Ma-ma!

Now, while I hold no illusions that Henry is actually saying "Mama" with any particular meaning, it still feels really good to hear him babble like this.

Nick said "Da-da" first, and now it's my turn.   :)

The cuteness makes up for the thousands of Cheerios we pick up off the floor every week. 

Conversations with Henry

My baby boy is growing up. Henry rolled over from back to front last night. Greg put him down on his back, but when he woke up this morning, he was happily snoozing on his tummy.

This chunky monkey is now wearing the 3-6 month size and he has adorable rolls of tummy fat. He also slept through the night last night, which he has not been doing regularly, until this point. Let's hope he is starting a trend. Greg said that maybe he'll turn over on his tummy every night, and then he'll sleep all the way through.

Henry is also interacting with us more. He likes to repeat the noises we make, and he thinks Nick is fascinating. While I was sauteing some vegetables for minestrone soup this evening, Henry suddenly became quite the conversationalist.

I love to see Nick and Henry playing together. Today Nick brought Henry one of his cars, so he could "play" too. It made me smile really big to see Nick being such a thoughtful big brother. Henry grinned up at him and tried to grip the toy car.     :)

Block Towers of Fun

And now I present, for your viewing pleasure, videos of Nick building with blocks. There are also some nice snippets of conversation. It's interesting how parents each have their own special thing that they play with their kid. Greg likes to look through art books (the big coffee table ones) with Nick and look at the pictures. He also does wrestling and they play basketball together with Nick's little hoop.

Me? I read tons of stories with Nick, both fiction and nonfiction. He likes the stories I've read over and over. He likes to say "I read it," and then he tells me the story by pointing to the pictures. But something I do with Nick just about every day is building with blocks. He has a decent attention span for it--the day I took these two videos, Nick and I built towers and such for at least 40 minutes. He loves knocking them down, but I also have noticed that he gets excited when he's able to add blocks to the towers.

If you haven't figured it out, "No Say You" means play with me, or come here. I'm not sure what that actually stands for, but he says it constantly. I need to take more videos of Nick, if for no other reason than to track his linguistic development. As an ELL teacher, I've had lots of training in linguistics and in how people learn language. I am constantly reading books about the evolution of languages and how people learn them, whether they're first or second languages. Every day I work with kids learning English as a second or even a third or fourth language. But it's amazing to me how quickly little ones learn their first language.

Nick has gone, in about eight months, from having only two or three words to speaking in short sentences. If you had to ask me how many words he knows, I wouldn't even know where to start. I would guess it's into the thousands. He already knows how to add 's to show ownership. (I'm still working on this one with my 5th grade ELL students who've spoken English since 1st grade! There's a big difference between learning a first and a second language.) Nick already mostly gets the concepts of over/under, up/down, in/out, etc. Every couple of days he blows me away with something he says.

I'm not saying Nick is advanced for his age. I think he's about where he should be, with speaking. I just love watching the process unfold each day. Today, for example, Nick was looking at the Christmas tree, and he saw this snowman ornament, pointed to it, and said "See snowman over there, by moon? It's breakable. No touch." Now, this ornament was right next to a moon ornament, and I had been talking to him the other day about not touching that one because it was breakable. I may or not have used the word breakable a bunch of times. Anyway, I was astounded that he remembered.

Books About Airplanes

Yesterday I took Nick to the library to get some new books to read. He saw a plane out the window while we were at the library, and that gave me the idea to get him some books about planes. We checked out two: The Jet Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta and Rob Bolster, and Airplanes by Lola M. Schaefer. Since we got home with these books, he can't stop looking at them.

Even though this book is clearly for big kids, Nick still likes to have me read it to him. He points when I ask him where the wings, cockpit, and tail are on each plane. Nick can also count to two, as in "One, two planes." (After two, he gets confused and shouts out random numbers. Seven is his favorite.) Mostly, though, Nick just likes to look at the different planes, and announce, "Plane!" as he sees each one.

