Amazing

There have been a lot of things going on around here besides vacations... we bought a house, J had strep throat, B and I are sharing a sinus infection. I'll get back to the former mentions later, but for now I want to tell you how amazed I have been lately by J.

He has become a verbal tornado. He attempts to repeat everything we say. Case and point when we were at the park the other day and a pitbull started charging right at us. I yelled, "Sh*t!" as I ran us away, and he repeated "Sh*t, Sh*t, Sh*t!" with complete pride. Oops on that one. Anytime he wants help with something (which is always now) he says, "hep, hep" and rubs his chest for the please sign. When he wants us to take him outside he says, "shoes!" and proceeds to run and find our shoes and demands that we put them on. The most helpful utterance has been "poop" which he tells us right before he does it. He's not quite ready for potty training and believe me, I'm in no rush to get him there.

Last week when he was sick with strep throat, which shocked us all because he has never been sick except for a small cough/cold at about 6 months, we ended up waiting in the doctor's office for close to 2 hours. Insurance sucks, that's all I have to say. Anyway, the poor kid was so well behaved, but his patience was wearing thin, so every so often he would run to the door and say, "home" (pronouced "hum"). He also did this as we were walking through our new house the other day. Unfortunately he didn't mean that was home; he wanted to go to our current abode. I think he is going to be pretty disappointed when we leave there. Hopefully it won't be a big deal once all of our stuff is there, too.

I have to lock J in the bathroom with me while I take a shower. He always manages to get into something he's not supposed to if I don't. Normally he doesn't mind and he reads or plays with some toys. He's become quite the helper. When I finish my shower, he exclaims, "Taa!" and hands me both of my towels. Then he slams the shower door shut so I can squeegee the door and towel it off. One day I couldn't find my cloth, so I said, "Oh, I guess I need to get a new one." J pointed to the tub, where the cloth had fallen, and said, "dat!" He knew exactly what I was looking for. I was dumbfounded at his intuition and just said, "My goodness, you're so smart!"

I know that my child is just plodding along on the developemental road at a normal pace, but it all seems so fast and wonderful. His interactions with B have been so much fun to watch, and I have been doing a lot of watching this weekend because I've been feeling under the weather. Even when he isn't speaking English to us, his Nell "chick chickabee" sounds are so intriguing and full of expression. He is having full conversations with me and I have no idea what he is saying. Yet, everything I say back to him is perfect and often makes him smile. I don't think that will last long!

Okay, that's enough bragging about how gifted my son is. One cannot help but be proud! This month has definitely been one of the best yet. Except for the tantrums, but that's another post.