Owen really wanted to go outside before dinner, but we were only minutes away so we said no. So then he started saying please, which is just terribly cute and hard to resist, but we just didn’t have time. Besides, now that he knows please, I’m trying to teach him that just because he says please doesn’t mean he will get what he’s asking for.
But he kept getting more and more adamant—verging on whining and tears with every please please plase—when I heard what I swear was “I said please!” in a very anguished little voice.
Well, how could you not be swayed by that? Is your heart made of steel? Have you no soul?
He just started counting on his own, so I asked him to count again. You might have to turn the volume up towards the end, but he does count from one to ten!
We were getting ready for dinner and Owen disappeared…and it was quiet. I know: OH NO! So we went on the hunt, and found him…sitting in front of the fish tank! He had pulled over a chair directly in front of it and climbed up…and he was just watching the fish…and chattering. So cute!
This is Owen’s version of octagon. He started saying it last night (of course, after I already posted his new words for the week!) and we couldn’t believe our ears! I tried getting him to say it this morning, and of course he’s super quiet about it today—but if you listen VERY closely you can hear it.
The sound a dog makes—woof!
The sound a cat makes—meow!
Moon—not sure where he picked it up, but he knows it!
Kite—he saw it on WordWorld then recognized it in an Elmo book.
After lunch, I was counting Owen’s fingers as I cleaned them: “One, two, three, four, five”—and he finished (in his own enunciation, of course) “sih, sehv, ay, nigh, teh!”
I decided to finally make a list of the words Owen knows—just for the fun of it, as well as knowing that the pediatrician will ask how many words he knows at his 24 month appointment and I’d like more than a guesstimate.
These are all that I can think of off the top of my head—I’m sure I’m forgetting some. Of course, most of them aren’t enunciated perfectly, but we can tell what he’s saying.
Letters A-Z (so, technically 26 words)
Numbers 1-10 (10 words)
ball
balloon
bear
bee
bike
bird
boat
boot
bug
cake => He just spouted that one last night when looking at a picture! car
cat
cow
dad
dog
done
door
duck
fire truck
fish
flower
frog
heart
hi
ice cream
mom
no
pig
sheep
shoe
sky
snow
socks
star
sun
train
tree
truck
water
He is also getting better at finding letters when you ask him: “Owen, where’s the G?” and he’ll look at all the letters on the refrigerator until he finds it. Or when you tell him to find his milk, he will. He has also successfully pointed out Big Bird, Oscar, and Grover.
Owen is picking up more and more words. It’s so fun to hear him say something and you realize he’s referring to something new! Since we’ve been on vacation, he’s said: ice cream, boat, done, bee, train, and door. And I am sure I’m forgetting some.
Before we left, he was saying (and recognizing) shoe, bird, car, and bike among others. And again I’m sure I’m forgetting some.
I knew I should have written them down AS he said them. 😮
Owen has loved WordWorld for quite some time. Recently, however, he has been saying some of the character names when they come on screen, and it’s soooo cute. Dog was first (Dah), then Duck (Duh), and now Frog (Fraw). On a sidenote, he can recognize frogs in other cartoons as well!
So we have some WordWorld books, and this morning I pointed to Pig in a book and asked Owen who it was and he said “Pih” and then I pointed to Ant and he said “Ahn” so he knows them now, too!
Since Owen still isn’t talking, we have been talking about getting him tested at his 18 month checkup—just so we know if it’s something we should be concerned about or if he’s still in a safe range. The testing is free, and if it calms our worries, there’s nothing wrong with it. Anyway, I think Owen heard us talking about getting him tested, because he’s started with the words. :>>
He has been saying “ball” all the time (although it comes out more like baaaah) but over the past few weeks, he’s started attempting to say some numbers and letters (like when following along to Sesame Street or when we count). It started when I was out shopping and Tom was home with Owen and they were watching Sesame Street. Tom SWORE that he was counting along kinda under his breath: wah, too, fee, for, fii, sih, seh, ay, etc. 8| Of course once I got home he didn’t do it.
But that weekend I was headed to Grayling (just me and Owen since Tom had to work) and damned if he didn’t count with us that weekend. Still nothing major or DISTINCT, but when you’re counting one-two-three and he says fawr or fooooor it’s obviously four…and when you get to eight and he says ayyyyyy…we’re pretty sure it’s eight. Close enough, anyway. And sometimes when they are concentrating on the Letter of the Day, he will say it with them.
EDITED 8/5 TO ADD THIS VIDEO:
But just as we get excited about it, he doesn’t seem to be saying anything new or getting better (and everything he sees is baaaaa)…so we will still make an appointment to get him tested. Just in case.
So for probably a month or so, when Owen gets cranky or whiny or hurt, it sounds like he is saying “mama…mamamama…mama” but even though we love hearing it, we know he’s not really truly saying it.
Yesterday, when Tom was playing ball with him (with his new hoop) he swears Owen would call the ball his “ba ba.”
So today we were at the pool and were playing with the ball and hoop there. There were quite a few other kids so we took our turn then left the ball and went to the other pool. But Owen did NOT want to go and kept his eye on the balls. He would try climbing up on us to see them. It was sooo cute. After about 10 minutes of us trying to distract him, I swear I heard “mama…baba” and he pointed.
So, I consider those his kinda sorta first gibberish words…
Here is what Owen looked like this morning when I went in to check on him! Obviously I didn’t swaddle him tight enough during his 5am feeding/diaper change! So cute!
And then this is what happened the next time I went in, when I heard him making noise…just listen to the noise when he sucks his fingers!
And then this is what we looked like after mom had her shower and Owen was dressed (Go State!)!
And of course he was totally adorable this morning, because he was a total PITA at 4am when I got up to feed him. Fussed and squawked and fought me every step of the way when I tried to lay him down again. Ugh.
But the good thing? He slept about 7.5 hours. ❗
But the bad thing? He went down EARLY—at 8:30!—and we weren’t tired at all, so we didn’t go to bed until almost 10:30…so I really only got about 5 hours of sleep. |-|
But wait. I didn’t even get that much, because we had the windows open trying to cool down the house (since it got to 80° yesterday) and it started blowing so fiercely about 1:30am that it woke me up and kept me up (along with hearing Little Mr. Noisemaker down the hall in his room—we left his door open and opened his window to cool it off, since it was 78° in there when we put him to bed…plus having his door open let the noise travel much easier).
Then I started worrying that maybe it was too cool in his room or it was too noisy with the window open—and maybe he was making noise because he really was hungry (he had been sleeping 5.5 hours at that point, after all)—so after tossing and turning for 20 minutes thinking about it, I finally got up and shut his window. Oh, and he had fallen asleep again so he really wasn’t hungry.
Of course, then I probably didn’t fall asleep for another half hour. And then guess who wanted to eat at 4am? And then wouldn’t go down? And then finally went down about 5am? And then guess who was up bright and early, totally wide awake and cooing away at 6:30am??