Nick easily spent an hour this morning reading his "plane stories." Then, he went out to the screened-in porch to read with his daddy. They read out there for awhile, and Nick listened for every plane that passed overhead. You can even see some of them from our porch.

Greg and I both read a lot, and it seems like Nick is taking after us in that regard. I think I'm going to have to make more frequent trips to the library. I may also buy Nick his own books about planes. Here he is discussing his book with me. Do they have book clubs for babies?



Carrots From The Garden and The Best "Mummins" Ever

Okay, as promised, here is my extra-long post about the best muffins (or "mummins," in Nick-speak) ever. Even if you're not into recipes, please scroll down to the bottom, where I've included a little video clip of Nick chatting with me about his tasty snack.

I finally got some carrots from my garden a few weeks ago. In fact, I got a nice sized crop for a small garden. Next year I want to plant more. Nick loved the carrots, but he especially liked the long tails they had.

My husband, however, thought that these carrots were lumpy and misshapen. He wasn't too keen on eating them raw. I guess they did look a little silly. You see, where they grow the carrots in California, the soil is sandy and the carrots turn out perfectly shaped. Here in Illinois, our soil is thicker and thus the carrots are lumpier. See what I mean?

Well, crooked or not, we were eating those carrots! So I found a recipe for carrot cream cheese muffins, and I decided to alter it significantly to make it at least a little healthier. I'm sure the original recipe would be delicious, but I wanted muffins with enough fiber to have for breakfast. I'm also pretty sensitive to sugar, so I tried to reduce it without eliminating it entirely. I do some baking with Splenda, but I always leave some sugar in it or the recipe won't brown correctly. I think these muffins are a good balance of nice and naughty.

What I came up with was a delicious miracle. These muffins are quite delectable, and I've lowered the sugar as well as significantly upping the fiber. Nick absolutely loves them, and he calls them "Mummins."

I'm going to share the recipe here, because about four people have asked me for this particular recipe. Trust me, this one is worth the trouble. I even doubled the recipe last week to make another huge batch, and all of the mummins were gone in just three days.

Carrot Mummins with Cream Cheese


In one huge bowl… mix together the dry ingredients…

• 1 ½ cups white whole wheat flour
• 1 ½ t. baking soda
• 1T. vital wheat gluten
• 1 t. baking powder
• ½ t. salt
• 1 ½ t. cinnamon
• ½ t. nutmeg
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup baking Splenda

In another bowl, mix together:

• 3 eggs
• 1 T. ground flax seed
• 1/3 cup of melted butter (unsalted)
• 2/3 cup applesauce

Then add in:
• 1 ½ cups shredded carrots (I'd suggest a food processor for this.)

• ½ cup walnuts, chopped finely
Now take ½ cup of raisins and soak them in very hot water for about ten minutes. Drain, and add them to the carrot mixture.

For the cream cheese filling, get a completely separate bowl and stir together until smooth:

• 4+ ounces of Neufchatel cream cheese
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 t. vanilla
• ½ cup sugar

Pour the carrot mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients, and stir to mix. (Don’t stir too much or the muffins will be tough.)

These “mummins” have a filling, and you can just put the cream cheese mixture (about 1T on top of each muffin if you'd like. I did my mummins half with the filling inside and half with the filling on top. Personally, I like the filling inside better. When the filling is on top, sometimes it bubbles over and you lose a bit of the cream cheese. I don't like to lose even a little bit of that filling. Yum!

If you want the filling inside, you have to follow these steps to make your mummins:

1. Fill each muffin cup about ½ full with the muffin mixture.
2. Add a tablespoon or so of the cream cheese mixture.
3. Put just enough muffin mixture on top of the cream cheese to cover the filling.

Bake the mummins at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15-20 minutes. Smaller muffins bake more quickly, and larger ones may take a little longer than 20 minutes.

You’ll know they’re done when you can stick a toothpick into one and it comes out clean. (Stick the toothpick in a non-cream cheesy part.) Enjoy your mummins. I know Nick sure loved his!

