Ha ha, made you look.

Calvin's favorite new car entertainment is calling out each red barn he sees and telling us where to look for them ("red barn [out], Calvin's window," or "red barn, daddy's window").  This afternoon's car conversation sounded like this:

Jon: "there's a red barn out daddy's window..."

Calvin: "yeah"

Calvin:  "red barn, Calvin's window!"

Jon: (said gently, so as not to disappoint) "I don't see one..."

Calvin:  "Calvin teasing daddy!" (cracks up)

Yeah, we see where this is going.  No one is safe anymore, but the kid sure has one well developed sense of humor.

Out of the mouths of babes.

Calvin learned a new song at library hour today.  He learned "Thumbkin," and he's been asking for it by name all day, only he says "th" as "f" and skips the "mb" all together.  You do the phonics.

Let the conversation begin.

A child's first words are a coveted moment, that turning point when the family's video library stops resembling a collection of Rudolph Valentino clips and enters the era of talkies.  And as with all childhood milestones, those first forays into speech are often surrounded by controversy.  In our case the incessant, pressure creating queries started coming before the first year was even up, and only increased in frequency thereafter:  Is he talking?  Has he started talking yet?  Isn't he talking yet?  Nevermind the fact that he started walking three months earlier than the norm, or the fact that he was communicating with over 30 appropriate hand signs with an efficiency that probably surpassed anything early speech could have provided.  In fact, as time passed the most inappropriately forward of people at church felt it their responsibility to ask such questions as "do you think teaching sign was a bad idea?" and our all time favorite, "are you worried about autism?"  No.  Our wonderful pediatrician was very encouraging.  His son, he told us, did not say a word until he was upwards of two years old.  So we settled in for the long wait, and were greatly surprised, therefore, when in October, Calvin suddenly started repeating animal sounds.  He could moo, quack, woof, meow, and even sound like a siren. 

December, 2007
And then during the gap between Christmas and New Years we were delighted by a sudden flourish of new words.  Like a ship taking on water, Calvin's vocabulary increased exponentially right before our eyes.  He mimicked every word he heard and quickly tucked it away in his mind's dictionary, and this trend has continued.  And after what had seemed like an excruciating wait under the caring yet disparaging eyes of our church community, I'm sure you can imagine our vexation when, just the other day, we were told "he is such a good talker for a boy his age!  You must be so proud!"  Yes, in fact, we are.

January, 2008

Duck nurse more cat dog

Those are the baby  signs that Calvin seems to have finally started using.  We've been throwing signs at him consistently since he was a newborn, but he just showed no interest in mimicking them at all, though he did seem to understand when he saw them.  But the last week or so seems to have been a language explosion for Calvin.  The first sign we noticed him mimicking was duck, not surprising since he goes to the neighborhood duck pond at least once a day, and though it started out as merely mimicking after only a day or two he was performing the sign without parental preface.  And it wasn't more than a day or so later that he started doing the signs for both nurse and more. Of course the way he does them the signs for duck and nurse are pretty much the same thing, but context makes the meanings pretty clear.  And what's amazing to us is that he didn't just start showing the signs, he seems to fully understand when and how to use them.  Well, for the most part.  His only downfall is that he finds it so exciting to be able to communicate that he will stop nursing just to make the sign before going back to it, and he will ignore the food on his tray just to sign for more.  We've had to adapt by giving him just 2 or 3 pieces at a time so that he has more chances to use his new skill.  Life with Calvin is surely a riot.

A converstaion and a bit about the weather.

It has been a really weird winter.  Snow in October, temperatures in the forties and fifties throughout December and January...very weird.  And then, finally, winter hit with a vengeance in the form of a weekend ice storm that broke trees, downed power lines, and left our deck slippery enough to cause trouble for the poor dogs.  Monday saw many schools and businesses closed due to power outages and downed trees.  Even Jon got the day off because his office was one of those without power, and today his bosses moved operations to their institute location, as the power likely won't be restored until tomorrow or Thursday.  But, and this is easy for us to say since our power is on after only a brief interruption, everything sure is beautiful with a fine covering of shining ice, and the air seems so fresh when it is crisp and cold, with the sun shining brightly, albeit very coldly, all afternoon.

And Calvin must have really loved the day, too, because he and his mother had a long conversation about it at dinner:  Calvin "huh, huh, huh,"  (that was fun being out in the cold today) Cortney, "huh, huh, huh" (for you maybe, you were covered up), Calvin "mmmmm," (I like to watch the snow out the car window), Cortney, "mmmMmm" (you should have been sleeping instead), Calvin "aahmmm" (more squash please), Cortney "AAhmmM" (eat what's on your face first)...and so on.  You get the idea.  They conversed like that for upwards of two minutes, which had Jon laughing nearly to the point of tears.  This is the first time that Calvin has really seemed to talk to us, or to mimic in any way.  It was a beautiful conversation!