Fun at Target

Liam had a great time exploring Target last night and trying on some merchandise :)

 

Playing in the basement.  When Liam sees this picture he says "Down.  Ball."

Pivotal Moments

Liam enjoys a bubble bath by putting the bubbles all over his head

Liam comes to the rescue of his friend before she is cooked by the witch.  One of a few such scenes at a local farm where we got a pumpkin and some expensive apples.

About a week ago, Liam started putting words together in two-word phrases.  The phrases take the form "no kitty" or "bye-bye daddy."  The leading word in these phrases is called a pivot word - it can be used in many contexts preceded or followed by an open word (e.g. bye-bye daddy, bye-bye mommy, bye-bye kitty).  These short phrases are referred to as "telegraphic" speech because they resemble the short-cut wording of a telegram.

He's really interested in letters now and will point out an M, O, etc. in random words that we see.  He identifies yellow (la-lellow) and blue.  At first, I thought he might be red-green color blind, but he can point to the right color when asked, he just doesn't seem to be able to say those colors.

Sitting in a stroller can be a real drag, so Liam has taken to walking along with us while we push an empty stoller (which is just a bit slower).  Here he is preparing to walk the dog:

Mommy was recruited to add the video, so while I was here, I thought I would also share this picture, which shows what a difference a year can make. You can see from last year at the farm, he was not only smaller, but he didn't get the "put your head in a circle" thing. This year, he even smiled for the camera.

Number of signs, words and phrases Liam can express over time (months old).

Spoiler Alert!

 

    We've put a big emphasis on communication for a long time with Liam.  We reward him for communicating calmly and effectively by giving him what he wants when he asks for it.  This has led to at least two things: Liam's ability to communicate very well, and Liam's expectation that he gets whatever he wants! Recently, we've begun to feel that he's started to get a bit bossy :)  The other night, he asked for his dog pajamas by doing the sign for dog and saying 'woof woof' while we were changing him.  Usually, we would comply, but the recent cold weather doesn't fit well with a t-shirt for bed time, so we wanted to put him in warmer pjs.  This was not acceptable to his highness, who definitely let us know.  After much protest, we got him into his warm pjs and then put his dog pajamas on top :)

    Sometimes, Liam doesn't even have to try.  We just loved this wooden train set our neighbors have, so we got it (for Liam, not Daddy ;). 

Signing and Saying

Liam can now sign about 45 words and say about 24 (depending on what you count as a word and assuming I'm remembering everything). His signs are focused on animals, objects and requests, while his words are more focused on people (although animals and statements are close behind). Of all his words, there are only 7 that he can't also sign and they're almost all names, colors and letters, which are a bit more abstract. His words basically consist of the vowel sounds plus B, D, H, M and N.

I'm very glad we tried sign language with Liam since it has clearly enabled him to communicate with us much more than he can with words alone. I'd imagine this leaves him less frustrated than he would have been, but who knows? His vocabulary is very strongly centered around nouns (the verbs he knows like eat and sit are more focused on the nouns involved - like the food or the end-state of sitting - than the actions themselves). Grouping people with animals makes the focus on living things quite clear too. He's also picked up on the names of things before the attributes (e.g. ball before yellow). His spoken vocabulary is limited by the sounds he's capable of making, and his signs are also limited by the dexterity of his hands (yellow, sheep and water all involve more difficult hand shapes).

Here are the lists of words I'm counting so you can judge for yourself whether they "count" as words :)  Drum-roll please....

Signs:
Animals (13) : cat, dog, fish, lion, bird, pig, monkey, horse, cow, owl, bear, turtle, giraffe
Objects (11): moon, book, light, phone, bath (tub), fan (ceiling), ball, "that" (pointing), shoes, car, plane
Requests (10): help, open, pick-me-up, more, eat, drink, milk, please, down, sit
People (1): daddy, mommy
Statements (6): no (head shake), yes (head nod), all-done, bye, blow a kiss, hi/bye (wave)
Numbers (1): one
Colors (1): orange
Food (2): apple, banana

Says:
People (~6): Dada, Mama, Ady (friend Adeline), Baby (himself in a picture, or other babies), Debbie, Mommy, Daddy, Bobo (one of his grandfathers)
Animals (5): Ditty (for Kitty), 'oof (for dog), Moo (for cow), Raaar (lion roar), Baa (for sheep)
Statements (4): Bye, No, Hi, Uh-oh
Objects (3): Ba'a (Ball), Bone (dog's bone), 'Aoom (for car's vroom), Boo'oo (Pool)
Requests (2): Mo'h (More), num-num (for food)
Colors (2): B'oo (Blue), Yeddow (Yellow)
Sounds (1): A-choo (to fake a sneeze)
Letters (1): B

Shoe Fetish

Until a month ago, despite our wishes, Liam has not found himself a lovey (a creature comfort he can turn to when feeling sad and abashed). Finally, Liam has found himself a lovey: his shoes. These shoes are now one and a half sizes too small, are incredibly smelly and he can't get enough of them. He will find them in the closet and want to put them on. He refuses all other shoes and when we bought him new shoes, he said "no, no, no" over and over and eventually ripped them off.

These shoes have finally taken their last steps. I have hidden them away and bought new awesome shoes; they are even named Liam. He doesn't love them, but he might learn to tolerate them. Sometimes, I think taking a pacifier away would have been easier.

In addition to his love for his own sandals, Liam enjoys looking in our shoe closet and taking out shoes so that he can return them to their rightful owner. He will carry shoes the size of his torso around until he can give them to his Daddy or Mommy to put on.

A note from Liam

I don't know why my parents haven't posted in a while. I am obviously cuter and more interesting than ever; surely they have tons to talk about. In the last month, I have been to 2 new states (Michigan and New York), attended 2 big functions where mommy and daddy made me dress up, and have demonstrated my new communication skills--a kid can say 10 new words and yet not get a single blog post! Unfortunately, my parents didn't do a great job of taking pictures during all of these poignant times, but I will do my best to recapture some highlights. Let's start with Garvey week:

I took my first plane trip while being mobile--an extra challenge for my parents. I really like to look at planes in the sky, but once we were airborne, I quickly gave my parents the "All Done" sign. They didn't seem to get it though and they made me stay up in the air for another 90 minutes.




My Aunt Ria's un-wedding: It was a great 20's party--I am still a little skeptical that all of these people can really be related to me.








More to come--I need to get my parents to do the next post. It is exhausting watching me and trying to type on the computer.

Sweet Adeline

Liam is learning to share his house and his toys with our babysitter's daughter, Adeline--she comes part time 4 days a week now. The two were born mere weeks apart and show a blossoming friendship.


Meal times are always filled with laughter...


Enjoying the cool summer we have been having in their wagon...


Patroling the city streets together...


Trying to push each other off the couch...


But, possibly their most favorite activity is "Ring Around the Rosy" where they have mastered the "around" but are still working on the "down".