Adam's Vocabulary

From time to time, I like to post the things the kids are saying, because soon enough they drop certain habits and I'll forget they ever did things this way in the first place!

Adam will be 2 in June, so that makes him...what? 21 months? I start forgetting and stop really counting after 18 months. Then it becomes "uh...he'll be two in June."

Doody= thirsty
Manan= vitamin and M&M (It started out as his way of saying vitamin, and then one day I ran out and gave him an M&M as a pretend vitamin, so now the word is interchangeable).
Go! WAY!= Go away!
Sissy= sister
Ball= anything round and globular. Grapes, oranges, seeds from plants, and of course, balls!
Boon= balloon
Ah fawet= I farted
Gi go= Here you go
Giyup= Get up

A word about balls and balloons. He can play with a ball all day long. It's really the only toy he needs. I was at my Grandma Lois' home in Lancaster last weekend and she didn't have any toys AND she has a home that invites lots of exploring little hands (I let her know when we arrived that I'd probably be doing some redecorating aka child-proofing). Anyways, I asked her for some aluminum foil because it crunches into a quick ball. Don't you know he threw that thing around the entire visit.

Now balloons are a different matter. He LOVES them, but they kind of make him manic. If we are at a grocery store that has balloons as decoration the child gets all agitated in the cart. Sometimes it takes me awhile to figure out what in the world he keeps "uh! uh! uh! uh!" over. When we pass car lots on the freeway he shouts from the backseat BOOON!! See a balloon is always surprising in the way it moves, but it never really does what you want it to do. So it both delights and frustrates him. The best balloon is a day-old balloon that still floats a bit, but will eventually come back down.
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A little update on his behaviour since my last post. All four of "said teeth" have popped through his gums so he isn't acting like the terror he was before. I'm not sure why it took me so long to connect teeth=behavior. Probably because the kids typically do quite well with teething, however I don't think I've ever had to deal with so many teeth making their debut at once. Anyways, I'm sure that was part of it, because he is now back to his normal self.

Now, "normal self" still isn't always such a great thing and there are some things I'm working on with him. He is VERY quick to throw temper tantrums when he doesn't get just his way. The week that I was going nuts (and wrote my post) I chose the "just ignore it" method. Well, I found that the "just ignore it" method means that he will just keep screaming and screaming and screaming, and then at the next slight he will continue to scream and scream some more. This just isn't acceptable. And it wasn't working. So I decided to try time outs as soon as he started one up, and that seems to be very helpful. For example, if I'm putting him into the carseat and he starts up with the arching and screaming and flailing, then I take him out of the car and sit him down in the garage right next to the car. Then I give him a stern talking to where I tell him "no cry in car" and "that's not right". The boy does seem to understand English and he quiets down quickly with that. After awhile I sound a little "beep beep" like time's up and then I can pick him up and put him back into the car and we're good. I've been doing this with lots of tantrum things and it seems to be really helping. I can even do it at a moment's notice in a store. Now remember this is a Work in Progress! He isn't perfect all of the time, nor am I. We're working on it.

My hope of course is that by the time Baby comes he'll be a little more minding because I can't be chasing him all over creation and I can't have him flipping out over everything.

Adam throwing a tantrum for Daddy. He had been at this for awhile by the time he got the camera. Listen to Jason's explanation for WHY he's crying.