Now, here's some video of Nick enjoying his mummin. I rather enjoy these little snippets of toddler conversation. When I got my master's degree (ESL concentration), I had to take a lot of classes about how people learn language. Linguistics taught me about the stages of learning a first language, and it is very fascinating to see Nick go through those stages. He's a chatty little guy. Hungry, too.  :)

Language Development Update

Earlier this year, I was concerned enough about Nick's talking (or lack therof) that I went and had a developmental evaulation done. Since Nick had only about three words at fifteen months, I wanted to make sure everything was okay, and our pediatrician recommended that we have one done. The evaluation showed no significant delays, but they did tell me that he was about three months behind in language. Not enough to worry about, but just something to watch.

Well, Nick is certainly not behind now. I cannot even count the words he knows. Since July, his language development has really exploded. I think he's learned at least 100 words just in the last month. He remembers them, too. For example, we had him at the public pool today, and this boy hadn't been in a pool (or a sprinkler) in nearly a month because of his broken arm. On the way there, I told him we were going to go swimming. "Swimming water?" he asked. "Yup," I replied. When we got there, he knew right away what it was. "Pool!," he exclaimed as we walked towards it. "Water swimming pool! Down!" (The "down" meant he wanted me to put him down so he could go into the water.

I took the video below right before bedtime this evening. Nick was in an especially talkative mood, and he kept playing with his toy refrigerator. I was astounded that he knew the names of everything inside, so I quickly grabbed the camera to get some proof. I even got him to repeat most of the words on command.

Also, it'll be really nice to be able to remember later what his talking sounded like when it first really took off. I can remember this time last year, when Nick was learning to crawl, I took lots of video of him scooting across the floor on his butt and "helping" me cook. I think I'd totally forget about these times without the videos.

Lately I can actually have a little conversation with Nick, and he responds. He can follow directions, sometimes even two-step directions. Nick loves reading stories, and will go through the same book again and again, looking for the things he can name and repeating the parts he knows. He can also recognize a circle, a square, a star, and a heart. Not too shabby for a kid who was behind just a few months ago. 

 

It is still, however, impossible to reason with this one-year old. But he does respond to bribery (quite well, actually). Thus the advent of the "diaper cookie." All I have to say is "diaper cookie" and he knows what to do. I break one of those little ginger cookies in half, and give him half. He immediately gets still and eats his cookie while I tackle the diaper situation. Then, if he's been still with "no kicking," he gets the other half. Is this good parenting? I have no idea, but it works for me. I got the idea from Harvey Karp's book, "The Happiest Toddler on the Block." I'm cool with anything that makes my son sit quietly while I change his diaper, with no kicking or flinging of the diaper's contents.

 

A Little Slice of Nick

Today was my last day of summer school, and I'm pretty tired. So here's just a little slice of Nick to make you smile. He sure made me smile.  :)

This video is of Nick, pre-cast, from last week. Grandma Toni was visiting us and Nick kept climbing in the laundry basket, doing his happy dance. I thought it was pretty cute, and I wanted to share. A laundry basket is, for him, the best toy on earth.

A Toddler with a Voracious Appetite

The last few days, Nick has been hungry constantly. He's even taken to pointing at the kitchen counter and screaming until I can figure out what he wants. Starving and desperate, he is too upset to say the word for what he wants until after he's had a bite. This afternoon it was a ginger cookie. He pointed and screamed and even stomped up and down until I gave him the cookie. Sighing with relief, he munched the whole thing and then said, "Cookie?" and I gave him another one. He really likes those ultrathin ginger cookies that most kids don't like, and they're very thin, so I let him have three.

