Vocabulary Explosion! And a General Update!

The Boys are 16 Months Old

Wow! We’ve come a long way since last week when the boys clearly exclaimed “bubble” when reading through their bubble book.

We have, with perhaps a little bit of uncertainty, "dog", "kitty", "ball", "hi", “book”, “apple”, “milk” or “more” (can’t tell which), "so big", and last but not least “apple juice”! Why we don’t have “no” yet I don’t question (although both boys shake their head no). “Mama” and “dada” are questionable but Hubby seems to think that the boys are familiar.

The boys are clearly understanding more and starting to understand the world around them. I stumbled across a BabyCenter article today that nailed their behavior exactly (I’m having trouble finding it now). They’re right on track for their adjusted age. In fact, the pediatrician heard G-Dawg say “book” the other day and she was so excited and said that she thinks that he’s going to catch up soon!

It makes me wonder what the world was like for G-Dawg. How is the world perceived through the eyes of a delayed child? Do they see what a typical child would see or are things fuzzier?

This is probably a good opportunity to catch up on what the boys have been up to lately (besides getting sick).

J-Man
J-Man is pointing like crazy to everything. It’s often a guessing game since there’s so much stuff lying around. How we keep the place from looking like a tornado hit it, I’ll never know. J-Man gets frustrated easily, like he always has. That kid’s personality was set from day 1.

He’s 100% mama’s boy. If he’s not sitting in my lap, he wants to be picked up. Then put down, then picked up again. Poor Hubby. As many sleepless nights as he’s spent with J-Man, J-Man just wants to go to me and nearly hops from Hubby’s arms to mine.

J-Man’s latest thing is climbing. He will step up on or climb on anything. Last night he finally started getting onto the couch himself. He’s a little too short so it’s a struggle for him. He’ll put one leg up and look at me and go “eh”, asking for a boost. Then he’ll get back down and do it all over again.

It’s frustrating taking J-Man out of the house. As soon as he learned to hold onto my hand, he decided that he wants to let go and run around everywhere, particularly on pavement (he seems to have a grass aversion) and wants to go up and down curbs. He’s stepping onto the stool we have in the living room and on anything that will give him a boost.

J-Man still has a love of tubes and bottle. He loves walking around with them and discovering things in my purse. He’s an expert stacker but still can’t distinguish shapes to get them through the shape sorter. Yesterday he took everything out of my wallet. He’s abandoned his love of books. Unfortunately, G-Dawg loves books and J-Man will grab them out of his hands and rush to the corner of the room with a maniacal smile, waiting for G-Dawg’s reaction.

The practical use of phones and combs are becoming apparent to J-Man. He puts my cell phone (and the video monitor) against his ear. He touches the comb to his head. Now he’s obsessed with spoons and forks, tapping them inside bowls and on plates, trying to imitate me.

G-Dawg
Speaking of books, we’ll be in the living room and G-Dawg will crawl all the way to the nursery to pull the books off the shelf and flip through them. It doesn’t matter that they’re the same pile of books, they never get old. Now he’ll point to the pictures in the picture books and say “e”, as if to ask what the pictures are called. I’m curious to know how many words he actually understands.

One of G-Dawg’s favorite games is when we sit in front of him and roll the ball back and forth. He doesn’t have a competent throw but often manages to get the ball going in the right direction. Ever since he’s seemed to understand the word “ball”, he gets super excited when we take it out and squeals and flaps with delight.

G-Dawg’s definitely catching up but still sort of acts more like a baby than a toddler. He flaps his arms and does some other random stuff. He does look to see if we’re paying attention to what he’s doing so my worries of autism are much less so nowadays.

I was starting to call G-Dawg aloof recently when my mom corrected me. “He’s independent”, she said. Perhaps she’s right. It’s not that he doesn’t care what we think but he’s not attached. He doesn’t get stranger anxiety and is perfectly happy flipping through books or playing with his activity cube (another favorite toy of his). Apparently, this is just how Hubby was when he was little. His parents didn’t have to worry about getting into trouble or breaking things. If it weren’t for J-Man, we probably wouldn’t have to baby proof much and that has nothing to do with the fact that he has gross motor delays.

G-Dawg has, however, taken to swiping and hitting us in the face. Occasionally there’s a grab and I’m reminded that his nails need to be trimmed. He shouts at J-Man when J-Man takes something from him too. Hubby worries that G-Dawg has some strange behavioral issues (he used to worry that J-Man had behavioral issues).

Eating
I also read on BabyCenter that concerns about toddlers not weighing enough are common because they seem to eat relatively little. Amen to that!

J-Man no longer picks out the food that he wants. If there’s one thing he doesn’t like (e.g. veggies and just about everything else), all of the food goes on the floor. He tests the food on the tip of his tongue before putting it in his mouth. Sometimes it has to be dropped on the floor and picked back up (another test?) to determine if it’s worthy. G-Dawg often just takes a few bites before vehemently shaking his head “no”.

I’m running out of food ideas. Things that used to work, such as pancakes, no longer work. Sometimes they like pasta, sometimes they don’t. Why they can seem fine with a meal one minute then reject it the next is beyond me.

Meals take forever, even though I try to give them simple foods. I have to make the food, cut it up, monitor their eating (i.e. preventing food from going the floor and encourage them to eat), clean up and wipe the trays. God forbid there’s sauce involved. That’s in between the 10 other things that we do in the morning and at night.

At least snacks are a little easier. Fruit is great, even dried blueberries. Unfortunately, cheerios and animal crackers no longer get them excited.

The good news is that J-Man’s pincer grip is getting better and better, so if he drops something on the floor, it’s usually deliberate!

Milk is no longer like gold in our household. The boys sip at it. I think that we exposed them to too much juice when they were sick. G-Dawg *can* drink from a 12+month cup, but he won’t usually do it. Yup, they still prefer a bottle.