The Growing Chatter...

I've been musing on this one & wanted to share it for the greater ponderings, I suppose. Had I never had a child, I would never have truly appreciated the ABSOLUTE miracle of language acquisition. It's one thing to read it in a textbook (and I have). It's an absolute OTHER thing to witness it, first-hand, and fathom the minutia of changes that have to occur for all the pieces to fall into place when they're supposed to. I'm telling you ~ there aren't words to aptly describe it, but I delight in it each day as I'm chatting with B.

His current milestone is the inclusion of linking/helping/"being" verbs, call them what you may. All of a sudden, within the past week (or two?), I hear: "My diaper is NOT wet." "I am NOT tired yet." "B would like a fruit snack PLEASE." "ARE YOU TIRED? Need to go to beddie?" over the monitor as he wakes up: "MOMMA, where AAAAAAAARRRRREEEEE YOUUUUUU?" "Mom, are you making DINNER? What ARE you making for dinner???" Unreal.

What kicked me also was when the questions started, so did the little vocal lilt. As a fluent speaker, I'm never cognizantly aware of raising my voice at the punctuation mark that denotes I'm asking a question; I just do. Furthermore, raising your voice isn't something that we explicitly TEACH when we're teaching our kids to talk; well, I didn't! :) Yet, he has this little toddler lilt, almost sing-songy, and it's unmistakeably going to be a question when it pops out of his mouth. UNBELIEVABLE.

Just to WATCH how language unfolds is a joy & a miracle. Yes, I'm an education/psychology nerd @ heart, I can't help that it fascinates me, but how can it NOT?!

Ha ~ his next language step is a funny one. He's got personal pronouns. He just can't yet associate them gender-appropriately. :) Today at the park, he repeatedly talked about his little friend, M, who he will tell you as a girl, and said: "Momma, his shirt is pretty." Explaining that one as the six-yr old girl pushed his swing was a different matter, but it'll all come soon enough!

DUCKS

Though I've mentioned it fleetingly in the past, I have to devote an entire entry to the phenomenon that's rocking our house. That would be ~ DUCKS. B LOVES ducks. He has for quite some time after his very early ducks akin to those found in Bath & Body:



to one of his newest acquisitions, "Cutie" as he dubbed him, an early Easter gift:


to his now, much beloved [I'd say favorite] "Sunlight" duck, who goes with him EVERYWHERE, including his crib. I pondered the extreme loyalty & love for such creatures @ 1:30 this morning as I balanced on my hips on the front rails of his crib, to reach over & THROUGH the back rails of his crib (up against the wall), to retrieve said duck from the floor, where he inevitably falls during the course of B's sleeping. (Mind you: This one's only 1 1/2" tall, so retrieving a mini-size duck who's ONLY that big @ 1:30 a.m., while balancing on one's pelvis is more of a feat than what it might sound!!) :) But, he loves him.

Sunlight:


I just have to shake my head, though, at the things these little people fall in love with that we absorb in due time. Makes me laugh. If I counted all of the ducks in our house, I'm sure we'd have at LEAST two dozen (and that might be a GROSS underestimation), including his assortment of rubber ducks, fire ducks, etc. I laughed even harder when, the other day, he found Easter socks I'd purchased QUITE awhile ago, then tucked away & forgot I'd even gotten them for Easter. I hear, "THESE SOCKS HAVE DUCKS!" Needless to say, they were on the feet in 3 min. or less:


SO, there ya have 'em. I want to get a picture of ALL of the ducks, just for posterity's sake, but now you know the truth: my little man loves ducks!

Why we love our pediatrician...

They know me. They know my son. That's enough for me to begin, but the last 24 hours have me REALLY loving Step-by-Step Pediatrics!! (www.stepbysteppediatrics.com)

First, enter my son's little accident from yesterday a.m. ~ dropping a rather smallish, but heavy padlock on his big toe. Good news was that, though it's black, it's NOT swollen, the nail's not bubbling up, so he didn't have to have it drained. Good thing ~ they would have been scraping my rear off the floor.


Thinking we were all good, last night he went to bed, no complaint, then 12:30 woke up gagging for breath, hysterical because he couldn't breathe, and coughing so hard he was nearly vomiting. Yeah for Round #20+ of croup. Gotta love it. Only thing I DID love was that we're fully stocked w/ albuterol, pulmacort, and an oral steroid to get it under control so we don't have to repeat the 9-1-1 from LAST April. *sigh*

SO, this a.m., here we were:


Again, GOD BLESS Susan & the crew @ Step by Step for calling, 2nd a.m. in a row, to make sure I was OK w/ a 5 mo old script, figuring out dosaging from an unusual 1 a.m. dose, etc. etc. ugh!!! I love a Dr's office who will still cheerfully help you, numerous days in a row, when you need!!

Grand scheme of things, we're hanging in ~ he's cheerful and has his normal piss & vinegar, so things shouldn't get ugly, and if they DO, hopefully we're ahead of the game enough that we'll be golden.

On Occasion of Grammie & Grampie...

Another reason I've been OFF the blog habit, as of late, is because we've had the occasion for a houseful of visitors, namely Grammie & Grampie as they drove out to AZ...and flew...





for their NEW HOUSE IN AZ!!!!!! HOORAY!!!!!



After an ordeal w/ realty, indeed, the house is theirs and they'll be abiding in-state half of the year to help w/ their little B & watch the little man grow!! Yeah!!!!!

EASTER!!!

Our newest "addition" to the family for Easter ~ B LOVES his "cutie duck" as he dubbed him, hopefully little J likes his cutie II too!



Fun @ M&J's for the boys' Easter Egg Hunt!!

Boy Things...

This has become a weekly ritual in our house. NOTE for the nervous viewers @ home, B has one sans a razor blade, don't be worried. He LOVES "Daddy shave" time!

a MONTH?!

How has it been a month since the last post? UGH. Time has flown with all that's hit the fan. Here are a few fun pix from our photo shoot last night w/ Darcy Jacobs Martin (LOVE HER! www.darcylynphotography.com) to start to get the ball rolling again! Hope more updates will be soon to come?!