Bablefish

Help! I need a translator! Over the last couple of weeks T's babbling has diversified. He's making a wonderful variety of articulate sound combinations ... most of which sound like complete gibberish and are totally adorable. The only actual words I've recognized are "dada", "mama", "all done", and "blue". The only letters I haven't heard now are 'j', 'q', 'r', 'x', and 'z'. It astounds me that he can string so many little sounds together so quickly. I'm sure he's talking, I just don't know what he's saying.

Despite my slowness in interpreting his astounding barrage of verbal cues, we had a huge breakthrough in communication this month. Three weeks ago, T began to point!!! Yay!!! He points all the time now. He even sometimes points when he's nursing and half asleep in the middle of the night. I love it. He loves to point at lights, and balloons, and other things he wants to touch and hold. If we follow the finger we can usually figure out what he wants. Last week he pointed me all the way from the bedroom to the drying rack in the kitchen where he retrieved a clean pacifier and put it in his mouth. When he wants something he points at it and says 'GA' ... sometimes repeatedly.

It hasn't been that long since I last blogged, but we've had so many new developments in just a few short weeks. T has been playing peek-a-boo for a while. He like to hide behind things, show his face, and say 'Haha!' I posted a video of it last month. Now he hides his eyes (or other parts of his face if he misses the eyes) under his tiny hands and pulls them off quickly just like I do. We get the 'Haha' when he does this too. What a cute little sense of humor. T's petite female friend has started imitating his deep throaty 'Haha!' The teachers were very amused when they told us about it. He's obviously a favorite among the staff. He charms people wherever we go. I know my baby is cute because complete strangers tell me so all the time. He's very accommodating to award them all with a very winning smile. He's such a flirt and he hasn't even hit a year yet. What am I going to do?

T's most recent skill is waving. He's been doing so for about a week and he waves bye quite consistently now unless he sees something he needs to point at instead.

I purchased an Educo Wonder Walker a few weeks ago and he loves it. It's super sturdy and has lots of gadgets on the frame for T to play with. As I watch him pull himself up and zip down the hall all by himself it's hard to believe that just a few short weeks ago we had to walk with him to control the speed. The walker doesn't swivel, so his next task will be to figure out how to turn it. He pulls up on everything and spans short distances between objects. He also lets go and stands on his own briefly. It won't be much longer before I'm chasing a running boy instead of a crawling baby.