Stuff My Kid Says

One evening last week while waiting for Daddy to come home, Carter and I took a stroll around the neighborhood. The Roo loves to explore our street, playing with rocks, climbing onto people's porches and getting dirty. On this occasion we happened to run into a little girl and her father who live one street over. She is three weeks younger than Carter, and her mother and I have known one another casually since meeting in The Pumpstation's Breastfeeding Support Group when they were both newborns.

Carter was climbing up a porch when he started counting the steps - "one, two, three, five..." (he has no interest in the number four). The father said "WOW - he's talking? She only has a few words - mommy, daddy, no..."

I must admit, my natural proud-mommy instinct was to bust out with a litany of the bajillion things that Carter says, but I stopped myself and just mumbled "yeah, he talks a lot..." I mean, I know Carter has a pretty kick-ass vocabulary for 20 months, but I probably shouldn't rub it in to a parent whose kid barely speaks.

But here, I can and will BRAG IT UP (although, bragging aside, I always said I would write this stuff down, but I have neglected my baby journal for oh, at least six months, so I have to get it down somewhere). Here's a list of just some of the awesome things that my little Roo says:

- One of his new favorite sentences: "Daddy pressed the button on the animals." This translates to "Daddy pressed the button on the computer and showed me animals on Google images," which is one of his favorite activities.

- Another fave: "Sun is bright - eyes. Mommy, fix it!" Whenever we are in the car and the sun gets in his eyes, this is his plea.

- He is getting really good with verbs - "Daddy do it!" "Carter do it SELF" (whenever he does NOT want our help with something) "Grandma going?" (if Grandma leaves the room) "Daddy doing?" (if Daddy's not around and he wants to know what he's up to) "Mommy closed eyes - Mommy sleeping" (when Daddy takes him into the living room in the AM and lets Mommy sleep in). "Daddy in the shower" (self-explanatory)

- He knows the names of just about any animal I can think of and the sound it makes and will gladly point them all out. In fact, he knows just about every single word in every single "first word" book that we have, and in any random first word books that we look at at friend's houses, bookstores, etc.

- Opposites: Under/Over, Empty/Full, Awake/Asleep, Up/Down (that's an easy one!), etc.

- Counting: He counts to eleven, but has no need for four and ten: "one, two, three, five, six, seven, eight, nine, eleven." He'll say four and ten individually, but evidently does not feel that they serve any purpose otherwise.

- Shapes: I just about fell over in shock at my parents' home when he looked over at my mother's picture frame, pointed and said "Oval shape." He also knows heart, star, "moon" (crescent), triangle, square, circle, and occasionally rectangle (though this can be confused with square).

- Colors: We are still working on these, but he's pretty good with distinguishing between red (Elmo) and blue (Grover), etc. The other day I offered him his orange sippy and he rejected it, saying "No - blue cup, mommy."

- We were driving the other day and he pointed at a double-decker bus and said "decker bus." I said "yes, double-decker bus" and ever since he's quick to point out any and all "double-decker bus" that we come across.

- Some of my personal favorites: "Mommy, stop!" whenever I am displeasing him (adorable). After dinner, when he runs around the apartment yelling "TUBBY TIME! TUBBY TIME!" and manically pelting his bath toys into the tub. Also: "TV time?" as he hopefully hands us the remote control (or "mokano" if you're Carter). It never works, but he keeps trying.

These are just some of his more recent verbal developments, but there are really too many to count. I was keeping a running list for awhile, but gave up several months ago when it reached 150+ (and that was BEFORE the sentences started). Yes, bragity brag brag, but hey - if I can't do it here, where can I?

I know all kids develop at different paces - for instance, Carter has little to no interest in using utensils, and generally spurns any fork or spoon we give him. He is capable of using them, but seems to be operating under the philosophy of "well, if these schmoes are going to do it for me while I sit here and read my book, why should I be bothered?" So there you go - many of my friends' kids are using their utensils with each meal like old pros, yet barely uttering a word. It's fascinating how differently they grow. Carter also doesn't talk a whole lot around strangers or in unfamiliar environments - but with us, he's a constant chatterbox. Guess he does take after Mommy after all.