Toddler Talk

Now that we have a new digital camera, I'll be uploading clips of Jonah to Google Video. This one shows some great talking.



At 21 months, Jonah's speech is amazing. A few days ago, for example, he told Michele "Daddy car dirty has bird poo". And yes, he was right. He continues to repeat pretty much anything we say, but he's clearly doing more than mimicking. A few other interesting developmental tidbits:

- He can say his numbers one through nine. He understands the meaning of "two" and "four" (he usually gets either two or four cookies with dinner), but he doesn't understand counting yet. As an example, while he knows that "three" comes after "two", he doesn't get that when you start with two cards and add one more you would call this "three".

- Jonah has a few letters that he still has trouble saying. "Like" is "wike". "Snake" is "thnake". "Bath" is "baff".

- We think he has just started gaining consciousness of dreams. He told Michele last week, "Good night, firefly. See you later." We've traced this to the Dragon Tales cartoon he sometimes watches on PBS. However, he has now told us that he's seen Firefly at night. Last night, he was afraid to go to sleep because of the firefly. I explained what dreams were and told him that sometimes we have to be brave, but in the end he wouldn’t go to sleep until we plugged in a brighter night light. I remember wanting a night light when I was scared to go to sleep as a kid. I guess it works for Jonah, too.

Pacifier

President's Day weekend was a triumph of child adaptability. Michele and I have been discussing for over a year whether and how to remove the semi-permanently glued pacifier from Jonah's face. Before this past weekend, a "pa-fa-ah" was in his mouth at all times except for meals, baths, and leaving the house (although we sometimes made exceptions to the latter).

We've gone back and forth on pulling the plug --

Pros:
- We didn't like him talking with it in his mouth.
- We were irked by his dependence on it.
- We rarely see other kids using them.
- The doctor said we should.

Cons:
- Risk of Jonah needing years of therapy after we brutally remove his self-soothing device.
- We're strong, independent parents. Who cares that we're irked, that other kids don't use them, or that the doctor said we should take it away?

We reasoned, at times, that he'd give it up when he's ready. This was pure, wimpy, rationalization. In the end, we decided that it'll only get harder as time goes on. So, we took the plunge.

How? On Saturday morning, before we took him out of his crib, we first explained the plan to him. We then told him that he had to put his pacifier in a special place of his choosing -- this ended up being a plastic cup with a picture of a cat on it -- if he wanted us to take him out of his crib. It was a total, yet unintentional, bad cop-good cop between Michele and I (I got to be the good cop for once). When he finally handed it to me to put in the cup, it was one of the bravest things I've seen him do. The three of us danced around yelling "Bravo"!

Waking hours brought three pacifier-related temper tantrums, complete with tears and kicking around on the floor. As agreed, we gave it back to him in his crib for naps and night time.

Sunday and Monday were easier. The morning bravo dances helped. He made fewer, less fervent requests throughout the days.

On Tuesday morning I got a voicemail from Michele. Jonah woke up, handed her his pacifier, and said "put pa-fa-ah in kitty cup".

Kids are awesome!