What's new with Gus

It seems like every other week Jon and I talk about how Gus is learning so much and picking things up more quickly than he has before, as well as how much fun the little guy is. This week has been no different.

Gus continues to makes leaps and bounds in his language development. Last time I talked about how he had started to put together two-word phrases. Now he regularly is using two- and even three-word sentences. Along with that, more verbs and other words are entering his vocabulary; just yesterday, he started adding too to the end of sentences: "Grandma come too".

He has also picked up a lot of phrases that Jon and I use, and it is the sweetest little thing.  I first noticed him saying "Ooo-kay!" last week, just like I always say. Next came "Dear me!"; it took me a while to figure out where that one came from, as I was pretty sure that I didn't say it. Apparently it is a regular part of Jon's vocabulary, though. I've also heard "Oh dear" and "Oopsy-daisy" (or oop-day, as he is more apt to pronounce it). It is really cute to hear Gus say things that we regularly say, but it does remind you to watch what you say in front of him. The other day, Jon and I were watching something on television, and Supernanny came on before we got round to turning the tv off. We started talking about spanking, when all of a sudden we hear Gus saying "Tan hide. Tan hide." Oh dear! I knew that Jon sometimes says the phrase "tan your hide" in a joking manner, as he thinks it's a really funny Americanism. But I didn't realise that Gus had picked up on it, or really knew what it meant. We're not into corporeal punishment here, and it is not really a phrase that I want Gus going about saying!

Gus is starting to get the hang of quantities. He says two whenever he sees more than one of something.  I try to say something like "yes, there are a lot of cars there", but he does like me to repeat exactly what he says. So if we see four cars, he'll keep repeating "Two cars. Two cars" until I also say "two cars". I'm sure he'll figure it out soon enough, but it seems wrong to me to reinforce incorrect usage.  He has also started saying one. It's kind of funny that he started saying two first, but I guess there is no need to point out one of something until you can wrap your head around the concept that there might be more than one. Other is another common word at the moment.

He is starting to pick up sounds that he previously wasn't able to pronounce, but he is definitely still in the stage where only Jon and I can understand a lot of what he says. And even then, it is not a guarantee. There are times when he is obviously just playing around with sounds and not trying to say a specific word (lately he has been having fun with dubba-dubba-dubba), but there are also times when he repeats something over and over and I have no idea what it might be. I throw out guesses, and he just looks at me--you know he is wondering what in the world I am talking about and wondering why I can't just do whatever it is he is asking!

It has been raining every day for the last week or two here, so we have had a lot of indoor play recently. I got out the play-dough one day last week, and Gus loved it. We had done a bit of play-dough before, but it hadn't really captured his interest. This, week, though, he has spent hours with it. He just loves chopping it up with a little butter knife, often while saying "Chop chop chop". He has also had some good fun pouring puffed wheat cereal from one bowl to another and colouring with crayons. Well, I do most of the colouring. He picks a crayon out of the box, we say the colour, I colour with it a little bit, then he tells me to put it down on the table. Good times. Surprisingly, he is starting to be able to identify some colours. Orange is the one he knows best, probably because he loves to eat oranges, so that makes it a bit easier. Blue and green are pretty good, probably right more than half the time, but they get mixed up easily between them.

hours of fun!

He also, very surprisingly, can identify the letter G. I didn't realise that we had pointed it out that much to him, but apparently we had. He has a little wooden G in his basket of toys, and one day he just picked it up and said "G Gus". I thought it was a fluke, but he has repeated it with other blocks and things that have Gs on them as well, so I guess he knows it. Although I think he recognises it the way he can recognise a picture of a duck or something like that, rather than having an understanding that it is a letter that makes up words to read and write. It still was kind of cool, though.

One funny thing he has been doing this week is walking on his knees. I have no idea where he picked it up--maybe Jon or I do it when we are down on the floor with him? Or maybe he just figured it out for himself. Either way, it is pretty funny to see him shuffling around on his knees, arms out to balance, usually while saying "Walk knees. Walk knees". It's a good family game as well, walking on our knees, then falling down and making a big deal of it. Falling down always makes kids laugh :)

we've also been walking in the rain and splashing in the puddles!

Gus is really getting the hang of people's names. Jon's aunt and uncle came over one day last week, and Gus had never said their names before. Within a couple of minutes, though, he was using their names over and over. I thought, well, he knows them, so it is not surprising that he started saying their names. Yesterday, though, we were staying with my in-laws, and their neighbour girls, Maisy and Alice, came over to see Gus. He had a great time with them. At dinner that evening, we were all talking about the girls, and I hear Gus say "Mai bye-bye. Al bye-bye." I was really impressed that he knew exactly who we were talking about and remembered them. I don't know why I was surprised, though--he usually has a better memory than I do!

I could probably go on and on, but I think there comes a point where any additional anecdotes are only interesting to my mom!  Till next time :)