So we also have up (which he occasionally still confuses with butt down), pancake, bath (which he demands, while banging on his bathroom door, after Chris gets home – because Chris always gives him his baths.) Â Ah, and I already listed shoes, which excite him to no end because it means going outside, but he always says shoes on when he specifically wants… well, for someone to put his shoes on.
Gah. Â *scratching head at all the words I’m still forgetting*
A few weeks ago, we were watching “Teen Mom”. In the episode, one of the teen moms had taken her 18 month old to the pediatrician and was told that babies should be saying 10 words by 18 months. And our big Dr Sears Baby book says 15 month olds average 5-6 words. I know these aren’t hard and fast rules, but Felix is 16 months and has at least 30 words, not including the ones he repeats after us every now and then but doesn’t use with every day frequency. I haven’t been keeping track – it got to be too many to remember, but I’m attempting to make a list. (Though he seems to be doing a new one every other day, so I should update every week!)
His first clear & perfectly discernible word (or rather, phrase) was “uh-oh”. He said that months and months ago, with perfect intonation.
There’s mommy, daddy (thought “daddy” seems to be equated with the crackers in the cabinet. Is he calling his daddy a cracker?)
Nana, which he now occasionally adds the “ba” to the beginning for banana. Grape (which comes out grep.) Apple, which is pretty much spot on. Orange, which comes out “arahn”. (I think he’ll be picking up my northeastern accent for this one. “Ah-rahnje”.)
Bottle which comes out “bow”. Hot, which is usually whispered with urgency. Bye and bye bye.
Car, for which he hasn’t mastered the “r” yet and comes out “ca-y”.
Froggy, for his fuzzy frog chair and this comes out “baddy.” This was one of his first words, months ago, too.
Pee, which he occasionally does on command, in the tub! Cheese which is always cheeeeeeeeeeeeese and quiche.
No, of course. Puppy, which he equates with puppies, dogs, squirrels and now the raccoon that visits our yard.
Butt down, which means “I want to get down” and he picked up from his diaper changes. When I change him, I always lift his butt up to remove his diaper and put his butt down to snap the new diaper on. I always say “butt UP!” and then “butt DOWN!” So if he’s in your lap and wants to get down, he says, “Butt down! Butt down!” If he’s sitting on his fire truck and wants to get off, he declares, “Butt down!”
Ah-choo! after we sneeze.
“Shoes!” always said with exuberance. He loves wearing shoes. Because wearing shoes usually means going “outside!” which he also loves and which sounds like ow-sigh.
Poopy, which needs no explanation, huh? It used to sound like mumbai, but now he’s got his “p’s” down.
Indeed, which he always repeats after I say it, minus the I for ‘deed”.
Book, which he also says in Romanian (our babysitter has been teaching him Romanian words and he knows a few that I need to ask her and write down.)
Chilly, for when I tell him he needs a jacket to go outside.
There you go, because I say it all the time and sounds like “der go”.
I know I’m missing a few, trying to quickly write them all down as he says them, before I forget. Though, like I said – that’s a lot of writing down, especially since he’s adding new ones every other day!!
Oops. A lot of time has passed since my last update. The thing is, it’s a lot easier to update when they’re LITTLE and there’s not as much to say. Then one day, you wake up and OH MY GOD, THAT’S A LOT OF MILESTONES. I didn’t realize it’d be like this already. By “like this” I mean, he seems so grown up. I have to stop calling him “baby” because he’s not. He’s a little boy.
He started full-on walking right after his 1 year birthday, as predicted (by me.)
In fact, this past week it seems he discovered that he can also walk backwards and he does it often, at completely random moments. It’s pretty funny to watch.
I think his vocabulary is about to explode – he’s had his repertoire of onomatopoeia words (like “Boom!”) and “Uh-oh” was his first word, months ago. Whenever I ask him where his froggy is, he runs towards it, saying “baahdee baahdee!” He’s recently started repeating “pee!” (and even peed when I said it, in the bathtub, a few nights in a row. I still can’t tell if that was coincidence or not?)  A couple days ago it sounded like he said “monkey” after me, but not again. This morning he was playing with one of his “noisy” toys and when he pushed the yellow key and the voice sang out, “yellow!”, he said, “Yoh.”
