Language skills are really taking off right now. He’s a pretty good blabber, and likes to make up words and sentences. He can identify all kinds of things by name, and ask for them when appropriate. “Cheese? Please?”
It’s fun engaging him in conversation to see how far it can go. Today brought a pretty short but neat little sample. As soon as I arrived home, he wanted to take me into the kitchen. Apparently snacking was on his mind.
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Whew… that’s a lot to talk about in one post. I’ll try to keep it as highlights.
…was pretty neat this year. Monkey had no Christmas “anticipation”… no real thoughts on what Santa was, why he was getting gifts, what the family gatherings were, or anything like that. But he enjoyed Christmas Eve with the family, had fun opening presents both then and throughout Christmas day with the families. He offered to help many people open theirs, too, since opening was really the fun part. We had asked for “no big things” this year, so he was spoiled only in terms of mainly useful things like clothes, books, and a trike. Of course, there’s no avoiding a certain amount of toys, and he got this AWESOME wooden … er… activity centre? that he really enjoys. Magnetic drawing boards were also popular.
All the Christmassyness threw off his schedule, though, and we thought he’d be back to normal after a few. It now seems that this may just be coincidence and his schedule might need amending. 12:30 is seeming too early for a nap, although having a later bedtime isn’t doing anyone any favours, either. Still trying to sort this one out. More in a later post.
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One of the first words that Cole really learned and used on a consistent basis was “hat.” It was cute, and continues to be cute. For a while, he referred to his actual hats correctly as “hat.” And then this extended to other objects that were vaguely hat-like… for example, an overturned bucket.
The ‘hat’ thing lost its novelty to the monkey. He still knew what it was when we had to put one on him, but he didn’t really get stoked to be using the word or making impromptu hats. Until the other night. We have been letting him hold his after-dinner facecloth and do some preliminary ‘cleaning up’ of his hands and his face. Out of the blue, he moves the cloth up to his head, and says proudly, “HAT!”
Having presence of mind, Alex snapped off this cute pic:
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One of the fascinating things to witness is the monkey’s exploding vocabulary. He picks up on words that we didn’t even go that far out of our way to teach him. And from patting the bed or a chair while calling the dogs, he has learned a little something, too:
-Cole (patting the bench at his picnic table): “Sit! Sit! Cover!” (trying to say ‘color’ actually)
-Cole (patting the bed near the pillows): “Sit! Sit! Book!”
-Cole (patting the loveseat): “Sit! Sit! Book!” (OK, there’s not much variety. 
)
But for the most part, you can either tell what he means to say (‘puh-keen’ for pumpkin) or he actually says it quite clearly (‘zeus’ has graduated to a nice clear ‘juice’). Of course he still babbles a lot, too, which always cracks us up. But recently there emerged a word that he says with very clear intentions. It’s not just babble, and it is very well articulated:
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There’s not much cuter than a toddler in a costume. And as biased parents, we think there’s absolutely nothing cuter than our little monkey dressed as… well… a monkey, of course!
We’re not monkey-obsessed despite the blog theme. In fact, the little guy was originally going to go as an elephant. However, despite concerns that the costume was going to be too big for him, the opposite turned out to be true: he wouldn’t fit into it! Aunt Christine to the rescue… having seen an awfully cute monkey costume at Old Navy, she was originally sad that we already had the elephant costume. Fate dictated that she have just the right reason to go back for it and provide her nephew a costume for his 2nd ever Hallowe’en. Read the rest of this entry »
Monkey House is populated by three lovely and wonderful simians–Greg, his wife Alex, and their son Cole. He is a jack of all trades, she is a scientist/athlete, and their son is a poopsmith.