Smarty Pants

You know, I don't want to brag. Ahhh, who am I kidding? Of course I want to brag! Isn't that basically the whole point of a blog? Among it being a place to vent, ask for advice, update; but I'm gonna brag today.

Kyle's talking. Like, really talking. Okay, only a couple of words but seriously he's talking. He's been rattling off Mama for over a month and really meaning it. Like when I return to the room he's playing in, when I go to get him after a long nap, or when he's waiting not-so-patiently in his highchair for his meal. He's perfected Dada, too, and drops one of those in frequently.

"Kyle, who's that?"

"Dada!"

"Say hi to Daddy, Kyle."

"Da, da, da, Dada!"

I never get a Dada and Craig never gets a Mama. He means 'em, and I love it.

At 10 months Kyle can wave. Even when no one prompts him he'll get his little hand going; opening and shutting. Sometimes if the person is extra special he'll use two hands. Tonight as I was tucking the Bigs into bed I had Kyle in my arms and we were backing out of the room as I was saying Goodnight. Kyle came out with Bah-Bah, and waved. We've heard him use Bah or Buh before and it's often when we're referring to Beaner or Boo-Boo (our enormously huge and very friendly cat).

A couple of days ago, though, Kyle and I were saying goodbye to Craig at the door before he left for work and, I kid you not, Kyle said, "Dada, bah."

I looked at Craig, he looked at me, and we both said, "No way!". I'm beginning to believe we really heard what we both though we heard.

Kyle's also been attempting to say, Shaun. All we get out of him is a hisssss right now but it's consistently when we're talking about Shaun and saying Shaun's name to Kyle. Ian calls Shaun, Saun, so I think that may be where Kyle's connecting the ssss sound with Shaun's name.

I don't remember the other boys figuring out all this language so young. It must be that Kyle hears noise and talking from one person or another all day long. Every single waking moment there's someone around him who's speaking; either to him directly or to another person. I sing songs to the children every single day and read them countless stories. We play goofy little rhyming games and fingerplays with one another and Kyle is usually around for all of those. I guess it's all paying off!

Also, Kyle's crawling. As of November 9 (so I'm a tad behind) something sort of clicked in his head and he figured out how to co-ordinate all his extremities and that was the beginning of the end. I hadn't been encouraging him to crawl at all. In fact, often when I'd see he was up on all fours and rocking like nobody's business, I'd plunk him back on his bum and distract him with toys. The way I see it, he'll learn to crawl and walk eventually. No kid enters Kindergarten not being able to walk but many go into Kindergarten not being able to speak clearly and be understood. We've always focused more on the language and intellectual side first with our boys and let the gross motor come naturally. But this night he was determined to get something from the bath toy basket in the main bathroom and he was off. Once he realized what he'd done, it was all over. He was crawling all over the place only half an hour later. It was truly a sight and Shaun was in heaven! (Background: Shaun's been saying for months that he can't wait until Kyle can crawl so they can play together. He must forget how much of a pain it is to have his baby brother trying to get everything he's playing with!)

So that's the end of my brag session. Kyle's humongous and smiley and smart. He's an amazing napper, sleeps 12 straight hours at night and adjusts to pretty much any damn thing we need him to. Stay up until 11 because we're visiting family in Toronto? Sure. Skip a nap because his cousin wants to play? Absolutely. Wear mittens for a whole hour? No problem. Fall asleep without his suckie? Okay, that's where he draws the line. Stupid suckie. I lost one today on the walk to get Shaun at school so I only have one left. I can't find the identical soother ANYWHERE (believe me, I've checked EVERYWHERE) and he only accepts the one specific kind. Again, believe me, I've tried other kinds and he wants nothing to do with them. *sigh* Oh well. If that's the only thing that makes him cry, I'll take it!