New Words, New Teeth, and New Behavior

I haven't been keeping very good track of Luke's vocabulary.  He doesn't have a few words he uses but he is a very good parrot.  Just today Mom showed me that Luke could say "diaper".  I've heard him say other words like "Fred Bird".  Most of the time he uses grunts, squeals, and points at things to get his point across.  It is surprisingly effective to boot.

One way he is using his grunting and finger pointing is at the dinner table.  As of late he has developed an opinion on what he wants to eat.  If we try to feed him something he doesn't want he will cover his eyes, mouth, and then turn his head away.  If it is something he likes he willingly opens his mouth and is quite adept and taking food off of a fork or spoon.  Sometimes it isn't the food he revolts against, instead he revolts with how we are giving it to him.  If he rejects food on a fork Mom and I will put the bit of food on the high chair and usually after a quick examination he'll pop that morsel in his mouth.

He can be a stinker at times.  If he is done eating and there is still food on his high chair he will drop bits of food over the side for Jake to eat.  Jake is pretty good about eating scraps off of the table.  He usually lays under the table and gobbles up whatever hits the floor.  After Luke is out of his high chair Jake will give it a good once over licking up any bits of food that made it into the cracks of the seat.  Sanitary? No.  Effective? Yes.

Last month Luke got tooth number 7.  Tooth number 6 showed up last January as part of a quick appearance of a lot of teeth.  Since then there has been a lot of gnawing but no teeth.  Number 8 is just about to pop out.  I figure it will be any day now.  This one seems to be giving him some trouble though.  He is really chomping on his fingers and sometimes he tries to stick his entire forearm in his mouth.  Poor guy.  Some nights and days when it is really bothering him Mom and I give him a "shot of the funk" before bedtime.  A "shot of the funk" is our term for giving him some children's Tylenol.  It is amazing how a dose of Tylenol can improve the mood of a fussy child.  It is too bad that young kids have to suffer just because they can't tell us they are in pain.