Buckling Buckles

Simon learned lots of new words this weekend. Buckle and Open are the big ones which he shows off in this video as he buckles his high chair buckles (another new skill).  He likes to do this over and over for as long as we're willing to keep opening them back up for him. He can even close them if he's sitting in the chair, but thankfully hasn't figured out how to open them on his own. He also learned Dude (said while giving a thumbs up sign), Okay, Big and Bag this weekend. He also says Click, but I'm going with that as a noise not a word. 

Dr. No

Sad milestone this past weekend: Simon has learned to use the N-word.  Despite all of our best efforts not to say it around him, after 18 months he's finally figured it out.  I don't know where he learned that word... he must have picked it up from some older kids on the playground.

He says it very clearly, too - not like some of his other words that only make sense in context (if at all).  He has sort of a weird accent to it though... he says it more like "newww", dragging out the 'o'.  And he always has a sly little smile as he says it, like he's doing it on purpose because he knows it'll get a rise out of us.

Fortunately he still doesn't use it as an angry tantrum word, it's just an answer to a question.  If he really wants us to stop something (like tickling, feeding him broccoli or putting him to bed) he'll say "Alldonealldonealldone!".  He reserves "No" for when we ask him questions about if he needs or wants to do something in particular.  But it is now quickly becoming his preferred answer for every option to every question, and we keep having conversations with him that go like this:

All Done and More

Thursday, October 18 was a big milestone in Simon's life. On Thursday Simon replaced a sign for a spoken word. Before that day he had about 25 words that he said and another 30 or so signs that he used, but the list of words signed and words spoken did not overlap.  Earlier that week there was a slight overlap with 'bye bye', a sign and word pairing that are done together, but for the most part he either signed or spoke. From the first spoken word he started moving the scale from sign to the ultimate goal of speech and in replacing a sign the scale has tipped and now it'll be a long run down as he gathers vocabulary lists. Just to push that home, Monday he looked at me and said More while he signed it to me.

He still doesn't have the fine motor control to say the wide variety of words that he understands (speech is considered a fine motor skill), so we will continue to use and expand his sign vocabulary as his world and understanding grows. But this was another big step, in so many he's had this year, to building the man he will become.

Now that he can say the word, instead of saying and signing when we talk to him, we will just say 'all done' or 'more' to him as normal speech. And instead of waiting for him to sign to us we will encourage him to vocalize... which I'm sure won't be a problem because he loves saying all done and more!

PS He also learned to shake his head no this weekend. So if you ask him a yes/no question you will get a nod or a shake response.

Phone calls, Halloween baby, All done

chheeeeese

This video is from this morning and he just started saying "all done" today instead of signing it!! :)

Night night, Simon

Simon has been learning lots of sounds and has been focusing especially animal sounds (as Jenn showed you in this video). He has been saying something similar to both bib and bubble, but since it's the same sound for both we're not counting it yet.

He pick up Night Night this past weekend.  He'll pull blanket and pillows from the couch and then rest his head on them and say night night while rolling around. It's super cute. Here's a couple examples...

This Morning

This morning we did lots of walking around and chatting. Just a normal morning in the life. The tongue is out in some of these pictures because he's getting all 4 of his first molars right now so his mouth hurts. The video has a few words in it and a bit of walking.

So many more pictures after the jump.

Dadada

Simon said Daddy! It is actually more like Dadada. The first time he said it and we were sure he knew what he was saying was on Tuesday the 14th. Jenn and Simon were at the big picture window in the front of the house and Alan walked by outside. When Alan paused to wave, Simon said 'Dadada!'

He is saying it pretty frequently now. On Thursday morning Simon and I were reading a book in his room and when the stair creaked as Alan walked up the steps Simon looked up at the door and said 'Dadadadada'. It's really adorable the huge smile he gets on his face and how excited he is when Alan comes into the room. So satisfying to have him naming us!

Hot, hot, hot

Simon's 5th word is hot. I think he was saying it and understanding it right around the same time that he started saying hat. Definitely by late last week he had hot for sure, but possibly a few days before. The problem is that they sound an awful lot alike and he likes to repeat his words as practice and that helps us know if he really has a word.

This weekend I gave him a warmed up pancake and he looked at it and said hot. I said yes and then he didn't touch it until I gave him the ok to start eating. Shows definite understanding.

Also, in the back the bricks will get hot in the afternoon. On Sunday the 5th we practiced the word hot quite a bit and when he ignored the warning would walk out on to the bricks and give his sad face and start to cry because they were too hot for his little bare feet (obviously he was only on them for a second, but they were really hot). This past weekend when Alan was playing outside with Simon, Simon walked up to the edge of the grass and looked at the bricks and Alan and said hot. It was cloudy, so Alan said he could go ahead. When the little guy got onto the bricks and didn't hurt his feet he laughed with joy - no ouchy! So adorable.

Umma

Simon started saying his third word this weekend: "Mama".  He hasn't quite gotten the hang of pronouncing the first "M" most of the time yet, so it usually comes out as "Umma".  But he keeps trying and is getting better at it.  He definitely knows what the word means... if he and I are downstairs playing and he hears Emily walking around upstairs or starting to walk downstairs, he'll stop what he's doing and hurry over to the gate saying "Umma! Umma!" while watching for her.  And it's really sweet to see him run up to her and say "Umma up!" so he can snuggle.

As you can imagine, Emily is *loving* hearing him say this. 

I hear an Echo

Simon has really gotten into the talking thing now. In the past couple days he has started echoing the sounds you make back to him. Yesterday morning I was feeding him scrambled eggs and as I was putting them onto his tray he was stuffing them into his mouth (you know, normal morning). Since they were fresh from the pan I was blowing on them and saying 'hot' as I set them down, suddenly I realized that he was repeating the word to me! I don't think he knew what it meant and he didn't say it without prompting, but I still switched to 'egg' so I didn't confuse the poor guy and teach him the wrong word. When I switched, he did too and repeated egg for me. (Very advanced for his age.)

By the end of the day, he officially had a new word: Out. Like with up it's two syllables and the T part requires some focus so it's slow and deliberate. He says 'out' to get out of the car seat, the high chair and when he's standing in front of the new gate downstairs... I think he's wanting to go outside.

I'm sure there will be more words quickly. I hope the next words are nouns though, Jenn pointed out last night that all his words so far are commands. I don't know what that means exactly, but feel like it must mean something.

First Word is.... Up!

Yesterday Simon started saying his first word! It's adorable. He initially was just saying 'ph', but obviously trying to imitate you with the intention of you picking him up. Jenn worked on it yesterday with him and got him to the 'bphp' stage. By the end of a day of focused up-ing, Simon had it!

This morning we tried again and initially I got just the p sound again, but before I left for work he did the full word. Another amazing milestone!  When we can catch it on video we will post it.