Words…
May 6, 2010
As I think some of our good friends could attest to, kids at Parker’s age are on the verge of finally talking. They want to talk. They know what they want to say, but they just can’t find the words to communicate with the world. And that is indescribably frustrating. Parker takes this frustration out on the wrong toy you hand him when he flings it to the ground, or flinging himself to the ground when you just won’t do what he wants you to do.
“If only he could talk” Zach will sometimes say. And we’ll wonder (and hope) that our son’s frustrations at the world will begin to abate as his ability to communicate improves. He’s got a few words now. He’s been able to say cat for ages. Of course Mama and Dada. He still hasn’t figured out any form of Xander or brother, but that will come. He learned “uh oh” from his best friend at school and like to use that one regularly.
This week Parker has figured out “go” and uses it all the time – usually while someone is holding him – he’ll gesture in the direction he wants and say “go”. Sometimes this works for him, and other times we tell him no (which drives him nuts).
He also can say “no” but usually when he says it, he means “yes” which can make for a rather confusing conversation if you’re not up on Parker lingo. He’s getting better at communicating, even non-verbally. These days he can walk up to you with a sippy cup and utter something entirely incomprehensible while holding up the cup and you say “oh, you’d like some more milk?” and take his cup, and now he won’t have a complete meltdown in the middle of the kitchen. He’ll just smile up at you and wait (somewhat) patiently for you to fulfill his request. Slowly but surely we’re making progress, and it’s making everyone in our house happier.
Babies don’t have many favorite activities – sleeping and eating seem to round out the list for quite a long time. Sometime around 2 or 3 months, they start to get a little more interactive. Parker has decided that his newest favorite activity is having “coo conversations”. I talk to Parker all the time, and when we make eye contact, he seems to watch what I’m doing. However, when he coos and I coo back at him, he smiles and wiggles and becomes much more engaged in the activity. This has lead to regular “coo conversations” in our house – even Xander gets involved sometimes. It’s not always the most exciting conversation, but it’s lots of fun to see how much enjoyment Parker gets from it, and as the experts say, we’re hopefully setting him up for good language and conversation skills down the road. So, for now, two languages can be heard in our house – English, and Baby Coo (though Parker is the only one who can interpret the latter…)
http://beingsara.com/feed/">Entries (RSS)
and