The Padawan

Doug has grown by leaps and bounds since I last posted, particularly with language development. At ten months he began saying 'hi' to everyone and everything. I thought that since his first word came in under the year mark that he'd have many words by this point (nearly 15 mo. old). The only other word he's acquired is 'hot'. I think he began saying it sometime after his birthday, but I wasn't ready to give 'hot' second word status. Initially, he would only repeat it when we said it, mimicking the sounds. Because he wasn't applying it, I didn't think it should count. I know, I'm a tough cookie. Then about a month ago Doug and I were playing in the yard while Jeff was grilling. When the fire began blazing out of the grill, Doug started staring at it. He began whispering 'hot, hot'. I decided we could officially call 'hot' his second word. Since then a number of things have been 'hot'; food on the table- including salads, grills, ovens, erupting volcanoes, fireflies* and Elmo. I have to admit, Elmo is the funniest, but it gives us some in-sight as to how he classifies some things as hot- colors. Red and orange things tend to be called hot.

Then there is Doug's signing. Even though I've taken several sign language classes, I bought a book on signing with babies when Doug was about four months old. I was very excited about it, but then the idea was put on the back burner when we put our house on the market. When Doug was about ten months old, I started to feel guilty that I'd abandoned the idea of signing with him, I was worried it was too late to start. I started with a few signs, but put a lot of emphasis on the sign for 'bird'. Doug loves watching our parakeet as well as wild birds. Sure enough, he mastered the sign in a few weeks. Shortly after, he made up his own sign for lotion- both hands rubbing. Since then he's been using quite a few signs; more, all done, swing, fan, and air plane. I picked things that he has a lot of interest in. 'Swing' was the sign he mastered the fastest; in less than a week.

It's been very exciting watching Doug learn to communicate with us. At times, I swear you can hear the gears in his head turning! I can't wait to see what he'll come up with next!



*He may have eaten a firefly the other night. I pulled one out of his hair to show him. It lit up in my palm, Doug declared it 'hot' and picked it up with his fingers. He considered it for a moment and then popped it in his mouth. I have no idea if he actually ate it or not. I screamed 'NO!" and Doug fell down. I have no idea where that poor firefly went.