Nicknack Stuff

This just in.

Nicknack now says "No!"

We've postponed the inevitable by trying to avoid the word. We shake our heads, say "Hmm mmm", or "Uuummm... I don't think you should be fill-in-the-blank," and save "NO!" for really big stuff.

But this afternoon he's said it about twenty-six times.

True confession? I love to hear it. I love the sound of his voice. And it's way better than a tantrum.

He's been growing by leaps and bounds, verbally. Let me be clear. He doesn't enunciate anything particularly well. You would come into my home and observe him and think he doesn't say a single actual word. You'd need Penn or me to translate for him. But as long as it's a sound used to consistently represent an object or concept, I count it as a word.

Nevermind that the words for truck and clock probably sound exactly the same to the objective listener. It's clear to me. Plus he's pointing at one or the other, so that helps. ;)

I'm Moh-Moh these days. Last week I heard him say, "Dah-yee [Daddy], where MO-MO?" It was the sweetest sentence of all time! I've said for a while that if he will just call me something, anything, I will answer to it. So MoMo it is. It's better than MooMoo.

Nicknack hasn't been particularly verbal and is his little girlfriend from the church nursery has run circles around him, developmentally. She's only six weeks older but did everything months before Nicknack followed suit. And she has a very advanced and well-articulated vocabulary. The only area in which he has eclipsed her (other than sheer speed) is in his love for the written word. The boy is a book fanatic! He "reads" them on and off all day long. He knows all of his capital letters, except G. He usually calls G a "C!" He shouts out letters and numbers wherever we go. (D! V! D! 6!) He is so enthusiastic.

He impressed the ladies at church when he ran up to the alphabet border on the wall and starting identifying all the letters. It is just his passion. So we went to the teacher supply store a few days ago and brought home letters and numbers and hung them up with little clothespins on our living room wall. It's official. We live in a preschool.

What else is he up to these days... He loves to "sing" and "dance." He sings a very muddled alphabet song and sings along with his favorites from Sesame Street. He only sings maybe one word out of ten and sings a lot of vowel sounds. His dancing looks like a Native American pow-wow with all the stomping and bouncing.

He's really becoming more and more kid-like right before our eyes. But in some ways he still seems blessedly baby-like.

Like, for example, he still lays down on his back to drink out of his sippy cup. All the other little people in the nursery room sit properly in their chairs at snack time and drink out of sippy cups or just plain cups. But our little weirdo grabs his cup (with gusto), flings himself onto the floor, and rolls onto his back to consume his beverage of choice.

This may have something to do with his swallowing issues, which is why we just shrug and call him a nut.

We switched Pediatricians and, lo and behold, the new Dr. thinks Nicknack! has! a problem! It's such a relief to share a serious concern with your child's Pediatrician and have them express interest! Ask follow up questions! Check things out! We will be taking Nicknack for a videoflouroscopic swallow study in early March. We should have switched months ago. This Pediatrician could hardly believe that the other guy wasn't concerned!

Well, that's all that's new in toddler-land.

Oh, except I do have one tidbit of parenting wisdom for you. Do not, under any circumstances, casually toss half a banana on your child's booster chair tray while he's sitting in said chair. How is it that he hasn't copied our method of drinking beverages, but picks up the concept of a food fight in a split second?

And if there is anything more gross to accidentally step on than a mushy banana, I do not want to know about it.