George is changing so much right now, and his vocabulary is expanding exponentially. He parrots every new word he hears, and most of the time he'll use the word correctly a few days later. So he seems to be learning nearly every new word he hears, certainly every new word he hears that can also be "shown" to him. And I am consistently amazed at his level of understanding. I cannot grasp how much he comprehends. I talk to him often about who loves him. We recite his parents, his grandparents, his aunts and uncles and cousins and so forth. I usually say, "Cousin Amelia" or "Cousin August." Today we were in the car and I called Daddy on the hands-free. He said, "Cousin!" So I said, "who's your cousin, George?" His prompt reply was "Ooocie" (George for Lucy). She is indeed his first cousin. He followed that comment by "Ant-teen" (George for Auntie Christine, Lucy's mom-my sister who always accompanies Lucy).
Tonight at dinner time George did not like the baked eggplant with fresh mozzarella and pasta sauce that I served him (silly boy), so I asked him what else he wanted. He kept saying the same word over and over, but I could not understand him. It sounded like "awe sass" and it was the same word he repeated 30 times or more this morning when I asked him what he wanted for breakfast. He is very patient repeating the same word over and over while looking at me with those big hazel eyes, willing me to understand. Tonight Chris was very clever and asked George to show him what he wanted. So he carried him to the fridge and opened it and let George look in. "Do you see it George?" George responded by shaking his head and raising his palms to the ceiling as he does to say, "Hmmm, I don't know." So we went to the cupboard and looked in there. He couldn't find it there either. So George pointed to another cupboard and said, "cupboard." We opened that one and he pointed right to the applesauce. Mystery solved. Awe-sass is applesauce! What a clever and patient boy to put up with his parents and to "show" us what he needs.
Tonight he finally ate cottage cheese and applesauce for dinner, and was a MESS! So, too tired to give him a bath, I put him in the shower. He got fairly clean, but must have gotten a bit chilly. I wrapped him up in a towel and snuggled him for a while, then brought him in to get ready for bed. I laid him down on his changing table and he kept asking me for something that I didn't quite understand. "I wan shammies on." Then it clicked, I said, "Oh, you want jammies!" He smiled, sighed and said, "yeahhhhh." Another example of words he simply hears and picks up and understands. Then, lying there chilly while I rubbed lotion over his exzema dotted body, he says, "I wan hat." "You want a hat George?" "Yeahhh." So when Chris came in with George's pacifier and water, I told him George wanted jammies and a hat. Chris went and found a wooly hat, put it on George's head, and the boy smiled and said, "thankcome." (The sign for thank you and your welcome are the same, and George signs both, but has combined the word into one.) I'm going to try to sneak in and take a picture of our sweet boy in his Thomas jammies, Merino Kids sleepsack and wooly hat.
