Pregnancy Journal

Gunner will be 18 months in 3 days. About 3 weeks ago, he suddenly saterted to use a lot of real words and to talk in what sounded like little sentences, though most of it was gibberrish, it was different from earlier baby talk in that we could make out real patterns and repetitions. He would say something like 'camee' or 'annader' several times in a row, or even on different days, so we got th eimpression these represented real words that werer just being mispronounced.

We counted how many real, recognizabl words he can use at this time and came up with a list of over 120, including many body parts, foods, clothing items, animals, and some verbs and adjectives, the names of people in his life, and other things. We were surprised he knew so many- we thought it would be more like 75.

While he was speaking more and more, he started to slack off on the signing, which is a bit of a problem for me because I can't walways understand what he is saying. I try to encourage him to sign and he has been doing it a bit more again for the last few days.

Physically, he is becoming very agile, he can walk backwards pulling a toy, spin  quickly in circles, climb up and down stairs holding on to my hand or a railing, and of course climb all over everything in the house. He doesn't trip over doorsteps and things like that anymore.

As for the potty, I hadn't been focusing on that as much for the last little while because I was just too busy. Still, he took his poop on it every morning, now sitting alone in the bathroom with his books like a big boy, but for the rest of the day I didn't want to have to keep putting him on there, so he had to use a diaper more than usual. He also potties his doll, Emily, who is one of those drinki-and-pee dolls. Sometimes he tries to squat on her potty but it's too small. I think it's time for me to get him his own potty. I think if he had th eopportunity to sit himself on it when he has to go, he woudl probably do it all himself. Of course, he can't pull his pants down yet, but I can keep him bare-bottomed with legwarmers on.

My favorite thing in the whole worlds is going to bed with my little angel beside me. There is nothing sweeter.

Gunner had his first real accident this week: he fell off Arron's footrest and bit right through his tongue. At first I thought he had probably just bitten his lip. Then, I sat him on the kitchen counter and saw that blood was pouring out of his mouth and his tongue was split right in two, like a lizard, for about half an inch going front to back. Of course, I gave Arron hell for letting him fall. It probably wasn't his fault, but of course I had to blame someone.

I took him to the hospital right away. By the time he got there, he wasn't paying any mind to his injury and was running around exploring and checking out the other kids. The doctors said they wouldn't stitch the tongue becase they would have to sedate him, but assured me it would heal on its own. I had my doubts, but after about five days it looks almost healed

In the last couple of days, Gunner has started to babble in a way that sounds like he is really talking. He says abedi-badou-ba-daba, but with intonations like he's making a statement or asking a question, or pointing something out to me. He also signs while he does this. It's really cute, the way he 'talks'. I feel kind of bad because I get the impression that he thinks he's really talking, but I can't understand what he's trying to say. Often, I do get the gist of it, and I try to respond to him as if we were having a normal conversation.

Zabadibadooba?

Yes, he'll be right back. He just went to get us some bread.

He's also using a lot more real words. He even babbles in his sleep sometimes. When he wakes up, he starts talking or signing right away. He sat up the other night and signed 'play, toys' and I told him, 'no, you have to go back to sleep now, you can play in the morning'. He wakes up and says things like 'hat' and I wonder if he's dreaming about the construction workers he so loves to watch from the balcony. He signs and says 'man, hat' and I know he means he wants to go out and watch the workers. Other times, I know he means he wants his little figurine of a construction worker.

Tonight, Arron was up here visiting and Gunner was sleeping in my bed. We were in the kitchen when Gunner woke up and we heard him say 'hat'. The first thing he says when he wakes up: hat, in his adorable little baby voice. It makes us laugh. He seems to be picking up words and signs incredibly fast now. Yesterday, he was picking Arron's pockets as usual, taking out his bills and I said 'this is money' and showed him the sign, and he said 'money' and made the sign right back at me.

He sometimes signs so many things and so fast, that we have a hard time following him. Of course, he never repeats himself, so we have to catch it quick or not at all. He does 3 signs in a row sometimes, expressing pretty complex thoughts. One of the problems is that he does sign approximations, so we can't always tell exactly what he's signing. One trick I use is to show him a book of pictures, the kind babies use to learn words, and when he makes a sign i can't interpret, I ask him to point to it, and this way he can show me what he's trying to say. He can identify several objects on a page by pointing, so this works pretty well as long as we're looking at the book. At other times, I am at a total loss as to what he is signing.

He is doing well with the EC, too. He does virtually all his poops in the toilet now. We might have had about 3 in his diaper in the last couple of weeks. Since he learned to say 'caca' form my mother, he says 'caca' when he has to poop, and no longer uses the sign, which is fine. He still pees on the floor if I leave him without a diaper, but when he has to poop he always takes himself to the bathroom and tries to get on the toilet by himself. Sometimes he does that to pee, too, but a lot of the time he pees on the floor and then tells me about it by making the sound I used to cue him with, 'Pssss'. He's definitely making progress. I was amazed that when we were out and he had to poop, he actually waited until we got home. A couple of times, we were out in public and he signed poop and waited till we got back home. When we go to Starbucks and he has to pee, he signs potty and expects me to take him to the restroom, because I spent so much time at that coffee shop, he had a lot of pottytunities there and got used to using their bathroom.

Personality-wise, he's still a doll, a really sweet, happy, loving, easygoing kid. Our little peach.