, he does LOVE a book called “Richard Scary’s Best Word Book Ever” which is just a picture book with labeled pictures–and it’s awful because it’s from the early 60s & a lot of the common items are just not common anymore, but he adores it (mostly because of the cars!) He’ll point to things and if he doesn’t know what it is, I’ll tell him, and if he does know how to say it, he’ll say it or sign it. He’ll ‘read’ it for hours at a time if I let him.
I do try to reinforce how happy it makes me when he does something ‘right’, tries a new word, demonstrates that he knows what something is, follows complicated directions. Even now when he’s known his colors cold for a month or more, he’ll look at me very expectantly when volunteers information about what any given thing is, or what color it is. So I tell him what a good boy he is, how smart, etc. He likes the praise, and I’m happy to give it to him–especially these days, where ‘No, Henry!’ is popping out of my mouth more often than I’d like!
I’ve heard the same thing about signing delaying spoken language, much the same way that bilingual babies are anecdotally said to be late talkers, but I’m not sure if Henry’s relative lateness speaking is from that, from his own natural inclinations, because he’s a spoiled only child, etc. I DO believe that the signing has reduced his frustration at not being able to communicate. These days he mostly uses the signs to clarify when (for example) I can’t figure out which of the many words he means by, “dhan”. There are some words he only speaks: “car,” “Mama”. There are some words he’ll always sign & say at the same time even though he’s perfectly intelligible either way, (‘more’), and there are some words he hasn’t bothered to even try to learn to say because it’s so easy to sign and so hard for him to say (‘red’.) If he couldn’t communicate any other way, he might be more motivated to speak, but I suspect he’d just be cranky that no one understood him!
I love the language stuff! Sounds a lot like our girls. The animal sounds are ridiculously cute!
It’s so awesome to hear you sounding so happy! Pj