Big strides in communication

Evan is really putting together more thorough ways of communicating with us, including a few instances where it seems he spoke in a complete sentence ("I don't like the pool"...referring to our pool out back that we bought that is always too cold).   He is learning people's names more quickly (example during my mom and step-dad's short visit, he quickly picked up to call them grandpa and grammy, or "ganpa" and "gammy").  He can tell us much better exactly what he wants, in fact he will tell us when he wants something different ("diff-rent") versus the thing he wants (i.e. "park", "outside", "snack", "cheese", "yogurt" for yogurt drops, etc).  In fact, he does tell us pretty specifically what he wants to eat for snack or even at meal time.  Not that we always give him that if we've planned something else, but if it's not something necessarily bad for him (such as when he wants a cookie for breakfast), we can help oblige his desire that he communicated to us (as long as he does ask nicely...more on that below).  For example, he may specify the type of fruit he wants when we give him snack.  Maybe I had planned to give him berries, but he asks for peaches or cherries or banana ("nana"), I don't mind swapping that out for him.    He also tells us which book he wants us to read at bedtime or nap time (he'll refer to it by one of the main words in the title, examples are Go dog go = "da dog go", Are you my mother? = "mother", The potty book for boys = "potty", Where is baby's belly button = "button", etc).

Evan has also started singing, which I absolutely love.  Granted, his singing is not the vocal equivalent to singing, but he knows a lot of songs now and will chime in with the right words at times.  The tune will come with time I'm sure. :)  Songs he'll chime in with are the ABC song, Patty cake (he'll also do the motions with this one still), Itsy bitsy spider (which he also does some of the motions, but not the main spider one because I usually sing the version I adapted to say "the itsy bitsy spider, crawled up Evan's leg" in which I make my fingers go up his leg), Row row row your boat, BINGO, and perhaps more that I am forgetting.

While Evan's had started referring to things that belong to people previously, including things for himself ("Evan's shoes" vs "Mommy's shoes"), he now also refers to himself in the third person ("Evan walking" or "Evan sleeping", etc).  That was a big milestone for me to hear!  Now if he would start referring to himself as "me", since he still asks for help by saying "Mommy help you" rather than "Mommy help me" because he's still just repeating what I'd say to him "Do you want Mommy to help you?").  He also says "yes" a lot now, sometimes when he doesn't really mean it.  Example: Me: "Do you want mommy to take that toy away if you don't stop hitting me with it?", Evan: "Yes", Me: "Okay, I'm going to take it away.", Evan: "Nooo..." (insert scream and whine....).

Evan is still developing his manners when it comes to asking for things nicely and saying thank you for things he's been given.  He does say please and thank you, mostly when we remind him to.  He will also say "sorry" now for things after he has been bad (namely "sorry biting", because he has been biting a bit again).  For the please part, he usually needs a reminder.  Example, we're at the park on the swings, Evan: "More pushing", Me: "ok, but can you ask mommy nicely?", and then he'll say "peeze", sometimes while rubbing his chest to do the sign for it too.

And the biggest stride, I believe, is that Evan is finally able to start telling us about things that are wrong that aren't physically apparent from the outside looking in.  For example, when things hurt him.  Granted, he says a lot of things hurt him, so it's hard to know when something really hurts bad, or when it's just maybe just an itch or a sore spot from a recent bump.  Nonetheless, last week one morning Evan told John "tummy hurt".  We didn't know why he might have said that, but within about 5 minutes he was tooting some pretty loud and juicy squirts!  I asked him after he had seemed to stop if his tummy felt better now, and he didn't respond.  Soon thereafter, he let out another small squirt.  So then I asked him again if he was now feeling better, and this time he said "yes".   John changed that diaper by the way (whew!).

To sum most of this up, here's a video to showcase Evan's singing.  It also showcases him expressing his desire for which song he wants (or doesn't want).  Prior to filming this, he had been singing "BINGO", but when I started this video he decided halfway through he didn't want it anymore.  After going through the list of song options that John had on the TV, I suggested ABCs, only because Evan had wanted it before.  It became what he wanted "more" and "more" of, for the moment at least. :)