Theo has been saying many new words lately. Some new ones I hear a lot are: walk, back, done, home. I noticed in the bath tonight he said a tougher word: turtle. I’m not sure really how many words he knows, and some of the time it’s hard to know exactly what word he is saying. We can usually figure it out because he is motioning to something or pointing at a picture in a book. He still says a lot of half words. He seems to struggle a bit with the enunciation. I’m sure this will improve with time. Today I grabbed his Book of Hugs book (one of our favs!) and for the first time he said, “hug-sss”. Sort of like that, if that makes sense. And then he leaned over and hugged me. He gives hugs often and will usually do so when prompted, “can Mama have a hug?” But, it was something about him saying the word with just seeing the book, and then hugging me, which made me absolutely melt.
We have also been big on the please and thank you’s lately. He knows the signs for both so it is so wonderful to hear/see him using these. As soon as I say, “are you ready for your milk?” He looks at me, does the sign, and says, “plhheashe!”
Theo has also become more oppositional (he is loving the word, no!) these days and we have definitely had a tough time sharing with other friends. Jay and I are trying to talk a lot more about sharing at home because honestly I didn’t think about it very much. I hope he can get better at with more exposure and modeling of it at home. I think he also is just having a tough time not being able to understand/express his emotions. He is a sweet boy at heart so I can’t imagine he is just a bully. Although he had no qualms pushing a 5 yr old away from our bubbles on the playground the other day! He struggles a bit with transitions (getting in the stroller, coming up the stairs to go home, getting out of the bath) so we are working on our parenting skills in that department, too. More options and things to (hopefully) excite him enough on the other side. He very much enjoys playing with toys quietly on his own, for now anyhow. He loves his guitar.
One last thing! He is obsessed with his rubber duckie right now. He sleeps with it!