First, Rachel got her second tooth today. Yay!!! Go Rachel. Also we went to the mall playland and as soon as we got to it, she was so excited. She went and crawled around. She even got fallen over a couple times, but didn't care, she just kept on moving.
More to the point. Spencer is talking. Seriously talking. He's been repeating everything I say for awhile. It was starting to scare/annoy me. So I started saying a few days ago, if you're going to repeat me, you're going to say it correctly. So I would use his mimicking as a device to improve his pronunciation. He repeats, I repeat more clearly, he repeats more clearly, I enunciate more, he repeats more clearly, etc. So wow this has worked. But also, he has started to talk more and more on his own. Well maybe not so much more, but more clearly and repeating himself until I understand. Examples:
- Thursday: He said 'mommy, mommy' very clearly to get my attention when I didn't give it readily.
- Friday: He said 'mommy, daddy' to get our attention at bedtime to let us know he'd pooped.
- Friday: He said 'go play' because he wanted to go to the park after dinner like we'd done the last two nights.
- Saturday: He said so many things, 'want out' when he wanted out of the stroller.
- Saturday: He answered many questions and not just with the last word I spoke (which has been the case for a long time now). So 'milk or juice?' was answered with 'milk' - which was also clearer than usual. 'Want to go or play more?', he said 'go'.
- Saturday: When he was in bed and I went to check on him, I said "are you sleepy?" and then I automatically said 'yes' and he said 'yes' in imitation, then seemed to realize and said 'no, no'. I told Mike that we are in trouble lol.
I could go on and may very well come back and update more for my personal memorie keeping as I remember them. It just seems like the light bulb has finally switched on and he's talking. Multiple words, usually one or two, but sometimes more. I taught him to answer his name and age when asked. He couldn't do that 3 days ago. And once when he said Spencer is was crystal clear. Just once, but still, that's huge progress.
So, I want to write this just in case it continues over the next few days, months, etc. However I'm scared to write this because if it doesn't I'm going to be disappointed. So I'm documenting, but not getting excited. Just answering yes or no would be a priceless gift at this point.
And he's also engaging other kids and adults more and more each day. He seems to find a playmate at every playground we go to. He and this other little girl were running around our house screaming and screeching at each other on Friday. If my head wasn't pounding so hard, it would have been incredibly adorable ;o).
Also for the record, in the same last few days, Rachel has become able to imitate different sounds very clearly. She says 'hi' and 'uh-oh' spontaneously and can say ball, bottle, mama, dada, and a bunch of others when prompted. Coincidence, I think not. ;o).
Oh yeah, Rachel said her first word, I totally glossed over it just then. The other day she said 'hi' to me when I walked into her room. She's said it again a couple times, but nothing consistent. She's also said 'uh-oh' at appropriate times spontaneously in the past week or so ('hi' was first - she's my social butterfly). Poor Rachel, I have no idea what Spencer's first word was because of his delay and things being so jumbled, but her first word - which should be even more precious b/c of Spencer's issues - I almost glossed over as if it was unimportant. It was not and is not. She is growing up so fast. She's starting to try to point to things, and wants food over bottle for hunger, though bottle is good for comfort still. She's not liking milk so much in the sippy, though she loves juice. She is starting to reject the bottle though, so I think transitioning won't be too big of a deal (famous last words?). Not in hurry to walk, though, it doesn't seem, but as I've said many times, I'm cool with that. When she was really tiny I couldn't wait for her to walk, but as that milestone gets closer, I'm perfectly happy waiting longer. She's great though. Her eyes just sparkle. There's something so special about them. And her grin, well there's nothing in the world to warm your heart like a smiling baby. Just so much innocence and no ability to mask or fake their emotions. What you see is 100% genuine. I'm trying hard to treasure that while I can.