The Taylor Family Blog: November 2008

I know you're supposed to record your baby's first words in your baby book, but I haven't really been keeping a baby book. Who needs one when you have a blog? But I do feel like I need to record some "snapshots" of this precious time when he's saying more and more words.

He says "Jesus" and "Bible" and will chime in with me whenever I sing Jesus Loves Me.

He says "E-I-E-I-O" and repeats all the animal sounds of Old MacDonald. Cow, moo, nay, doggie, ruff, kitty, meow (pronounced "Bee-owwwwww"), ba. He also says turtle.

"Duck" is by far his favorite animal and favorite word. When in doubt he says "Duck!" All animals are duck until you can convince him otherwise and he'll often look out the window and pronounce "DUCK!" even though there is no duck or any animal of any sort to be seen.

He loves shoes "sehs" and socks "ocks". He enjoys taking them off, putting them on, and carrying them around. He always takes off his socks during naps and greets me when I go to get him by holding out a sock and saying "ock". He says shirt, pants, hat, and jackie (jacket).

When I bend down and ask for a huggy he comes running into my arms shouting "Huggy!"

He says "diaper" and has even occasionally told me when he had "poo poos".

He can say a whole slew of food-related words including breakfast (okay, it's a stretch, but I know he's saying it), lunchie, snack, cracker, cheese, nut, peach, peas, bean, juice, milk, tato (for potato) nana (for banana), cado (for avocado), more, all done, hungy (for hungry) and yummy. The last few mornings when I told him we were going downstairs for breakfast and he said "breakfast" and proceeded to tell me what he was going to have: "oh-dirt" (yogurt) and "chee-uhs" (Cheerios) and milk.

He says please when prompted and says thank-you, sometimes even without prompting.

He says "boogers" and "gross" (sounds like goss) when I have to wipe his nose.

He says "nose" and "ears" (sounds more like "is") and occasionally "mouth" and can correctly point to them.

One of the cutest things he does is play peek-a-boo. He puts his hands to his temples (he hasn't figured out that he should cover his eyes) and then pulls his hands away saying "Pee-boww". He says pee-bo whenever I pull a shirt over his head or pull his hands through his sleeves. Once Jon put him under the covers in our bed and he started repeating pee-bo over and over apparantly thinking that if he couldn't see Mommy all he had to do was say pee-bo and she would magically appear.

He will stand in front of the dish washer or the cat food dish and say, "No no touch".

He will hand me the TV remote and say "Mommy's". (He is not allowed to have the remote and when he's not allowed to have things I often say, "That's Mommy's")

When he sees a picture of himself or any baby he says, "Baby!"

He loves Thomas the train. He says "books" and will bring me a Thomas book announcing "Babus!" He'll identify a train in any other book as "Babus".

He gives high fives and says something that generally resembles high five. He will usually explode with an expressive "AHHH" whenever you give the high five.

He has to say "hi" and "bye bye" to just about everyone he sees. Sometimes I feel bad for him when we're in a store and people don't realize he's saying hi and don't respond to him. Whenever I say we're going to go he says "go go go". He usually says "up" when we ask if he wants to get out of his high chair, but he sometimes says "out" too.

He says "ni ni" when it's time for bed.

He says Daddy, Mommy, Grandpa (it sounds more like Bahpa), Maggie (the cat), Elsa (his friend) and Alina (the cleaning lady).

But even with all the words he says, it's just as much fun to participate with him in animated conversations with no real words at all. He uses all these very serious, adult-looking facial expressions to accompany his baby babble and I can tell he is expressing his deepest thoughts - none of this baby-stuff of single words.

Jonah's room is a bit on the chilly side and he has been waking up occasionally during the night because he's cold. I always make sure he has a blanket on before I go to bed, but he doesn't usually stay under the blanket for long. I decided I wanted to get him one of those sleep sacks to wear over his pj's, but they cost $25 or more and I figured it would be simple to make. I found great instructions on the internet for how to do it http://www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/sleepsack.html

My sewing was very sloppy, but it works. I was happy to see that he didn't mind being in it and had no problem sitting up and even standing and walking around in it.

It's extra long so he can wear it all winter and still kick around in it.

I only wish my mom were around to see this... Not only to help me make it, but to see me doing what she used to do for us. Especially to see me doing the exact thing I used to hate. If I saw something I liked in the store she would often say, "Oh, that's so simple. We could make that." It used to drive me crazy. Now I'm saying, "That looks really easy, I could make that." She used to say, "You just wait until you have kids. You're going to say the exact same things I'm saying." If only she could be here to say, "I told you so."