A New Skill

Luke has learned a new skill! He now knows that when he has to sneeze or cough he should do it into his arm or the crux of his elbow. No longer is my little man showering me with droplets of influenza with every sneeze. I'm not sure when he exactly picked it up. I just started noticing he was doing it with his most recent cold. He isn't perfect and sometimes he forgets where to deposit his sneeze but with encouragement when successful and reminders when not he'll get it.

He's done this for ages but when we sneeze he'll say "gazoontite". Super cute.

Smart Little Guy

Luke is a smart little guy. His language skills are top notch. As mentioned earlier he can count pretty good. In addition to his numbers he can say all of his ABCs. That being said he doesn't know them but can repeat the letters as I say them. What is neat is how well he can say each one. I went through the entire alphabet a few days ago and he recited each one perfectly.

I doubt Luke is going to have the same language hiccups that Alyce had. When she was younger she'd say things like "turpin" for turtle or "purpin" for purple. Luke's enunciation isn't perfect but he's making the right sounds for each word in his vocabulary. I'm guessing being the second kid with a big sister showing him the ropes is a benefit.

Yeap

Luke has added a new word to his vocabulary and we couldn't be happier. He's added the word "yeap". Yeap is a combination of yeah and yep and he uses it when we ask him a question and he responds yes.

It's so nice to get an affirmative instead of a "no" or no response at all.

The Things Luke Says

Tonight Luke said something pretty neat that got me to write about all the other neat things he is saying recently. First off tonight after I got home from a neighborhood watch meeting I was going in through the garage while Mom and the kids were coming out the front door. Luke knew I was outside but didn't see me. Luke then said in broken english to no one in particular "where daddy go?". How neat is that!

Next whenever I ask the kids something like "who wants juice?" or "who wants a tickle?" Alyce and Luke both say "I do I do" and come running at me. It's awesome hearing Luke say what he wants rather than screaming for or against something. On that note his screaming is decreasing in its frequency, thank god.

Lastly whenever it's time to go upstairs and the kids are dragging their feet again I say "me first!" and start running towards the stairs. The kids, never ones to let a challenge go unanswered race me to and up the stairs. The whole time both of them are saying "me first, me first". It's reverse psychology for sure. I get them to do something they didn't want to just because they want to win the race. I'm guessing that won't work for much longer.

Can't Say the Letter T

Luke's language is coming along nicely.  His vocabulary is out of this world.  He knows most of his colors, some shapes, and a few animals.  He knows octopus and zebra, circle and triangle, and green, blue, and red as a few good examples. One thing Luke doesn't have a good grasp of is the letter T. Well saying the letter T anyway.  Anytime the letter T comes up in a word he says it silently. A good example is when he says the name of Thomas the Tank Engine it comes out as "Momas". Whenever we drive home we cross a bridge over water and a lagoon. When Luke sees the water he says "waber". After we drive past Luke says "bye bye waber".

I Do It

This past week while putting Luke to bed I had quite the surprise.  I was getting Luke's toothbrush ready for a teeth brushing and as I am going in he grabs for the toothbrush and says "I do it".  I was taken aback for two reasons.  The first is that he told me what he wanted rather than being an idle participant.  Next he used a three word sentence and referred to himself as I.

Putting Luke to bed has never been hard.  Now that he is 2 he gets vitamins and a story so when it is time to go to bed he races up the stairs.  For teeth brushing he has always been willing to go along.  I guess something just clicked that he wanted to give it a try and do what the big kids are doing.  Right there at that moment Luke took a step. And even though it is small it is one of many that will get him to where he will go in life.

Three word sentence?  Saying "I"?  Where did this all come from?  I have no clue.  Luke barely uses two word sentences so a three is out of left field.  Him saying I is also pretty cool.  I'm guessing that is a milestone where a child can refer to himself as his own person.

Keep on taking those steps Luke.  Only you know where you will end up.

Colors

Luke's language continues to grow. One area he is progressing very quickly is colors. Luke can correctly identify red, blue, green, pink, purple, orange, and YELLOW! He is still very partial to yellow and if he isn't sure of the color he will default to yellow.

I'm very impressed with his color prowess. He is very much ahead of his sister with respect to colors at this age. I think all of the sidewalk chalk helped drive home all the different colors.

Please and Thank You

Luke is quite the polite little boy. Already he'll say thank you or "tank yew" when you give him something. Also he says please or "peas" a lot of the time when he wants something. With please Mom and I have to remind him most of the time. Still it is pretty awesome he's using manners at all.

In relation to please and thank you Luke had his first two word sentence. I heard for the first time yesterday Luke say "thank you mommy". Yes thank you is two words in itself but Luke uses them as one because he never uses them apart. Talking to Mom about his first two word sentence and apparently he was copying Alyce when she said thank you mommy earlier in the week. "Tank yew" Alyce you helped Luke reach a milestone.

Mommy, Daddy, Sister

Luke has been flexing his vocabulary skills lately. One thing that he's been doing of note is reinforcing what he already knows. When sitting down at the dinner table he will point to each of us Mom, Alyce, and myself individually and say our names "Mommy", "Daddy", and "Sister". When we praise him on his success he seems very proud of himself. We've tried to get him to say Alyce instead of sister and when he tries it just comes out as "leese".

