More Than 50

A couple of years ago I wrote a post about the words that Sarah knew at 18 months.  I just went back and referenced, and her vocabulary at that point was about 21 words or so.  Now I know she's a girl, and I know you should never compared one child to another but at Liam's 18 month appointment I was concerned that Liam knew very few works.  I didn't write down what he knew (or didn't) but I'm pretty sure it was limited to Mommy, Daddy, Sarah and maybe a few other words, and it was enough that our pediatrician said if he wasn't making marked progress by 2 years that he would be referred for speech therapy.

With Sarah I would have been freaking out.  She was also a late talker, but I read somewhere somehow that children who are exposed to more than one language growing up are often later to talk because it takes their brains some time to sort out which language is which.  So when Liam was also not talking, I figured he'd catch up, because anyone who has had a conversation with Sarah, um, ever, realizes that she is quite the verbose child.  And I had video proof I wasn't being crazy because we took Sarah to Disney at 20 months, so we have plenty of iPhone proof of her talking up a storm. Then I went to Korea for 10 days, and when I came back, it was a different child than when I left.  He talked!  Not that he didn't before, but his vocabulary was exponentially larger.  I can't do the same post for Liam that I did for Sarah, because he knows too many words, and it keeps growing everyday.  We have a "color" book with lots of different pictures, and going through and pointing out the objects is  one of his favorite bedtime games (though he's still not too good at the actual colors). You can't play "Headbandz" around him Liam, because he'll just walk up to you, point at your head and say "swing", thereby ruining the game.  He even knows more idiomatic speech at this point.  If you tell him that he has to do something he doesn't want to (get his diaper changed) before he can do something he wants (build a tower) he looks at you and says "deal".

I think I babied Liam longer than Sarah mostly because he was still a baby.  He has his baby fat and he didn't talk, and even though he was approaching two, he was still my baby.  But I can't do that anymore.  He is a toddler.  He talks, he sasses, he laughs, he plays, he's a growing boy.  And I don't know why stringing words together makes him seem so much older, but it does.  His speech currently resembles more caveman than future Harvard alumni, but he is improving.  While sitting beneath the "People Remover" at Disney (more about that later) he heard the ride above him and said "I hear Mickey!".  His first complete sentence referencing Disney?  That's my boy!

But back to his two year check up.  Our pediatrician had written down at 18 months to discuss his speech again.  So she asked me how I thought he was doing. And I responded I had no worries.  So she asked, "does he have at least 10 words?"  And I nodded..  "More than 30?" Tia asked?  And again, I didn't even have to think twice about that number. "More than 50?" she queried again?  And I felt pretty confident in answering in the affirmative.

And yes, when I went home I did count just to make sure he had more than 50.  I pulled out that color book that he likes identifying pictures in, and I reached 50 words before I got to the "Green" page, which is the fourth page in the book.  I'm sure there will be many more things to worry about in the future, but speech (for now) isn't one of them.

One Day

Maybe over the next 18 years or so I'll have many more stops and reboots of this blog, but it was my (now 2 year old!) son that inspired me this time.  The other morning on the way to dropping him off at daycare he asked "one day playground?" as we drove past a tot lot.  And I had to answer "No, not today" to which he responded "Why?".  How do you explain to a 2 year old that we can't go to the playground because Mommy has to go to work?  And though at that moment I promised to make it up to him with multiple playground dates in the future, I realized that if I keep waiting for the "perfect" day to go to the playground we would never make it there.  So the next morning, we were (shockingly) running early, and we stopped and had an impromptu playground date, he in his shorts and tee shirt and me in my heels and dress.  But it made the rest of the day so much better!

What does this have to do with this blog?  I think I stopped writing because I was overwhelmed with all I had missed.  I had so many grand plans to document all of the big life moments, that when I missed one (or two or 181, Sarah's current favorite number) instead of just moving on and documenting the next, I kept convincing myself that I would eventually get back and do everything I missed.  And instead I just kept missing more events.  And it's not like this even takes that long.  I find time for facebook or pinterest or the occasional game on sporcle, so why not find 10 minutes to write down what is going on in my kids lives?  "One day", I tell myself, and that perfect day would never come.  And now I have a two year old and a daughter in pre-K and I'm quickly learning that live goes by far too quickly to wait for the perfect day.  The best kid moments are in the moment, and perhaps I will try to document those.

For example, Liam has learned a new set of words - nothing and no one.  It's funny and hard not to laugh when you get sass from someone who still doesn't know the proper way to use a fork, but the other day when picking him up from daycare, I asked him what he did that day.  Normally I get some response such as "play" or "goldfish" or "coloring" which can then be followed up with more questions.  Last Monday?  Liam, what did you do at Luptia's today?  Liam:  Nothing.  Me:  Who did you play with?  Liam:  No one.  And then I started to laugh and he started to laugh and just repeat it over and over again.  Sarah is a little reporter.  She's not even to the car before I get the full report of what happened in school, who went to the quiet corner and what they did, so it was even funnier that I was being stonewalled by the person who does not yet speak in complete sentences.

One short other story, more for me than anyone else.  I love love love hearing my children laugh.  While driving home this evening, not sure how it came up, but Sarah said "I'm going to eat a car".  And Liam thought it was hilarious!  But what impressed me is after laughing, he responded "I bite car", "I bite bus".  He not only "got" the joke, but continued it on his own.  Silly story I know, but those were the stories I've missed over the past year.  No, it's not our trip to Disney, or her third (or his second) birthday, or Christmas or Easter or snow, but it's our life, and I love it, and I want to document it and remember it.  Not one day, today.