When I go in to get him out of the crib EVERY morning, he immediately points to the flash cards. Yes, my one year old son wants to look at flash cards! Right now, you are thinking that I am one of THOSE mommies - the psychotic, overzealous, push their kids too hard kind of mommy. Let me explain. When he first discovered his love of books, the only kind of book he would show interest in was one with photographs. I had these animal flash cards that were beautiful photos, from when I taught preschool, so I figured maybe he would like looking at them. He loved those so much, that when I saw a package with 4 different flash card boxes, (Colors & Shapes, First Words, Numbers, & The Alphabet), that also had photographs along with the words, I bought those. Now, he is obsessed. If that wasn't shocking enough, when I do the First Words flash cards, he does a lot of the signs as I show him the cards! Something else I found amazing was a couple days ago, when I was preoccupied and didn't get to those darn flash cards quick enough, he opened two of the boxes himself! Later that same day, at work, the four year old girl I work with, was trying to open a box of cards and ripped it in half, and I just had to laugh.
I am so glad that I have decided to teach Dylan signs, and I have to pause to thank Burgh Baby's Mom, and especially Alexis, for inspiring me to do so. At this point, he does the sign for eat, more, please (EAT MORE PLEASE!!), milk, dog, hat, car, banana, cheese, apple, book, shoes, socks, fish, baby, plane, ball, all done, and occasionally, thank you.
When we were all sick, as Jim was leaving for work one morning, we looked at Dylan and he was signing "hat" and pointing at Jim, to tell him to wear his hat. Too cute! If I told him to wear his hat, no way, but when Dylan does, on goes the hat. If I hadn't taught him signs, I wouldn't realize just how much he understands at this point. He is often signing words we are using in our conversations, when we didn't even realize he was listening!
He still isn't saying much, though. He finally started saying mama! Before, I really think he was just messing with me. I would say, "Say Ma-Ma!", and he would grin and shout "DA-DA!" every time. So, he says dada, mama, buh(for ball), daah(for down), yes, and un (for cars or trucks). One day we were sitting on the couch, and he kept pointing, saying "Unnn!" I said "Onion?" I was going batty trying to figure out what he wanted, until I finally said "Dylan, go get the Unnnn!" He brought his blue truck over to the couch, and then I got it. Whenever we play with a car or truck, I would go "Ruunnnn"(like the cars motor revving). He can't make the "r" sound, so he says "Unnn". He went and got his dump truck, and bulldozer, and lined those up next to the blue truck, all the while saying "Unnn". I said, "Yes, those are all the Unnn's you have". Then he got up, went over to his bin of books, and took out two books that have wheels attached to them, and lined those up as well. Corrected by a one year old. Wow, it is starting early.
His newest love is playing the piano. He doesn't just sit on our lap and plunk around in one area. NO! He half stands, to get the optimum amount of oommpph when striking each and every key all the way up and down the piano! He lives for praise, so as he is playing, he is often looking at the spectators, waiting for applause.
Another thing he loves to do now is to walk in circles until he gets dizzy. I'll try to post a video of that soon. He also loves his hat. He sometimes wants to wear it in the house!
We are still working on leaving the bottle behind. He really loves his bottle, so it has been a struggle. At this point, I am only giving him one when he first wakes up, and then he gets the sippy cup the rest of the day. He is still throwing tantrums when I give it to him, but if I walk away, he usually gives in, and starts drinking. I try really hard not to laugh while he is throwing the tantrum, but it is pretty funny, so walking away is really serving two purposes!
I also have to thank Nicole, because looking at her photographs (which are awesome!), made me realize I hadn't done a photo shoot in a long time. Wow, it was tough! But, here are a couple of those, and also some snapshots I've taken recently I like..
(This last one is of my men watching the Super Bowl. Notice Dylan has his feet up, and a beverage in hand? Boys will be boys.)
