Talking at last!
Paradoxically, as your development speeds up and you get more interesting, I am writing less and less about it. But here goes.
Liam was born recently, and you were kind of a terror for a very brief amount of time, and now you’re wonderful again. Really, you are such a jolly little boy, and don’t throw to terribly many tantrums. Right now you are dancing to Blues Clues, which you call Cwew’s Cwews! You love this show, and every time you see a paw print anywhere (including on my Clemson shoes), you say A CWEW!
Your language exploded when Liam arrived and Ella came. I really think it was Ella who showed you how talking works, because you began mimicking her almost immediately, and have been a little parrot ever since. The moment that convinced me of this was when DD was taking a photo of you two, and she said Say Cheese! And Ella went Cheese! And you looked at her pretty closely, and looked at DD, and then you said Cheethe! (You have the cutest lisp, omg it just kills me. You should hear yourself say Octopus – oh-puth is what it sounds like). I think you saw how much it pleased the adults when Ella talked, and you were a little jealous for the attention and so just started talkin to get some. And it was astonishing! Now you name animals and animal sounds like never before – mouse says peep peep, sheep says baaa, chicken says bock bock. You say sentences, colors, count to five. You say all kinds of things – and it’s clear to me that prior to now, you’ve been listening to us as we talked and talked and talked to you, because you’re sayin things we’ve highlighted for months. I love it.
You know do this arm swinging dance, which has replaced the gorilla dance, which replaced the head bob, which replaced the finger dance. The one constant here is dance dance dance. You cannot stop the beat!
The way you hold and look at Liam thrills my heart. I hope that you will be friends, and that’s only minimally in my control, but thus far we’re off to a good start.
I have to go pump now, I had only a few seconds, but I wanted to get down some of your words – alligator, shark, WOOK! WOOK! I wish I could freeze you at this age, you’re so delightful.