I forgot to add that he points to Jake and his name is "doggie".

Of All The Things He Says

Of all the things Luke says there is one word that he refuses to say, "grams". Grams being our name for Mom's mother and Luke's grandma. While at their house Grams will ask Luke to say grams. Luke will coyly say "no", smirk, and run off.

I believe Alyce did the same thing when she was his age and eventually she started saying Grams. I think it is some sort of power trip kids play because it is something that an adult can't force them to do.

Polite Little Guy

Luke is turning into a polite little guy. A lot of times after we get him some more milk or juice he says thank you but it comes out as "tank yoo". Whenever he wants some more of something he doesn't usually say please. If we say "what do you say?" he responds with "pease".

I See

Luke might have made an advancement in his development. I say might because I'm not really sure he said what I thought he said.

This morning Mom was getting Luke a cup of juice. While she was doing this Luke was going crazy because he was wanting said cup of juice. Rather than crying out for juice Luke i think said "I see I see" over and over again.

If he did in fact say "I see" it would be a milestone for him. To date he has never referred to himself. By him saying I it shows that he acknowledges himself as a separate person.

Way to go Luke!

New Words

As mentioned earlier Luke is taking an interest in talking.  Mom has been keeping a list of his words and it is getting rather large.  A lot of them he uses when he see the object.  Other words he says he parrots what we say or what he hears.  He hasn't used two words together or any other complex speech.  I figure that is coming soon.

I guess in a way he does use two words together but in his world I think he uses them as one.  Luke has two sayings that Mom and I just adore.  They are "oh man" and "oh no".  "Oh man" is definitely is our favorite.  Whenever he says that phrase he does it with a southern accent and cracks Mom and I up.


Luke can also ask for things he doesn't see.  This almost exclusively applied to food.  When he gets up in the morning or after his nap he will walk over to the refrigerator, grasp the handle, and say milk or juice over and over again.  If we don't get him any right away he kicks vocabulary to the curb and goes back to screaming.

When it comes to screaming Luke was much worse than his sister.  A lot of times he squeals or screams to hear his own voice or because he is excited.  Other times he does it to show his displeasure or for attention.  We don't cave into his demands and try to redirect him when possible, but so many decibels close to your ears can make you lose patience quickly.  Luckily his screaming is on the decline as he is better able to handle his emotions and use words to describe how he feels.

In closing here's a list of Luke's words.  I don't think it is complete but it does show the breadth of his vocabulary.  Also, he isn't speaking the King's English when saying these words.  Most of them only Mom, Alyce, and I can understand.

Duck
Zebra
Cat
Milk
Juice
Einstein
Socks
Shoes
Toes
Nose
Car
Blocks
Ball
Mickey Mouse
Oh no
Oh man
Book
Truck
Choo choo
Pizza
Baby
Donut
Apple
Applesauce
Cracker
Snow
Hot dog
Bird
Papa
Diaper
Flower
Bubble
Rainbow
Monkey
Doggie
Star
Tickle
Sticker
Mommy
Daddy
Shirt
Water
All gone
All done
Moon
Ice Cream

Luke's Words

Luke is slowly but surely learning more words.  I kind of thought he would be an early talker since he had Alyce as a role model, but at 19 months I'd say he is running about even with his sister.

He is in the stage right now where he is parroting what we say.  We will ask Luke "can you say zebra?" and he will respond back with a "zeeba".  "Zeeba" is a pretty good reproduction as sometimes he just says gibberish.

He's also learning relationships between objects and their name.  He'll grab his socked feet and say "sock" or pick up a shoe and say "shoe".  Just recently he help up a sheet of stickers and only after telling him what they were once he repeated "sticka" and since then the word has stuck.  (pun intended).

We have also been teaching Luke his body parts.  A while ago he knew of only a few places on his body with the first one being his belly button or "doo doo" as we like to call it because we make the sound of a door bell when we push on it.  He now knows his ears, mouth, hair, chin, feet, and many others.

One thing we can't seem to break him of is screaming for food.  Screaming is probably too harsh of a word; maybe yelling is more appropriate.  Whenever we are sitting the kids down for dinner we get them strapped down before we set out the food.  This keeps Luke from pulling a bowl of macaroni onto the carpet.  From the moment he is sat down to when we get a spoonful of food in his mouth he is yelling and pointing to whatever we've put out.  We know he wants to eat but he has no concept of patience.  Then while we are eating dinner he will start yelling if we don't have another bite ready by the time he is finished with the one in his mouth.  We are trying to teach him to say "more please" when he wants another bite but we are having limited success.  I think once he matures a bit and learns some more words we will cut out the yelling but in the mean time you just want to put in some ear plugs.

A Couple of New Words

Some new words in Luke's vocabulary. "Sister, Alyce, and Papa".  Sister is pretty good.  Alyce and Papa are kind of rough.  He knows what a dog is too.  Tonight when we got home from dinner Mom put Luke in the house first.  While I was looking at him from the garage I asked Luke where the dog was.  He looked to his right, reached out, and patted Jake's back.  It was pretty cute.  And then as we walked in the door Jake knocked Luke over. There weren't any tears so no foul.

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.