Talking

Yes, Jack is starting to say real words.

Previously, he made the usual baby noises and would indiscriminately say Dada and Mamama. But within the past couple of weeks he has been started using Dada for only me and Mamama for Kate. (As I am writing this he is waking up from his nap, I hear "Dada" coming through the monitor.) I must say, it is a pretty special feeling hearing my little boy talk to me and know that he is saying my "name."

Kate claims that he says dog--"de"--but I am not convinced yet. I contend that "de" refers to many things. But the verdict is still out.

Perhaps not so great is his discovery of the word "no." Of course, since he became mobile, he has heard me tell him no quite a few times. He has not said it much, but there have been a couple of times when he was angry or upset this week that he let us have it. The first time took me by surprise. We had just completed our shopping at Meijer and little boy decided he really did not want to be in his car seat. He was tired, grumpy, and ready for his nap. I was struggling with him to buckle him in when he looked at me crossly and proclaimed, "Dada nononono." It was probably the wrong response, but I started laughing because he took such a serious tone with me.

This last weekend he added a new word to his vocabulary. As all babies do, he discovered a while back that it is great fun to drop something on the floor and watch Mommy and Daddy pick it up. When he did this, we would always say "Uh, oh!" Now, rather than throwing a toy to watch us pick it up, I think he does it just so he can say "Uh, oh!" Even when I drop something he says it.

Although we are quite excited about his new development, it is also a little sad to see our baby turning into a little boy. (Very much a little boy--he also decided last week that it is really, uh, fun to play with his, ahem, winkie in the bathtub.)

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Last week we had what we refer to as a "diaper blowout." After stripping Jack, I discovered that all of his clean onesies were in the dryer and washing machine. Although it is usually toasty in his room, to make sure he did not get chilled I quickly grabbed the nearest towel, wrapped him up, and laid him in his crib. While I was downstairs I grabbed the camera because the towel has dragon spikes on the hood. When I walked into the room, Jack was not peacefully snuggling in his towel. No, Super Dragon Boy was having a grand time.