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Teddy: Nineteen Months

I sat down to write this, proud that I was hammering out a post so soon after the last one, then I realized when I’d originally intended to write this it was going to be called “Teddy: Eighteen Months.” Also, we’re only eleven days way from month twenty, which suggests I’ve been meaning to get around to this for close to fifty days now. Oy.

Teddy is hilarious nowadays. I’ve enjoyed every stage that came before this, but eighteen months and on has been especially fun. Every day, this kid makes us laugh out loud at something new. The other day before bedtime, we asked, “What’s your name?” Teddy said, “Not Jacob.” We pressed on and asked him again. His reply: “I don’t know.” Which is awesome because:
a) He is not in the habit of using whole sentences, and
b) He totally knows his own name
Just yesterday during dinner, he’d eaten two slices of ham and then asked for more. I said, “Really, you want another slice?” He said, “Yeah!” I said, “Really?” He said, “No.” I said, “Dude, do you want more ham?” He said, “No.” Then, “Yeah.” And then he burst out laughing. Because he was totally messing with me.

He’s gone through a real language explosion lately. From what seemed like only four or five words before, he’s now got yeah, okay, no, car, bus, ball, bed, mama, dada, papa, cat, Gunther, Moe, cheese, grapes, chicken, again, gone, bye-bye, uh-oh, ah-choo, shoes, socks, bear, up, out chair, don’t throw (and with shabbier pronunciation) Grandpa (Bampa!), Grandma-Nonna (Erma!), and crackers (Yackahs!) That’s just off the top of my head, I’m sure there’s more. It makes life so much easier when he can express preferences, when he can tell us he doesn’t want something before we go through the trouble of making it. And his comprehension is outstanding. You can say things like, “Go get your blue ball. It’s over there behind the chair,” and he’ll totally do it. (If he feels like it.)

He’s consistent in a lot of ways. He still loves cheese. And he’s still totally in love with Glee—his favourite number is the Journey Medley from the finale. (Conservative estimates would say we’ve watched that seventy times by now.) He’s also a huge fan of the park. I’m pretty sure I could drop him anywhere within a mile radius of our home and he’d find his way to the park behind our house in a matter of minutes. Likes slides; totally doesn’t care for swings. Likes when other kids are at the park, but just stands motionless and gawks at them for as long as they’re there. Dances, doesn’t sing. Submits to hugs, but rarely participates.

He seems super-old and huge to me now, maybe because he is, but probably because we’ve got a two week old in the house and Teddy just seems like Andre the Giant by comparison. He’s been really great to his sister so far. He likes to pat her head, he occasionally shares his favourite bear with her, and this morning—for no reason that I can explain—he picked up a tissue and wiped her totally non-running nose.

He’s a fantastic little kid.

Comments

Jorge said…
That's awesome.
Just give me 10 minutes and I will teach him how to be a ninja.
Anonymous said…
A new star to guide in the nights' fog that continues to shower us in glory, may the borders flow outward shall our spirit wither us wallow in the sun..

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