There’s so many I’m already forgetting them all. Regardless of any words that we understand, he talks a lot.
I took him to the KidsQuest something something Museum the other day, which *I* did not like, at all. No point in mincing words, there were a lot of brats there. One kid pushed him over & away and while *I* was pissed, Felix just got up and walked away, calmly, not a care. Anytime any other kid would get in his way or grab something he was going for, he’d just change course. He’s rarely interested in objects and toys when we’re out, anyway. He just walks and walks and walks and walks around and around and around and around. I took him out of the little kids area (for crawlers and new walkers) and into the other area, where all the big kids were running around. (Luckily, it wasn’t that crowded so I didn’t have to worry about big kids running by and slamming into him.) He seemed to enjoy the “big kids” stuff a lot more. More to see, more buttons to push. And the WATER, he loved splashing his hands around in that.
But KidsQuest is an indoor area, attached to a mall, of all things – I don’t really like that atmosphere. Yesterday it was sunny and blue, so I decided we needed to get outside and took him to the zoo. *I* thought he’d enjoy looking at all the animals, but nope – what he loved was all the open space, so he walked and walked and walked and walked and turned around and around and walked and walked. He just loves to look around and observe. The one animal he was interested in was the peacock. There was a peacock running around, loose, and Felix wanted to run right up and grab it. I had to hold him back a few feet and Felix fought me the entire time, eyes glued to the peacock. For the rest of this winter season, we’re sticking to outdoor stuff. Even when we’re at home, he walks and walks and walks and walks, stopping only occasionally to flip through a book or play with his workbench.
Oh! And yesterday, the babysitter told me that she was reading to him from a book about colors. When she got to the “pink” page, he pointed to her fingernails – which were bright, bright pink. He didn’t do that with any other page. Coincidence? I think not!
I also taught him the “monkey” gesture (one hand on head, one hand scratching armpit) and the monkey, “ooh! ooh! ooh!” Now when I either make the noise or say “monkey” he makes the gesture. We’re working on elephant, next.
He’s an excellent eater. (I realize this can change and he could turn picky, but the thing is, I don’t care. We’re not going to make an issue of it, he’ll eat or not – all I care about is that what he DOES eat will be healthy. He’s not going to be one of those kids who gets picky, so we start giving him junk and processed foods just to get him to eat. I do plan on including him in meal planning and decision making as he gets older, so I think that will help.) He still loves his raw milk, which I am happy to let him drink a few times a day because it’s good for him. He also loves water – whenever I fill his sippy cup, he dances around excitedly until I hand it to him. That’s pretty much all he drinks. In the Fall, I gave him some apple cider occasionally and in the summer, I’ll give him some fresh squeeze orange juice or some such, but he eats bananas and oranges and real fruit, so why bother with sugary juices? He loves the bananas and orange slices. Apples in his oatmeal, with raisins. Pears. Strawberries. Blueberries. I’ve started making baked oatmeal, so that we make it once and just heat it up every morning, he enjoys that with a little raw honey and yogurt.  He likes quiche (this morning he had some broccoli cheddar quiche with his oatmeal). Oh my god – he does not like cheese. This befuddles me. How can you not like cheese? *shrug*
People have said things to us like, “Oh, just wait until he’s such and such age and he’s got personality!” I want to ask them what’s wrong with their kid, but this one has had big personality from the get go.
We (I?) waffle back and forth about having another one. One one hand, sure. On the other hand – Felix has kind of set an impossibly high standard. He is such an easy going, independent kid. He amuses himself all day (sometimes pushing me away if I try to play with him – just like he does if I try to help him over a small obstacle when walking, “I can do it myself!!”) and he sleeps from 8-9:30 in the morning!!!! If he didn’t nap much the previous day, he’ll sleep till around 9. But otherwise, he averages around 8:30. My worst nightmare, when thinking about having children, was of having to get up at 6 am every day. UGH. What are the odds of getting another one that sleeps until after 8am??? What are the odds of having another one that is so easy and independent as this one?
And CUTE? I know his cuteness is because of his genes, but c’mon – I think we used up every ounce of cute available on this one.
This is more like it – click here to hear the Nugget happy noises.
Chris has been recording our little Nugget’s many noises. Of course, of all the happy sounds & cooing he recorded, he sends me Cranky Nugget, first. Click here to listen.