Avery is talking up a storm these days, and she’s decided that every word she knows sounds better with -y at the end. So we regularly hear Beary, Daddy, Mommy, Poohy, shoey, go-ey, and of course, no-ey, among other things. The sad thing is that I find myself now putting -y on the ends of words, and I really have to watch myself when I speak to adults! She also is fond of saying “Hey You!” when she sees us, and “P.U” when you take her shoes and socks off, which sends her into fits of giggles. She sat on the potty for the first time ever yesterday, and while nothing productive happened, she was definitely proud of herself and didn’t want to get down. She can tell us when she’s about to poop by saying butt-butt and grabbing her diaper, so I feel like I should at least give her the opportunity to try the potty if she’s willing. We won’t be pushing the issue, though.

Alex is starting to talk more as well. He’s into taking role, which Avery did for a while too. When we get him up in the morning, or from a nap, we have to go through this conversation:

Dada?
Daddy’s at work.
Mama?
Mama is right here.
E? (his name for Avery)
Avery is in her crib.
Woof woof?
The doggies are outside.
Dada?
And so we start again. It’s cute, in a monotonous sort of way.

He’s also spent more than a few minutes in time out in recent weeks. He’s starting to hit when he’s frustrated. So far, it seems to work – he’ll sit there and look forlorn, and give a nice sorry pat to whomever he hit when he’s allowed to get up. He’s just like his Daddy, too – loves to help out, clean, and organize. He can follow multi-step directions, like to go pick something up from wherever and then throw it away. Yesterday we were working on cleaning out our storage room and he picked something up and trashed it before Don and I ever saw it, and throwing away good things is something I always get on Don about. He lives to have a mission to accomplish!

Whenever we park the van somewhere, they both say “doh” (door) and wait for them to slide open, which is cute. It’s hard sometimes to know what to count as words for them though. They both know a ton of animal sounds, but they cannot name a single animal other than an occasional duck. If you point to a cow and ask what it is, they say Moo. Same with a sheep, snake, chicken, horse, etc. And so many things sound alike without context – they can do initial consonants for almost everything. For Avery, “mee-oo” can mean Mickey Mouse, milk, or cat. “Pee-oo” can mean Little People, Pooh, poop, or PU (like something stinks)… “bah” can be bath, ball, or bear… Thank goodness they know how to do a few signs and gestures or frustration on both ends would definitely result. Life is mostly easier now that they can communicate better with us, and it’s very cool to see where their thoughts are at times, although it would be nice if they were as fond of saying yes as they are of saying no!