What goes on in their little heads

Jolly is learning new words every day and it really IS like an explosion of verbal ability... I doubted those who said so, but it did come, just in its own time.

This is so awesome I cannot even believe it. Rather than needing to trial and error our way through the kitchen and home to find the thing that Jolly wants, he can frequently SAY so. It is amazing, and definitely adaptive because it means that needs get met SO much faster.

It's especially helpful because sometimes what he really, really wants is not anything I would come up with on my own, like that he wants to sit on the watermelon. (Yes, really. Thanks, Costco, for the awesome $7.99 ride-on toy that the whole family can enjoy!) Without his imperious "SITZ!" that wouldn't have been as obvious to me as it clearly was to him. Crazily enough, I might have assumed he wanted to eat it. He even says "Wassermelone" as of this evening. So helpful.

It also provides a small window into the workings of the brain of a child. This morning I kept track of Jolly's babble for a little while, and there are two things that clearly dominate Jolly's conversation when he's just hanging out and doesn't actively need anything.

First, he talks about the parent he's with and very occasionally mentions the parent he is not with. The ability to distinguish between us is VERY new and it's possibly the most exciting development. For a long time Jolly knew that I was Mummy and that Ephiny was Mama, and would correctly identify us by pointing, but he could only say "mama" so we were both "mama" when he said it. That made it really hard to distinguish between whether my child is just checking in and saying hi or getting my attention, versus my child pining away for the Ephiny that isn't there. It turns out that it's nearly always the former. That turns out to be generalized - MOST of the time he just is babbling about the parent he's with, which is very reassuring. When he's asking about the parent who isn't there, he just wants to hear what's going on - bathroom, riding the ferry, at work, sleeping, etc. and then goes right back to his litany of "Mummy! Mummy. Mummy."

Secondly, he really likes to talk about clothing. Socks we've already covered in earlier posts, but now it's extended to other clothing he knows the name of, like pants (Hose). He'll just motor around the house saying "Mummy Hose! Hose, Mummy!" for a very long time (pointing out that I am wearing pants, and that lo, he has pants also!). While playing with toys or eating breakfast, or doing some other engaging activity, at random intervals just needs to affirm aloud that he is happy he is wearing pants. This also extends to jackets/cardigans, by the way. It's pretty bizarre, given the increasingly large number of things he now has the vocabulary to talk about (animals, cars/trucks/busses, foods).

And of course when diapers are changed he immediately reprimands the diaper changer about the fact that he is no longer wearing pants. "Noooooo. Hose. HOSE!"

At night when we take his socks off to switch him to PJs, he laments the loss of the socks even more loudly. The rest of the time, the socks seem to be the last vestige of civilization that he is clinging to while we are being so uncouth as to reveal body to the air that should be covered by Victorian standards of modesty.

(Don't worry, when he doesn't have footie pajamas, we put a new, fresh, nonbinding pair socks on our child overnight. We aren't heartless.)

In other news, today our Jolly is an absolute fountain of snot. I am hoping I can avoid getting the cold since classes start Monday and I'm frantically preparing classes... but I'm not optimistic. Wish our immune systems luck!