Slowly Growing Up

Its amazing to see what happens with a child once the language barrier is crossed and understanding of the English language starts to settle into a little one's mind.  Yes, I am talking about our son again.  While he may not be able to say that many words yet, he understands a lot more than he lets on.   His vocabulary is still rather limited with perhaps a dozen words in his repertoire, yet his curiosity about the language is boundless.   He still studies our lips every time we talk to try and figure out exactly how to make different sounds and pronounce different words.  He loves to flip through books and point at different objects to learn what they are and as he has been doing this for some time now, he is getting a better grasp of what animals are which, what different symbols look like, and can now point them out when asked.  He has one of those farm animal things with the arrow that spins in the middle when you pull a lever (its called a see and say, but I don't know the exact technical term) and he can point out what almost every animal is when asked to point to one.  In terms of animals, he knows probably a dozen or more.  Its amazing to think that just a year ago none of this would have been possible; the running around, the meager understanding of the world that he is now exhibiting, the personality.  Yet here we are with a toddler who has a mind of his own yet is also becoming very helpful when asked to do certain small tasks.  While still a little nutcase (takes after his father), he is becoming more and more settled and understands more and more which makes it easier on us.  If only he could communicate his thoughts and desires we would all be in a better position.  For now, though, we will just have to do our best to figure out his desires through his grunts and inaudible words that he thinks should be perfectly understandable.  Its funny sometimes when he looks at us intently, says something that sounds like total gibberish, and yet he is so determined that we understand what he is saying that he says it over and over despite our lack of understanding.   Not that he is capable of this following thought process, but it must be frustrating on his part to be able to understand what we are saying yet not have us understand what he is saying all the time.  I can just imagine him saying to himself, "you thick headed parents, what I am saying makes perfect sense, just listen!"

 

But life is not that simple.  For us to learn and understand baby talk would take a lot longer than it will for him to learn and speak the English language.  So for now, we are stuck, at least a little bit.   I mentioned above that he is now capable of understanding and completing certain simple tasks when asked to do so.  I absolutely love this by the way.  In the evenings before bed, we ask him to help us put his blocks and a few other toys away.  Despite the fact that he still wants to play and not really go to bed, he does help pick up his blocks and put them in the basket.  If we let him pick up all the blocks right now it would probably take an hour, so for now we help him out.  Its funny to watch him because he must take all the blocks apart before they go into the basket.  If he sees any blocks in the basket that are not taken apart, he will reach in, separate them, and place them back in the basket.  It is just too cute and adorable.  Yesterday, before we even got to the blocks, I was flipping through a small book with him and when he was done with it, I asked him to please go put it back where he found it.  He paused, processed my request, and then ran into the kitchen to put the book back on the counter.  If he finds little bits of garbage on the floor that escape our notice, he picks them up and hands them to us to throw away or actually walks over to where the garbage can is in our kitchen and throws them away himself.  He also knows which side of the under sink cabinet the recycling bin is located on and when asked to put something in there, he either tries to open it himself despite the child locks on it or waits for us to open it for him.  There is something to be said for having at least a semblance of order in the house.  Even in his room, where his toys have been greatly reduced, if he takes a toy out now, he will put it back where it was most of the time.  However, when he is in his room, most of the time he just wants to read books.  It is always the same two or three books, but he can sit for quite some time in either my wife's or my lap reading and looking at pictures.  I couldn't be happier.  And all of this has occurred without any technological help of any kind.  He still has not played with an iPhone or computer and the only time he has seen a TV is when it is not in our house.  Even then, he gets bored with the TV and goes in search of any toys to play with. 

I love this age so much more than when he was only 6 months old and just a breathing, wriggling, lump of flesh.  Now is when it is getting fun.  In the mornings when my wife is ready to leave with him for daycare, I have taken to walking him out to the care both to help out my wife and to see him off.  Every day, he wants to leave before we are ready, however, when we actually do leave, I go into our mudroom, grab him his shoes and ask him to go sit on his stool so we can put his shoes and jacket on.  Without hesitation, he runs over and plops himself down on his stool and starts trying to put his shoes on himself.  Despite the effort, he is not quite ready for that endeavor and I walk him through the process every morning of how to put his shoes on.  Then, when we get into our mudroom and I start to put my boots on, he helps me out.  He takes my slippers off and throws them on the tray we have for our shoes and boots and if I don't already have my boots in front of me, he hands them to me.  The cutest part is, if the slippers don't land entirely on the shoe tray, he picks them up and places them so they are on top of each other on the tray.  Then he points to our jackets hanging on the wall and urges me to put mine on.  It is amazing to watch how his understanding of the world expands every day and his knowledge of even simple things grows.  He still has his moments of frustration, but those mostly come when he is tired and can't handle himself or the world anymore.  As such, we like to keep it simple for him.   Perhaps the coolest part of our morning routine is the fact that he likes to try and brush his teeth himself.  When we go into the bathroom to brush our teeth, I hand him his toothbrush and he immediately goes to run it under the water before sticking it in his mouth and moving it around.  Once it is in his mouth, I hold his hand and guide him in brushing his teeth.  I never yank it out of his hands because if I do, he will refuse to have his teeth brushed at all.  I must help him or it doesn't get done.  Talk about a mind of his own and being strong willed.  Gee, I wonder where he gets that from.  In any case, this is the time that I love.  Despite the occasional ornery toddler, he is a joy to have and I love every second I spend with him.