While Greg was making dinner, Nick saw something on the counter that he wanted. So he screamed and pointed and kicked the cabinets and beat on the refrigerator door. Greg never did figure out what he wanted. When dinner was served, we figured it out. Greg hadn't put any corn on the cob on Nick's plate, because he thought he'd be too little. But Nick kept pointing at my corn and shrieking. I remembered that my mom had given him corn on the cob once and he'd loved it. So I handed over my piece. Immediately, this is what he did:

Okay, so apparently he likes corn. He ate nearly all of the corn on his cob, and then he did this:

  

Okay, so we have a new favorite food of the week. Nick did, eventually, eat almost all of the rest of his meal in addition to one and a half corn on the cobs (corns on the cob?). We also taught him to say corn. See if you can hear him say it. He's not saying it exactly correctly, but he totally knows what it means, because he kept pointing to my second piece (he'd already eaten my first) and saying "Cohn."

I've been trying to get him on video talking, but I haven't had a lot of luck with that. For some reason, when the camera comes out, he'll smile but he doesn't say much, which is funny because we've been having actual conversations lately. He's starting to put words together. Like, today we played with the hose in the yard, and I told him we were going to go out and get wet, and he said, "Outside. . . water?" Then, later, he saw our neighbor's cat outside and he said, "Kitty. . . Outside. . . Kitty. . . Mow!" (Mow is what he says for meow. He says it really loud, too, just like what the kitty says when he pulls her tail.)

I know that he's kind of a late talker, and somewhat behind, but I'm very proud of all the words he's learned lately. I think he's making excellent progress.

Here are Nick's words as of today (the ones that I can remember): mama, daddy, no, kitty, ball, water, outside, bath, sleep, night-night, doggy, meow, moo, horse, cookie, cracker, milk, corn, binky, car, vroom, hair, nose, mouth, ears, upstairs, up, down, close, door, hot, balloon, broom, potty, diaper, cheese, please, bye-bye, hello, all done. That's 40 words. Not too shabby.  : )

Wordless Wednesday: All Done

15 Month Doctor Visit

Today was Nick's doctor 15-month doctor visit. Nick was playing with a little boy in the waiting room before our visit who was 9 or 10 months old but was taller than Nick and easily outweighed him by 8 pounds. However, Nick was running circles around the tall little fellow, who just stood there in awe at Nick's amazing skills. (He pushed all the children's chairs across the room, including the table.)

He loved the opportunity to wander around in only his diaper. Good thing I didn't try to sit him in my lap--we had to wait over a half hour. In that amount of time, Nick moved the furniture, tried to open all the drawers, pulled on the exam table paper and shredded it, listened to a story, dumped his clothes all over, and was amusing himself by spinning in circles when the doctor finally walked in. Hey, at least he can entertain himself.

The closer to naked he is, the more cheerful his mood. He especially loved pushing around the doctor's stool. Nicholas only cried for a minute when they gave him three shots. But he yelled when I tried to get him dressed. I guess clothes are worse than getting pricked, at least for him. Here are the stats:

Weight: 22 lbs., 3 ounces (22nd percentile)
Length: 29 inches (2nd percentile)
Head circumference: 45 1/2 cm. (8th percentile)

So he's short. We already knew that. He's doing better than many toddlers because he's been completely off the bottle for months now, and he can already drink out of a straw. Also, he eats anything--literally anything, and so we merely feed him healthy food and he eats it. (I know, that sounds simple, but for many kids, every bite is an argument.) The doctor was pleased at how well he sleeps--Nick goes to bed like clockwork at 8 pm. and wakes up around 7. He also usually takes two good naps during the day. I am fully aware of how much luck it takes to get a kid who both eats and sleeps well.  :)

Nick is also right on target with his gross and fine motor skills. He's a little ahead in the way he can turn the pages of books and point to the characters when asked. Nick does not, however, talk much. Besides the word "tree" at Christmas time, all other words have been temporary and prompted. Oh well, I guess all kids are ahead in some ways and behind in others. I was encouraged tonight by the way I asked him, "Do you want a story?," and he would bring me one book after another, until I had read him eleven books in a row. Usually he tires out around eight. At one point I asked him to get a particular book, and low and behold he brought it to me. Coincidence? Perhaps, but it made me feel better about him not talking.