Monkey See, Monkey Do

In addition to Zane becoming quite the budding talker and communicator, he really likes to imitate things he sees us doing. He will now hold the phone up to his head, scrub the back of his head with a brush ('til it's red), try to squeegee the tub (but only make things wetter, not dryer), try to put diaper cream on my arm, brush my teeth, poke the dirt with garden tools, throw toilet paper (and one other thing) into the toilet, and sometimes successfully use a spoon and a fork but mostly just stir food up with them. He's very observant! His maturity is also making him crankier than usual since he has wants and desires and is starting to communicate but can't really do much of it. Plus, he often wants stuff I won't give him.

Monday we went swimming with Uma and her mom Olivia. We were mostly free swimming, but the kids got in their little water saucers so Olivia could watch them both while I took photos. This is the only shot I could get with Zane not chewing on the toy boat; he has a fish shaped ring on his head purely for decoration. The swimming was very fun, but that night while in the bath he accidentally turned on the shower and was not at all amused by the water.

Later that day I figured out that he was saying "appoo" (apple) to mean food in general, or maybe fruit; he also will now go to his high chair when he is hungry, which is helpful to know. Then he said "bee" really loudly while we were looking at some, and I hadn't even said it yet that day, so he wasn't just parroting! He has also unfortunately begun to say "no", but I don't think he really understands what it means yet.

Tuesday morning Zane woke up early and could not go back to sleep and was trying to get me up. Finally at about 5:30am he said loudly, "Up-up-UP!" Cute in retrospect. Also cute in retrospect is when he peed on the floor, and about a minute after I exclaimed about it he was talking to himself and I heard "Go pee." Just a mimic at this point, not a sentence I imagine!

Wednesday I made the useful discovery that if I take Zane in the stroller to a construction area, he gets so amazed I can cut his nails; this is pretty hard these days so that is a major discovery. Language-wise, he's started to answer "What's that?" with the name of an object. I'm not sure if he gets the question or is just saying what he sees ... He also began naming brooms with a kind of raspberry b "bbboo" which is different than plain "boo" for balloon.

Today we went out for a quick walk in the rain which was pretty exciting.


Finally, this morning during a yummy snack of grapes I figured out he was making the sign for "more!" I thought he had for some reason begun clapping during meals this week, but I just figured out he really has been saying "more." Yay! All of this communication, especially around food, is very exciting. This week has been a big one for language!

Oh, and one last thing. Did you know I am saving a paper copy of this blog, all nicely color printed and in sheet protectors, for posterity? Like a weekly baby book. So keep those comments coming, because those get in there, too!