a kNEw uNDerSTaNdInG

Quinn said his first sentence last week... he's taken a liking to wrestling moves and the other day he body slammed me. He's 28 pounds so it's wasn't to traumatic but I made a good show of it with a few moans and groans as we both fell to the floor with a big thump, he pulled himself up and looked at me with such concern in those big blue eyes and said "aruuuotay" It took me a moment to realize that I actually understood he's baby babble. I said "yes, baby I'm ok" He was so excited about our new understanding that he decided to do this all afternoon... he'd fake fall to the ground and wait for me to ask "Are you ok" then respond "I otay" then he'd push me over so we could repeat the process.

I try to ask him what he wants for dinner at night to get him to feel that he is in control of choosing, which might help him eat his diner... I would say "do you want chickie nuggets" he says "noooo" "Do you want spaghetti?" "noooooo" "do you want peanut butter and jelly?" "noooooo" He says "no" so much that I assumed he just liked to say it, but it turns out I was asking the wrong question. A few days ago I went through the typical dinner questions while he stared intently at Sponge Bob on the TV and repeated "noooo" to every choice. Then he turned to me, concentrated and said "oooomeyyl" with such anticipation in his stare, probably thinking "I hope I said that right". I said "you want oatmeal for dinner?" his eyes lite up as he chanted "oaaameyll ooomeyyll oomeylll" ... " Ok, oatmeal it is ".

I'm liking this knew understanding, it's great to watch his own excitement in his knew skills and it's wonderful to finally be able to have a little conversation with him.