And Now Back To Our Regular Programming

Hi!

Look at that. I'm communicating. I'm saying "Howdy" to you. Hmmm... Pretty neat trick, huh?

Bet you never thought of it as neat trick. We just do it over and over everyday.

"Good morning."

"Want some coffee?"

"Does my breath smell? What about my armpits? Tell me the truth, should I take a shower?"

We can communicate in simple ways, like waving "hi", and in more complex ways.

In fact life really would be pretty lonely if this interaction didn't exist. Think about it. We would all just be islands. Standing there separately. Alone. In our bedrooms. Sniffing our own armpits.

How horrible.

No wonder Dashy has been making every effort lately to reach out and touch someone. (As the old AT&T slogan used to say.)

Dash knows about 4 or 5 signs and he has been starting to multi-purpose them like crazy to keep the conversation going. He does "hi" (and says it too) which is a vertical palm and left to right wrist movement. And he does "bye bye". (Verticle palm, up and down wrist.) Bye bye has now also morphed into him being done with something or wanting something stop. Like he's done playing outdoors or in the pool or it's time to close up the sandbox.

Dash also knows "all done". As in "all done with dinner." Which is good because it has stopped the tantrums to get out of the highchair. (Although many times now meals end much, much sooner that I would like.) And "all done" can also mean all done with a toy or a book or bathtime. Or it can mean his bottle is empty, as in "all gone". (Yes, the weaning is going veeeery slowly.)

And he knows "sleep" which he uses to indicate he's tired. But it has also morphed into "soft". Instead putting his hand to his head and leaning his head to the side, he puts his head to the object to indicate that it is "soft". As in the stuffed bunny is soft or the blanket is soft or the touch and feel book is soft. And he also uses it for something that he likes. But in this case, to show affection, he brings the object to his shoulder and leans his head on it and smiles. (Unless it's our dog or cat, in which case he just puts his head on them and smiles.) He uses it to show he likes his new bath toy or a stuffed animal or his sandbox shovel.

Dashy definitely has very defined opinions and he will point to what he wants and if you don't guess right he will shake his head violently and then point again and grunt and then repeat the process until you guess correctly. You know you have succeeded because he does a little fake laugh when you pick up the desired object. (Oh, how somedays I am dying to hear that fake laugh after striking out way too many times!)

Every night (unless he's too tired) we have storytime before he goes to sleep. (I have read I Am A Bunny and The Mitten waaaay too many times. Gotta say..."Amazon I'm comin'. Look out!") We've been reading books to him since he was itty, bitty but it has recently become a lot more fun. Now in all of his favorite books, he has things he likes to point out and "talk" about. Like one day I told him about how frogs jump and now when he sees a frog in an illustration he points to it and bounces up and down to show me that it is a frog. Or in one book when all the animals fly through the air (don't ask... the big bear sneezes) you can see the tongues on a couple of them. So he points to the tongues and darts his own tongue in and out of his mouth going "la, ler, la, ler, la, ler." And of course there's the "go, go, go" that's always an integral part of Go, Dog, Go.

And you already know allllll about "up" and the planes.

It's fun, I have to say. I'm definely digging this new phase. I love that he really, really wants to "talk". To have a back and forth conversation. Everyday it's something new. In the last couple days we've been comparing real objects (the banana he's having for breakfast or our cat) to objects in a book or a magazine that we happen to be looking at at the same time. Sure I did it first, but he's beginning to make it his own. I guess this is one of the rewarding parts of motherhood. (It definely helps to off set the shellshock of the 15 minute inconsolable screaming, thrashing, crying while standing upside down on his head tantrums that have starting happening with somewhat alarming frequency! Teething much?!)

So for tonight, I'll just put those nasty incidences out of my mind and drift off to sleep happily dreaming of the delightful conversations we had today and the ones that are to come.