During this first year of Aaron’s life, we’ve been learning little snippets of his language. We’re better at this with Aaron than we were with Maddie simply because he came second. (Sorry Maddie!) It’s easy enough to distinguish between certain cries and happy sounds, but we’re proud that we can tell when Aaron wants to play a certain game, and request certain particular things.
Here’s an incomplete catalogue of some of Aaron’s vocabulary (ignoring a couple of different cries I won’t try and commit to letters):
| Sputter: | Lift me high and make me fly like an airplane. |
| Grunt: | I want to eat that. |
| Squeal: | This is fun! |
Recently something’s been happening that we thought was cute but pointless. Until today. Aaron was crying, and when Lillian discovered that his diaper overflowed, we both realized that we’d assumed the other one had been doing the changing. I dash him to the changing table and free his little privates from their damp and suffocating prison. Aaron smiles at me and holds one hand steady as he beats it with the other. Sorta clapping.
No, not sorta clapping. Clapping. Aaron was expressing gratitude that I’m fixing the problem. He had learned how Maddie, Mommy and I all clap when we congratulate each other. Then I realized where we’d seen this before, sometimes when we’re doing it and he’s joining in, but also when he gets Cheerios.
Oh! So, I was wrong in my last post. He doesn’t like any baby food anymore. He’s grown out of that. And he’s been trying to tell us — in our own language — that he’s been wanting Cheerios instead of baby food.
Who We Were Then
- David
- Lillian
- Maddie (3 years old)
- Aaron (0 years old)